Ok, so let's talk about the egg bag.
What egg bag do you use? What kind of egg?
And what routine are you using?

I have a Malini egg bag myself, with a plastic egg... and learning the Ken Brooke's routine.

Pete, I understand this this is one of your favourite routines. Do you have any words of wisdom?


Peo

This has been discussed a couple of times before here at the Café. A search will turn up some of those discussions.


The routine I most often use is the Roy Benson (of Benson Bowl fame) and is straight from Bruce Elliott’s “Classic Secrets of Magic”. It is unlike traditional egg bag routines in that it is a production of six eggs from a small bag. It is very clever and seemingly impossible.

The bag I use is homemade to the dimensions of my hand. I use wooden eggs (six are used in the routine).

I also have and use the Mardo bag (made by Martin Lewis’ mother) from time to time. I pretty much use a Bertran routine that ends with a bottle production.

And I have and use the Malini bag made by Danny Tong’s wife. I use Ken Brooke’s routine (and when I can get away with it I will use the Mullica ending to that routine).

All that said, 98% of the time I am using my homemade bag with Roy Benson’s clever, visual, surprising, and magical routine. It is the second egg-bag routine I learned (the first being a modified Tarbell routine) when I was a teenager and the one that seems to get the greatest response for me.

Hi Peo,

The Malini bag and the routine of Ken Brooke's are good things. If you can, watch Charlie Miller (tapes), Jeff Hobson, or Johnny Thompson. Masters--everyone!

Regards,

Paul Green

I'm a bit different. I use Martin Lewis' handling of the Senor Mardo bag, only I end with a production of a goldfish in a short stemmed wineglass.

This is from my period act, "Victorian Secrets: A Performance of Classical Conjuring" in which I portray Professor Richard Alan Barclay.

Rick

Personally I think the Malini (Charlie Miller) bag is the most baffling and entertaining, not to mention easy to do egg bag out there.

Ken's instructions are easy to follow.

Close with the lady reaching into the bag to find the egg after you have done the "hold my wrists" segment.

I have to admit, Pete. I saw Johnny do that routine in Vegas back in 2001...one of the finest performances of magic I've ever seen, but then the least I've seen Johnny Thompson do was great!

I use a Tarbell Egg Bag made by Pauline Tong, with a practice golfball instead of an egg. I use the Martin Lewis routine, with slight modifications, from the Stevens tape on the egg bag. The routine won a magic competition for me last summer. The look of surprise on the face of the spectator is priceless, as they pull the golfball from the bag.

The routine is excellent for both standup and close-up applications.

I just purchased the "Encyclopedia of Egg Magic" by Donato Colucci (Hermetic Press) and I highly recommend it. It covers almost every type of egg bag and different routines.
Seth

I must disagree that the Encyclopedia of Egg Magic is any good. Please do not waste your money on this worthless book. It has no value what so ever.

You would do better to purchase the Egg Bag tape from Stevens Magic.

If interested to purchase my copy of the above book for $50 plus $10 postage PM me.

Care to elaborate why you think it's a "worthless" book?
I know it doesn't contain any new material but it is a great compliation of classic routines and handlings.
Seth

I don't know [what] bag I have. I picked it up at Tannen's. It's far and away better than the old red flannel Adam's bag I used to use.

A gripe here. When I ordered the bag, the ad in the catalog said; "You also need the Devil's Handkerchief and an extra egg to perform this routine." When I got the bag and the handkerchief and the extra egg, I discovered that nothing in the instructions said anything about a second egg or the Devil's handkerchief! When I went to Tannen's later and asked, they didn't know anything about it!

(Mind you, it's also an excellent Devil's handkerchief and I'm not sorry I bought it! I just wish either the ad had been more accurate or the instructions had the information the ad said they would!)

Charlie Miller, with the Malini Bag, at one time, used the Devil's Hank to vanish an egg and the egg would be found in the bag.

It may have been an early ad, or earlier version.

The Encyclopedia of Egg Magic is missing detail routines. It only give suggestions. Have read it from cover to cover. It repeats much of the same material and does not give anything useful.

Yes, the material is old, but it is not an encyclopedia. I would an encyclopedia would contain detailed construction of every egg bag that has been on the market. The lost tricks and routines on egg magic. Gags, usable material. Multiplication routines.

The book is really stuck in a rut on Stodare Egg. I could not make out what this egg was suppose to be, as it is referred to so much, "It was clear as mud".

I did not find one usable idea or item in this book.

Umm...It's pretty clear what the Stodare Egg is. It's classic gimmicked egg used to vanish a silk and produce an egg.

As far as construction of egg bags, we must remember a lot of egg bags are still on the market to purchase and to reveal the workings would not be good.

Maybe it should be titled "Egg Magic Reference Book". Maybe you should go through it again and you just might find something of use. I know I have.
Seth

Studied the Ken Brooke routine. Now I just read Ron Bauer's Siamese Goose Bag. Very well written routine (as most of his booklets)and crystal clear effect.
Both sources recommended.

Wmhegbli,

We would disagree on what makes a good magic book. I agree that the Encyclopedia of Egg Magic does not "contain detailed construction of every egg bag that has been on the market". Neither does John Novak's Egg Bag Book, which lists many, but categorizes them in the same four basic types.

The material in the book contains the routines as they first appeared in print. The "bits of business" are missing because they were never there to begin with. The Benson routine is as it appeared in Classic Secrets of Magic. I know Harry Murphy said he was able to learn the routine from that manuscript.

You are right if you are saying that there are not a lot of fully scripted routines in the book (I haven't checked there may not be any), but I think it is a bit much to say there are no useable items there. (I know you said YOU found no useable items, which is not exactly the same thing but I took a little liberty)

For me the value is in the historical content, the breadth of ideas that can be applied to other things besides eggs. We are all different kinds of learners and performers. Some like all the details and patter worked out (from an an admitted Ken Brooke routine egg bagger) and some like the bones of a routine that they can add the flesh themselves. We should have all heard by now about magicians that throw away the routine that comes with a trick so they can work out their own routine. I see the EEM as falling into this latter category.

If nothing else the EEM is a good reference tool.

If all you want are egg bags the two best sources are the Steven's Video and the Novak book although the book is also short on routines. The literature on egg bags is huge. The EEM notes that Jack Potter's Master Index to Magic in Print (c. 1970) listed nearly 300 listings. I think Mr. Colucci did a good job bringing as many as he did into one place.

Mandrake,
The devil's hank is used in the Tarbell egg bag routine, which is in Tarbell #2.

Jim

Having owned most egg tricks and bags on the market over the 50 years I been doing magic. I stand to any unsuspecting purchaser to pass on this book.

It is just an overpriced waste of good paper. It has nothing of usable value.

It is not an encyclopedia.

Thank you... I'm going to make an effort to get Tarbell's 1 & 2. (I'd like to get them in order.) Be nice if the guys at Tannens had known that.

Trevor Lewis has a nice routine on his DVD out by L&L Pub. I do not have this video.

Also he has a Devil's Hank addition in the Ken Brooke instructions that I have.

Trevor is a tremendous children’s entertainer.