Dear Group
A few members have posted questions about this new product on this NG. I have one, a gift from the inventor, here is my impression and the routine I use.
First the add photo is not doctored, that is exactly what it looks like. It is a variation on Ring Flight. It is very effective. Now I have to admit that I have just begun to use it and can not answer questions about durability, but so far it has not failed. I use it at the Magical Empire on nights when I present 3 shows. We often do as many as five (or even six on really busy nights) and then I have to present a tighter show (30 minutes vs 35). The first time I presented it, I did something that I have never done before, I failed to check the borrowed ring which had a break in it. I have been doing Ring Flight and Linking Finger Rings for about 22 years and this was the first time I missed this. It was our opening night had I had not slept in two days, no excuse. So, I had to borrow a second ring and this slowed down the presentation. Even so, it got a great reaction which proved to me the worth of the effect.
Here is my presentation, since the prop was a gift to me, here is a gift for you.
I have to be vague because of the open line aspect of this NG. Anyone familiar with Ring Flight will understand. I walk into the audience with a female assistant who is carrying a wicker basket. I like the look of this and the easy access. I ask to borrow a ring from a member of the audience and I examine it. With the ring in my left hand I reach into the basket and produce an envelope. I step next to another member of the audience (or to the person who owns the ring when conditions are right) and openly place the ring into the envelope, my fingers being empty as they the envelope. As I am doing this I have the audience member grab the ring through the envelope and hold on. When it is the ring owner themself, this is very effective. I constantly ask if they are holding their or the ring. As they hold on to the ring through envelope, I lick the envelope shut. Again I ask if they have hold of their ring. Now I show a brandy snifter with a cut glass design so that you can see through it but not perfectly. I have another member of the audience hold this. At this point both my hands are empty and I pull back my jacket to show my back pant's pocket. I tell the audience that my key ring is there and I reach in and remove it and drop it in the glass. I do this openly and smoothly, making no big deal of it. I tell the person who is holding the glass to hold it high in the air so that I can not get near it. Now I tell the audience that the ring and the keys will change places, if this does not happen, the ring owner gets to keep my keys and the car they go to, a Porsche Targa. I now make a magical pass and say something in Latin like "Jacta est alea" (the die is cast) which sounds appropriate for Ceasar's Palace since he said it in the first place. Since I am in Las Vegas the quote has two meanings, much the same situtation as when the expression was originally said. This really impresses the one in a every one million or so audience members who actually took Latin and Roman history. For everyone else it merely proves what most of you already know, I am pretentous, but not as bad as Max Maven. Nothing happens, I instruct the person holding the envelope to open it a dump out the ring. It is my wedding band and I act upset and ask them how they got it. Again if the ring owner is holding the envelope this is very surprising since the smoothness of visibly dumping their ring into the envelope as they apparently catch it through the envelope is a very convincing move. Understand, they see their ring enter the envelope. I place my ring on my finger and tell them that I have been married for 23 years and that ring has never left my finger yet again. I tell them that I am sorry that their ring has vanished and that there is more bad news, I don't really own a Porsche Targa, I own a Yugo. Please no hate mail from Yugo owners, it sounds funny and " we never cut funny." I joke that it is called a Yugo because you go and it doesn't. I thought that joke up on my own, but somehow I am pretty sure that someone else said it before me. Again, please no hate mail, it's a joke or as close as I can get to a joke. Actually my favorite car is a VW Karmin Ghia. I am, after all, a Californian by birth and inclination. After the thunderous laughter as died, or the joke, I draw the audience's attention to the glass. I tell them to look closely and they will see that the borrowed ring is in the glass with my key ring. This gets applause. Now I say, "That is not the cool part", I reach into the basket and remove a chop stick and poke the stick into the glass as I say, "this is". Slowly I lift the key ring out of the glass with the chop stick and the borrowed ring is attached to the key ring. I move to the ring's owner, chop stick still holding the key ring, and have them affirm that their ring is attached to my key ring. I make a big show of disconnecting it and returning the ring to the owner.
That's it. If you own a ring flight, you understand what is going on. The routine however does not work with a ring flight because you can't be as open with it. I have three rings on the key ring and just keep my hand moving naturally. Done smoothly and with a natural grace, this really gets a great reaction.
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