I just found this topic fellows and thought I would ring in. If you don't know me, I make Magic effects for professional magicians. With that said., you may want to try my Obedient Rope. It is our own version of the Rigid Rope. It employs a completely different method that any other on the market. It is not really thick rope that appears to have a gimmick inside. But instead its made of the super soft rope that is commonly used in other rope effects. This allows it to blend in more easily with others. The ends of the rope are all hand sewn and hand tucked back inside the rope for many years of worry free maintainence.

I find this effect one of my personal little favorites. Here is a basic routine that I have been using for sometime. I hope you like it and I realize that it doesn't fit for everyone but its a cutie. I am a smoker you see, and I usually do this either on stage or in a street environment. I remove my pack of cigarettes. Open the sealed pack, and knock out a cigarette like you see in the movies. Instead of removing it from the box with my hands, the Cigarette is grasped and removed by my lips. Upon pulling the cigarette from the box, it is seen that its not a cigarette at all but a long rope dangling from the lips of the magician. The magician doesn't seem to notice this until he has put the box away. Removing the rope from his lips, and wraping the rope in the limp fashion around the hand until about 2 foot or so remains. That 2 foot length is held so the rope stands in the air by itself, apparently. After it sets in that the rope is suspended in the air, the magician allows the rope to go limp again, while allowing the rope to unwind from the hand. The limp rope is grasped and held in the middle, with a little turn of the rope the rope will stick out straight on each side of the hand. Now it looks as if the entire rope is stiff. Snapping the fingers the rope goes limp again and the rope is rolled up and put away.

I made my own Rigid Rope. I bought a scrap of rope a boating supply store. It is a braided rope with a core. I removed the core and made a gimmick for the inside of the rope but it took a long time. It has worked great for many years. They are pretty cheap now a days so if I needed to replace it I think I'd just buy one already made.

I'm afraid that I bought the version DMann was talking about, and it is the same version that RMoralita was referring to. I feel the same way as RMoralita. I would never use it in a performance.

Bill