Hi everybody:

How can I build my own Asrah forms?...I would like to use it with black art, but I would like to learn how to build my own forms, with my own shapes...please, I need books, or any contact to know the materials to use, tips, and all the things about that.

Thanks indeed

Jorge

Jorge

You do not "need" blackart for doing any Asrah work (it can help but is not needed)... if you like the idea of blackart, there are tons of bits that can be done without the headache of forms.

Now, at the risk of opening a can of worms... there is a levitation method akin to the Asrah that does employ BA... it was used by Kirkham in the 50s I believe but more recently, the concept was heavily expanded upon by both, myself and Dean Hankey... my use of the method was for a floating/vanishing Motorcycle & Rider... Hankey's method was for a young lady but DANG! This is probably one of the coolest, must uncanny levitations you'll ever see... no machinery, no forms, no wires...it's literally impossible when staged right and the young lady vanishes in slow motion.

(Yes! I also have a slow-mo vanish that works differently... similar but not the "same" effects.)

Unfortunately when it comes to "forms" you simply need to buy lots of different resources... the books I and others have listed elswhere in this forum (Woodbury, Stinemeyer, the Byron Wells books, Paul Osborne, etc.) There is no one source BUT! Go to Hades Publications and order the Encyclopedia of Suspensions & Levitations... this is a very good foundation source to alternate ideas.

best of luck!

If you are really intersted in this, I perform the Asrah in my stage show and I use a BA method. I made my form AND rigging for under $50. If you are interested in the details, email me.

James, not to degrade you but I can promise you that an Asrah set up for under $50.00 will most certainly look such.

Yes, you can make a fair form for under $50.00... that would be for one particular type of Asrah system.

The Asrah has been and remains one of my favorite illusions. I've owned and had direct access to over a dozen variants in form design including Kirkham's one of a kind "Melting Form" (probably the single most complicated form ever made!)

As beautiful an illusion the Asrah can be, it is also super easy to screw it up and get little to no audience reaction due to poor staging, rigging, etc. In short, there is WAY too much info to digest and to do it (or any illusion) "right" requires the investment of time for the sake of research and understanding.

Please do not take what I'm saying wrong James... I really don't want to come across as berratting. At the same time I want to make certain Jorge has "things" clear in his head, what is what when it comes to this kind of major piece.

You can do without any of those things. They are quite unnecessary if you are good with art and with soldering. There are few people who can actually take the time out and make a good form from scratch. Mine is on my ceiling, one of an exact replica of me my father made. My father has these skills of building illusions that no one else can match today.

I can help guide you in the best possible way if you want. You want to make an exact replica of the person you will be floating.

Asrah forms are an art, just like building illusions. That is why a lot of the illusions built today are not made very well. If you don't take it seriously it will look awful.

I can assure you Darmoe, that not only did I build the form and rigging for under $50, a local magic dealer and 3 local magicians told me it was one of the best they'd ever seen. The reason I brought up my version in this post is that mine too relies on Black art, and having a background in lighting design, is very deceptive. You would probably chuckle if I told you how I built it, but I promise you, it's probably the most realistic form a magician can use. PM me and I'll tell ou how I built mine.

I hope I am not sounding defensive, but I spent 3 years working on this illusion, and also received help from Dondrake on it, and I am extremely proud of the end result. I promise that I did not just throw something together. It was also the centerpiece of my stage show, and the most popular effect I perform on stage, so I know it looks good.

I do understand your point though, on how easy it is to screw this one up. It took us 2 months of rehearsal to get it "just right". My only point was that I built it for around, $50, but one should not assume it's a piece of cake to perform.

Here is a shot of it in action.

Click here to view attached image.

Thinking of Asrah forms I am reminded of Julio Lipan's portable Asrah. It's a very nice idea but for the price it can be made for far less and look less like you are floating a person with very jaged edges.

However I stand upon my principles of if you can float and vansih a person... why cover them with a cloth?

Marshall

Re asrah forms...check out Geoffrey Durhams inexpensive form and manufacture.He had it in his lecture notes a few years back and made it up for a special whilst working in Greece It was ok but as everything needs practice.But whilst douiong the illusion I came up with something which may have been done before...instead of using a...bed...for the floatee to recline on I used a box that just...happened...to be on stage(think pendragons metamorphosis...) and the floatees legs and head extended beyond the sides of the box. The required stuff...was acomplished when placing the cloth over said floatee and the form took the same space.Hope this makes sense...
Vernon

James: I think you misunderstood Darmoe's point. Also, if you worked on it for 3 years perhaps your time could have been better spent. Personally, my time is worth a lot. I think sometimes we labor to "reinvent the wheel". Just my 2 cents.

I like the european form. It is very portable. I have some pics I found of one. It is completely colapssable. PM and I'll try to send it.

Magic Crafters (All in One Illusion Show) make a really nice European Asrah Form. They were showing these at the SAM Convention a few weeks ago in Vegas. The form could be adjusted to basically any assistant's body, and could be operated either by the hand method or set up with stage rigging. They sell the forms for $350 plus shipping. I bought one at the convention, but unfortunately I have yet to receive it with no e-mail responses from Ross. Strange...

My first reaction to an Asrah post was...."okay, let's flog that dead horse until it whinnies and stands up again".

The Asrah in its traditional presentation has a deserved place in history. It was a remarkable illusion for it's time.

Maybe it's just me and maybe because I have a different perspective from most audience members, but if I ever see a couch on stage my eyes glaze over and I inwardly dread seeing another Asrah.

The hypnotist gag and the couch and the waving of the hands and the hoop and the Turban just make me cringe.

Then I reminded myself of another Asrah I saw. After a sequence of effects, a light cloth was placed over the head of a standing assistant. the cloth reached to the ground, covering her completely like a combined cape and shawl.

She raised her arms outwards perpendicular to her body and the magician *-immediately-* grabbed the cloth and pulled it away, the assistant had disappeared.

There were gasps instead of polite applause. Now that was one heck of an Asrah.

The main concept that I would consider is how the cloth lays on a person and what portion of the form is actually necessary to convey the idea that a person is underneath. The rest is superfluous and unecessary.

The assistant was standing on a platform, not a thick couch like Grandma had.

I would say more, lots more but...ahem...I fear I've said too much already.

P.S. Except to say that I could very easily build one for under fifty bucks, any number of fine illusions can be built for under fifty bucks and it doesn't behoove anyone to automatically say it will look like a fifty buck illusion. Geesh.

Four casters cost more than fifty bucks before you put anything on top? And will your assistant perform naked?
What are the "fine illusions" that you have made for under fifty bucks....
Can't wait to see Darmoe's replies to this one!

Fair enough call Lee Alex2002. Let's define the nature of the challenge.

You must grant me one of two options: Either I create this effect to be performed in a normal social situation, something that could happen in a Street effect...

or I create this effect on a Theatrical Stage, Competently staffed and equipped.

This would be so because I would be donating my time to the effect and therefore qualify as a volunteer, and would expect to be promoted in a telethon or other such charitable event as an untried quantity.

By equipped I mean that there is a three colour stage wash and capacity for six specials for lighting, and a sound system capable of 105 db SPL, with outboard third octave E.Q., compression with gates, reverb and echo etc.

The sound cues would be done on my own computer using whatever resources I could for source material, getting scared about copyright infringement.

I would design my own lighting plot on my own time to be given to the T.D. before the in.

I would rehearse to the the point where I become unsure of what has to happen next because I realize it might really be like that when I'm onstage.

I would stitch my own self made forms into fabric with a sewing machine, as you have to do it youself because as a volunteer you can't afford to have someone else make it for you.

I say I can do all these things and produce an illusion for under fifty bucks.

Perhaps you would tell how I couldn't. ;-)

Backroomboy -

I hope this isn't taken too seriously, as the net doesn't capture tone very well.

In fairness to Darmoe, who I know personally, and know to have plenty of firsthand experience in illusion design and manufacturing, and who no longer frequents The Magic Café, he said "I can promise you that an Asrah set up for under $50.00 will most certainly look such."

But the next sentence is equally important: "Yes, you can make a fair form for under $50.00... that would be for one particular type of Asrah system."

Darmoe did not suggest you cannot, or even should not, perform the Asrah without a $5,000 form. He did, however make a statement that should be common sense. A $50 form is, well, a $50 form. It will look it, too. You will also be hard pressed to build a form under $50 that can even perform for some of the more advanced Asrah systems.

To imagine that $50 forms would have the same performance/weight/features as a form designed with either hi-tech materials, manufacturing, or specialty features is not a reasonable conclusion.

As an aside, under your "conditions" for a stage asrah, I'm curious how you are going to rig that asrah and still stay under $50. What cloth are you going to use? What fabric? That will cost you as well. You did say you could produce this illusion for under $50, so you would need to pay for the ancillary requirements as well. An asrah is so much more than a form. If you throw a bed sheet over a form, I daresay it's going to look like the $50 illusion...

You did say "any number of fine illusions can be built for under fifty bucks" - I would be most interested in knowing what fine illusions you can build for under $50. If it matches my expectations for a "fine illusion," I'll buy a hundred!

--- Guy

Not to worry about seriousness Guy! I agree that the net sometimes fails to impart tone and intent ...that is probably just our failure to use the written word to its best advantage.

You've raised a number of interesting points, let me do my best to clarify what I am saying.

I laid out the conditions as I did because it is entirely feasible that a magician could find himself with the opportunity to perform his illusion, for free of course, on a televised charitable event like a telethon. As such, he would have access to a professional well staffed and equipped proscenium stage.

This is important to my scenario because the setting the illusion is performed in can have a huge effect on the impact of the illusion. With good sound cues and lighting and a good Stage Manager to call cues, your performance is halfway done before you even consider how you'll do it.

As to how I would do it, Bear in mind that I am talking about how to produce the Asrah I described, not the full Asrah that I abhor.

Let's start with fabric. I would prefer to use a heavier fabric for the illusion, the better to hide the form sewn inside. My preference would be for a velour. Now where would I get the material? Well, because I work in theatre I know that three times a year a leg needs to be replaced either because a shinbuster has burnt a hole in one or it got caught under the wheels of a manlift and ripped.

These are discarded or stored and chunks are cut out of it for blacking out parts of a set and what have you.

There is always lots around and getting a piece big enough to build a cape is not a problem...for free.

Capes are fairly simple in design, so the pattern cutting and seaming of the cape can be fairly forgiving, even for an amateur with a sewing machine.

As for the form, it doesn't have to be invisible so scratch the acrylic or laboriously soldered chicken wire frames since it is sewn between two faces of the fabric of the cape. As to the fineness of the workmanship of the form, how fine does it have to be under a layer of velour?

As for form material, I would use the tape that they use for making casts when you break your arm. I even imagine that if you were to go to your local hospital and talk to the right person and explain that this was for a performance for a charitable event, you might walk out of there with the remnants from a package or two left over after treating a broken limb.

It would be a perfect material, lightweight, use as many layers as you need to build to the thickness you desire, and you can trim the excess with poultry shears.

Only the top of the head and the top of the arms to the shoulders in this case have to be cast, so I would simply start by laying three inch long strips overlapping down the length of the arm and trim it after it cured. It cures very quickly by the way. I would use vaseline as a release agent. To do the top of the head, I would have the assistant wear a shower cap and mold over the top of that.

Because only the top surfaces are needed to convey the effect of a body under the cape, the cast form pieces can be be fairly flat, and importantly, separate from each other so that the cape may be handled naturally more or less without revealing the form beneath.

The cape would be pre-rigged to a pipe above the proscenium arch and would be brought to its spike during the blackout before the illusion. It wouldn't be necessary to use anything more than fishline running over quicklinks for the rigging fed stage left or right.

One line for the head, two lines on each arm. When the lights come up, the cape is already there in a heap on the floor. All five lines would be fed to a clew, which is a mechanism for holding several different lines at equal tension.

And now...The platform...lol! I keep thinking of the image LeeAlex2002 left me on her last post when she had me out on stage with four casters and a naked girl. Now that's a picture that's going to be hard to forget!

Yeah...okay...maybe I overstepped muself a little but you have to admit it is possible to build a very low cost platform. Around here it's easy to scavenge off-cuts of skin-ply, 1x3" and 2x2". You need access to woodworking tools and knowledge of how to use them. You need detailed thin base plans. You need to know how to finish wood.

As for casters, well, we have boxes of them because we build revolves and what have you and they are not in use all the time. We often lend them out for a show.

The problem with a lot of proscenium arch Theatres for this effect is the rake of the seating and the fact that there is a balcony, both affording the observer with an overhead view of the platform.

The way you get your assistant into the platform is important because the impact of this illusion would rely to some degree on its speed. There is one type of platform design that is not generally known that I don't really feel at liberty to expose, as it seems to be little-known. I will say that it has to do with fabric.

The effect would work like this: Assistant steps up on platform, facing upstage, Magician covers her with the cape and steps away, she raises her arms. Almost at once the cloak is ripped away and she is gone.

I guess my point in all this is just to emphasize the fact that miracles can be accomplished with time, skill and Yankee ingenuity. We look for what we call "found" materials, stuff you come across without having to build it.

You could rent second hand stuff from a store for a night to decorate a set if you like. Visit your local Theatre and ask about costume rentals. A lot of them carry costumes they think they can rent, others are auctioned off or given away. No need to go naked...(snicker)

I don't know why, but magicians and musicians are just about the same in some respects. The musician who owns the handmade Larivee acoustic pores over its inlays, sheen and hand-rubbed perfection.

A lot of stamped guitars from Japan now sound as good as any Handmade guitar and it only has to look good for the camera or the audience.

I've just about spent my fifty bucks so I'll leave it at this: Can you think of any reason that if I had to, I couldn't do exactly as I've said?

As for other favourite illusions under fifty bucks, let's take a page from "Le Grand David". On opening night, they were still building and painting props that were...yes...made out of cardboard.

The show was an immense overnight sensation. Follow the history of that troupe if you need inspiration for fifty buck illusions that looked like and made a million.

The effect with the cape, as you describe it, is not an asrah - the asrah is a levitation, with a potential vanish as a finale.

Using a form that may have similar manufacturing processes does not mean it is an asrah.

--- Guy