Hi everybody,

I'm searching for the best version of the Bill in Lemon effect. I know there are a lot on the market and everbody praises to be his the best, but maybe the real workers can give me some insight concering this effect for a stage / parlor show. Here are my conditions :

1) Any audience member picks at random a lemon from a bag full of lemons before the trick starts and keeps it. The lemon can be examined.
2) Any audience member loans a signed bill to the magician.
3) The serial number of the borrowed bill is marked down by the audience member.
4) The bill is destroyed, vanished, lost ...
5) It's the audience member who got the lemon that cuts the lemon in half.
6) The audience member removes himself the bill from the lemon and checks the serial number of the bill.

Well, I know, it sounds like the perfect pipe dream bill in lemon effect, but there must be something on the magic market to as close as possible to this working.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Oliver.

You should check out Carl Cloutier's handling of Bill in Kiwi. That pretty much fits all your criteria.

...THE LEMON GAME...By Doug Malloy..on http://www.malloymodernmagic.com
I will buy in the next months..is GREAT !!!

Thanks for your reply Pepka. I'll take a look on Carl Cloutier's version.

Luca, in Malloy's Lemon Game it's the magician who opens the lemon and takes it out, not the audience member.
But thanks anyway.

Any other suggestions ?

Oliver.

I don't understand something basic. You wrote:

1) Any audience member picks at random a lemon from a bag full of lemons before the trick starts ***and keeps it***. The lemon can be examined.
....
5) ***It's the audience member who got the lemon that cuts the lemon in half***.
6) The audience member removes himself the bill from the lemon and checks the serial number of the bill.

Maybe, reading your criterion again, I noticed you wrote that the serial is written down, not that the bill is signed.

By the way Oliver, could you share with us what's the reason standing behind your wanting to get this perfect solution and not just use any regular method?

BTIL

http://www.innovativedeceptions.com/

-Craig

You beat me to it.

Carl Cloutier's version is the best. The bill is signed and the kiwi (or lemon if you prefer) can be held throughout the entire time. AND it doesn't cost as much as all the other ones. BUT with the other versions, they give you a full out routine. With Carl's you have to make up your own (which is better to some degree).

Thank you very much to all of you for your replies.

To answer the question of Simchamagic :
I'm just looking for the best version taking all weak points out that an audience may notice. I know, that the perfect trick doesn't exist, but I'm looking for something to get as close as possible.
Maybe I should have answered differently, like :

Which sold Bill in Lemon or in anything else do you know and where to purchase it ?

I only would like to compare them one with another to find the best version in my eyes.

For the moment I only know the following :

- Lemon Game by Doug Malloy
- The Final Answer by Scott Alexander
- Bill in Kiwi by Carl Cloutier
- Bet your Bucks by Cody Fisher
- The Fielding West version
...

Oliver.

BTIL

http://www.innovativedeceptions.com/id_btil.htm

AGAIN,you really might wanna check this out. Max is an awesome guy! He will answer any questions you may have about this version. He will even go as far as sending the method to your email so you can make a good "informed" decision. The guy is a genius.

Thanks Bobby. I'll check this out.

Another thing I've always thought of was the moment when the lemon, orange or kiwi was cut. How do you work with all the juice coming out and messing up the stage floor ?

Oliver.

Martin sanderson, carl cloutier, and james prince all have great tips on how to prepare the fruit so it is "less messy". It's all in the prep my friend

Craig,

Thanks for mentioning BTIL. I hope you find a ton of ways to use this.

Bobby,

Thank you for your kind words. Always happy to help whenever I am able.


Oliver,

I noticed you are from Europe and I am not able to create BTIL for foreign currency although I have come up with a viable solution to that issue. It will fulfill all of your criteria and allow for even more possibilities than you can imagine.

Kind regards,
Max


http://www.innovativedeceptions.com

Max, how does your BTIL compare to other 'serial number' routines like Mark Wilson's? Maybe I'm missing something but I have to know for $60 what I am really getting. PM me if the answer is 'sensitive'.

HI Mac,

My BTIL is unlike anything else on the market. It will allow you to literally make the bill appear ANYWHERE. If you have multiple BTIL's you can give the spectator a choice as to where they want the bill to appear which makes it even more amazing!

Max

Is it possible to have a random lemon chosen and never touch it?

Yes, it is Mike. However, you would need multiple BTILS in order to facilitate this. If you have other questions please PM me.

Max

http://www.innovativedeceptions.com

Try to see Doc Eason's way. All the technical stuff doesn't matter... it's the way you sell it.

The use of Scott Alexander's Final Answer gimmick would accomplish all of your criteria.

Currently in my stand-up act, I introduce a lemon about 10 minutes into the show during a card routine where I also produce a small bottle of tequila. The lemon is stapled inside a paper bag and sent with the spectator back into the audience. (You of course could definitely have any lemon selected from a bag or bowl full of lemons with no problem).

The final routine in my act is taking a borrowed bill having the spectator read the serial number and sign the bill. I vanish it with the use of the large propane torch (as seen in my avatar). 45 minutes after the lemon was first introduced and subsequently forgotten about, I have the bag brought up to the stage and the gentleman who loaned the bill is invited to open the bag and remove the lemon. He also cuts open the lemon, pulls it out, opens it and verifies it is his same bill and signature.

This gimmick finally allowed me to meet the last criteria I had been wanting to perfect for years which was to have the lemon in the audience during the entire show so that by the time we borrowed a bill later and destroyed it, the lemon was an afterthought.

Also, with the prep of the lemon, it eliminates some of the juice and the bill is less soggy when it comes out. Although personally, I don't believe this is ever a problem. Many people post on this board that handing back a soggy bill is ignorant, inappropriate, rude, etc. After doing a bill to lemon literally over a 1000 times behind a bar or in my stand-up act, I have had zero complaints. Many love to show the bill off to reinforce it was in the lemon. And on quite a few occasions, the person loaning me the $100 bill (usually the host, CEO or President) has handed me the $100 as a tip on top of my fee. Regardless, I always whisper off microphone as I am leading them off stage that if they just leave it flat for 2 minutes, it instantly dries out.

The Final Answer is well worth checking out.

Thaks Michael for your insight. I was already thinking of purchasing this effect. The only thing that held me back is the price.
The other point was the cut lemon that you can't leave for examination by the audience, but maybe nobody in the audience cares to have a look at it...
Have you had any experience in this particular part of the "trick" ?
What about the juice dripping on the stage floor ?

Oliver.