What do you call the silk effect where you place 3 dirty silks in a small detergent box and magically it comes out clean and the box is shown empty, torn and given to the audience?

This is quite an old trick and I wish to revive this again. It's a great sucker trick for both kids and adults. A good friend, Paul Potassy just gave it to me last Saturday.

It is called "Soft Soap"..
I just started using it & enjoy performing it.
Charlie

Soft Soap it is.

Richard

There are many versions of this. Some actually use men's cotton hanks instead of silk.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

There is also a version called Scrub-A-Dub. Same premise but it uses a cloth bag; you don't need to replace the soap box after each show.

I had the 'soft soap' that used men's cotton hanks instead of silks.
I found it was very hard to use smoothly..
I suggest that anyone who intends to buy this ask before you make a purchase.
Pay the extra bucks & get the version using silks..
I am sure Duane Laflin has that version.
Just my 2 cents.
Charlie

This is a good trick for any age group. The routine I use (Spot Out) I bought with the original props and performing rights from Stephon Johnson (Wizards of the Ozarks member) back in the 70s. I'm sure that I have performed it at least 3000 times since then. It uses three different colored 18" silks and every piece of the act was custom made for me except two of the silks. The props (except for boxes) last about 300-500 shows. Just two weeks ago I ordered new props to be made for it.

Even the boxes are custom made. I have never liked the commercially produced boxes and they are too small anyway for me to use with these. The box is critical to my routine and patter. A bag would not fit the routine at all. However, I would be the first to admit that the box requirement is the chief hassel to the Spot Out routine I use. Several times I have investigated manufacturing and selling my routine with props. Except for working magicians, the payoff is just not there.

(Well, folks you brought me luck! I had to stop writing a minute to catch the phone. My props are ready! Thank You! That is magic.)

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

What is better? After producing the clean handkerchiefs, do you just unfold the box to show it empty or do you rip the box into pieces and hand it to the audience? Any comments on this matter?

I destroy the box. First I tear off the top (my top says "Top") and give to the closest loud person. Now the box has no top or bottom. How can you say it's turned over? After some fun with the audience, I tear it open flat and then into pieces. I give it to the audience.

After all these years, I'm still glad when they keep the pieces and sad when I later find pieces of the box left in a seat or in the trash. It probably doesn't mean a thing. I just want them to keep part of the show. Rarely do I find pieces of rope left from my rope routine. Boxes may just be seen as wrappers for something that is gone.

If it's an audience really close to the stage (distance will matter) I'll have a note written on the inside of the box that says, "See, I told you it was empty!" If they are far away it just says "Empty" because I can write that larger. (In a really large theater it says nothing because it can't be read by anyone.) My boxes are custom made so they open out flat. I doubt that it could be done with the commercial ones I've seen. Also my boxes are nearly twice the size of the commercial ones I've seen (Duz or Lux).

Most people use the commercial boxes.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

James Adamson here on The Café is the one here who sees that routine from me most. You might like his comments since they would be from an entirely different take on it. My soft soap routine is really only like the commercial one by method. The props are in colors and come from the prior trick. I don't stain them to be cleaned. I use a gun in the routine. My routine is really called Spot Out and I bought it from Stephan Johnson (the manipulator) many years ago. It is all custom parts. For years I performed it out west and no one even compared it to Soft Soap. It is a very close sister.

Last March I performed it for some cruise ship magicians and did not tear up the box but just opened it flat. (I may have needed it for another show before I got more boxes.) When I apologized after the show to a lady magician of considerable professional magician experience, for not tearing up the box, her comment was, "Oh, Like Soft Soap?" Apparently even many of the pros don't recognize the trick as essentially the same. Audiences see things with their very eyes. And who else has "very" eyes?

Hi,
I’ve been using soft soap on and off since the late fifties. Around 1980, I put together an anti-nuclear magic show. After a near meltdown, the cooling waters had to be wiped up. Consequently, the three silks had radiation atom symbols and fluorescent green blotches.

Try as I may, dressed as a radiation worker, I stuffed the nuked "rags" into a box of "Dupe" the soft-sell soap of the NRC. After a bit of by play, I removed the hanks. The glowing green was gone, but the radiation symbols were still there.

I did the showing of the box, with the lid half open. Then I opened both flaps nearest me to appease the crowds demands to open both flaps, etc. After a little more business, I opened the seams (I used the box over and over) glitter rained out over the stage and into the first seats as I ask, "oh, did ya get any on ya? You'll never know...."

The box interior was papered with play money and atomic symbols. After all, as I explained, "The costs of nuclear and it's "clean up" go on, and on, and on..."

Dr. Solar

Nice storyline for "soft soap".

Richard

Dr. Solar,

Do you reuse the deuterium? (That's heavy water for you folks down stream.)

Next time I'm around Huntsville, Alabama or Oak Ridge, Tennessee I think I'll try that but end up with three-eared rabbits with long tails on the silks! Should they be in colors?

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

In the early 70's, a team of two female Australian magicians, The Top Hats, were performing in the Philippines. During that time the team broke up, I think one of them fell in love. They sold their equipment and my Dad bought some of it for me.

One of the effects, which I used a lot, was a self-contained version of Soft Soap where you didn't have to replace the soapbox after each show. Small strips of Velcro lined the sides of the box. After pulling out the cleaned silks you simply "ripped" the box apart, clearly showing it empty. After the show the box was folded back together and held in place by the Velcro, ready for the next show.

Soft Soap is great. I just got, it but recall it from over 30 years ago when I first saw it.

What I like most about the colored silk versions is that I can do a red, yellow and green safety program followed in another show by red, white and blue for a flag program.

Then seasonally, I can do pink, yellow and purple for Easter; red, green and white for Christmas; and black, orange and yellow for Halloween. The box colors are changed too.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

I some times do that effect but I use a popcorn dye box. The dye box is extremely cheap made of cardboard and can be bought in Canada for around 5$

For as many as I use that would get very expensive. Even custom made they are cheaper.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

I am planning to make custom made boxes for this effect. What could be a good label or brand name? "Magic Washing Mashine", "Magic Wash", Any ideas???

Lou,

I sent you a PM. Perhaps we could get together on boxes. I'm searching for a new source for my "Spot Out" trick.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

Bob,

I forgot to tell you Saturday night that I really enjoyed your Spot Out routine. The silks are much better than the cotton that typically is used and they "disguise" the method much better in my opinion. I thought maybe you manufactured or sold them, but didn't see 'em at your booth. You did a great job with this routine!! (I'm envious! ...he he!)

Bob Spray
Magic with a Smile