Oct. 287/06

What The Audience Sees:

'Today Jamie pushed a red piece of silk into his left fist. When he opened his fist, it had disappeared...and he then pulled it out of his right fist! Amazing!'

How It Went:

Okay, okay, I know I'm not covering any new ground here but I did the 'ol silk into tt this week for a couple of reasons:

1) I thought it would add to the Magic Friday Mysteries of Origin (hey, that's a pretty good title, actually). The inventor of Matchbox Mystery still hasn't been solved, to my knowledge, so let's add the Silk into TT. Who did it first? Anyone?

2) I performed Dr. Harlan Tarbell's THE PASSE-PASSE SALT a while back and since it's basically the same thing (except with salt, obviously) I wanted to see if any of the Magic Friday regulars (about 50% of the people on Friday) would comment.

3) I recently had the pleasure of seeing Chris Capeheart lecture (he was awesome, btw) and he mentioned that this was the first trick he learned and that he started busking with it. So I wondered if anyone on Friday would comment that they had seen the trick before, either by a relative or another magician.

Well, suffice to say, it got fantastic reactions, no one commented that it was exactly like the salt trick, and not one person said they had seen it before. Go figure.

Angry Bob Rating:

I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday's because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done... A high rating means he'll never figure it out.

Believe it or not, after I first started working with Angry Bob many years ago, he found out that I was a magician. He came back the next day, "Hey %$%^#^^! I got some &^$%^$&$^^^$& magic for 'ya. Look at this!" at which point he pulled out a small red silk, which was extremely funny to me, and proceeded to do the trick. 0/5. What's funnier is that no one on Friday had ever seen the trick. I asked after each time. Not a one. What's old is new again.

My Rating:

Despite the fact that it's obviously a pretty good trick, I find a hard time justifying a small red piece of silk in a close up setting. It seems to make sense on the stage for some reason, eg. silk to egg. But in close up, it doesn't really fly with me. And besides, the salt (or sugar packet, as I used) is infinitely better, in my opinion, because you don't have to reach into your fist to prove it's there. You just pour it out. Let's say 8/10 primarily because so many people said they liked it.

Best Lines:

"I like that one! I realllllly like that one!" -I guess she really liked that one.

"I LOVE the rag tricks!" -I think he was joking but it's interesting, nonetheless. After I did it, I asked what other rags tricks he's seen and he said he hadn't seen the one I did but that magicians are always doing tricks with rags. Something to ponder...

The JDG Tip:

3 words. Diamond cut silks. Maybe that should only be two words: diamond-cut might be only one word. You get the idea.

Closing Thoughts:

It was an eye opening day, actually. People really loved the old silk trick. It's something I'm going to think about the next time I want to drop a zillion dollars on the latest thing. Not that there's anything wrong with picking up the latest thing, I do it all the time, but it still is something to think about.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Jamie D. Grant