Five insubordinate pieces

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Effect:Two books are displayed. A spectator is encouraged to choose one of them,and it is a free choice. The selected book is opened at a random spot, and thespectator is asked to think on a word.Curiously, it is shown that both the word, and the choice of book, was pre-dicted.

Method:You need two books. Paperbacks. Let’s say that they are:A: “Contact” by Carl Sagan.B: “Neverwhere” by Niel Gaiman

You also need two bookmarks made of cardboard (about the same thicknessas business cards), in the size 5 x 12 centimeters (about 2 x 5 inches).

Open both books somewhere in the middle. Try to find a spot in each bookwhere the first word on the left page is easy to remember.

On one of the bookmarks, you write the title of the first book, and the firstword from the opened left page. Something like: -”You picked ‘Contact’, andthe word you are thinking of is ‘Cargo’.”

On the second bookmark, you write the title and the word from the otherbook. (Fig. 1).

And now the sneaky part: Put bookmark A into book B (Fig. 2), and book-mark B in book A. Close both books.

And now the performance: Bring out the two books and mention that yourecently bought them, and that you’ve only have started reading one of them.

Let a spectator choose one of the books, and emphasize that it is a free choice- the book that is selected is the one that is going to be used.

No matter which book is chosen, you say: -”Ah, exciting! I haven’t read thatone yet.” Put the other book on the table.

Siamese Booktest

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Take the selected book in your left hand, the backside of the book facing thespectator, and ask the spectator to say “Stop” while you riffle through thebook with your left thumb (Fig. 3).

What happens is that you do a very easy riffle force. Thanks to the bookmark,you’ll get a natural ‘stop’ in the flow of the riffle. All you have to do is toadjust the pace of the riffle, and time it so the ‘stop’ occurs at the samemoment that the spectator says “Stop”.

Let the spectator remember the first word at the top of the partially exposedleft page. Close the book and put it aside.

Point at the other book and say: -”I mentioned that I’m currently readingthat book. Here’s the strange thing - earlier today, as I was reading, I got astrange impulse to write down a message. A message that I didn’t quite under-stand. I didn’t have a paper, so I wrote it down on the bookmark. Take it outand see if the message makes any sense to you?”

The spectator takes out the bookmark from the book on the table, and findsthat both his choice of book and the word he is thinking of has been writtenon the bookmark. And as the impossibility strikes him, he hear you hum thetheme from “The Twilight Zone”.

Credits:Using a business card etc. to create a natural ‘stop’ for a riffle force with abook is something I came up with as a teenager. But it didn’t take long beforeI discovered that several others had thought of the same idea long before me.Unfortunately, I do not remember to whom the credits should go to, andbrowsing through my small library has provided no clues. So at this point, Ican only say that the idea isn’t mine. Sorry.

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Deserting the LegionWritten and Illustrated by Tom Stone.

All rights reservedCopyright © 2004

Email: tom.stone@swipnet.se

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This is Tomas’ extension to the Christ Force, which allows him to forcetwo cards. The only thing I myself have provided to it, is a tiny change inhandling that streamlines the process.

You need to get into the position shown in Fig. 1. The cards indicated witharrows are the force cards. Turn the deck over, and everything will look asnormal. You can flash both sides of the deck if you like.

Place the deck, in this condition, in the hands of a spectator (Fig. 2).Ask him to bring the deck behind his back (or underneath the table), and tofollow your instructions:

-”Take a small pile from the top, less than half of the deck, and turn itupside down and then replace this pile on top of the deck.Turn the whole deck over, and repeat the same thing again: Take a smallpile and reverse it on top of the deck.Bring the deck back and place it on the table.”

The spectator does as instructed. Now, make sure that the spectator under-stand that his actions has caused the top and bottom part of the deck to bereversed, and that the whole configuration would have been different if hehad cut a few more, or a few less, cards while the deck was behind his back.

Spread the deck. (Fig. 3). Point at the first and last of the face down cards,and ask the spectator to slide them out of the deck. These are the forcecards.

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Double ChristTomas Blomberg

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Ever since I first read The Secrets of Brother John Hamman(Kaufman, 1989) I have been fascinated by the effect “The SignedCard”. In this effect a spectator holds a unknown card. Another card

is selected and signed. The signed card disappear. Even though the unknowncard has been held by a spectator the whole time, it is shown to be the signedcard.

Unfortunately, it seems like only people who are trained to watch cardtricks can appreciate the effect, in other words, only magicians and to someextent, their families and friends. When performing the effect for someonewho has never seen a card trick before, one (or at least, I) get almost noreaction at all, when one would get a standing ovation for Card to Wallet.This is odd since both are in the same genre (signed card to impossible loca-tion). It is obvious that some part of the structure of the Signed Card is toocomplicated.Since 1990 I have tried to analyze the problem. I soon realized that theonly possible logical solution a rational spectator can arrive to, is that theunknown card is switched, somehow, for the signed card. This is sadly thecorrect answer.

To make the effect stronger I decided that something of the following wasnecessary:• Either invent a new extremely deceptive switch......or use a standard switch, but find a way to “prove” that no switch couldhave been done; for example by having a identifying mark on the “mystery”card.• Make the vanish of the signed card easier to understand.• Decrease the number of “important” cards, or groups of cards, in the plot.The aces in Hamman’s original effect might cause confusion. • If possible, get some time-misdirection between the switch and the revela-tion.

The effect described here is the tenth version I have developed since I firststarted to think about how to make The Signed Card work for laymen.

PreparationYou need a deck with two identical Jokers and a paper clip.Put one of the jokers in your pocket, or if you want to skip the preparation,palm the joker from the deck and pretend to take it from the pocket as youbegin the effect.

Method:Bring out the joker, without showing its face, from the pocket and refer toit as a “Witchcraft card”. Tell the audience that strange things will happenif you don’t bind its powers. To do that, you say, you need to put it inirons. Ask the spectators if anyone have brought shackles, or somethingsimilar, made of cold steel.

When it becomes apparent that every-body has “forgotten” to bring the coldsteel, tell them, “Hmph, you wouldn’tsurvive for five minutes in the company

of witches!” Look around and “find” thepaper clip, “Well, I hope that this will be

sufficient!” Put the paper clip onto thecentre of the card’s left side (Fig.

1). Place the card on the table, toyour left, and ask a spectator tokeep an eye on it.

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Occhamman Now!

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Now, you can either do a couple of other tricks or continue with this effectdirectly.Look through the deck as you say that you don’t need the jokers. Upjog thejoker and transfer it to the top. Upjog a indifferent card also, as if it werethe second joker, and transfer it too to the top. Turn the deck face downinto left hand’s dealing position. Spread the two top cards into your righthand’s Biddle Grip.Show the two cards as two jokers by using Hamman’s Flushtration Count,i.e. turn your right hand palm up and flash the joker (Fig. 2). Turn thehand palm down again and slide the top card (this is the indifferent card)onto the deck, using the left thumb. Turn your right hand palm up andflash the joker a second time. Turn the hand palm down and put the jokeron top of the deck in your left hand. Pretend to take the two cards withyour right hand again, but in reality you only take the top, single joker.Place the joker, as if it were two cards, on the table close to yourself . Toprevent anyone from discovering that there is only one joker, you immedi-ately lean forward and ask a spectator to your right to shuffle the deck,thereby obscuring the view.

After the deck has been shuffled, you take it and spread it face downbetween your hands. You will now let the spectator on your right select acard (Fig. 3). Here you will use the method described in Daryl’s “The Out-of-Body Experience” (page 62-67, For your Entertainment Pleasure, S.Minch, 1982). This is Daryl’s variation of Frank Simon’s handling ofMarlo’s Convincing Control. After this control, the spectator believes thathis selected card is outjogged in the centre of the deck, but it is really at thebottom of the deck in a sort of gambler’s cop.Take the deck in your right hand, but leave the palmed card (Fig. 4). Youwill now simultaneously move your hands in two different directions; theright hand moves towards the spectator on your right side. At the sametime you move your left hand towards yourself. Drop the palmed, signedcard on top of the tabled joker as you ask the spectator to push the out-

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jogged card into the deck (Fig. 5). As soon as the card is flush with thedeck, you drop it onto the table and ask the spectator to place his hand ontop of it. It is probably a good idea to causally show your hands empty atthis point (Fig. 6).Tell the spectator that, even if it is hard to believe, you actually counted thecards above his selected card. As you have said that, pretend to see some-thing to your left and do a double-take, “What was that!!?” Turn towardthe spectator that you appointed to watch the “Witchcraft” card, “Did thatcard move just now?” Not satisfied with the spectators answer, you say,“Well, it seems like we have to guard the Witchcraft card a bit better. Wecan use these as guardians... ” As you say this, you pick up the jokers (actu-ally the signed card on top of a joker) and causally show them as jokers, usingthe Flushtration count again, ending with the two cards in the left hand.Take the bottom card (the signed card) in your right hand. Sandwich the“Witchcraft card” by placing the right hand’s card underneath and the lefthand’s card on top (Fig. 7). Lift the three cards. You will now execute aswitch that has to be done smoothly. The cards are in the position shown inFig. 8.

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With your right thumb you pull the centre card to the right and the rightfingers pushes the bottom card to the left. As the cards slide past oneanother, the paper clip will automatically transfer itself from the centre card(a joker) onto the bottom card (the signed card) (Fig. 9). In the same conti-nous movement you use the two bottom cards to flip the top card over,bringing it to the bottom of the cards (Fig. 10). Continue by turning thenew top card face up (Fig. 11). Place the cards back on the table in thiscondition and turn towards the spectator on your right side again and con-tinue, “I counted the cards above your card, so I know that your card are23 cards down in the deck. I will try to make it penetrate upwards throughthe deck...Yes! It is now 22 cards down... 21... 18, 17...10...6,5,4,3,2...your card is now on top of the deck!” Ask the spectator to turn the top cardover, as you move closer to the spectator and away from the “WitchcraftCard”. The selected card is not on top. You turn over all the cards, bunchby bunch. When it becomes apparent that the signed card is nowhere to befound, look puzzled for a few seconds, then turn toward the spectator thathas kept an eye on the “Witchcraft Card” and ask him/her to turn the cardover. Be surprised when the “Witchcraft card” turns out to be the signedcard. Conclude by saying that the paper clip is probably not made of coldsteel, otherwise this would have been impossible.

Credits:The paper clip switch is a combination of a variant of Hamman’s originalSigned Card switch and an idea from Total Involvement by Rick Johnsson& Jerry Mentzer (page 143, Card Cavalcade 3, Jerry Mentzer, 1975).

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Effect:The cap is removed from a pen.The cap is removed from a pen.

Method:You need two identical pens with caps. Cut off the tip of one pen, and fillthe hollow part of the tip with epoxy glue. Sand the thick end of the tipflat, and put a dab of wax there. The blunt end of the other pen should alsobe sanded flat. All the parts are shown in Fig. 1.

Attach the false tip to the blunt end of the pen, and cover it with a pen cap,and you are set to go.

Instead of making a pen like this, you can use a prop that is commerciallyavailable called “Doug Edward’s Wonder-Pen-A-Tration”. That is whatJonas himself uses these days.

Bring the pen out with your right hand, while hiding the real pen tip insidethe hand (Fig. 2), and ask: -”Have you ever heard about Déjà Vu?”

Look down on the pen cap. Pull the cap off, so that the false tip becomesvisible. Place the cap over the real pen tip (Fig. 3), reposition the pen sothat it is held in a normal writing position (Fig. 4), and look up to see ifanyone has an answer to your question.

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Déjà Vu PenJonas Ljung

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Wax

Turn towards another person, as if you are going to ask something, and atthe same time, you extend the right hand’s little and third finger whichclips the false tip (Fig. 5). Curl the fingers back into the hand again, so thatthe false tip is pulled off the pen. And at the same time, the pen is swiveledaround so that the cap is pointing towards left (Fig. 6)

Say: -”Have you ever heard about Déjà Vu?”, and go back to an identicalposition as when you asked the question the first time. Look down at thepen cap. Pull it off, so that the real tip becomes visible (Fig. 7).

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I ’ that the magic literature brims with good parlour effectsin the manipulation genre. Therefore, it’s a bit odd that Dai Vernon’s“Ball and Cone” (p.197, Dai Vernon’s Book of Magic) is almost never seen

performed - even though the props are few and simple; a conic cylinder anda couple of balls. Not to mention that the props are quite aesthetic in a min-imalistic sense.

Even though different versions of “Ball and Cone” have been published, Ifind it surprising that almost all routines I’ve come across, even the ones forstage, are so strongly based on Dai Vernon’s close-up version; a cut-down ver-sion that was put together to be able to perform parts of the routine in almostimpromptu situations. The version that contains very few of the goodies ofthe original routine as described on page 22 in the Book of Magic. Go aheadand look it up.

Since the creations of Dai Vernon are extremely well documented, it is a bitstrange that the routine above isn’t documented in detail anywhere. There arecertainly interesting questions and thoughts about the methodology. Howwas the salt shaker loaded? To put the cone on the head was an interestingsolution to the table problem, though somewhat restricted to the Harlekinoutfit. But even though none of all these questions can be answered now, thedescription on p. 22 tell us that there are plenty of other things that can bedone with the cone, than just repeating the Basic Sleight over and over.

Ideally, after an introduction like this, I would now give you the final wordin the field of “Ball and Cone”. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happenhere, as my work on this topic isn’t finished yet.Since I started playing around with this effect in 1994, I’ve come up with acouple of interesting ideas, but there is still a lot of room for more innova-tions and improvements. And I still lack a working dramatic plot to use as afoundation for a routine. But perhaps I will trigger a creative spark in you, ifI describe a couple of the ideas I’ve come up with so far?

To make it easier to read, I’ve stringed the different ideas together into a kindof makeshift routine. As you will notice, I’ve done away with the handker-chief, as I’ve always found its inclusion to be confusing. I couldn’t come upwith any ideas at all until I decided to get rid of it.I’ve also got rid of the need for a table.

But before getting into the routine, let’s take a look at the props.

I use a cone made of rather thick and stiff leather that will keep its shape evenwhen handled carelessly. Figure A show a schematic drawing of it, withapproximate measurements. I made it myself out of a piece of 2.5 - 3 mil-limeter thick leather that I cut out, using a cardboard template.I joined the piece together into a cone by cutting diagonally through theleather where the seam would be, to get a larger area to spread the leather glueon, and then I affixed the seam together.This was quite messy and awkward,as I didn’t have any other tools thana carpet knife and a tube of leatherglue. Had I done a new cone today, Iwould let someone make me a coneof wood, and then I would experi-ment with building a cone around it,perhaps in several layers of thinnermaterial.

When a ball is put into the cone, andpressed up into it, it should be somespace between the lower edge of theball and the opening of the cone. Ioriginally designed the cone for 5-centimeter balls, where it was 2.5centimeter space between the balland the opening. But I have sincethen started to use 4.5-centimeterballs instead, so now there is a spaceof about 4 centimeters between theball and the opening, and I find thisto be very comfortable.

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Conic Relief

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The hole at the top of the cone should be at least 2 centimeters indiameter, so a ball can be placed on top of the cone. The color ofthe cone should be dark, but avoid black if you yourself aredressed in black.

The balls I’m using are made out of silicone, but rubber ballswork just as fine. In Vernon’s routine, he use 5 centimeter balls,but I recommend a slightly smaller size: 4 - 4.5 centimeter,otherwise you have to restrict your movements moreto avoid exposing palmed balls.For the following routine, you need 2white balls and one red (Fig. B)

To handle a final load, I’ve made a specialholder inspired by Tommy Wonder’s shoulder harnessin his “The Ring, the Watch and the Wallet”. Sewn to the harness, on myleft side, is a tube of elastic material. What I use is something that I found ina store for fabric and sewing supplies, but a cut-off sock would probably workjust as fine. Any load that fits the cone can be put into this holder. In thiscase, we’ll use a light bulb (Fig. C).

Also, a Topit will be useful.

In your right pocket you place onewhite ball and the red ball.The remaining white ballis inside the cone,which is mouthupwards in your caseon your right side(or where you haveyour props). Now,let’s get started!

- The Cone as a Hold-outIt is fairly well known that you can keep a ball stuck inside the cone bysqueezing the sides of the cone. We’ll make use of that for a surprising pro-duction of the ball.Reach down in your case with your right hand and take the cone. Squeezethe sides of the cone, so the ball doesn’t fall out as you take the cone, with themouth down, out of the case. Let the palm of the right hand be seen. You willnow transfer the cone to the left hand. Swing the right arm to the left, andas soon as the right palm is out of view, let the ball drop down to be palmed(Fig. 1). The left hand takes the cone and displays its inside, while the righthand pulls up the left sleeve (Fig. 2).

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Transfer the cone back to the left hand again, and let the ball roll inside thecone, as the left hand pulls the right sleeve up (Fig. 3 and 4).All this is done in a carefree manner, as if nothing has started yet.With your left hand, take a hold of the cone with the fingers around themouth of the cone, as shown in Fig. 5. Lift the cone up, and turn slightly toyour left (Fig. 6), while keeping the ball inside by squeezing the sides of thecone. As this is done, put your focus on the top of the cone, as if you aregoing to do something magical.

Show your right palm empty, then move the right hand up to block the spec-tators view of the top of the cone (Fig. 7). Wiggle your fingers, like you’retrying to get something to happen on top of the cone. Relax, and let the righthand drop down a little, as if you are checking if something has happened yet(Fig. 8), and in this moment, ease the pressure of the cone with your left fin-gers so that the ball falls down and the right hand palms it (Fig. 9).Move your right hand up again, and wiggle your fingers again. Relax and pullthe hand against you, so the top is seen again. Nothing has happened yet.Move the hand back again, but this time the palmed ball is placed on top ofthe cone (Fig. 10). Wiggle your fingers a third time, then pull the right handback to show that a ball has appeared from nowhere (Fig. 11).

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- The Cone as a ServanteIf all the focus is on the ball, you can use the cone as a belly servante. It’s quitebold, but try it and see how it feels. After you’ve tried this, take a look atSlydini’s lapping techniques, and see if any of those can be adapted.

Lift the ball from the top of the cone by scissoring the first and second fin-ger of the right hand around the top of the cone (Fig. 12). Maintain all focuson the ball while moving the right hand over to the right. At the same time,the left hand sticks the cone into top of your pants, as if you don’t need thecone anymore (Fig. 13).Strengthen the interest in the ball by performing some open ball manipula-tions. Choose any kind of manipulation you feel comfortable with, likerolling the ball between the fingers etc. I use the one where it seems like theball slowly rolls forward, over the top of the finger tips, and slowly backagainst the underside of the palm and into the fork of the thumb (fig. 14).Pretend to put the ball into your left hand (Fig. 15 and 16), but palm itinstead. And as the left hand is moved upward a bit, the right hand falls backand drops the palmed ball into the cone (Fig. 17).Lean slightly forward and move your right hand up to cover the left hand.Pretend to squeeze the ball together, then slowly open your fingers. Mentallyimagine that the ball has disintegrated into small glittery particles which isnow slowly scattered by the wind. Follow these particles with your eyes for alittle while.

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- CombinationsThere’s nothing that says that you can’t use other techniques in combinationwith the Ball and Cone. Reels, pulls, gravity holdouts, pendulum holdoutsetc. etc. In this example, we’ll use a Topit.

You’ve just (mentally) seen the ball dissolve into a dissipating cloud of parti-cles. It was beautiful, but now you stand there without a ball. What to do?Perhaps you have another ball?Tap the outside of your right pocket (Fig. 18). There’s something in it! Putyour right hand in the pocket, and as the ball is brought out, the left handtakes the cone from the pants, so it end up with the mouth down on yourleft palm (Fig. 19).Bounce the ball against the floor (or toss it into the air) and catch it. Then,with a wind-up movement, pretend to toss the ball towards the cone (Fig. 20and 21), but in reality, you let the ball roll off the fingers and into the Topitduring the right hand’s upwards move (Fig. 20). Study Bob Fitch’s “ThePsychological Spheres” in Michael Ammar’s Topit Book for details on this.Lift the cone to reveal the ball (Fig. 22)

- Vernon’s Basic SleightThis is the main move in Vernon’s routine, and it is described in great detailin Dai Vernon’s Book of Magic. This is a book that you should own - there-fore I’ll just describe the bare bones of the move, and then you can study therefined details in the original description.

The ball is resting on the fingers of the left hand. The right hand comes upwith the cone, in front of the ball, with the top of the cone pointing towardsthe audience (Fig. 23). The bottom of the mouth’s rim is placed on the rightfingertips. The right hand now pivots the cone to an upright position, overthe ball. But as that is done, the left fingers make a tiny “wave” causing theball to roll to the right, and into a right hand classic palm. The left little fin-ger aids the ball to be pressed into position (Fig. 24). When the cone is infully upright position, before the hands part, the left little finger is broughtback to its original position again.

Raise the left hand a little bit, and keep your focus on it, while you let theright hand relax and drop down to waist level. Stare intensivly at the cone.

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Then, briefly, raise the right hand and snap your fingers. Toss the cone a fewcentimeters up in the air with the left hand, and catch it so it ends up in theleft hand with the mouth towards the audience. The ball is gone.

- ChangesThe following is a sequence of rapid color changes that I find pleasing to thehands. Try them and see what you think.

The ball has just vanished from under the cone in your left hand.Immediately dig your right hand into your right pocket. Classic palm the redball, then bring the hand out with the white ball visible at the fingertips. Youwill now transfer the white ball to the left hand and the cone to the righthand in the following manner.Place the white ball between the left second and third finger (Fig. 25). Turnthe left hand over, and take the cone with the right hand (Fig. 26). As theleft hand raises the white ball, you let the red ball roll into the cone (Fig. 27).

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Perform Vernon’s Basic Sleight again, in the same manner as before. Lift theleft hand a little bit, but make a tiny double-take just as you are going to snapyour right fingers. Act as if something odd has happened. Raise the left handa little more, and peer suspiciously at the cone. Move your left thumb overand pivot the cone over and outward (Fig. 28). The ball has changed color.Take the red ball with your right fingertips, and look at it (Fig. 29). Put thefollowing thoughts as subtext: What’s happening? You don’t want a red ball.Look around to see if someone is playing a prank on you. Is there a problemwith the cone? Shake it a bit.

Deciding to explore this phenomenon, you throw the red ball back into thecone (Fig 30). Immediately, squeeze the sides of the cone and make a shut-tle pass to get another color change (Fig. 31 and 32). The red ball is secret-ly kept inside the cone.

Look at the white ball, while thinking; -”Hmmm, that’s odd”.Now you’ll do two changes in rapid succession. Pretend to drop the whiteball into the cone, but just keep it hidden by the fingers (Fig. 33 and 34).Move the cone up and let the red ball fall out and into the waiting right hand

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(Fig. 35 and 36). Move the cone down again, so that the red ball is visible atthe right fingertips, and secretly release the white ball into the cone (Fig. 37).Move the cone up again to cover the red ball. As soon as it is covered, let thered ball sink into the right hand, and leave the white ball at the fingertips.Lift the cone to reveal that the ball is white again (Fig. 38).Throw the white ball into the cone, and make a shuttle pass, to change theball to red again, just as you did before in Fig. 30 - 32.

Decide that this ball acts too weird, and put the red ball into the pocket.Take the cone with your right hand (careful so the white ball doesn’t fall out)and place it cleanly on the left palm.Look out into the air, as you are trying to find bits of the ball that turned intoa cloud in the beginning. Make a few grabbing motions in the air, and throwagainst the cone. Lift the cone to reveal that the first white ball has returned.

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- The Surprise LoadThere are plenty of things that can be used as a final load. Bring the conewith you whenever you go shopping, and test different objects to see if theyfit.

On your left fingers is a white ball. Cover the ball with the cone, excecutingVernon’s Basic Sleight. Lift the left hand upwards a little bit, and snap yourright fingers. Move the left thumb over to the other side of the cone and pivotit to show that the ball has gone. Show the cone empty as in Fig. 39.Make a little twitch, as if something invisible just tickled you. Bring your

right hand inside the coat. The left hand helps by using the left little fingerto brace the coat open (Fig. 40).As soon as the right hand is inside the coat, it pulls the light bulb from itsholder, and shoves it into the cone (Fig. 41). By flexing the wrist, this can bedone and still make it seem like the hands are far apart.

Bring out the ball, as the left hand turns the cone into an upright position(Fig. 42). Since the light bulb is a bit larger than the cone, keep the left fin-gers wrapped around the mouth of the cone.Look with distaste at the white ball and decide that this ball too is actingweird. Put it in the pocket.

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You decide to conjure up a whole new ball. Make some magic gesturesaround the cone, then lift the cone. But tilt the top of the cone against your-self as you do, because then you can let the light bulb slide out without hav-ing the socket exposed (Fig. 43). It will look as if a very large ball, made outof thin smoke-filled glass, has turned up.

Slowly turn sideways, so that the audience can discover that it isn’t a ball, thatit has a socket, that it is a light bulb (Fig. 44).

- Extending it outwardsAs you remember, Dai Vernon used a saltshaker as a final load, so he couldcontinue with a salt routine. It’s not a bad idea to see if the final load canmake the routining of the whole act easier.

One idea, if you like the light bulb as a final load, is to later use it forAmmar’s “Bill in Light bulb” which is found in his big green book.

Or some of the moves might be useful as an intro to a Multiplying Balls rou-tine. Who knows? Play around with it.

Hopefully, this will be enough to get you started on your own Ball and Coneexperiments.

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