How cool is this? I don't frequently use this word but; Awesome! I recently received this with a lot of five different Roydon effects and thought that it would be the item of least interest,but I'm overwhelmed. I've been in magic for 50 years and have known about this trick and it's modus operandi for a long time but for some reason just wrote it off as lame. Was I ever wrong! I don't know about any other versions but this one from Roydon is terrific! The gimmick is all but invisible,super easy to work and incredibly magical. I know you're all probably shaking your heads and saying : "Where have you been Goober?" Please excuse my ignorance and enlighten me,if you would,as to the inventor of this trick and the pros and cons of other manufacturers versions. In my 1947 Kanter's catalog they advertise the Royal Rising Pencil but the illustration has the Petrie Lewis logo so I assume P&L made a version also.
Thanks and Best Regards,
Dave Pierce

You should have seen Charlie Miller do this. Killed with it.

Pete,
Now you've got me on the edge of my seat. Please tell me what he did to make it so outstanding.
Dave

The Roydon rising pencil has been a staple of my close-up performances for 30+ years. I use pencils imprinted with my name, address, phone and logo and give them away telling the spectator, "You may keep the pencil with my compliments and if you can find anything, rigged, gimmicked or tricky about it, bring to my next performance and I'll give you a $100.00 bill." No one has ever claimed the $100.

Charlie just did the standard handling, but he made it a mystery. Once again, It's the man not the prop.

Charlie's handling re: method was standard...but Oh! the presentation...phenomenal!
Closeup, parlor, or stage...Charlie could make this play really big and funny!

Thanks Mr. Biro and Mr. Neal,
How I wish I could have seen Charlie Miller perform this!

Dave

That comment would be so much more valuable and helpful if you also had a clip to show us here so we could learn.

I saw Charlie Miller do his Rising Pencil Routine at the Faucett Ross Magic Fest in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Best Magic convention I have ever attended in my life!

Like Pete Biro says, Charlie did this magnificently...it was all in his presentation.....boy could he ever sell this trick!

I learned a lot seeing Charlie on that day...and I'll never forget it.

Posted: Aug 31, 2009 10:29pm
But....hmmmmmmm.....come to think of it....

Where can you find a rising pencil gimmick today? I have NO idea...

I think that maybe Okito had something to do with the devlopment of this. There is a version with a straw doll that appeared in Okito on Magic.

I designed an original routine on the rising pencil that I never wrote a script for even if I designed the method and the routine: the plot is a sinking glass cube.
I bought plastic glass cubes from Joe Stevens (they sink in water). An invisible thread is stuck to the cube with superglue. Now two other ice cubes are placed in a glass next to the plastic one. The thread is hooked to the body.

Fill up the glass with whiskey and water (or anything transparent that adds credibility to the use of such ice cubes) as you move the glass away to make the plastic cube to "float" with the other ice cube.

Find a magical cause for the effect and mark the magical moment.
Slowly let the cube sink down a bit and come back up... and then down: the rising pencil routine in reverse.

If you can find a good script, by any means use the trick. For strolling magicians it is even more adapted than a pencil in a glass.

That's a really good idea. About 20 years ago, I got hold of some lignum vitae. It looks a lot like walnut, but it is denser than water, so it won't float. I did something similar with that. I called it "gravitation." The idea was that I would cause the wood to become slightly denser by bringing the molecules of the wood more closely together, thereby causing it to sink.

The gaff was threaded through a hole in a block of lignum vitae.

I like this glass cube idea much better.

Charlie was great at routining....we could all learn a lot from that!

Here, from memory, is Charie Miller's rising pencil routine as I saw him perform it at the Faucett Ross Magic Fest in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1983. That was the greatest magic convention I have ever attended in my life!

Charlie brings the pencil out of his pocket, and introduces it as a true magical pencil. He then does the classic "bending pencil" bit, by simply holding it in the middle and wiggling it up and down, creating an optical illusion that the pencil is now "rubbery" and bending.

Then Charlie took the pencil, tapped it on his head, and said..."Nope....solid wood....the pencil......".

Next Charlie makes the pencil appear to "glue itself to his palm"...."standard wand move"...

Then, Charlie does the standard rising pencil bit, with a line..."I'll use a tiny strand of hair from my head....as you can see...I've been doing this a long time"....(perfect for those of us who are bald". (Also works with Chinese Sticks, too!)

That's it.......but it was ENTERTAINING!

Charlie does a different presentation on the Greater Magic Video Library volume 18 video originally produced by Stevens Magic.

His presentation involves two audience members and a bit of “invisible thread”. The routine is mimed in that there is no actual thread used. He presents it as levitation where the pencil rises as it comes to rest on the “thread” being held by the two spectators. There is a point where the thread accidently breaks and has to be tied together. The pencil will then jump as it slides along the thread and hits the knot.

This presentation takes the little close-up trick and turns it into a stage/platform illusion. While not a jaw dropper it is a nice interlude.

A note on the gimmick; the P&L gimmick was amongst the best made. It had two prongs. It kept the pencil from wobbling side to side and offered a degree of control and stability that the one prong gimmick can not provide. Most of the versions seen today are of the one prong version.

Sadly mine vanished a dozen years ago (I used to perform the Miller invisible thread routine).

If you know the trick you can easily make a version using a large Kitchen Match. One prong works well with something this small and lightweight.

I was asked by Charlie (one of my sponsors for the AMA) to make up about 100 pencils for one of his lecture tours. In exchange, I got some private lessons on several effects. Nice man.

Sir. I have to say that your thinking is phenomenal!

Thanks again.

Tom Verner, founder of "Magician's Without Borders"(USA)performs magic shows for children in refugee camps, orphanages and hospitals around the world - often in war torn places where love, laughter and magic are desperately needed. Tom performs a beautiful version of the rising 'strawman'.

You can see it at Magicianswithoutborders.org

Check it out. A very inspiring website. Tom is one-of-a-kind.

So......does anyone know where to get a rising pencil these days?

I have no idea but I'd buy a bunch in a heartbeat if I knew where to get them....

Charlie did it for me when I first lectured at the Castle in 1971. It was delightful!

Everything that those above have said about Charlie's routine is 1000% correct!

I treasure the opportunity of learning from him at our (too) few meetings.

Dick:

Speaking of Charlie Miller.....I just found a copy of Genii downstairs from 1983...It's the Faucett Ross Cover.....and in it, to my delight, was an autographed by Charlie Miller caricature drawing he made of me.....signed CHARLIE MILLER X 3

The man knew how to MILK a TRICK!

When midnight on Friday night rolled around at the Faucett Ross Magic Fest, Charlie excused himself, saying to me, in a stage whisper, pointing to The Professor.........."trying to keep up with HIM wore me out!"

Ah, the good old days.......