Magic to Do

Oct 22, 2011
97
2
California
Hey ya'll. I'm involved in the theater program at my school and we are currently working on the musical "Pippin". The first number in the musical is a song called "Magic to Do" and not surprisingly there is a desire for there to be magic performed as we dance and sing. My theater director and I have been talking about the different things we could do and thus far there a few bouts with flash paper and fire and flowers and silks. There is a spot in the song where there is enough space to throw in a bigger illusion though and there I am fresh out of ideas because I do mostly close up stuff. Any suggestions? The illusion has to be done within a 45 seconds or so and to spark your creative juices there is a persistent theme of attempting to light the main character on fire the entire play so anything with fire would be cool. Any ideas are mos certainly welcome! Thanks
 
Jan 10, 2009
150
0
University Park PA
I'm not sure if this would work, but look up "handheld fireballs" on youtube, there are a bunch of tutorials to make them, you could have people playing with those on stage. (I know it's not a big illusion i'm just throwing around ideas.)

Edit: I'll look into it more later I've got work to finish up for class tomorrow.
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
I did Pipin when I was in High School and we borrowed from Broadway featuring a modified Broom Suspension. Unfortunately the one from Broadway isn't exactly practical in that it didn't work the same as the standard prop. To my knowledge only three such units exist and they are the provenance of John Danial and Carl Owen if I recall correctly. With this version there was a special worm-gear that came up through the stage that cause the lift of the actor into the classic positions associated with a standard broom illusion.

Another thing that was done was a very cool bit of Black Art. . . a "thread" (piece of chord) was used at the start for making a Castle appear from nowhere.

I tried to find video but it seems amiss. . . I believe it was William Kat that played Pippin however

Here's a few examples in which magic is used in the show, I can't find the broom suspension sequence but I believe it happens during "Extraordinary" (he's "working" the garden)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADeU6qz37B4

The Castle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbIjn66sTr0
starting @ 0:10:44 - 0:11:23

Hope this gives you some ideas.
 
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Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
Yeah that castle bit sounds pretty cool Craig. It seems like it would be a good way to get right into the world of "Pippin"
When I used to consult for theaters I had a few questions regarding "Pippin". With make-up and masks in theater it gives a lot of opportunity to do transportation type effects using body doubles. I seem to remember a box that makes some one disappear that is brought in near the end of the show. Would it be appropriate to make some one disappear at the beginning of the show with this box?

I hope that helps, I'm not quite as familiar with Pippin as I wish I was. I have yet to see it :)
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
Yeah that castle bit sounds pretty cool Craig. It seems like it would be a good way to get right into the world of "Pippin"
When I used to consult for theaters I had a few questions regarding "Pippin". With make-up and masks in theater it gives a lot of opportunity to do transportation type effects using body doubles. I seem to remember a box that makes some one disappear that is brought in near the end of the show. Would it be appropriate to make some one disappear at the beginning of the show with this box?

I hope that helps, I'm not quite as familiar with Pippin as I wish I was. I have yet to see it :)

I'm not quite certain what you mean. . . Transpositions -- causing someone to move from point A to B via magic -- are typically easy to pull off while a Double-Exchange (also viable given the masks and costumery used in this show) can prove a wee bit more complicated and yet, would pack a big wallop if staged properly; the mage "vanishing" from some point only to be revealed as one of the chief characters seen throughout the dance number -- deliberately in the spot light all the time. . . except for the brief second in which the swap is made.

One of the coolest transpositions I've ever read about and experimented with is known as the Chinese Pagoda Mystery featured in one of the earlier Abbott Catalogs; it used a tall but skinny oriental cabinet on one end of the stage with a short duplicate cabinet on the other end of the stage. The girl entered the tall cabinet which was slowly "crushed" and in the process, caused the little cabinet to grow until it was full sized. . . the girl stepping out unharmed. A piece of this style would be great for this play in that it can be executed relatively quick if needed.

While an expensive proposition the old Thurston-Sielbit Stretching would be quite cool for this opener as well. I have a less expensive variation that will be featured in an up-coming book that's quite cool -- same general effect without the huge cabinet and other headaches common to the illusion.
 

Josh Burch

Elite Member
Aug 11, 2011
2,966
1,101
Utah
I'm not quite certain what you mean. . . Transpositions -- causing someone to move from point A to B via magic -- are typically easy to pull off while a Double-Exchange (also viable given the masks and costumery used in this show) can prove a wee bit more complicated and yet, would pack a big wallop if staged properly; the mage "vanishing" from some point only to be revealed as one of the chief characters seen throughout the dance number -- deliberately in the spot light all the time. . . except for the brief second in which the swap is made.

Yeah, that's what I meant Craig. Sometimes an effect like this can be worked into an existing set. Where I'm not sure about their budget that seemed like a way to add a powerful effect without adding too much to build. I'm reminded of a production of "Cats" I once saw. They used their existing set and a body double so simulate their teleportations. Mr. Mistofolees would jump behind a garbage can and his double would jump up out from behind a pile of junk and so on. The down sides with this is it does take some coordination between choreography and costuming.

The Thurston stretch illusion is nice too. It's relativity simple in design, it can be performed quickly and it looks great.
 
Oct 22, 2011
97
2
California
The trick from the video where they levitate the person on the board supported by a box and swords would be an awesome addition to the show. What's the name of that illusion? And there is a box in the show at the end which is intended to trap and kill Pippin through burning him alive. So the Pagoda Mystery might be a cool thing to throw in there to foreshadow the inevitable. How hard would it be to set up and perform one of these transpositions or the stretching illusion y'all are talking about? Where can I go to learn these various illusions?
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
The trick from the video where they levitate the person on the board supported by a box and swords would be an awesome addition to the show. What's the name of that illusion? And there is a box in the show at the end which is intended to trap and kill Pippin through burning him alive. So the Pagoda Mystery might be a cool thing to throw in there to foreshadow the inevitable. How hard would it be to set up and perform one of these transpositions or the stretching illusion y'all are talking about? Where can I go to learn these various illusions?

The levitation is known as a Flying Carpet, popular kid's show illusion and relatively simple to make HINT: look at the levi in the Mark Wilson Course and then think about what you see on the video, I'll bet you can figure it out. Thing is, you could probably buy one for about what it would cost to make these days.

The Pagodas are wonderful but there are no known copies to the plans. I've been corresponding with Abbott's and people at Owen Brothers and we simply can't find any building plans outside what I've toyed around with. It is a very complex thing to build however and could prove costly, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you get to keep the thing to use in your own shows. There are alternative Transposition bits however, including a simplified variation to the Pagodas (PM me if you want to work on any of these things, I'm glad to help)
 
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