Jerx Christmas - Angelo Carbone - 5:33 AM

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Well… I just had a really awkward experience with Angelo Carbone.

He asked me to go with him into the corner, hold his hands with mine, and close my eyes.

Oh shit, this guy wants to kiss me! I thought.

And then I thought, Eh, whatever. It’s late. Might as well.

And I leaned in and he was like, “What the hell are you doing??”

And I go, “Well, I was about to make your night, if not your year. Why? What’s going on?”

“I wanted to show you a trick,” he said.

And I had to play it off like I knew it all along.

Anyway… he held his hands about shoulder width apart, palms down. With a shot glass full of whiskey held in his right fingertips. He had me hold his wrists so his hands couldn’t move. Then he asked me to close my eyes. I did this. His hands didn’t move. And yet, when I opened my eyes, the shot glass was now in his left hand. Incredible.

Here’s the explanation as taken from Angelo’s upcoming book. (Don’t hold your breath. He first told me it was coming about 5 years ago.)

(If you want something from Angelo you can reliably look forward to, his rising card effect Notion of Motion is supposed to be released this year by Vanishing Inc.)

DARK TRANSPO

The Wonderment:

This is a bit of fun which can work with one other person or even two people.

A small object which is unique or borrowed is held in the right hand. A spectator stands in front of you and holds on to both your wrists which are about 2 feet apart. The spectator is told to make sure that your hands never move towards one another. The spectator is now instructed to turn their head away or close their eyes and to shout out if the hands are moved towards one another. After a few seconds they are told to open their eyes and look back at your hands. The borrowed object is now in the other hand.

WonderMatter:

  • Any small object that can be hidden in your hand and has a flat bottom (e.g. a wedding ring, a coin, sweet, matchbox, USB flash drive etc)

  • Double sided tape (optional)

WonderWork: 

You need to be quite agile and have a good sense of balance. However if your balance is an issue, it may be easier if you perform this effect while your back is leaning against a wall or table.  Having said that, when your spectator holds onto your wrists, you will also get some stability from them and therefore balance should not be a problem.

Have your spectator stand in front of you – face to face. Borrow a suitable object from your spectator or use a coin and have it marked. Hold the object in your closed right fist. Do not grip it too tightly and have your fist loosely clenched.  Extend both your arms in front of you with your closed fists in line and at the same height as your hip bone. Your elbows are slightly bent and the backs of your clenched hands should be uppermost (Photo 1). The height you hold your hands out should be  such that when you raise your knee, your knuckles automatically end up touching your knee without having to move your arms downwards. Make sure your hands are at the right height to start with. Practice beforehand and memorise the correct height your hands need to be at.

Ask the spectator to grab your wrists from above and to not let go. State that if your spectator feels your hands moving towards one another (demonstrate this by moving your hands towards one another under the tension of your spectator’s grasp), then they are to shout out and say so. Ask your spectator to look away AND close their eyes until you tell them to open them. 

As soon as their eyes are closed, raise up your right knee at a perfect right angle and bring it directly below your right fist. By carefully opening your right fist and without moving your forearm, place the object on your knee (Photo 2). Immediately swing your right knee carefully to under your left fist, whilst still balancing on one leg (Photo 3). Be careful not to make the object fall off your knee. Pick up the object from your right knee without moving your left forearm and then lower your leg back to starting position.

Now ask your spectator to open their eyes and ask if your hands were ever moved toward one another. The answer will be no. Then ask how on earth did their object get to the other hand, and open your left hand to show the object.

WonderNotes:

Do not balance the coin or object on the very end of your kneecap where it is rounded as the item can slide off. Instead, position it more towards you, where your knee starts to get flat.

If you use your own coin, you can have some double sided tape on the reverse so when you place it on your knee, it will not accidentally slide off due to the friction. Just have the coin stuck to the inside wall of your pocket along with some loose coins. When you go to your pocket to find a coin, just remove it from the wall and hold it out to be signed by using the same left hand grip as a French Drop (held from below).

To make sure your spectator grabs your wrists from above and not below, hold your extended arms much lower and only when they have grabbed your wrists do you raise your hands to the correct position.

You may want to clench and unclench your fists slightly (massaging the object) while the eyes of your spectator are shut. This is to disguise your forearm muscles from being felt as you open and close your hands slightly. 

To perform with two people just get one spectator to stand on your left and hold onto your left wrist and another spectator to stand on your right and hold onto your right wrist.

It is also possible to perform this effect while seated. Sit opposite you spectator who is also seated and perform the effect exactly as above. Just make sure your extended fists are a few inches above your knees and yet you can still raise your knee up while seated. This is much easier to do as no balancing is required. What makes the seated version even easier to do is  to seat yourself on a swivel office chair. This allows you to pivot your hips easily while keeping your raised fists  in exactly the same position in the air.

Instead of asking your spectator to close their eyes for the magic to happen, just ask them to close their eyes and as soon as they have done so, execute the move as you say “Would you like to keep your eyes open or shut?” Normally they would say open. By the time you ask them to open their eyes, the move is done but apparently the effect hasn’t happened yet. Now just do some magical massaging gestures with each hand as if that is the moment it will start to happen. Sneaky huh?

Finally, you can also perform this with an entire audience watching and a spectator on stage. Just before doing the secret knee move, wink towards your audience. At the end, ask the audience if your hands went towards one another and they will shout out “No”. This effect is in the same category as ‘Corinda's Power of Darkness’.and the ‘Paper Balls Over the Head’ effect where the audience are in on the trick, but not the spectator.

This was first published in Genii Magazine, March 2010.

WonderHow:

For this trick I started with the effect but had no method. I held an object and asked myself how I could get it to the other hand. I did think of invisible thread but hooking up was not practical. Then somehow it just dawned on me to use my knee. This of course meant I could not fool an entire audience and would only work one on one. I lost balance a few times practicing until I got used to it. I realised sometimes it was easier to secretly lean against something behind you. Also I had to experiment with a few objects as they would fall off my knee. Sometime later, Dark Transpo was born.