Hi!
Can anyone recommend excellent waxed dental floss for Gypsy Thread?
Thanks!

By all accounts, it’s Johnson & Johnson Reach, waxed floss. Nothing called TAPE, because that's flat.

Reach is what is used in the Chevrie video. So I bought a multi pack. I can vouch for it working exactly as it should.

Honestly, I’ve used any number of cheap store brand (generic) waxed and untaxed dental floss and they all met my needs and worked fine. I’d say experiment and find a brand that seems to work for you then buy a few dozen of them (lots change over time). I just use the cheapest on the shelf when I need a new box of floss.

Please forgive my ignorance. How do you break the thread if you are using floss?

The only version I’m familiar with uses thread you can break with bare hands.

Patrick

The floss stays in the very recognizable container. It is pulled from the container in short lengths and cut by the little blade built into the container. It is not broken by hand.

It makes for a very natural and organic routine.

That makes sense. So in this case, it is a matter of joining several pieces rather than showing one long piece, breaking it up, then restoring it.

And dental floss is much more obvious than thread, being thicker and all. It also occurs to me that regular sewing thread isn’t as convincing when the ball of short bits is stuck on. But everyone who has used floss knows it is waxed, so that ball will not seem as odd when it adheres to the short bit.

Plus, except for (I assume) one short bit, you could have audience members do the work of cutting several pieces for you to work with. I don’t know if that matters, but it at least hammers home that you are using real floss.

Thanks for the response! Got me thinking. Next time I go to the store, I’ll grab a package of floss.

Patrick

Mr. Woolery, you are forgetting that normal thread is placed in the mouth and balled up, it has your spit on it. That is what makes it stick to the single thread.

Dental floss comes in different thicknesses for different peoples teeth spacing.

Your comment of handing the thread to a person to cut the thread, is just asking for being poisoned. How to do you know that person cleans his hands properly. You really want to take the change of getting very sick or even putting your life in danger.

I suggest you get the book by Dai Vernon on Lipzig, and learn the original effect.

Better to be on the safe side, then have stomach poisoning.

I learned gypsy thread/floss from Tom Jones and Eugene Burger personally and from Chevrie's video. I've watched countless gypsy thread routines and never once have I seen anyone put it in their mouth. I'm guessing someone somewhere had to have done it that way, but it is NOT currently a common method by any stretch.

Johnson 'n Johnson Reach Mint Waxed Dental Floss has always been my standby. It's what Jones and Chevrie both recommend.

I’ve got Gary Ouellet’s book/dvd on it. Nobody put the thread in the mouth. Though it certainly would make the restoration bundle make a little more sense. My beef with the performances on the disk seem a little unrealistic at the point where a bundle of thread is pressed against a short length of thread and appears to just cling to it.

I always liked the visual of snapping it by hand, but I like the idea of using the floss. I assume the special piece of floss comes off at the beginning, not the end. It seems practical with floss.

Patrick

I also have never seen any performer put the thread in their mouth. Not sure what the point of that would be.

You could pretend to moisten the ball of thread with your tongue to put it on the single thread.
Allen

I have always taken the bundle and 'twisted' it onto the long strand. No need to moisten it to stay.

A second for Johnson 'n Johnson Reach (Cheaper ones seem to dry out) - and as Lonnie Chevrie teaches it, the box hides the work!

Although I don't do it Gypsy Thread is a great routine. I highly recommend Lonnie Chevrie's version using floss. He's done it for decades and does it wonderfully. I highly recommend all his stuff. His particular handling of the slow motion $100 bill switch is in my opinion the best handling there is.

For a more traditional Gypsy Thread I highly recommend Richard Hatch's handling titled "The Mystery of the Jadoo Wallah". It was published on the Friends of Roger Klause DVD's, but I believe it may have been in print somewhere else (MUM/Linking Ring maybe?). Years ago I convinced Richard to lecture for me at the Dallas Super Session. His knowledge of the trick is thorough and he explains it clearly.

Eugene Burger also has some great thoughts on this classic routine in his books and videos.

For those of us outside of the US, what are some alternative brands of floss that work?

I realize this is an old thread (pun intended), but in response to GOLDFIELD, regarding what type of dental floss to use for those outside the U.S.?

Even though I purchase waxed floss, I always prep the floss by pulling it a few times through magician’s wax or something similar. This gives the floss extra tackiness, which improves the handling. If you do that, then the brand of waxed floss is not that important.

Axel Hecklau recently shared a video for the stage version, which uses thick thread, and he recommends prepping the thread with 100% bees wax. Axel also has an excellent version of Gypsy Thread.