OK, here's the situation. You are about to perform CMH when all of a sudden, the band breaks. What do you do?

Bye for now

Harold

You thread it through the unbroken band, and do the ski lift effect. (Can't remember the proper name of it.)

Dave

I always have more then 2 bands on me, but if poorly armed I'd laugh and do any number of strong single band effects.

You could make use of the newly broken band first to do the rising ring effect. Then ditch the broken band and replace it with the good one and "restore" the broken band.

Now armed with a solid band you can do CMH with some other object, I find I get stronger reactions with more solid objects anyway. Ring penetration is usually readily available.

Then there is my favorite move, the one from "Bandshark" where the elastic passed through Harlans middle finger and onto the thumb. This trick is Killer! Blows them away every time. Also on "Bandshark" there is a great wrist penetration effect.

"Break and Restore" the band again, they won't be ready for it at this time. Then use the elastic's apparent ability to break and restore to pull the elastic through your neck after pulling it over your head and down your face (elastix). Love this little teaser.

There are tons of effects out there, so don't miss a beat and blow their socks off.

Use the broken band to do "Bachelor's thread" (can't really remember the name of the trick. The effect is, you make a very small loop and using the other end of the band and thread it thru (just like threading a needle but at lightning speed).

First off, are any of you guys speaking from experience? That is, have any of you actually broken a band in performance? Or are you guessing?

Although I don't do CMH in my paid shows, because of the above, I know that if the band did break, I am sure some one would say "Ok, Houdini, now repair it!" Even as a joke.

My solution for the above in impromptu situations is surprisingly simple, and it works. I keep a thumbtip with a rubber band around it in my pocket. I tear the band into further pieces, stick it into the thumbtip and then produce the restored band. A great escape!

Bye for now

Harold

Hey, that idea with the thumbtip is a great way of spinning things around. I like it!

Hey Guys,
I would probably do George D. Franzen's "The Dissolving Rubber Band". It's the effect that looks like you're going to do CMH but then you magically dissolve one band into the other one, leaving only one band. It's basically a way to twist one rubber band to make it look like the two rubber band setup in CMH (two bands perpendicular to each other). This is the effect that I usually use to follow CMH but if I only had one band to start with (due to the other band breaking) I'd definitely use it.

Greenshock, you're missing the setup. Everyone has seen you break the band! some clown is going to comment on the broken band. What do you do??

Bye for now

Harold

If the band breaks at such a time so that you don't look stupid (an example of looking stupid would be it falls on the floor and you have to spend the next half hour crawling around on your hands and knees to retrieve it) you could probably continue with some one band effects or the effect that Dave Le Fevre described.

However, your TT idea is genius cataquet, it could easily be used after a single band effect leading into T&R band with your newly restored band to some amusing comment (it's too early for me to come up with one). Then you are once again ready to start CMH.

I have to say, I do CMH all the time, usually as an opener in my walk around set, and I have never had the band break, ever. I think that is because I use the regular old Staples brand rubber bands. You see the bands I use will start to weaken over time and will start to stretch more than I like them to. I have also found that with older bands, the two strands will ocasionally stick together when showing them linked. That is never good. So I usually test the bands out as part of my preset before a show. This way I get rid of any bands that are two stretchy or ones that might break. Rubber bands are cheap enough that I don't worry about tossing the old ones out.

Your question made me think of what I would do though, if that happened. I think I would say something like, "Well, that's what happens when you use a rubber band to long, you can get them apart, so they go through the other band, but then it won't go back together!"

I'd then snag another band from my wrist and keep going.

Harold asks if we're speaking from experience. My suggestion of the Ski Lift comes from seeing a friend (Nigel Shelton) do just that when a band broke. And it wowed everybody.

I've also seen Nigel "apparently" perform CMH with just one band - it sounds like the effect that Greenshock refers to. That also got a good reception.

But I really like Harold's TT idea. That's what I call Being Prepared.

And welcome to the Cafe, Nick. I usually check the New Arrivals forum for names that I know from the MagicTricks board so that I can say "Hi", but I must have missed yours. My apologies.

Dave

No problem Dave, I think I arrived before you yet had to bow out of the picture for a while with other commitments.

Good to see you here though.

A few years back, rubber band tricks were all the rage (in fact it was the year before Bandshark was released). It was funny to see magicians with dozens of rubber bands on their wrists. You still see them today, but all they did was CMH.

At the time, I never got into the fad, but I played around with CMH and the Dollar Bill Ladder. Also, I remember teaching someone the band, paper clips and dollar bill trick. Anyway, last year(?), Simon Aronson came out with "Try the Impossible". For me the highlight of that book was his "Ring Bandit" (ring and rubberband). I know this effect is ancient to you old rubber fiends, but it was new to me, and I loved it. However, before I would do this as an impromptu effect, I asked myself what would I do if the band broke (hence the above question).

I know a few have mentioned that they've never had a band break, but remember how I am performing this effect. It's not something that I'm doing all the time, it's something that I pack just in case. So, the bands might be a bit old.

Note that after the restoration, I give the band to someone and have them verify that the band is restored. If the band again breaks, they will have done it and I just say "You broke it, you restore it!" This always gets a big laugh.

Interestingly, no one has mentioned that you could still do CMH if a band broke. I always carry a small magic wand (a pen or pencil will do). Just have the spectator hold the wand at fingertips, and you're away.

Bye for now

Harold

You must have missed it Cataquet that's what I did suggest above.

"Now armed with a solid band you can do CMH with some other object, I find I get stronger reactions with more solid objects anyway. Ring penetration is usually readily available"

Heck, make use of that broken band. You can always have the spectator hold out the broken band with both hands and perform CMH then.

-Wade

What a great thread.

Excellent idea! How about getting two spectators, one for each end? I must remember to use that.

The TT restored band idea got me thinking. Since a lot of people carry a bill with the TT to do a bill switch effect, how about after the band is broken you go into a bill routine. At the end of the routine, you could possibly take the bill fold it, and then tie the broken band around it. After several camp magical gestures, you take the band off only for the bill to changed denomination. Then for the kicker when they realize that the broken band has now healed.

I'm just thinking aloud. Great ideas from the rest of you.

Hey Cataquet,
I'm not missing the setup. If I broke the band while doing CMH, I'd ditch the band in my pocket while pretending to pull out another fully functional one. While all this is happening, I'd setup the one band to look like the two bands ala "The Dissolving Rubber Band". To the audience, it would look like I put the broken band away and grabbed another one to go right back into position for the penetration. As an "Afterthought" I would, instead of penetrating them, cause one to melt into the other one leaving only one band and several dropped jaws.

First off, my apologies to Wade. You did indeed mention the continued penetration with a different object. I completely missed that.

Secondly, to Greenshock. Would you just ignore the "Restore that, Mr Blane" comments and go into the Dissolving RB? Also, unless your setup for the CMH mimmicks the Dissolving Band setup, doesn't it look as though your doing something strange with the rubber band(s)?

First time I saw this effect, I was at the table with a layman who re-consructed the method and was able to come up with a cleaner get-into.

Bye for now

Harold

Hey Cataquet,
I would treat that comment just like I treat comments like "Make my check/wife/boss disappear" or "Make another beer appear", I would make a joke back to them and continue on with my performance. If I was able to fulfill every command or wish that a spectator had given me, I sure as h**l would not be wasting my time with something so simple like restoring a rubber band!

I had that happen last week. I had extra bands but what I did was make a comment about the bands breaking if not made right and tossing it in my pocket. I sure didn't do the broken and restored rubber band which is my usual follow up to CMH.
Steve V

Thanks for the reply, Greenshock.
I like to try and turn an expected comment into a powerful counterpunch. For example, you start to do a rubber band effect and you "apparently" break the band. Someone makes the quip, and you laugh it off (as you described). However, supposed that as an afterthought, you decided to restore the band. This is a real killer...

When spectators make comments like "Can you make my wife disappear?" they are of course joking. If you can turn the tables, and make their wife disappear, then you've got them.

Steve's comment above is an important one. If you do the T&R band, and if you do break a band at the beginning, then you're probably best bet is leaving this effect out (if it's in your set). However, if the band breaks and you're lucky enough that it's flown off in another direction out of reach, a nice touch might be to take out another rubber band and do the T&R band with it. When it "breaks", you just quip "This just isn't my day", and go into the restoration.

Although it's not rubber bands, I usually open with C&R rope. I do the usual of asking the spectator to cut the rope, but I look away and make a comment to someone. At the same time, I move the hands forward, and the spectator cuts the rope. When I turn back, I look shocked at the spectator's actions. Everyone laughs because the magician has gone wrong. Rarely does someone say "restore that Houdini", but instead they are thinking
"the poor ***** having his rope ruined like that..."

I then tie a knot in the rope and then say we can start over. This gets more laughs as they see a rope with a knot in it, and are reminded of the "unexpected" events.

Finally, I'll say, "Actually, let's get rid of the knot" and I do. Wow! You have really killed the audience, and this is only your first effect. There is a lot of audience psychology here, but you get the idea.

What I want to do is to create that identical moment when doing rubber bands. The problem is that, if the original band does break, while you can restore it, the restored band itself might break. So, after the restoration, I immediately give it to a spectator to test.

As I said a few posts ago, my problem with rubber band magic is that the band can break, so it's important for me that I am prepared for it... Similarly, I have the same logic when it comes to blowing up balloons; I always have a second balloon finger palmed in my hand. If the original balloon breaks, I drop my hand to my side, apologize for the noise, and then apparently go to blow up the same balloon.

In actuality, I drop the broken balloon and bring the finger palmed balloon into view.

Bye for now

Harold