Maybe this goes in a different section, but I was curious to hear HOW particular tricks were invented/discovered. In particular, I would like to hear if someone created a trick, by accident, or by just observing something in life that turned out to be useful for a trick.

For example Eddies Joseph's "Ringed"(p320 of Ency of Rope). In this trick, two specs hold the ends of a rope. Then while the ends are still being held, the magician, under cover creates a knot around a ring. To prove that the ring is now truly on the rope, he lets the one of the spectators untie the knot, and he finds that the ring is truly on the rope. This is basically a Sefalaljia principle, but the spectator does the dirty work.

After thinking about this, I noticed that when I untie my shoelaces, a simple pull of the free end, makes the know dissolve away, usually. Some times I end up with one incredible knotted mess! Voila, there is a way to untie a slip/bow knot and create a real knot. Reflecting on this made me think that many effects might be invented by people simpling noticing something that was an accident, or unusual in their every day life, and their creative mind turned it into a trick.

Do you know of some examples?
John

I have created many different effects, and to be honest, there were a lot of different launching pads. Some came about by desiring and effect and developing a method. Some started with a non-magic prop, and I later found something cool to do with it. Some happened by dumb luck, the idea and the method presented themselves spontaneously.

Many of these ideas, were detailed in two Linking Ring Parades, including in many cases, the process that lead up to the discovery. If you have old LRs, check June 2002 and March 2003.

For years I had a dream of inventing a magic effect and over a period of a couple of years managed to slowly invent one. One became two which were produced and are sold by an internet dealer. However, recently, I was making an effect that has been around for a long time (for some friends) and made a mistake. I was about to toss it into the trash when I saw that I could use it for a new effect. So the first two were hard work and planning, and the fourth was a case of serendipity (not yet marketed). The third was one of just having a flash of insight - no work, no serendipity. 1. The Big Vanish 2. The Jester - the ultimate rising card trick 3. See: The Little Darlings -- "New wand trick for kids?" 4. I'm looking for a dealer to market the trick.

Most of my innovations have come while working on some other, unrelated effect; but some have come from just playing around with obejcts. For years I was stuck in motel rooms at night on the raod with little to do. I thought of effects I had seen or read about and figured out a way to do it. Turns out, some of my methods are better than the originals. I had quit doing coin effects because of arthritus, but chats with Mb got me going again. I liked his endings but couldn't do some of the sleights, so I invented alternative methods. 3forAll is a good example. I was working on palms up 3Fly when a friend lent me a CSB set. That gaff bridged a problem I was having and I instantly had a Coins Across with three different coins and my hands shown empty between each move, but one of the tranports was a bit clumsey for me. That night Tim Feher send me an unrelated download that solved that problem. So, did I create the effect? Certainly the innovations are mine, and several new slights -- but it was a group effort, even though my friends did not know it.

Lawrence O and I both created the same cups and balls move. Independant brilliant minds going down the same path.

I love the old Orben line: "Here's a trick I invented. I saw it a few times before I invented it."

The Genii Magazine article in the September 2006 issue has much of what directly led me try out doing coin magic at the fingertips. The nod to Steve Dusheck and Bob Elliot for the EG2EG didn't fit but you can see where things were going. Also much inspired by Geoff Latta to find "killer" applications of methods - ie to use a method in a way that maximizes its magical results.

Between things that occurred while practicing say the double tur***r and Elmsley Ghost Count became my Follow the Leader or misread once and then pondered like that Downs billiard routine - no deliberate effort to create there - more exploration of what was happening.

What worked for me when I was involved in the magic business as Cosmar Magic during the mid 80’s and 90’s and marketed my magic through Genii/Linking and mail catalog. Was to imagine the magic effect first and treat it as a problem. Next, I tried to work a solution to the problem through trial and error using different materials and approaches. Of course not all were successful.

Some of the best effects that came from this effort were:

Astroblast: a silk fired from a pistol burst a lighted lightbulb and the silk appeared on top of the lamp’s filaments.
Cosmar Tube: silks and a dove production from a see-through tube (no mirrors).
Thunderbolt Knot: explosive vanishing of a rope knot.
Clear Top Hat: flowers and dove production.
Torch to Jumbo Card fan

Perhaps the best that I know of is the Okito Box. The story goes that Theodore Banberg, aka Okito, discovered the effect (prop) when a friend, who was sick, had some medicine bottles laying around. Okito was messing with the bottles and noticed that the lid fit equally well on the bottom as on the top. This is what gave him the idea for the box and routines that can be performed with it.

Ironically, serendipity has played a role in many inventions, not just magic. The discovery that Mercury fumes can develope a photographic image on a plate was made in 1839 when a bottle was left open by mistake next to a photographic plate that had been exposed.

They were not medicine bottles. They were pillboxes. It wouldn't make any sense for him to have tried to fit a bottle top onto the bottom of a bottle. My grandfather used to get his pills in flat metal boxes that had lids that would fit on either the top or the bottom.

I knew they were medically related, but could not remember the proper term. Thanks.

Too bad you could not have saved those pillboxes. Get them for free then, sell them as Okito boxes years later on Ebay!

One of the most serendipitous discoveries was that of black art. Max Auzinger, who was a theatrical director, discovered it when he was trying to portray the gloominess of a slave who was imprisoned. He had the scenery painted dead black, and with the dark makeup on the actor's face and his dark clothing, he disappeared into the woodwork, so to speak.

Thanks Bill, good stuff.

Candin

Then he succeeded in creating the mood & effect he was aiming for! It must have been a sad moment during the play to realize that a human life can be so invisible to anybody.

Ironically, I had a cop do this once. There was an accident on a road I normally navigate. It was getting very dark and the police officer was redirecting traffic. He got mad when I didn't move or know what to do. Ironically, it was because he was wearing a black uniform with black gloves. While I could barely make out his general shape, I could not see his hand movements to tell me what to do.