Howdy, I am going to be buying a itr soon, I already use regular IT for effects like floating bill or helicopter card but I think this will be next. What is the best one? Or should I get loops... I was thinking John Kennedy thing but I don't know.
thanks

John Kennedy's Stealth Retractor is awesome. It is NOT spring loaded and allows you to do effects that, frankly, cannot be accomplished without such a device. Doubt that? Check out the Ammar 3 vol DVD set where Michael highlights some of these effects.

Another plus is that John's Stealth Retractor come with kevlar IT and can do many things that regular IT cannot handle (literally).

In addition, John sells replacement cartridges for the Stealth Retractor and having a spare is very prudent insurance. You'll always be "good to go".

Hope this helps.

Turk

P.S. I would also recommend that you look at all of the Ammar DVDs in the set. In vol 1 he discusses many of the "standard" ITRs (non-motorized and braked). Generally, the longer the length of the ITR, the more IT it can hold and the farther out the IT can go without reaching the "limits" of the rubberbands. The smaller ITRs however might be a good choice for you if you only plan to do closeup and if you need the smaller size for "hiding" purposes.

I agree, John Kennedy's Stealth Retractor is awesome. I should point out that it's not for the most common thread effects. There are things you can do with it that you can't do with the standard ITR, but there are things you can only do with it. So it's a great gimmick, just know that you won't be able to do some of the things you might know of with IT.

I've tried out just about every ITR out there. Some I like and others I can't stand. Still others are good for certain things. I know I'm probably making it harder for you then answering your questions but I think these are things to think about.

I like the ITR's made by Sorcery best (Kevlar's, Boss, etc..) The elastic powered ones. I've played around with some of the electric powered ones and some of them are nice, but I just prefer the old reliable.

Funny I should say that because I'm working on an electric ITR right now. It's a little different and you'll feel like learning to use an ITR all over again because of the position in which you wear it, but it'll open up some different possibilities. Another thing that's great about it is you don't have to pin or clip it anywhere. You could use it naked (No place painful.)

There are also a lot of things you can do to an ITR to solve some of the problems you may run into with them. Let me know if you have any trouble and I'll share how to fix them if I can. I think I've run into just about all that can go wrong but you never know. lol


Good luck with your IT work.

Ron Jaxon

Saqib16,

That's good advice coming from (Ron) Jaxon. Be sure and register on his site too. Between the Magic Café forum and Ron's site, probably most, if not all, of the IT bases are covered.

Ron,

No fair!! You mention a new motorized retractor and give no indication when it'll be available or the probable price range. Boo!

Best regards,

Turk

Well, I didn't share to much of what it is because I've done that before and I found it was easier to get it on the market. Of course, my name wasn't next to it and I didn't get anything for it..

Oh, what the heck. I've already shown some people the prototype at a couple of magic conventions and I've gotten things started with some magic jobbers. Plus a few prototypes are being tested by some magicians friends of mine. I'll take a chance here. I can trust you all, can't I?

It's called Watch IT. It's an electronic ITR built into a wrist watch. Think about the possibilities here. Nothing to pin in. No secretly going to your pockets to get ready. It's right there on your hands so you can simply make it into a loop. And at first thought you might think you couldn't do effects such as a floating dollar bill or cigarette, but you can and the moves you can do with it are amazing.

Think about Fearsons floating cigarette hook up. It's right there on your hand so you can do that with this.

I'm sure you can imagine that this takes quite a bit of work and planning because the device is so small. Not to mention where to put the power supply.

It'll have my super strong IT in it (Jaxon Thread). You could easily put other thread in it such as Kevlar too. Like most ITR's you won't be able to put the weaker threads in it such as the W. Nylon though.

I'm thinking it'll be at about the $100-150 range. I know that's a little high but it is a real watch and they cost to purchase to make into the gimmicks.

I'll let everyone know. It'll be a little while though. Maybe 5 or 6 months.

Ron Jaxon

that's a great idea with the Fearson setup!Sounds awesome jaxon!

ITR... I suppose someone will correct me if I am out of line, but can we just say invisible thread reel?

I don't feel that for anyone seriously interested in magic that we need to resort to acronyms.

The beauty of the elastic reel for most performers is to have a ready supply of line for the next effect, not necessarily meaning he needs eighty feet of line to do it with or that it needs anything but simple manual control of motion.

Most thread routines use a length of line of five feet or less. The people I have worked with still rely on line plucked from a stocking and stuck with wax and invisible tape to a playing card.

Watch someone do a flashpaper to rose flame transposition where the thread is attached to a microphone stand to see what I mean.

A good resource would be "floating routines for table and stage" by Ralf Wichmann-Braco.