After watching the video several more times, I am beginning to think Ade Duval's Smoking his Thumb did not use tobacco but the older chemicals used in the Corn Cob pipes in those days.

The smoke is just to white, as cigarette smoke is not totally white when exhaled and the amount of smoke that Ade releases is just to great a volume, as he clearly do not take the second puff into his lungs.

That brings up another problem as the chemical method, when the two chemicals get near each other smoke begins, so the gimmick would have to have two chambers sealed off until the puffing begins.

The mystery continues.

Stumbled across a comment in the Billy McComb book, that he believed Duval used the smoking the pipe that was free of tobacco, and yet produced volumes of smoke, using the chemical method. Warning, this chemical method has to done a certain way with the application of the chemicals will cause death. It was an old vaudeville effect that a lot of the performers performed in those days.

I think current social attitudes toward smoking have led some magicians to drop the thumb smoking routine and even cigarette routines from their regular repertoires. My friend the late Denny Haney always ended his Sub Trunk illusion by standing up in the trunk at the end puffing on a cigarette while his hands were still bound. He did occasionally hear negative comments from the audience about that extra touch, but Denny being Denny, he didn't let those comments change his presentation.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

As far as the problems with public attitude on smoking, it all depends on the presentation. With Smoking a thumb using chemicals, of which only Ade Duval performed and took to his grave with him, there is no visible pipe or cigarette. If the chemicals are used, there is no tobacco smell either. You can't do it close to other people because the fumes or smoke will spoil cloths. As for using clay pipes or corn cob pipes to produce the effect of smoking, then you might mention how smoking is bad for your health. Or that invisible tobacco is very hard to obtain. After all it is invisible.

Just think outside the box.

It is in the manipulation books by Ganson, John Booth Classic book, and Billy McComb book. But I am not advocating that anyone do it these days. As getting chemicals is much harder to do with all the regulations.

Puck's routine , "No Smoking", takes that angle on the smoking the thumb trick.

The dealer blurb:


– Always ready to go
– Improved Handling
– Fully Electronic
– More Durable
– Tobacco Free
– No Unpleasant Smell
– Non Toxic
– Easier to Perform


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgRGJm4qj70

$600 for electronics that have constantly failed in all the items discussed in the Café. Electronics also means it is a heating element.

In my opinion his handling is not natural. Look at the photo for the video, whos hand is extended when at the side of the body. That is not natural. Also, what does not make sense is he shows a pack of cigarettes and does nothing put throws it on the table. Then pretends to smoke his thumb which means he has a pipe.

These days, you have to rule out Vaping, not just cigarettes.

Nice try, but this was created in 2009, and not worked on since, as I think it needs more work.

Here is a better video of Punk performing his smoke effect.

Hmmmmm ... I don't think we watched the same video. In the video I watched he pulls out a pack of cigarettes, opens it ... and discovers no cigarettes inside, but instead there is a colorful banner which says "NO SMOKING". Then he lays aside the pack of cigs and the banner ... at which point he gets creative and magically smokes his thumb as if it is a pipe.

Maybe most people nowadays are so unaccustomed to seeing a man smoking a pipe that if he pulled out a pipe and a tobacco pouch and made as if to fill up his pipe , but then found the tobacco pouch was empty except for the "NO SMOKING" banner, they would not understand what the tobacco pouch was supposed to be ?





Puck.

Yes, that's No Smoking version 2 . Which was released in 2014 ... as an improvement on his first No Smoking routine released in 2009.
Which contradicts what you wrote: "created in 2009, and not worked on since". If it wasn't worked on since , then how was version 2 released?

The first version of it was released through Bob Kohler who is well-known for releasing expensive , but high-quality items. Do you really believe that Bob Kohler would have released an item with undependable electronics? Who has claimed that the electronics employed in Puck's No Smoking are prone to failure?

So, my point in posting the example of Puck's No Smoking routine was not as a sales pitch to suggest that people buy it or as some claim that Puck's version is perfect or that his version is better than other versions. I was just trying to agree with you that the smoking-the-thumb effect could be presented in a way that doesn't seem to promote smoking , therefore making the effect less likely to cause offense to the anti-smoking moralists. (although the most extreme of these type of people will still find a way to condemn the presentation of any version of this trick, I'm sure)


I also agree with you that the existence of compact "vaping" devices undercuts the effectiveness of this trick.

I think performing this kind of effect needs the right sort of setting, where you've got an audience of adults (both chronologically and mentally/emotionally adults) who can appreciate seeing a bit of sophisticated nonsense. But then it also needs to disprove the presence of a hand-held vaping device. Finn Jon's version would do that, I think. For one thing, Finn Jon's version does use real tobacco, so the smell would disprove a vaping device. (if you're doing it in a small venue, where the audience is seated close enough.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDhBJ4Drnd4



This can be found on the DVD 'The Incomparable Finn Jon' ( https://tricksupply.com/product/the-inco......jon-dvd/ )

This topic seemed to veer off onto the Smoking The Thumb effect, but the original topic here was David Charvet's excellent book on the magic of Ade Duval. I've recently been re-reading two of David Charvet's books, the one on Willard family of magicians called 'Willard: A Life Under Canvas', and his book 'Ade Duval - Silken Sorcerer'. Both are highly recommended.

Both are still available from the author, here: http://charvetmagic.com/catalog/c1_p1.html



This photo (which appeared on the cover of The Sphinx magazine, Dec.1934)shows Ade Duval at the height of his career, touring the world with his assistant True Duval (his wife) with the act "Rhapsody In Silk".


Duval's Rhapsody in Silk was one of the most beautiful sophisticated magic acts of the era, featuring an array of effects using silk scarves, culminating with a spectacular and stage-filling, rapid-fire production of an inexplicable number of silk scarves from a single tube.

Later after he had retired the elaborate silk act (which required one - to -two hours of reset time between shows), he performed an engaging magic act presented in a light comedic manner, performing his own versions of such classic magic as the multiplying golf balls, the die box, the vanishing milk, and his own Smoking The Thumb, the full secret of which Duval took to the grave, although other magicians have performed successful versions of the feat (such as Fred Kaps and Finn Jon).

It's all covered in Charvet's book.

Thanks once more for recommending and endorsing this book about Ade Duval... perhaps the most under-rated professional magician of the last century! He was equal to Cardini in his level of success!

Tragically, his career was cut short by Parkinson's Disease. After he was forced into retirement he had planned to write a series of books describing all the details of his magic, but only one part of this was completed enough before his death to publish, a portion of the silk act, published as "A Rhapsody In Silk" by Magic Inc. in 1962. That now out-of-print book can still be found occasionally on eBay and by sellers of used magic books. Lybrary.com sells it as an e-book edition.

I believe I have an extra copy of the Duval Magic Inc. if anyone is looking for it.
The Carvet book is an expanded edition of that book.

Some of the clearest film footage I've ever seen of Ade and True Duval. It still suffers from being shot in short bursts like most amateur 16mm cinematography (using wind-up clockwork spring motors) in the 1930's, so we're not seeing any complete routines, but it is still the best quality film footage I've seen of the Duval act.

https://youtu.be/UYZzyNHU2dE

It is so sad that he wasn't able to finish the books. Some material does exist as individual published effects. For example, his original Blowing Silks Through a Tube dyeing technique was sold with gimmick through Tannens. I have one in my collection. He later changed the method, but, if I remember correctly, that new method was also published. His Blending the Colors dye tube handling and Repeat Vanishing Silk tricks were also sold through shops. He also personally sold his repeat 20th Century silk to other professionals as he wanted to limit its use. He did sell one portion of the secret to that for a single stage 20th Century Silk, the main advantage of it being the elimination of a bulky double.

All of this is worth checking out.