Okay, I'm taking a small survey:

What do you feel is the best rope trick or routine available?

Best? Not sure.

But I know that I always get a great response when I do Professor’s Nightmare and Penetrating Ropes (through a volunteer).

Also I do a comedy cut and restored that usually works pretty well.

But BEST?

I’d say Professors Nightmare.

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Ray Banks

Lately I've been performing Francis Tabary's rope act (Volume 1 - The Rope Act, A-1 Multimedia). It's really fun to perform and has a completely different feel and appearance to it. The audience loves it.



Magically, Jack

In my humble opinion The Professor's Nightmare.

Michael Finney does a really good routine using the cut and restored rope. I don’t know the name of it, but he refers to end A and B and the middle. It looks really good. I’d like to learn that, but my favorite I use is the Panama Rope Mystery in the Tarbell Course. That is powerful.



_________________

Jason Wratchford

MAGICIAN

http://www.jasonmagic.com

That's great Jason, there are a lot of hidden gems in them there Tarbell books!

I like Daryl's "Jumping Knot of Calcutta" handling of Pavel's "Fantastic Knot" it's very visual and Knot too tough.

Toss up: Tabary’s rope routine, Daryl’s routine, or either of Aldo’s routines are some of the strongest magic, with rope or otherwise, you could witness or perform. But if I had to pick one routine, I’d go with George Sands's as it is the one that started it all and on which all these others are based. People forget about George, but he was a great magician, showman, and innovator.

The very best routine is called "Loose Ends" by John Zander.

Okay, okay, other than that in my opinion Aldo Colombini is king of the ropes. His routine "Tightrope" is fantastic. Check out his book "On The Ropes" for some other great routines.

greatscott,

You said George Sands was...

Did he leave us when I wasn’t paying attention? I sure hope knot.

He invented some incredible magic which has inspired many of the best.

Another great rope magician— Ron Dayton. I believe he is working with Aldo on a video of Dayton’s original routines.

Remember Professor Cheers Comedy Rope?

That’s not it.

Remember Instanto Rope?

That’s not it.

If you want laughs, try George Sands's "Sandsational Rope Routine". It’s well worth the money.


Bengi

I don't know that he has passed on, but he is retired.

Phew,



I knew that he retired and lectures but rarely. I was lucky to have seen him lecture about seven years ago. Maybe more.

George Sands is still with us but he is not well.

His Sandsational rope routine is brilliant; you can use all of it or any part of it. Personally, I use his cut and restored section as a stand-alone piece; it is great!

Best rope routine?

My vote has to go to the Prof. Nightemare as I do it (a yarn about my mythical Uncle Linguini).

But, then, it’s taken me 10 years to build up the routine to the stage it’s at now, with all the bits and gags.

And I’ve performed it more than 3,000 times; it is my most requested piece while table hopping; some people have seen it a dozen times and they still ask for it.

cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

Reading Peter’s post reminded me of something.

I said earlier that I thought Professor’s Nightmare was the best rope effect and Peter’s right— they keep asking for it.

I performed it at my department’s booth at a NASA chili cook-off and one guy came back three times with other people for me to show it to them!

There can be no better indication that you are doing something amazing than that.

Ray's exactly right. The true definition of "good" should be what the spectators consider as good, not so much what you, the magician, consider as good.

cheers,

Peter Marucci

showtimecol@aol.com

I have to agree with both Peter and Ray, the “Professor's Nightmare” is probably one of the best, all time, UNGIMMICKED rope effects there is. It is sad the inventor Bob Carver doesn’t get more credit for it. I think that it has been ripped-off and sold by every magic dealer out there as “My Favorite Rope Trick”! I believe that Bob is still alive and still performing.

The version I use is right out of Slydini (The Magical World of Slydini). It is his Cut and Restored to Professor's Nightmare routine. The measurements and cuts of the rope for the Professor’s Nightmare are built right into the routine.

I used to do a version with gimmicked ropes. It ended with the rope restored back to one length at the end (Pavel made it for me but, alas, it took a walk one night after a show!).

I think that E.G. Moore’s “Linking Ropes” is also brilliant. I believe that he was one of the first to use that particular gimmick in a rope (his Instanto-rope came first but was the same gimmick).

However, for a “Best” in GIMMICKED rope effects I think that Pavel’s “Super Walking Knot” (the original version that can be cut anywhere on the rope not the newer three gimmick one) can’t be beat.

I must say that Pavel’s “The Phenomenal Rope Trick” is a super nice effect and almost (underscore almost) self-working. For a parlor/street/stage venue it is tops!

A cut-traveling knot-linking-restored rope routine. Lots of effects in one routine.

By the way, did you know that Pavel will custom make (gimmick) any rope effect you can dream up?

Whit Haydn's "Mongolian Pop Knots".



Regards,

Thomas Wayne

The Mongolian Knots is hard to beat. And, for a non-gimmicked rope trick, it is definitely top of the heap.



However, I have a linking ropes routine which I think is great. It starts with three separate loops which link one at a time, then two single loops become one larger loop, then the spectator does the linking between the two remaining loops, and the routine finishes with the two remaining loops linking to form one large loop. It's based on Tenyo's "Hungarian Linking Ropes", but I could never make out their instructions, so I made my own routine up for the props.



Bye for now



Harold

Hi there.

I use an effect, available from http://www.practical-magic.com/ , called Skip ’n’ Snip. It’s a cut and restored skipping rope trick. Loads of built-in comedy, and pretty easy to do, leaving all my energies for the performance.

I use it in every kid’s show I do, and also in a weekly adult parlour type show that I do.

Great effect and not expensive.


Cheers

Andy