I'm looking for the most realistic fake fruit for final cups and balls loads. I'd like something that looks real, and has some weight to it. I've looked at Target and Walmart, and I don't like what I see there....

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance...

sdmagic

I've seen solid polystyrene type fruit that looks real. It's very light so I'm thinking that maybe a core could be cut out and a metal slug an inch or two long could be put into the centre and then the shortened core could be pushed back in and the exit cut of the hole disquised somehow. The weight would have to be in the MIDDLE otherwise the fruit would feel and act off-balance.
Is there a way to preserve some fruits? Consider: would using a real fruit be enhanced by you taking a bite of it at the end of the routine as proof that it is real?
Even though I know how the load gets into end part, I was astounded visually that a fellow doing the routine close-up ended up with a large fruit revealed, that I thought couldn't even fit under the cup! Knowing how a trick is done is not what magic is about - the magic is in the showmanship!

The Fab Fruit. You can find them at Michael Ammars website.

They are the best.

Shawn.

I just ordered and received Ammar's Fake fruit this past week. I got tomato, lemon, lime, potato. They are fantastic replicas and are the approximate weight of the actual fruit. However, they are a bit small for my cups - RNT2 Monti's (2 5/8" ID), which is disappointing. For the maximum effect they should just barely fit the cups. Here is the maximum dimension (width) of each:

tomato: 2 1/4"
lemon: 2 1/2"
lime: 2 1/2"
potato: 2 1/8"

Even though the widths seem OK for my cups, the volume or massing of the fruit still seems small. Maybe they fit the Ammar cups perfectly....

The best fake fruit comes from any of three sources:
Michael Ammar
Jedinat Zaubershop
Amen Wardy

These are heavy and have a soft surface that feels like real fruit. The stuff from Wal-Mart usually has a hard surface that talks when you load it.

I got the lime from Wal*Mart, but it turned out to be too big for my generic cups.

The Wal Mart lime and the Wal Mart lemon are the same with different paint jobs.

The older version of Fab Fruit was larger. The new Fab Fruit is intended for use with the Ammar cups from Encore.

Any sources for a fake mellon? Thanks.

Jim

Best source for fake melons? Dr. 90210

fake fruit

This place seems to have a lot of fake fruit. Might be worth looking at.

Anton

Anton - Thanks for the GREAT link! Their products appear to be very high quality... just what I'm looking for...

sdmagic

Before you order anything from a place that is not normally a supplier to magicians, I would recommend either phoning or e-mailing them to find out some details about their fruit, such as weight and texture.

If the fruit is too light, it won't sound right when you drop it on your table top. If it is too heavy, it will cause other problems, especially if you are producing six oranges and a melon.

I finally found the thread that had another supplier of excellent fake fruit. http://www.faxfoods.com/

Good point Bill... and thanks! Faxfoods also looks good. Weight is certainly a critical quality (and.. yes, I am going to produce the melon at the end of the routine ala Gazzo...)

BTW, I just got my Gazzo pouch in today's mail. I'll have photos of it in the museum in a couple of days -- I need to go out and buy a melon and six oranges.

It looks so nice that my wife said that if she could attach handles to it, she would use it for a handbag!

Gazzo does beautiful work. I've watched him make a pouch once. It took him two days.

Jim

I can imagine that it would. The materials in this thing are really incredible.

Posted: Apr 15, 2007 2:23pm
Peter Dahlmann just sent me a German site for fake fruit and other food items. They look very good. http://www.replica-food.com/

Question-Where can you find the BEST Fake Fruit?

Answer-From a Fake Fruit Tree of course!

;)

johnny

[quote]On 2007-04-16 03:33, Christopher Kavanagh wrote:


That's very funny.

Yeah, but with global warming, the fake fruit tree in endangered! You can find little puddles of melted fake fruit trees throughout the south!

I ended up buying a cantaloupe and 6 oranges from http://www.faxfoods.com

These are EXCELLENT! Very realistic colors and texture, and they have sufficient weight to them (important for the Gazzo routine).

For me these are better than real fruit. No need to change out your melon every week and it NEVER leaks on your nice leather pouch.

sdmagic