Howdy,just wondering,how angely is the knife.
I want to use it in conjunction with my cups and balls,produce the lemon,borrow a bill,and then have it appear inside. Any suggestions?
Which is the most practical bill in lemon?
Thanks,
Derek

Does anyone own one of these?

I do bill in lemon the way Doc Eason does his bill in lemon so I don't use a special knife.

I too am very interested to know what is the easiest way to do this while out on the street doing say busking. I do some street work, but find the version I know (Mark Wilson) to be very effective as a trick and get great reactions, but it's very impractical for re setting up etc. Here in Taiwan the lemons are quite small and wouldn't hold a bill, so I use imported grapefruits from the States, which can be expensive. The biggest thing I"m looking for is what's easiest to do without a lot of setup. Even a gimmicked way of getting the bill in the fruit. I can't wear a jacket, it's 30 plus degrees and about 90% humidity so it has to be simple.
Thanks to anyone who can help.
JoJo

Mark, is Doc's version practical for street work? From looking at it myself about 20 times (I was really blown away by it, believe me), it doesn't seem possible.

There are a couple of threads about the Bill in Lemon here on the Café. I don’t remember the knife being directly discussed.

I have only seen, and played with, two different makes of bill-to-lemon knives. Both were very angle-y and, in my opinion, neither was worth the money. I wondered why I would load a knife when I could just go ahead and load a lemon?

Bottom line for me is that I would not use either because there are just too many simpler, more reliable, and less gimmicky ways to put a signed bill into a lemon. Further, if you are willing to do an “unsigned” bill to lemon, then the world opens for you. There are literally dozens (maybe even hundreds!) of versions for an unsigned bill (hey, boiled down to the basic “secret” they are all the same!).

Heck, Rudy Hunters “Vitamin C” is an almost impromptu borrowed-signed-bill-to-lemon. All you need is an unprepared piece of fruit (lemon or whatever- I have even used a borrowed apple!), a borrowed and signed bill, and a knife. The spectator takes the bill out of the fruit. Cool, yes?

Scott Guinn (of our very own Café) has a killer bill-to-lemon in one of his books (and maybe on his DVD). It is not a signed bill to lemon but it is very, very strong (highly recommended by me).

JoJo, don’t bother with the bill-to-lemon for the streets! I say this after using the bill-to-lemon as a central trick in my street act for years.

I now use and I strongly recommend that you look into Mark Jenest’s handling of bill-to-inflated-balloon (I think he calls it “Billoon”). .

Think about it. It is easier and cheaper to carry a dozen black balloons than a dozen lemons. It is also less messy to clean up a few pieces of burst balloon than the mess of a lemon (don’t have to carry hand wipes or paper towels for clean-up). You don’t have to carry a knife (which makes the police much calmer!) a pencil or pin will pop the balloon. And finally, it gets just as strong a reaction from the spectators. All in all it is perfect for a street venue! Check it out.

One final point just for you JoJo, is that I think that balloons might fit your clown character!

Hope some of this helps.

I have the Tannen Bill to Lemon knife. It is pretty well-made, but I can't recommend it for close up or any venue where you have specs to your sides or back. It is also VERY difficult to load a whole bill into it. They recommend tearing the bill in half and letting the spec keep half. If you're gonna do that, I say use the Grant Million Dollar Mystery method (explained in many places including Ammar's Money Miracles series). I've used it a time or two just to try it out, and it is a bit fumbly to get the bill to stay in the lemon and not stick to the knife. So I just do the routine from my book that I've been doing for over a decade.

Dear Harry,
Thanks for the kind advice. I've read many of your posts and thought you were still doing the bill to lemon which you've mentioned many times. I agree with you on the part about the balloons fitting my character. As a family (wife and kids) we sometimes do street work here and I do the magic out front to get the crowd as the others make balloon sculptures. It works for us here where we live. I did try to check out the threads, but got a bit confused by the new search mode.
JoJo
Scott,
Which one of your books has the bill to lemon in it? OK, I'll check it out myself.
JoJo
ps. Scott, I checked out your site but didn't see which one of your items had the bill to lemon in it. If you could let me know please? Thanks and GB!

JoJo, I still perform the bill-to-lemon regularly. I just don’t do it on the streets anymore (for the reasons mentioned).

I believe the bill-to-lemon to be a killer effect especially with a good routine to support it (like Scott’s published routine which can be found in his "Magic to STAND By" book). In the right venue it is more than worth the mess and bother. However the “right venue” to me means a one-on spot. That is, one show (maybe two) at a particular venue. That way I am carrying only one lemon (maybe two).

Harry's right--the routine can be found in the lecture notes he mentioned. A more detailed, photo-illustrated explanation is in my book, "Great Scott! It's More Magic" (3rd edition).

Thanks so much Harry and Scott, I sure do appreciate your kind assistance and generous advice. Here in Asia tricks done with money go over really well. I mainly save my bill to lemon routine for larger venue's and stage type of settings.
OK, thanks again,
JoJo

Galli Galli did the bill in lemon with no gimmicks and no setup.

Rolled up the bill and pushed into an envelope.

Byplay.

Reached into bag and pulled out a lemon.

Cut it open and found signed bill.

Will try to PM you.

Wow, Pete that sounds like a lot of fun. Needing to set up has always gotten in the way of things for me. It seems like the knife is not really the way to go. Some others swear by them in other threads. I'll have to see how I think I can do it in a way that it's easy and simple.
JoJo

[I posted this comment on a different thread about Bill in Lemon methods , but meant to post here because it's more relevant to the Tannen Bill in Lemon Knife. Sorry about the duplicate postings]

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In a moment of "magic shop fever" I purchased the Tannen Bill in Lemon Knife , but I've never been able to get it to work smoothly . At the time I bought it the idea of the prop seemed clever , but in practical use it is awkward to load and awkward to use in cutting the lemon smoothly to reveal the bill inside the lemon . I can not do the effect as advertised by Tannens (using a borrowed bill) . The actual instructions that came with mine suggest switching bills, so the bill that comes out of the lemon is not the borrowed bill. That's "ok" , but not nearly as strong as a borrowed, signed bill.

Does anyone have a good handling of the Tannen prop ?

The main handling of Tannen's here seems to be a bashing of them for poor service, not being honest and generally being unreliable. HA! I know that was not what you were looking for. Sorry!
JoJo

I have the Tannen's knife and have used in a performace a couple of times with a signed bill(although now use the Steve Spill handling (See Eason's video)) But the knife simply isn't practical--in addition to the angle problems, it is difficult to load a full bill (you need to do bill change fold and then add an ADDITIONAL fold which isn't easy once you get that the bill that small) and cutting and loading into the lemon is not smooth at all. In fact, it works much better with an orange as you need to create space on the side of the knife to accomplish the load and that is easier with an orange than a lemon