Best Thumper

Why don't you get This is Mentalism, or 13 steps to mentalism or something like that and actually try studying magic for once instead of looking at what your favorite <insert magicians name here> is doing and trying to copy him? Quit trying to find the short cuts, you'll be thankful you didn't in the future.

A thumper is an expensive toy... there is SO much more things you can do with a swami gimmick, and twice as impromptu at a third of the cost.
 
Aug 14, 2010
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I'm not trying to copy or find shortcuts. I'm only aiming for the best way that I believe.
 
Nov 27, 2009
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Draven's right. I've read all the magic books I could get my hands on. I've also seen more than a few DVD's. The ideas, concepts and principles contained in that material are invaluable things that I couldn't have learned anywhere else. I have to give you props for aiming for the best, but aiming for the best is better done the best way possible, and I think my fellow t11 members will agree that books and DVD's are invaluable resources to finding the best possible method for an effect. Keep aiming high, but before you go buy a gimmick that does a limited number of things, find books that cover related topics and learn the principles behind the gimmick and apply them to your own effects. I think you will find that you are much happier with your effects, and can go much farther than you could have with a gimmick. It also may end up saving you a lot of money.
 
I thought that I did. He's not using a thumper. Other than that I would recommend you contact the manufactures of the thumpers you're looking at buying, and ask them the questions you want to know about their product. I don't think many people here have experience using them.
 
Aug 14, 2010
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Thanks Draven! I'll ask contact the manufactures now. Just curious, how are you sure he's not using a thumper?
 
Dec 18, 2007
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Northampton, MA - USA
You lost me when I saw Criss Angel's face on the video. . . BUT, everyone here is correct, there are other ways and most are elementary. If one were to actually STUDY Magic/Mentalism they would never have to buy another prop (so long as they were good craftsmen) you can either replicate or even deliver a better version to the original concept if you sit down and actually learn about magic vs. chasing all the stuff you see done on Tv or the latest in hyped junk that's come to market.

The first time I saw a Chuck Jones MisMade Lady I couldn't understand why it worked as it did, the one I came up with worked in an entirely different way which didn't catch on until years later. Yet, I was totally dumbfounded by the effect when I saw Henning do it the first time. The difference is, I had a bit of knowledge about grand illusions and figured a means by which to do it. . . when I was about 16 years old. . . go figure.

I could go down the list on other effects I've done this same thing with over the years and I know card guys that do the same with card effects they see and like. But here's the more important thing to contemplate; Why Do You Want to Mimic Another Performer? Why Don't You Have the Integrity and Self-Confidence to be Your Own Person -- Your Own Over-all Essence?

Every era has its clones which become frustrated as the result of low pay and lack of respect. . . I know, I fit that niche once for a very short while as have most that come into magic; we emulate those that inspire us. The catch is, we end us not being ORIGINAL and this is what relegates us to the dredges and keeps us from getting the better paying gigs and the level of recognition we think we deserve. The reason Angel & Blaine stuck out originally, is that they both presented magic in ways the general public had not previously seen or were familiar with; for twenty some years Copperfield and those two guys at the Mirage in Vegas (what were their names? Sigmund & Freud? ) they were the standards that everyone knew in the general consumer market not Mike Ammar or even Lance Burton, who was already headlining in Vegas. Even a legendary name like Blackstone, had become "secondary" in the sense that Copperfield and S&R had changed magic in dynamic ways. These other guys still worked and still earned above average money however, because they were different -- they were a draw and not another clone act.

BTW... when it comes to "Clone Acts" the best known of all were the "Chevez School" acts; Chevez was the premier school of traditional magic based in L.A. and responsible for hundreds of Channing Pollock styled reproductions that came onto the stage from the late 1950s and into the mid-1970s. This is the school from which Niel Foster, Norm Nielson and Dale Salwak came and of the sort this industry really could benefit from again, though it would need a major up-grade.
 
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