Hidden Magical Gems

Hold-up plot by Steinmeyer and Tommy Wonder

I have recently received Jim Steinmeyer's new book "The Conjuring Anthology" which is as wonderful as you'd expect from the Steinmeyer brand. Whilst I may have seen many of the items previously in issues of Stan Allen's Magic, the book gives an opportunity to revisit these wonderful plots.


I am also an enormous fan of the stand-up parlour forum that the series is based on. It allows the performer to keep his or her back straight and eyes on the audience (too much close-up magic occurs at belly-button level) whilst avoiding the formality of a full show (not to mention the difficulty of finding a venue).

On page 43, Steinmeyer reminds us of the wonderful Hold-up plot, which he attributes to Oswald Williams. For those who don't know it, the plot is that as the magician was on his way to the show he was held up and ordered to hand over his watch, his money and his ring (the ring may have been introduced by Oswald Rae and Alan Shaxon). The magician does so and the items are put into a handkerchief (or other receptacle). The magic occurs - the items vanish from the handkerchief - and reappear on his wrist, in his wallet and on his finger.


This had me scurrying back to two of my favourite books, Tommy Wonder's "Books of Wonder" by Stephen Minch. On page 302 of Volume I, Wonder publishes his "The Ring, the Watch and the Wallet" (this was republished on his "Visions of Wonder" Volume 1). In his usual style, Tommy Wonder has thought through every potential issue and created a trick that in method is as elegant as it should be in effect. Each vanish uses a different method to prevent the audience cottoning on. The vanish of the watch and the money are so beautifully intertwined that performance must give an added secret buzz of pleasure to the magician. He has substituted the handkerchief with an envelope, which works from a plot point of view as the mugger attempts to mail the items to himself and from an effect point of view as the vanish is strengthened by tearing up the envelope.

Steinmeyer has retained the handkerchief, which simplifies the method, but has replaced the ring with a flower on his lapel for greater visibility.

I now cannot wait to try BOTH routines (although both will require some manufacturing). I think I may have to create my own hybrid as I consider my own view of the strong points of each routine:

• Wonder's envelope fits the plot better than the handkerchief and creates a more magical vanish
• Steinmeyer's buttonhole is more visible than the ring. On the other hand, it seems a little strange that the mugger would take a flower, whereas it seems much more likely that he would take the ring
• Wonder's three different methods should be more difficult for the audience to reconstruct, whereas Steinmeyer's simplicity of method should allow more time to concentrate on the audience
  

Now I'll just have to go and find my copy of Alan Shaxon's "My kind of magic" so that I can understand his thoughts. ......

"The Conjuring Anthology" is available from Jim Steinmeyer directly and "The Books of Wonder" are available from Hermetic Press.

posted by Alexander Crawford @ 3:38 AM