Murf
Welcome to the magic Café. How long have you been holding that one in?
WELL DONE
Al Angello

Wow, I like that. If I had not found my own presentation on that, I might have actually used that. Cool.

At a family reunion, I paired the PN routine to a family tradition of my grandfather taking all the grandchildren into the basement to be measured, and the measurments recorded on a metal pole that extended from the floor to the ceiling. Heights were recorded with a drawn line, name and date.

I introduced the 3 ropes: the long rope was compared to a cousin Bob who was very tall, the short piece was my cousin "little Jeanette", and I was the middle piece.

We all wanted to be as tall as Bob, and in our mind we were(after gathering all the rope ends to the same length, they are all even).

When it was our turn to be measured, we would squirm, and stretch, trying to be as tall as possible("stretch" ropes with corresponding body movement).

and in our mind we were all as tall as Bob(show ropes equal length).

but after we stepped back and saw our recorded height... well, Bob was up in the rafters(show long rope), I was just a little taller than last year(show middle rope), and Little Jeanette, well, she was still little Jeanette(show short piece)

Isaiah: With a name like that, maybe you would be interested in some of the Biblical patters.

John

Hi Guys(why there are only guys?...)


I have read all of your ideas(murff-you are genius!!)

Im looking for an adult kind of presentation.

I have been thinking on the size issue that (some) men have...

I still cant form a routine out of this idea but what do you think?

Have fun
ROi

Check out Sweet Dreams by Cody Fisher (Hocus-Pocus carries it). It's pretty funny and will give you patter for your own routine. It uses a break away wand.

Dave

I've done it for kids several times using the polar bears story referenced in one of the links above. It works OK, but it's not brilliant. I think that's because it's not at all interactive for the kids. In the end it's just a cute story. I asked my eight year old what she thought could be done to improve it. She thought perhaps give all the kids imaginary guns and tell them they are polar bear hunters, then do the move just as they are about to shoot. Not sure how well this would go down! Any other ideas about how to make PN work for kids?

I like the presentation Dan Fleshman uses in one of his Restaurant Magic DVDs.

WOW! Murf that is a great patter. There are some other very nice stories here.

I always thought the worm patter was interesting. Worms do stretch, don't they!

I cannot remember who used this patter, I think it written up in a kids book. Anyone else remember this patter line?

I wonder why nobody mentioned "The Spaghetti Ropes"?
I thought, that was the standard presentation, because I first met the trick under that name in my first catalogs of magic tricks back in the 60's.

I don't know the origin of the spaghetti idea, but around that I developed a little comedy:
I introduce the theme by talking about how little pople know about the origin of our food: Children believe, that the milk is produced at the milk factory, the eggs at the egg factory et. etc.
How many of you know how a spaghetti tree looks?

Then I tell a story from my childhood about a visit at my uncle and aunt in a faraway country.
My aunt was preparing for dinner and asked me to climb up a tree and pick three equal pieces of spaghetti from the ripe spaghetti fruits.
I mime the climbing up the tree, beeing a little afraid of the height, hanging in one hand an reaching for the fruits with the other, picking them and putting them in my pocket.
Well down again I go to the kitchen, give the spaghetti pieces to my aunt while taking the three pieces of real rope from my pocket as a messy ball.

I then act the role of the woman unwinding the three ropes and dicovering their different size.
"But I told you, they should be of equal length!"
"Well - they are almost of equal length" I reply, acting both roles in the little drama.
"No, they are completely different!" she insists.
"Well - I think they are of semi-equal length" I try.
"That is nonsense!"
"Then look!" (I take the ropes back). "They are all equal at one end". Show the three ropes with the same length protuding above the left hand.
"They should of course be equal at ALL ends!" shee screams.
I take the short of the hanging down (different) ends and move it slowly upwards beside the first three ends and repeat with the last twoo ends (secretly preparing for the trickery). I show all six ends flush in the left hand with a big smile (though the loops hanging down are unequal).
"Now you see: All six ends are equal!".
"And if they are equal at one end - and they are also equal at the other - then they MUST be of equal length!"
I pull the hands apart till the ropes are equal. "You see??"
Count the ropes (Slydini-like) as separate and find an ending that matches your audience's taste and sense of houmor.
I usualy say: "That was the last time we ate spaghetti that year".

Many years ago, I was out with Slydini and Remo Inzani, and we were discussing the Professor's Nightmare, and Tony had a really cute move which was as much for magicians as anyone else. I am assuming that the readers of this thread know the mechanics of the trick for the following to mean anything.

Slydini started with the usual set-up, which was to show the three differing lengths of rope, with one set of ends held in his left hand. He then pulled up each of the other ends and placed them beside the ends held in the left hand (i.e doing the usual move that comes before the stretch. Then came the difference.

He would say something along the lines "Who am I kidding. we all know that I just have a short a medium and a long piece, and he would release the three ends which the right hand would normally grasp prior to the stretch.

From the audience perspective, the left hand was now showing a short, medium and long piece of rope hanging down from the left hand.

This time, Slydini would use his right hand to grab the end of the longest piece of rope, then the end of the medium size and finally the short piece and then pull the ends straight down, thus stretching the ropes, but vertically instead of horizontally.

Remo and I used this in our dealer-dems for many years and it usually caught out the magicians who were so used to the standard way of stretching the ropes.

I have been performing PM ever since Tarbell showed it in one of his visiting lectures back in the early 60's, and have a count that is soooo convincing, and a finish that really catches them out!

Rudi

Here's one I came up with for my Rev. War period presentation:

There are three types of Englishmen. The common man (medium rope), his Royal Highness King George (long rope), and us here in the colonies (short rope).

Now Parliament would have us believe that we're to be treated differently. "All for them, and none for us," you see. But in America we believe (stretch) that all men are created equal (tie with the knot covering the tricky bit). And we're joining together to fight for our beliefs.

When this is over, however, (untie knot) we just might discover that we're all quite different after all (three uneven pieces again). That is all right, though, so long as we treat each other with proper respect.

King George of course was "His Majesty", not "His Royal Highness"

Rjenkins,

Noted. Thanks. I started that way but I needed to draw it out sarcastically as I wiggle the long rope back and forth a bit.

I really say, "His Bloody Majestic Royalness King George the Third."

I don't mean to be either proper or respectful.

Just so

Here's a gospel routine that I use. I start out by saying that some people see sins as little (the smallest rope), medium (like the medium sized rope), and big (like the big rope). But that's not the way God sees them. He sees them all the same size.

Mr.Jon Tremaines PN is one of the best I 've seen. I use it regularly in my walk around. Regards, Raj.

For some shows I do the Professor's Nightmare and at the end leave the three ropes the same length. I tie the three "gimmicked" ends into a knot (as if the three ends were one piece of rope). Then tie the three loose ends into a knot. I toss them into my roll-on table, where before the show I had a regular length of white rope set up the way "Rainbow Ropes" was set up.
http://tinyurl.com/lmczndv
Then a few tricks later, I would say: "Remember those three ropes I put away a few minutes ago?" Then I would take them out and using the "Rainbow Ropes" moves turn them into one long piece of rope. That segued then into Ted Collins's "Panama Rope Mystery."

----- Sonny