I do Eugene Burger's Voodoo Ritual. I love it! But I have trouble drawing the hand and writing the person's name on the flash paper 'cos it is so flimsy.

TheatreFX's website mentions extra-thick flash paper, which they recommend if you are going to write on it. But they tell me they no longer carry it.

So...any suggestions as to where I could get some? I've searched TheMagicCafe, I've googled. No luck!

TheatreFX suggested I glue 2 sheets together (and buy the specil glue from them). Anybody got any opinions?

-Kim

Hi Kim

Hamilton Kaye...a magic dealer in the UK makes some stuff called Fire Paper. It is great...it looks and feels like thick writing paper. It is pretty fast burning too!

Scott

Hi Scott

Thanks for the pointer. However I couldn't find any links to either Hamilton Kaye or Fire Paper on Google. Would you have any contact information, like an address or phone number?

thanks!

-Kim

Hi Guys,
I'm looking for extra thick flash paper aswell.
My idea is to have someone write on it and then burst their paper into flames and finger palm back a 'normal' piece of paper with no writing on it.

An alternative would be to have two layers of paper and the flash paper to be written on and then at a leter time the flash paper to burn leaving the unwritten paper beneath.

The effect is for the climax of an NLP/Hypnosis effect that I have and is to make the impact incredibly stronger.

Let me know if you know anywhere to get this flash paper as the stuff I have is flimsy or if you know how I could make my own...

Thank you.

Don't try making it, if you value your fingers!

I once worked as a research assistant for a professor of chemistry in Monash University (in Oz). I told him the recipe and he said "Ah, that's **** easy to make!" But he was accustomed to workign with concentrated acids, and had all the right lab setup to do it safely.

I still have not been able to track down Hamilton Kaye. I'm getting deesparate, and so might try exprimenting with glueing 2 sheets of the flimsy stuff together.

What are you using to write on it? I've written on flash paper with Sharpie and never had any problem. I'm not familiar with the effect you're talking about, so I don't know what you're using to write with or what wouldn't be usable due to method.

Hi Paul

The routine is WONDERFUL. It's a form of "Ashes on the palm" that does not use real ashes so does not require an ashtray nearby. I perform it standing in strolling situations, surrounded. Eugene Burger describes it in "Mastering the Art of Magic".

I pick one person and ask (usually) her: "Do you believe in Voodoo?". No matter what she answers, I ask her to hold out both hands palm down, form the hands into fists, and then slowly lower one fist. I pull out a black envelope containing sheets of paper, withdraw one, and using a red sharpie I draw whatever hand she left out. But I draw it open, not in a fist. Then asking her name, I write it on the palm of the hand ("this associates your spirit essence with this image"), Then here's the BEST LINE in the whole routine. I pull out a lighter, ignite it, and while the flame is flickering I look her in the eye and with all seriousness I say "One more thing: if you don't move, it won't hurt!". This always get's a gasp from her and the other people. Then I mumble something incoherent (I recite the Hebrew Alphabet, it sounds sufficiently arcane) and ignite the paper. It burns brightly and disappears in the air (another gasp form the onlookers). Then I say to her "Did you feel anything?" Usually she says "no" and I say "good". I get her to open her hand, and there is now a dark ash mark on her palm. (more gasps from everybody).

The paper is flash paper of course. And it just seems too flimsy for such a weighty ritual. I use the black envelope as a backing, in my hand, as I draw, and the whole thing is just too fiddly. I need stronger paper.

By the way: I once put the flash paper down on a table and wrote/drew there. When I lifted up the flash paper, the ink from the sharpie had penetrated through the paper and stained the table top. I had to pay $30 the next week to get it removed!

-Kim

Denny and Lee Magic Studio carries a thick flash paper. I am not cetain of who makes it.

That trick is not going to be in my routine, because before I needed an ashtray, and a smoke, and I couldn't do it, only 14. Thanks to Kim I can. I will pm you for info.

Hi phatboi

I strongly recommend that you get Eugene Burger's "Mastering the Art of Magic". This working of the effect without requiring an ashtray is his work, not mine, and he discusses it in much more helpful detail in the book than in my brief description that I posted.

Break a thumb!

-Kim