What is a good substitute for a real cig while practicing manipulations? Real cigs do not hold up well to constant repeat moves.

I was taught that when practicing with an object, always practice with the real thing. Always use cigs...

I have used either crayons, or take a standard "Bic" pen and cut it to the size of the kind of cigarette you use.

Yanyak5 does make a tremendous point in that, if you become so used to working without a cigarette (particularly a lighted one), you can get burned (literally) when performing.

I have popped myself in the bottom of the palm recently with a lit cigarette due to being used to working with something else. Left very little to the spectators imagination as to where the cigarette was when I reacted.

At one time a friend had a cig filled with filter no tobacco. It was the same feel as the real thing. Anyone heard of this?

Take your old playing cards and roll them up across the width so that you have a short, stiff tube. Apply a little tape to hold the shape and practice to your hearts content. These make great practice cigarettes. They are stiff and will take a great deal of abuse (practice can be very abusive).

Once you get all your moves mastered then you can play with a real cigarette if you think you need to.

Even in performance I don’t use more than two real cigarettes. I have made dozens of fake cigarettes over the years

I use a wooden dowel about the right diameter, cut the length that works for me, add a little flat white, some brown, and yellow/brown (filter) and viola I have manipulation cigarettes. Not add a couple of real burning cigarettes to puff on and you can build a nice manipulation routine that looks for all the world that you produced dozens of lit cigarettes.

Learning the moves of cig manipulation is great because it can be directly applied to the use of other like objects.

I just seem to think that cig manipulation may be harder to do these days with the new fire codes and views on cigs in general.

Kyle

You could use candy cigarettes, or novelty store kind that actually blow "smoke". you could make the candy ones appear and then eat them.

You could even put them in a real cig. box.
Have Fun!

Ed brings up a good point that in todays world where cig smoking is not allowed in certain places, it makes sense to have alternatives. Use the same moves in cig manipulation but use different props. You can create some very interesting routines in this fashion.

For example:
You could use a lolipop and have the top fall off. This then gets used for billiard ball moves while the stick can be used later for cig moves. in the end the ball vanishes only to reappear back on the stick in your hand.

There really are many possibilities.

Kyle

I found fake cigarettes at the drug store for people trying to stop smoking. They are solid filter material inside the full length. They have cork filters on them.

The other fake cig can be found in novelty stores. They have the fake burnt end and have powder inside a cotton ball, so when you blow through the cig fake smoke comes out of the end.

I put rolled index cards in them to make them more firm. http://www.Stoners.com has them as a standard product.

Try using candy as substitute. Twizzlers are good for practice. Then when you get hungry, you can eat it.

Also crayons, candles, candy (as mentioned), lip balms/chapstick and chalk.

The fake cigs wmhegbli mentioned might be similar to the full filter ones that came with a Tenyo trick called infinitum. They whee like cigs but all white and all filter. I coloured the centre in black and they look like mini magic wands so one could do a magic wand manipulation routine if cigs are inappropriate.
George

Cigarette Routines in the Mullica videos are great.

Dynamite, I was thinking about getting Volume 1. Are the effects good and is what is the difficulty? Can you also list some of the effects?

Volume 1 of the Cigarette series of Mullica has all the basics in handling cigarettes. It teaches productions, vanishes of the cigarette and cool stunts like cigarette up the nose. It's all beginner stuff with hard-hitting impact.

here:

Tom Mullica
Expert Cigarette Magic Made Easy
In most of cour collective magical lifetimes there has only been one man, and one act, who over and aver again fooled the bejeesus out of magicians and laymen alike: Of corse, I am talking about Tom Mullica and his cigartette-eating act. Tom's act is so magical, and so unique, it has never been duplicated. All of us at one time or another have uttered the now familiar refrain: "Where in the deck did those cigarettes go?" And we were fiiled over and over again.

Murphy's magic supplies is pleased to announce the release of Tom Mullica's EXPERT CIGARETTE MAGIC...Made easy!; with volumes 1, 2, and 3 of the Expert Magic...Made Easy! series. This is a three-volume set of videos covering basic to advanced magic with cigarettes, matches, cigars, and anything else related to smoking.

Of course, the topper is that on Vol. 3 he finally...TIPS THE CIGARETTE-EATING ACT! answering that age-old question: "Where in the heck did those cigarettes go?" Now we all get to find out. As a special bonus, Volume 2 has a performance of Tom's F.I.S.M act and Volume 3 contains a performance of Tom's world-famous stage act.


Volume 1 - Cigarette Magic

* Basic Sleights And Theory
* Distance Light
* Swivel Vanish
* Loyayne Vanish
* Cigarette On Forehead
* Cigarette Gymnastics
* 4-Cig Production
* Pantomime Cig #1
* Double-Ended Cig
* Cig Vanish In Hank #1
* Cig Vanish In Hank #2 * Cigarette Sneeze
* Vegas Carpet
* Little Butt
* Rising Cigarette
* L.L Move
* Cigarette Up Nose
* Blown Away
* Cigarette Dropper
* Smoke Ring
* Tonguing