Good Mornin!

Has anyone but me purchased the gimmick that is pre-formed to display a card? IE: 7 of diamonds, 2 of hearts etc. It is kind of hard to explain, but the wire will revert to it's pre-stressed state when heated with a flame, and available with several different card notations (you buy the one you want to use). The patter I use is to force a card, and then talk about how a radio works (antenna to antenna). Have the customer touch the end of the wire and concentrate on their card. Run the straight wire through a flame, and viola, there is their card displayed by the bent wire. When I first saw it I thought "Big Deal", but purchased it anyway. It has been a KILLER effect and perfect for the cross cut force because of the large amount of misdirection patter that comes along after the cards are cut! Just went to show me that sometimes what a magician thinks is elementary can sometimes turn out to be a super crowd pleaser. I for one tend to get caught up in slights and sometimes forget that magic is in the eye of the beholder, not the magician!

I have not seen it offered on any magic sites (I purchased it at my local shop) and was curious if anyone else was aware of it's existence. I will be happy to post the Tel # of my local shop if anyone is interested, and if it's OK with the site managers.

Regards,

It's called a "Wiregram" and can be commonly found at most well-stocked magic stores and online (Hank Lee's, MagicSmith, etc.).

If you have never seen the trick performed, it is a very neat trick. You can see a video of the trick at

(low resolution)
http://www.jbtv.co.uk/wiregram_lores.html

(high resolution)
http://www.jbtv.co.uk/wiregram_hires.html

Check it out, it's really cool. Hope this helps anyone.

Adam

The best version, released in the early seventies and unfortunately unavailable now, had the wire looking like an ordinary paperclip! It was bent out of shape and placed in an envelope by a spectator who set it in fire in an ashtray, as the envelope burned away the clip was seen restored to its former glory.

Paul.

I own the trick, but I have problems keeping it in it's original shape. It slowly looses its form, it was to the point that I bought a second one which is doing the same thing. I have tried reforming it, but it isn't working. Could someone let me know what I am doing wrong?

maybe you're not letting it cool before you hand it out to the spectator?

I actually owned this one for awhile (and lost it tragically at Baskin Robbins, but that is another story). I remember that was one of the things absolutely stressed to me -and I remember that when I performed it, I would take the wire, and shake it once or twice, allowing it to cool.

I dunno, it's just a thought.

I use this one quite a bit. When I store them (I have a few different cards) I just keep them in there original zip lock bags, in there heated forms. I just coil them around two fingers when I want to use them. I have had no problem with them.

I also use a cross cut force. I tell a story about a magi in ancient Egypt, who performed for the Pharoah. He would have the Pharoah think of any object in the palace. He would have one of the palace guards wave his spear over the fire in the throne room, and the thought of object would illuminate at the tip of the spear.

Of course we have no throne room, no spear, and no great fire, so instead we use a deck of cards this piece of wire, and a lighter.

It's a killer, with a good routine.

I let it cool before I put them away, but it still loses it's shape. oh well.

Heres my tip on wiregrams, if you start to lose the shape of it, get it to the desired shape and heat up all the curves one at a time till they are red hot then let cool and move on to the next curve and repeat then repeat on the straight pieces this will put it back to like new shape


don

sbasscase, what a great patter theme! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks, Geoff

Sbasscase, I'll second that. Great story. It all makes sense. I can see how it all will play out in the effect. Makes me want to go out and buy the Wiregram. Very good thinking... wish I had thought of it.