Silks & Flags in Magic & Mentalism: page 1

You always have a handkerchief.....! Here's how to have fun with it, anywhere, any time, any place, with kids, or with adults. If you don't have a handkerchief, borrow one - or use the restaurant napkin. With a flip of the handkerchief, make the Bunny That Eats, The Little Hindu, Miss Fatima, Dr. Finkle's wonderful and lively Mouse, Handkerchief Chapeaugraphy, Melodrama with a Handkerchief, and other clever bits and pieces that will make you the talk of the town.

• Introduction
• Part One: Gags, Catches, Nonsense
  • The Ghost
  • A Gag
  • Character Reading
  • Burned Up
  • Grandma Face
  • The Jumping Handkerchief ...

Do not confuse this with Blackstone's Dancing Handkerchief. This method does not have to be done on stage and requires no assistants like the Blackstone version does.

Borrow a handkerchief and a hat or use your own. Tie a knot into the handkerchief and toss into the empty hat. In a few seconds, the handkerchief peeks out of the hat and jumps into your hands. Place the handkerchief on the floor and it stands straight up by itself and starts dancing around. It jumps into your hands and then floats between your outstretched hands. The magician can even walk into the audience with the handkerchief floating...

Originally titled Miscellaneous Handkerchief Tricks.

Here's an exciting look-behind-the-counter of the local magic dealer to examine many beautiful silk and handkerchief effects. You'll learn vanishes, appearances, color changes, transpositions, solid thru solid and more. Several utility devices are explained and illustrated, as well.

This is more than a "tell all" book, as DeLawrence also includes an entertaining, 15-minute silk act that uses the very effects described.

Silks and scarves add color and glamour to any magic routine. Audiences will fall in love with your presentation...

You will learn two effects:

• The Alien (see performance video below)
• Fantasy Coins: materialize a coin chosen by the spectator (self-working coin routine as long as you can finger-palm a coin in each hand)

1st edition 2016, 4 pages

Stage magician Joe Ovette reveals the inner workings of his famous silk act in this 77-page ebook. You'll find productions, vanishes, color changes and more here. There's sure to be something here that you will use.

Not content merely to divulge the methods of the individual effects, Ovette goes on to provide several professional secrets that are worth $20 each to any working pro. You'll find ways to double the size of your silk production without increasing to cost; how to remove wrinkles from your silks without using an iron; a do-it-yourself vanisher that's superior to ones you can buy;...

Steve is a simplified and totally organic animated silk suitable for all lighting conditions, indoors or out. The easy to build and easy to operate gimmick allows you to bring any silk 12" or larger to life. Carry this in your pocket and you are ready to go at all times. Great as a quick "hey check this out" between routines or with some creativity, a featured animation perfect for all performing situations. Steve is so easy and fun you will catch yourself passing your free time with "Steve" in hand!

1st edition 2016, 10 pages.

A fairly forgotten classic turned into a beautiful performance piece for any group. Includes the script, full instructions, and a performance video.

One of the more difficult tasks facing magicians is coming up with scripts - of any sort. How do you explain to an audience in a reasonable manner how and why this fabulous magic is happening?

Well, the author of How To Write A Script shows you how he used his methodology to write a script that successfully explains...in a bare minimum of script...the Sympathetic Silks.

Part of the scripts' charm is that the audience sees a trick performed in just FOUR words. ...

From the introduction:

• The Brassiere ...

The Jap Box or "Japanese Handkerchief Box" is a simple rectangular box without a lid and a removable bottom. The bottom has a hole in the center to facility its removal from the rest of the box. The basic effect is that the box is shown empty by showing it from all sides as well as removing the bottom. Then the bottom is replaced and silks appear in the box.

Producing silks is just the very beginning of possibilities with this prop. This ebook describes many other things that can be done with the basic version of the Jap Box. It is unclear where this trick originated. It is believed that...

Performer borrows a white handkerchief in order to show them a trick with a 'needle and thread'. He then produces the needle and has a spectator thread it with a piece of rope. He then pushes the needle thru the center of the handkerchief and pulls the 'thread' thru after it. This leaves a jagged hole which he trims with a pair of scissors. Handkerchief is finally shown undamaged.

1st edition 1974; 1st digital edition 2015, 3 pages, 20 illustrations.

Here Marconick demonstrates many of his signature pieces with silk and some billiard ball manipulation, rope magic and cigarette magic.

• Silks vanish from cage ball. (Silken Bombshell, see Gen Volume 21 page 322)
• Four billiard balls from silk.
• Two purple silks are knotted on a rope. A third yellow silk appears knotted on the rope.
• Cigarette manipulation with a magical way to light a cigarette.
• Five billiard balls from silk.
• Yellow silk appears knotted between a green and a blue silk.
• Splitting a silk in two.
• Four white billiard balls from silk twice.
• Silk vanishes and reappears knotted on a rope. ...

A world famous silk magician designed this beautiful finale to his show. Based on the use of a tube like a Phantom Tube, these clever and subtle methods create a great act. Anyone interested in silk work can make up the act and do it. Many clear sketches, photos, careful explanations teach you how.

• To Dorny...
• Prelude
• Preface
• How it all began . . .
• Audience eye view
• Frightening imitators
• Scientific loading
• The gimmicks
• The box
• The "suitcase" prop
• Switching tubes
• The soup ladles
• How to load
• Concealment
• Count down!
• Note to reader
• Author!

1st edition 1962, 64 pages; 1st digital...

This is a silent film produced by Harry Stanley's Unique Magic Studio. It features Marconick performing some of his feature items with silks and rope. Marconick was primarily known for his creative work with silks. His vanish of silks from a cage ball is very pretty.

• Silk to cane
• Several silks vanish from a cage ball (Silken Bombshell, see Gen Volume 21 page 322)
• Cup of water from silk
• Water from paper cone to glass
• Selected card appears knotted on rope
• Rope through neck
• Rope and ring
• Silk production from larger silk
• Silk to rope
• Another silk production where the silks change how they are knotted...

Alberto Sitta specializes in commercial magic that you can use in your stage, cabaret and close-up shows. His Leopard Silk is perhaps his most famous effect and has been performed and copied by magicians all over the world. In this ebook Alberto reveals more of the mysteries that have gained him a reputation as one of Italy's most creative performers.

There are no pipe dreams here. All the magic has been regularly used by Alberto Sitta in his professional performances and lectures throughout Europe. Practical, colorful and commercial these are the hallmarks of Sitta's creations and here are...

A novel and flashy effect that your audience hasn't seen before. This was a limited release a few years ago. Now you can make it up yourself in less than an hour, using items found in most of the larger box stores. NO TOOLS of any kind required to assemble!

Effect: The performer shows a metal bowl to be empty. He then puts in three large handfuls of different colored sands, red, blue, and yellow; saying from these base colors, all colors can be made. Magician then pours a quart of water into the bowl and mixes the sand and water with a wooden chopstick. He takes the stick and begins to fling...

Five original performance tested routines:

• Triple Ring-Silk Penetration
• Impossible Floating Handkerchief
• Devil's Own Knife-Cut Ribbon
• Multi-Cut Paper Strip
• Master Silk Through Ropes

1st edition 1947; original 14 pages; PDF 16 pages.

A close-up version of the famed Dancing Handkerchief routine used by many stage magicians. A miniature handkerchief jumps out of a small container, dances, bounces around and walks across a magic wand before going back into it's jewel box. The entire routine happens in your hands while standing.

You will learn the secrets of Peki's invisible thread that makes it much more invisible than other threads even in close up instances where viewers are only a few inches away from the action.

Professionally dubbed into English from German.

runtime: 13min 33s

Table of Contents

3. Content
4. Candle Flame Production
4. The Sleeve Production
4. Production from the Wand
5. Thumb Tip Vanish
5. The Sugar Bag
6. The Phoenix Handkerchief
6. The Vanishing Handkerchief
7. The Dyed Handkerchiefs
9. The Colour Changing Handkerchief
9. The Self-Knotting Handkerchief
11. Check Mate
13. The Blended Handkerchiefs
14. A Trick With A Tube
16. The Sympathetic Silk Handkerchiefs
20. Mr. Green and Miss Brown
22. The Unfortunate Sunshade

1st edition 1931; 26 pages.

A very commercial routine where all is in the delivery and the script. Martin starts with a lovely Ping Pong ball gag. The main effect is the classic push a white handkerchief into your fist and pull out a red one. The method should be clear to everybody even though Martin will explain the basic mechanism and move. What you learn here are the lines and little bits of business that make this a commercial routine.

runtime: 6min 16s

Effect: Performer shows a yellow 9” silk. Spectator is asked to sign the silk for future identification. Performer says that he will vanish the silk with the spectator's help. Something goes "wrong" and the silk does not vanish, instead it changes to a yellow balloon.

A second spectator is called to help to vanish the yellow balloon. Something goes "wrong" once again. The balloon has changed from yellow to red. Performer proceeds to inflate the red balloon and burst it with a knife, revealing that the yellow balloon was inside. The yellow balloon is inflated in the same way and burst...

Colorful, visual magic - certainly The Sympathetic Silks is a real classic of effects with silk. Performed by most of the old top-of-the-bill magicians on the variety stages around the world, it can be just as big a hit today as it was then. From a program dated 1926, we see that Houdini performed it in his full evening show - he often declared that this was his favorite trick. Chris Charlton opened his show with it; Cecil Lyle featured it; Jane Thurston performed it beautifully in her spot in the Thurston Show and it was certainly a masterpiece in the hands of Horace Goldin.

This was part of the...

Slydini used to open his stage act with this routine.

Slydini's Production Silks is a routine he cared deeply about. This is an opening stage effect. (He used to say: "If you wait too long the silks will get stale".) The magician shows his hands empty then picks up a silk from the seat of a chair. The silk is displayed and placed on the back of the chair. The magician reaches into the air and produces a second silk, which is also placed on the back of the chair. Two more silks are produced from the air and then all four silks are picked up. These silks multiply into a beautiful 'fountain...

Dennis writes:

You will find 143 magnificent and entertaining uses of silks and handkerchiefs. Sleights, tricks, and the famous Stillwell Silk Act are explained in detail with 90 illustrations. Jean Hugard details vanishing methods, production techniques, color changes, knots, and flourishes. He also describes how to care for your silks to keep them in great shape for a long time.

Paul Fleming wrote: