Paper & Paper Money

Learn to braid two cards together. The four 'impossible' card sculptures consist of two cards each. Take two cards, cut and then braid them together. Ralf takes you step by step through each of the folds. You will also be able to download the templates for the four designs.

1st edition 2018, length 17 min

This is a close-up novelty that you can print yourself and which can be done anywhere at a moment's notice, a cute bar stunt with comedy, plus a touch of mystery. You can do it as a table trick, or in fact anywhere you can get an audience. An ideal pocket trick. Or you can print the provided sheet as large as you want and perform the trick for a larger audience or on a stage.

An illustrated square of paper is shown and the pictures of "City Slickers", "Susie" and "The Wolves" are described with amusing patter as the sheet is folded into a small package. With one single cut the folded paper...

Perhaps the best torn and restored bill effect the magical world has ever seen.

A magical inspiration that comes once in a blue moon. A sensation of the I.B.M. and S.A.M. conventions. After you've read the following effect, you'll say it's impossible. And so will your audience, when they see you perform this bill tear.

Effect: The performer reaches into his wallet and removes a dollar bill. To preclude the possibility of exchange or duplicates, the performer requests someone in the audience to mark the bill in any manner they wish. His hands are carefully shown to be empty. There is no...

Please note that this video is in Vietnamese, but the instructions to make the gimmick, and how to use it is perfectly understandable from the visual information alone.

Change a bill into a card. Easy gimmick. Easy to perform.

Obviously you need to use paper money that is compatible with the width of the cards you are using. Often bills can be trimmed slightly if they are too wide.

1st edition 2018, length 7 min 32 s

Get two of Ralf's incredible and impossible bill braids.

Years ago Robert E. Neale came up with his method on how the make an impossible gift out of a borrowed banknote using three strips and a few folds. Now it's time to bring this idea to the next level by using four strips! This makes the braided bill look even more impossible then before!

1. You could use almost any borrowed banknote or paper. (It does not work with Euros.)
2. Totaly impromptu.
3. No glue or hidden cuts. Make this impossible object right under the nose of the audience. Even if they look very close, they can't rebuild it.

Note: The folding technique of Robert E. Neale's version is totally different...

A full size sheet of newspaper is handed for examination; both the magician and a spectator sign their names on the front of the newspaper. Without adding anything, the newspaper is openly and deliberately torn-up with the audience plainly seeing the signatures being torn.

After the newspaper is torn into small pieces, the magician blows on the pieces. The rough edges of the paper are seen to get smooth, and upon opening the newspaper out, it is restored. But wait, only half the paper is there. The other half falls to the floor.

The audience thinks they are the torn pieces. The packet...

This charming act tells the story of the Willow Pattern plate design and the performer first shows how two sheets of ordinary newspaper have been glued together and pleated to make the basic paper fold. A variety of different figures is then produced by fanning, folding and twisting the pleated paper strip to illustrate the story of the Willow Pattern legend; they include a giant fan, double fan, bridge, pagoda door, sun, boat of dreams and twin stars. With a little practice, each figure flows into the next with almost magical effect and the complete routine is a good example of stage origami. ...

An original paper tearing trick described in the minutest detail.

Over a decade ago, THE WORLD'S FAIR offered a prize for the best list of really outstanding magical effects. The winner of the competition was Mr. Charles Harrison ("Rajah Khan") who, although he mentioned only nine items ... some of them being big illusions like Sawing Through a Woman and the Substitution Trunk ... included John Ramsay's Paper Tearing Trick in his List. - The World's Fair, 24th December 1938

• Foreword
• Rough Outline Of The Effect
• Requirements
• The Routine
• Afterword

1st edition 1949, 21 pages. PDF...

A streamlined version of Ray Grismer's Shorty Routine.

1st edition 2017, 4 pages.