You'd be surprised at the number of lay people (especially kids who have seen it demo'd as a Science Experiment in school programs) know all about it.

The trick is to show the cups unmistakably empty and examinable at the start and then surreptitiously introduce the stuff . There is a topic here (search) on preparing packets of the stuff which can be easily concealed . This will throw off the ones who know about the stuff.

Or you can openly do it by using a routine with a coffee cup . Pour in coffee , creamer , and sugar from a packet of sugar . Stir. Turn cup upside down --- coffee has vanished.

Yes snow and sl*** po*** is now sold in toy shops. Too bad. Just like the Kevin James living arm illusion that became every kid store staple.

Water monty by Scott Alexander. Its on his Midnight Show DVD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_APHz--MFY

Why Didn't Anyone mention the Chan lee Water Suspension??
Its a great effect too!

Anson

I second the Chen- Lee water suspension. Great little trick.
Mike

There are some really nice liquid tricks in _Marconick's Original Magic_. I particularly like "Shaker Finale," in which a cocktail shaker is used to produce a 36" silk. As the title says, it makes a great finale to a routine or act. I don't recall if Marconick's description included pouring liquid into the shaker cups, but I added a sl--h p--r component so that wine-colored liquid could be poured into the cups and "transformed" into the silk. As the silk appears, you're in perfect applause pose.

Marconick had some outstanding ideas and routines in his books. I think his "Prisoner Silk," which was once sold by Tannen's, is the ultimate 20th century silk routine. Imagine this: You tie a red and blue silk together by their corners. Then you take a white silk and toss it toward the red and blue silks. It looks like the white silk visibly ties itself between the red and blue one. I ended by changing the red, white and blue silks into an American flag, but you could also end by changing three silks of any color into a 36-inch art silk.

Of course, any of Anverdi's liquid tricks would be outstanding, like his ring glass. I doubt that it's available anywhere, though. (Anverdi's lecture was the first magic lecture I ever attended. I thought all magic lectures would be that good.)

That brings up an idea for a new thread in the stage manipulation category. We often talk about books with great manipulation routines. How about a thread on live lectures that included a manipulation component? Anverdi's lecture had some very nice ball manipulation bits, as well as thimble magic--including I think the one where there are four thimbles on the fingers and one by one they jump from one finger to the other. (See Walter B. Gibson's _What's New in Magic_ for that routine.)

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Sands of Time and Chinese Rice Bowls..

I purchased Chameleon Champagne and was very sceptical at first. I have been let down too many times with bad magic purchases. I absolutely love Chameleon Champagne and I am happy I purchased it. Very simple and I just wish I had thought of the simple method first......


Take care,

Bryan

Me too! I actually have a routine with both...

And I like Slush Powder, like Jim said.

I second the water monte effect on Scott Alexander's DVD. It's incredible!

In using the Chameleon Champagne, do you have to start out with the glass full of water or can you fill the glass in front of the audience? I am speaking per the instructions.

I am fond of the simplicity and fun of chen lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kex6O6luRhk

I have a question for the Chameleon Champagne effect also. Can you drink the liquid after the effect is finished? Is it difficult to rig your own glass? Can you make the change without a silk, perhaps by a movement of the glass, besically without cover is what I'm getting at..

Winston Freer, aka Dr Maxam, had a very smart large bowl of water vanishing in full view from the top of a vertically held ten foot pod.
Gaetan Bloom has rebuilt a sample to demonstrate the principle in his lecture on Winston Freer: it's extremely clever.

Mmmmm there are some pretty big price differences in Multum in Parvo glasses I have seen them range from $18 to $100. Why such a difference?

I have built Horace Marshall's Bowl on a Pole vanish as I own the rights to it. If you watch the Miracle Factory of Kalanag working you can see him doing it.

It is a real fooler.

Richard

I have an effect I invented back in 1980, 4 stars in genii and featured in Tannens catalog. Called "Refreshments". A six champagne glass production from a square circle no larger than one champagne glass.
All liquids are real drinks and different beverages.

My own combo Benson/Rice Bowl routine. (not a store bought prop)also no rice!
Kills every time

I liked Grant's Magic Tea Kettle. Pour liquid into four shot glasses, each shot glass filling with a different color. Lift the lid of the tea kettle and produce four colored silks to match the liquids in the shot glasses.

Before I became a magician, I used to love watching a magician pour a pitcher of milk into a paper cone and making it vanish or change into a bouquet of flowers. Even better if the paper cone was made from a sheet of flash paper and cone and liquid both vanished in a flash of fire. In the 60's there was a brand of flash paper called Pro-Glo that was somewhat heavier than the standard tissue paper type paper. Is that still available?

Speaking of flowers--I loved to see Botanias, although some of my magic friends complained that they looked like big feather dusters. On the other hand, Marshall's blooming bouquet was a classic, especially the way my mentor Earl Edwards performed it.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez