The spectator picks up the glass, shakes it and on tipping out the two rings onto their hand – they are seen to be joined together in permanent union. The rings can be examined. You will get an outstanding reaction from the bride and groom appropriate to the occasion with comments about a long life together etc.

I’ve done this many times and on one occasion I performed it at a cocktail reception at The Crown Jewellers dropping them into a half full, cut glass champagne flute. The impact was amazing.

Where can I get this stunning close-up effect I hear you ask? It’s one of the very visual routines described in my new book “KISS” (Keep it Simple Stupid). It not only includes a number of performance-proven routines that I’ve done for the past 15 years, but gives a simple business strategy that I adapted to re-evaluate magic presentation which can lead to a higher level of performance, creativity and fees. It’s a system that got me bookings in Athens, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Marbella, Osaka, Paris, Rabat, St. Petersberg and Buckingham Palace!

For further details check out www.magicderris.com

Group magic.

Vernon and the greats used it. Fred Kaps used it.Peter Warlock, Jack Avis, Francis Haxton and other names used it. And I’ve used it together with Alex Elmsley, Jack Avis, Lewis Jones, Bob Read and others. So what is group magic?

I’m not knocking the magic clubs, the conventions and celebrity lectures but to get to the real meat of magic free thinking and creativity you assemble a group of magic friends who you admire, are talented and with whom you can talk freely without inhibition. You meet in someone’s home say once every six weeks on an evening. You talk, show things, ideas, discuss dvds, other magicians, the latest magic items but you talk freely. Everyone has to show or discuss at least one item during the evening, It can be a trick, a move and even just an idea and everyone says truthfully what they think. Nobody takes offence – nobody is offended if someone says it’s not as good as so and so. It’s a very free discussion on your magic, the magic scene, anything and the criticism is not personal but genuine. And the presenter accepts the comment in good faith,

The results are outstanding. Just a little suggestion about the handling of a move, or an idea that takes a trick in another direction, or a recollection from something seen in the past. In Jack and Alex’s day some wonderful thinking came out of these group meetings that helped create outstanding magic.And I can personally testify to many genuine ideas that have made all the difference in my own presentations of a stage or close-up effect. Just someone seeing the idea from a different direction can make a world of difference.

There are really only two rules. Pick a group of six or seven magic friends whose work or thinking your really admire (and they of you) and be very open in your discussion and throwing out any ideas.

Whilst Jack and Alex and Bernard Weller, all former members of our group have passed on we currently have six like-minded magi, but each with different interests and skills. They are Lewis Jones, Tom Whitestone, Angelo Carbone. Michael Symes, Don Wyatt and myself.

And whilst we all enjoy magic club life we are all agreed that some real valuable, in-depth magic and ideas has resulted from these meetings that would not have been possible in the everyday social atmosphere of the average magic club. Noel Britten has said that you are not as good as you think you are and he’s right

I promise you, this is a really valuable concept that will improve your own magic. And it costs nothing but effort.

That said, here I am again witn a promise to keep you up to date with occasional items that I recently said would be of real interest and value rather than pumping  out a blog everyday.

In my last announcement I touched on an effect I’ve done for some time at wedding receptions which I am thinking of putting out. The truthful reaction I’ve had from laypeople tells me that in real, visual terms it’s a stunner and I’m glad to pass it on. For those that missed the first news item – quite simply you show a ladies diamond wedding ring and a gentleman’s gold signet ring in each hand, drop them into a glass of champagne, handed to the spectator who, after drinking the champagne tips out the rings which are now seen to be – joined! A truthful description. Everything can be examined and the magician’s hands are empty. The gimmick has to be specially made and so it will be made to order for each request. Price? I don’t know but I think it will be in the region of £40.00. to be advised. I’ll be putting out announcements on the internet – Magic Week and this web site plus possibly some press ads. It’s called “Welded Bliss” (blame my advertising background for that awful pun.) Keep a look out or contact me if you’re interested.

Keep looking.

I hope to get it on film shortly and show it to you on this website and thereafter we’ll be putting it out for sale. It looks like tremendous digital skill but it’s a dream to work and I’ll keep you posted as to further details. It’s called “Find the Phantom“

It’s a routine that I devised on a very basic idea that I bought from an American dealer and I believe it was originated many years ago by Bob McCallister. It’s a series of quite impossible ring on/off a cord moves, no knots just the ring melting on  and off , and I devised a few extra moves including throwing the ring through the air to pass onto the cord!

The ring that I sell is chrome (together with the cord and the gimmick) but I had a jeweller gold plate mine which allowed me to go up to a table, apologise for the  interruption and say that a gold wedding ring has been found in the restaurant and does it belong to anyone on the table. As you are dressed in dinner jacket they usually think you’re part of the management. After denials and jokes you then produce the large gold ring and say “Then I take it this ring doesn’t belong to anyone on this table” Immediately you get a laugh and a response as you say “I’m kidding – this is my wife’s ring – she came from a big family!”

Immediately they know that some entertainment is about to follow and the ice is broken. This has been a winner for me for years both in mix and mingle and on tables. You’ll find it listed on this site under the name of “Staggering” and many magicians have incorporated it into the programme.

We have an offer whereby if you purchase the low priced package of all five effects listed in the KISS programme, we’ll include the full script of  gags and funnies that I’ve used with the routine over the years. Why not check out “Staggering” now. The demo will show a small selection of moves without the patter but it will give you some idea. An effect proven by performance. 

But I always admired the presentation of Senor Wences who turned his hand into a living face and of course the huge character and appeal of Jay Marshall’s “Lefty”, created from just a white cotton glove and two buttons on his left hand.

I was reminded of this when I recently saw a TV commercial advertising a Government service.  I think the ad failed, as do many, when you are seduced by the presentation and don’t remember what it is selling. However in this ad there were around three pairs of hands and a couple of ping pong balls  that were very creatively blended to portray a face that spoke the message. In the ad there were about three changes of character but the imagination behind the idea was tremendous. I don’t know if this was the work of some Eastern European puppet group but for me it was stunning and could be (if not already) the basis for a wonderful vent act. It’s always nice to spot real talent.

But what pays off handsomely is to offer at the end of the dinner to present a small cabaret spot in the corner of the room by which time people are well relaxed. Nothing elaborate but perhaps two or three tricks presented to the collective audience.

By now they have met you performing magic at their table so you don’t really have to establish yourself again but the reaction to this added bonus is always good. The guests enjoy the extra  unexpected magic and the hosts are delighted with what they consider is something extra that you have added to the booking.

I’ve received excellent letters following this idea from more than satisfied clients and it has paid  good dividends in recommendations and new bookings.

Certainly!

So – do you do sponge balls? Of course you do. Everybody does but I think we are all guilty of unwittingly revealing the secret.

Let me tell you a story. When I was seventeen I did a show for a scout troop and performed a sponge ball routine. Two years later after my national service I was asked to present another show at the same scout troop. The organiser said “will you do that trick whereby you put a ball in a boy’s hand and three came out?” “Oh” I replied, “you mean the sponge ball trick” “Oh” he said “they’re made of sponge are they!” And I realised I had blown the method.

Since that day I have never called them sponge balls which we all do in the magic vernacular. If you avoid the noun “sponge “and call it a ball, the participating spectator may know they collapse in his hand but there could be a hundred people out in the audience who think they are solid balls. And with the close-textured Goshman balls made today, it is easy to believe that they are solid.

Some of the great sponge ball workers never called them “sponge” Don Alan would show a ball in his hand and joke “I have a small red ball – but I do the best I can!” Likewise Billy McComb would say “I have a small red ball – which was of great concern to my parents!”

Similarly when I do a vanishing cane in newspaper I walk into the booking with the cane already set and make a great play of showing it, tapping it on the floor and pointing to things.

Then when it vanishes, they think “where the devil did the solid cane go.” If you walk in with a small bag and suddenly appear on stage with a three -foot walking cane, it could begin to suggest that it’s collapsible.

It’s little things like that that can give away the beginnings of a secret. I do a book test and put on my glasses to read a crib for the word revelation. A very intelligent  lady – a chemistry professor – said “Why do you put your glasses on when you reveal the word to the spectator ?” 

I quickly re-routined the effect and put the glasses on way, way ahead of the actual revelation. It’s important to view your magic from the audience’s position. It can be very revealing.

Effect:

A card is selected and returned and the pack is freely shuffled and cut by several spectators and placed on the floor. It was then covered by a tabloid size newspaper and the cards were commanded to cut themselves at the selected card. The spectator removed the paper and the cards were seen to be cut a right angles in the form of a cross and when the top half of the pack was removed, the chosen card was revealed on top of the lower half.

This simple plot succeeded because of Alex’s reputation and the build-up that he used to surround the presentation (Read his book “The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley” if you want more depth to his ideas on how to present an effect).

Method:

There is no method. As mentioned it was sheer audacity. Alex was sitting beside a table on which rested a glass of his favourite falling down water and his evening paper. Some time earlier he had deposited about a quarter of the pack face down under the newspaper and left it there. (John Ramsay also used to get up to this same kind of subterfuge from time to time. He’d sit with coins palmed in his hands for half an hour, knowing that at some time someone would ask him to do a trick.)

Inevitably someone asked Alex to do a trick so he produced a pack of cards (less the cards already under the newspaper), had a card selected, controlled, palmed out whilst the pack was split in two and given to two spectators to shuffle and cut. This covered the fact that it was a short pack. The cards were assembled and the card was secretly re-introduced on top of the pack.

The pack was placed on the floor and the newspaper picked up with one hand, together with the cards underneath and casually tossed over the pack making sure that the added pack was roughly at right angles to the cards on the floor.

A sip of whisky and Alex extolled the impossible conditions and the presence of a ghostly gambler who could always cut a pack to any position. A spectator was asked to lift the paper to reveal the cut pack in a cross. The top half was removed and the next card turned over to reveal the chosen card.

Many people that evening were fooled because their minds were conditioned to believe that Alex possessed some super new idea involving one of his cunning methods. But he was just as adept at presenting an effect as performing a difficult method.

I believe it was Max Maven who said that doing a mental effect was easy – it’s the presentation that is the hard part. Alex later said his inspiration for this casual piece of foolery came from the coin tray whereby coins on a small metal tray were poured into the spectators hand whilst extra coins hidden underneath the tray were added in the move.

If you want inspiration think simple – think of the magic of past years.

Get a thumb tip and a 4 feet coloured silk streamer. Attach one end of the streamer into the tip then fold the silk inside and store it in your trousers pocket.

Carry it ALWAYS whenever you leave home.

When the challenge comes – stall and say “Okay, can I borrow a pencil and a gas cooker!” As no cooker is forthcoming, borrow a pencil taking the opportunity to get the tip onto your right thumb in your pocket as you search for the pencil.

Make a great play of touching different parts of the spectators with the pencil and then touching the palm of your left hand say “Can you see the tiny silk worm in the palm of my hand?” They look closely but see nothing. Ditch the thumb tip into the closed left fist by your favourite method, then with the tip of the pencil pull out the end of the silk streamer.

Then keep pulling out the streamer slowly making a pile of silk on the table or the spectator’s hand which after a time looks considerable and quite impossible. I’ve used this a lot and the impact of this apparently impromptu piece of visual magic is powerful and very memorable.

The great Polish magician, the late Silvano who was a great exponent of the thumb tip, always used to keep a tip on his person, even when he was sitting in bathing trunks beside a hotel swimming pool. When challenged he would stand up, pull up his trunks and go into action.