Flash Paper – What is the best way to use it?

What’s the best way to use flash paper in your magic tricks?

Flash Paper is great for many different magic tricks. A bit of Flash Paper is perfect for jazzing up a routine, so your magic tricks have more… Pizzazz! For example, if you want to vanish something you can wrap it in flash paper and set it alight to make your item magically vanish in a ball of flames! You can use it to produce items too! Check out Kieron Johnson’s To The Max for a REALLY great routine that uses flash paper.

There are also magic tricks designed for use with Flash Paper. For example, the Flash Gun Electronic, this is a device that shoots flash paper out in a fireball from your hand! A great beginning or finish to any stage magic trick. There is Jay Sankey’s In A Flash. In this magic trick, a signed coin wrapped in Flash Paper burns a hole through half of the deck of playing cards and stops on the back of the spectator’s signed card!

Also check out Flash Notes, these are great for any money magic trick. Flash Notes are specially printed pieces of Flash Paper that look like bank notes. These Flash Notes allow you to borrow a banknote, screw it up into a ball or fold it up and then secretly switch it for the Flash note. When you set the Flash Note alight, it bursts into flames and disappears just as quickly it is very convincing that your spectator’s money burns into nothingness!

Flash Paper is a great way to add that extra something to your magic tricks. However, you should be aware of the safety issues as well. Make sure you act and perform responsibly when using any flash product, for your spectator’s safety, not just yours!

The Magicians Wife Test

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

Why using a magicians wife test isn’t always the best way to try out a new magic trick

Guy writes:

‘I bought a book explaining a card effect from you, I read the plot and set it up. As there was no sleight of hand, it was easy to do and practice. A lovely effect. Now my first victim on any magic is my wife (part of wifely duties is to put up with being the guinea pig on magic effects – aside from the other wifely duties). And obviously by now she knows all the sleights and tricks. After it was done she told me how the trick was accomplished; it didn’t fool her.‘

Hi Guy,

Many thanks for sharing this with us. One of the problems with using a friend or a family member as a guinea pig is that they begin to learn methods, and that’s what they begin to see when a performance is going on. Like us, they stop seeing and enjoying the ‘magic’, and they follow all the wrong things.

I never show my wife a trick first now as it can put me off performing it to a lay audience. My wife can see all the things I know a lay person will not see. My wife isn’t taken in by patter and generally doesn’t find me interesting if I start to talk about some psychological study, she knows what I know! If I begin talking to her about a subject that she knows to be just patter it won’t engage her, it just doesn’t have any effect. Other people who you don’t know, even friends you don’t see much of will be hooked in by your patter and then you can entertain them with the trick.

It can be good to test a routine with a ‘magicians wife test’ but the more wife tests you do, the wiser she will become and the harder it will be to get a great reaction. Look at a room full of magicians and how they can give great magic very little applause or reaction as they have an idea of what is going on. Methods are what are running through their minds when you perform, which means you never connect in the same way as you do to a completely lay audience.

Sometimes though an effect can also fall flat on one audience and go through the roof with others. The real secret is to work an effect with different audiences to see if it is ‘for you’ or not.

I hope this helps

Ben Williams

P.s You may also find this free ebook useful:

A Magic Shop with Free WorldWide Delivery Shipping – Fair?

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

Kieron writes: ‘I mostly like your site, but as a UK based magician it is a real turn off to get Free Worldwide Delivery offers from you. I assume our price is subsidising your international customers. Once again we lose. This is meant as friendly feedback.’

Thanks for the feedback Kieron. I guess it’s a balancing act. We love being based in the UK, but over the years Merchant of Magic has expanded internationally. The magic shop now has many thousands of customers all over the world. In an ideal world we would be a magic shop with free worldwide delivery on everything, rather than just a few special offers and launch promotions. The cost of that simply would not work. The retail price of many items would be lower than the postage..

Each customer, no matter where they live should get the very best service from the shop and we try to find ways to delight everyone who supports the shop.

As you know, we do special promotions for readers of our magic shop newsletter. Some promotions include free delivery for our international customers as well as those in the UK. It’s hugely popular and international orders sometimes exceed those from the UK during that period, so it really helps the magic shop keep it’s doors open.

Rest assured that UK customers get free delivery too. We give free delivery to everyone that takes up the offers, at our expense, as the price is often far lower than the UK list price for the items. It’s not subsidized by our UK customers. The cost comes directly from the shops operating budget, so it’s the shop that covers the cost.

Best wishes and good luck with your magic

Dominic Reyes