No, this is not a cookery recipe for a new style Cornish Pasty but a brilliant idea from my late, good friend Jack Avis which can transform an Okito Box routine into a smooth presentation.

Any Okito or Boston Box routine requires the magician to replace the lid and at the same time secretly turn the box over. The standard move is to rest the box on your left palm and the left fingers secretly turn the box over as your right hand replaces the lid. Another method is to rest the lid on the edge of the box on the table and in the act of replacing the lid and picking the box up, it is secretly turned over in a one hand movement.Fred Kaps did it this way.

Some magicians do this well but many fumble the move so that the spectator knows that “something” has happened. Using Dai Vernon’s expressed philosophy that all movements should be natural, Jack devised this beautifully simple and natural move to turn the box over without raising suspicion.

HANDLING

1. Place the Boston Box containing four coins to the left of your table just in front of your left hand. (In using the Boston Box a fifth coin is in the recess in the bottom).

2. The upturned lid is similarly placed in the same position just in front of your right hand. Both hands are palm down and relaxed.

3. Cross your hands, placing your left over the right in preparation to pick up the coin box and the lid.

4. The extended fingers of both hands momentarily cover the box and lid. Grasp the sides of the lid between your left thumb and fingers as your right hand simultaneously grips the box in the same manner.

5. Immediately uncross your hands and turn your right hand palm up to freely show the box. The box is held in a natural position and the audience see the single coin nested in the recessed bottom but everything appears normal. In this simple, natural movement you have turned the box over. 

6. Pivot the lid downward and place it on top of the box.

If you use a regular Okito Box, keep your right hand cupped or turned inward so that the spectator cannot see the solid brass bottom, then replace the lid as your hands pass each other.

This is a stunning move that has revolutionized the Okito Box routine for many magicians that was devised with a simplicity that was the hallmark of Jack Avis’s work. The move is described and illustrated in greater detail in a excellent book by Jack Avis called “Vis a Vis”, published by Richard Kaufman, Kaufman and Company, 4200 Wisconsin Avenue, NW,  Suite 106 – 292, Washington D.C. 20016, USA.

Filed under: Magic Ideas, Magic Thoughts