I'm thinking about starting my set on the street with the linking rings.

Any suggestions?

Tapes, Boooks, DVD's?

Ron Calhoun

Cellini's Lord and Master of the Rings.

That's a great routine to learn but I don't know
if it's so good for the street. It's pretty chock full of
angle problems.

Great on stage but with people all around, I'd go for something else.

BUT if you don't have the DVD already, it will knock your socks off.
Any rings person should own this DVD.

I would go for Whit Haydn's 4 ring routine. I know nothing more about Cellini's routine then it is done with two rings and is very very good, but the Haydn routine has great humor and audience involvement which will play great on the street. Not to mention that Whit created the routine for use on the street.

Chris Capehart did quite well on the streets with his fast paced three ring routine. I'd also check out Jeff McBride's "Commando Act"

Hi Ron:

I'll second Dave's recommendation of the Chris Capehart routine. It looks like real magic! I like Whit Haydn's routine too - it uses a spectator during most of it. Jeff McBride's is superb as well. But the Capehart routine is my favorite - I think you can still get his DVD from Denny and Lee.

Frank is right about the Cellini routine. I'd have to say it's the most beautiful and elegant routine I've seen (compared to the eye-popping Capehart routine) but there are many moves that are angly. Too angly for my comfort level.

Ron

Cellini addresses this in his "Royal Touch" book. Everything in the DVD and then some is written there. He uses "body language" to control the angles. Most of the exposed areas are covered either by a back, arm, shoulder, turning from right to left, etc...

It's a beautiful routine, but not much for an "opener." Looks like it would be better in the middle of a show. I wish I could have seen him "live" doing this with people on the streets instead of a darkened studio.

Whit's routine is great on the street. It's actually a good crowd builder. I also do my own 8 ring routine on the street, which uses two spectators. Kids usually if there are any.
I also do a really (and I mean really) fast 3 ring routine as a middler.
Jim

I also recommend Chris Capehart's routine. Especially if you want to get in their faces with a routine. I explain how impossible for one solid metal ring to go through another, then crash link, spin the ring, then take it off before their eyes, and I can guarantee that having just done the link, spin, and takeoff, I can get still somebody in the crowd to agree that that since it was absolutely impossible for metal to go through metal, it never really happened. It was simply an Optical Delusion!

I do it every chance I get and it and lay people and magicians alike are blown away by it. I get more requests to "show us the rings" again than anything else I do. I use it as either an operner to draw a crowd, becuase you can keep the first part going as long as you want, and get lots and lots of people invovled. But depending on how I fell, I use it as my closer after starting with c=some cards and rope work. I actually like it better as a closer, but it is a tough location and I am having trouble building a tip, I go straight to the rings.

Oh, and I certainly also agree that Cellini's Lord and Master of the Rings, is a downright elegant piece of magic, using only two rings.

BroDavid

Yep the Rings are great, but tell me how to get over the Masked Magician syndrome which has been flung at me on and off for the past two years or so. I can beat 99% of the audience but that 1% sure is becoming a pain in the butt. It's got nothing to do with ability (have been taught the Rings by the UK master "K Brooke" and used them EVERY time until the twit masked mug exposed them) also switched the key for a while, but this became a pain to do!

Hi Kondini:

Chris Capehart's routine has a solution for Masked Magician's exposure. It's not part of his normal routine, but Capehart has a part in his routine that he saves for when he's performing for magicians or those who know about the rings. During the routine, he mentions the masked magician and says that there may be an opening under his hand (he doesn't show it, though). He then does a challenge link that fools them all. A layman who thinks he knows how the rings are done will be blown away after this demonstration - it's really brilliant and baffling.

Ron

Thanks Ron, I have the DVD, must re-run it again more carefully.

Chris also has another line that works for that "I know there is a gap in the rings" twit. He says, "Yes", but to make it fair, I will cover it with my hand. and he show it covered. I think he may also say some this about these not being his "normal rings" but he borrowed them from an amatuer Or maybe he just ells tha tin his lecture. But regardless, with his hand clearly covering the gap "so it can not be involved", he proceeds to crash link, and it will blow away the most obnoxious critic, or the most jaded magician. You simply won't see it happen.

I have developed a sequence of moves that is very convincing, and goes like this; bang/tap the "ring in in your right hand" (you know which one that usually is if you are right handed) on top of the ring in your left hand right where you will link it, then bang/tap the ring in your right hand against the opposite spot on the bottom of the ring in your left hand, then do the Crash Link, Spin the ring, Let everything settle in the specs mind for a moment, and then do the invisible takeoff, and bang the ring on the top of the ring in the left hand, and bang it again, against the bottom of the ring in the left hand. All of this is done in a sequence that ends up looking the same at the end as at the start, and this is where I can get somebody to agree that it never happened

Keep this sequence going, and both the crash link which is never seen, and the takeoff, are absolutely invisible to everyone, even when shown time after time, and that is what I do. I have magicians who has been working with rings for 20 years approach me after I perfrom at our local club, and say, "Man, I know what you are doing, but I just can't see it happening. Teach me that link and takeoff."

So knowing how it is done is really not a big deal. And if they can't catch you doing it, you are full step ahead of them. From TT, to Cups and Balls, to Rings, people keep saying they are over exposed, and I still get good hats using them I Wonder why? Maybe I play to a less sophisticated crowd.... Or maybe I just add more fun and unexpected, or deceptive moves through lots of practice, and experience than some others?

And if a little heckling like "I saw the masked magician do that" drives you away from the working, money making classics, that is fine. All the more for me.

BroDavid

IMO Linking Rings is so strongly associated with magicians that if you like the trick you should do it, I think people almost expect you to. I've had a bunch of folks ask me it I did the rings (I don't). A couple of years ago I heard a layperson tell me that when so and so did the rings he didn't use the ring that had the gap in it and he still linked them. Pete Biro probably already did this but I thought it was a cool idea. Reminds of when Henning did the torn and restored newpaper that a man (no magic) I had previously thought was intelligent bought into Henning's patter line about it only looking like the paper was being torn and actually what he was seeing was just an illusion. This is magic. You guys are magic!!!!!

Happy new Year!!!

-=tabman

I like the thinking here and thanks for the input. It's not the heckling thing. I can handle that OK. It's the know it all attitude of some. I experienced this with the silk and TT some time ago, after and during its performance on occassion you could see the odd individual stood there waggling there thumb at you!!!! Also re the rings it seems to be mainly the little ones that pass comment you know 6yrs and up and its kind of hard putting your boot on the head of these sweet little bugg***
Still all said and done the rings are indeed a classic, maybe it's me who requires a re-vamp.

Sorry, but that is up to you and how you handle the TT

They'll never do that to me, the 'trick' is NOT to have the TT where it is supposed to be..
I would advice to study Salvanos work on how to handle a TT, though I do use an entirely diff. handling..the TT is only on for a second and then it is hidden..apart from this, due to the handling, both of your own *t*'s are shown to be emty during the handling of the silk, in fact it is not in that place at all at the start up, but is solely used when 'stolen' from the left and the steal too shouldn't be the boring standard one, use the Slydini steal..

I really would advice to do a bit more work on your TT handling, if you get the responce you got.
If it is used the 'right' way, it could be painted plain green or blue, whatever, and it would never be visible...
When you can do your TT routine with a bright coloured TT, it is OK, not before..
PS. When you do it correctly, *their* own mind -for those in the know- actually will exclude the use of a TT during your performance, they'll SWEAR you don't use one..

I feel whether you are using a TT or not,if the audience "Think" you are then the illusion is lost, no matter how clever your moves are.
I am not the only one to suffer this dilemma, due to these secrets becoming common knowledge.

During the 2004 season working showgrounds here in the UK I bump into many, many street type acts who in the past have featured the TT and silk,,,,,not one of them included it.
Also the rings, once in every outside workers bag have found their way back into the attic.
Sad but true. Maybe time will heal. Still I appreciate all the comments made.

Hello:

I don't mean to get this thread too far off-topic, but want come to Kondini's defense concerning the TT. If any performer makes a silk or streamer disappear barehanded (and by poking the silk into the fist), an amateur who knows about the TT is going to assume that's how it's done, even if the technique is superb.

I just downloaded a Jeff McBride TT demo/explanation from his website. He does a TT streamer and dollar bill sequence which is excellent. But I can tell you if some obnoxious layman with knowledge of a TT wanted to bust Jeff, he could and he would be right about the method.

I think I need to get the Salvando TT from Stevens Magic; maybe he's got ground-breaking techniques as I always heard he is superb.

Ron

Really? , also if and when they see your thumbs 'clean' all the time??
I wasn't talking about clever moves, I was talking about your thumbs all the time are in plain view because of some special 'handling' of the TT.

When working outside malls and block parties I would open with the Vernon six ring routine. To attract the crowd and then draw them in with the chop cup...

I feel that attracting the crowd with noise and action and little bits of business with laughs is a good idea. Then draw them in with a smaller magic effect that you can pass out and let the crowd look at. This is the chop cup or the cups and balls...

I hope this helps...