I tried posting this in the Improv section but I coulden't get a response. Maybe here...
I have seen many magician do this trick where they look like they take a cig, pencil, crayon, etc., and push it up their nose. Then they pull it out their ear. I know the item is palmed, but I cant seem to get the moves down. Does anyone know where I could find an online tutorial describing this, or a video?
Many thanks-
-Casey

Actually the moves you describe are fairly standard cigarette manipulation moves used with objects other than cigarette. Tom Mullica’s tapes “Expert Cigarette Magic Made Easy!” from A-1 Multi-media is perhaps your best visual reference. They come numbered volume 12, 13, and 14 for some reason. Volume 12 has the slights you are looking for.

There is a very old book that may be out of print now, titled “The Encyclopedia of Cigarette Tricks” by Keith Clark, has some discussion on the moves you are looking for.

Finally there is a chapter on basic Cigarette Manipulation in the “The Amateur Magicians Handbook” by Henry Hay. It is still in print and in paperback too.

So there you have it, some video and book resources. Probably the Mullica tapes are the best of the lot, but you could build a routine using a crayon, pen, pencil, or candy roll with the slights taught in the books.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the quick reply, but is there a book that might have this that is not all about cigarettes? I dont smoke and I dont think a book on cigarettes would be worth it if all I wanted was just this one move. If anyone knows any other books, I would be very thankful for titles.
Thanks alot mumblepeas
-Casey

I don’t smoke either and never have! Yet, I can do a fairly competent cigarette manipulation act. I perform both the “Clay Pipes” routine (using corn cob pipes) and Fox’s “Foxy Cigar’s” routine. You don’t have to smoke to do either of those routines or, in fact, any cigarette routine.

I use the Halloween size tootsie roll candy for all the effects you mentioned. Again, they are cigarette moves using other objects.

“Moves” are not limited to the item that they were first developed for. I perform thimble moves using gimmicked band-aids, I can Elmsley count music CD’s for a twisting and color changing CD routine and my cigar’s are wooden dowels that look like cigars and are manipulated using basic cigarette and thimble moves (yes by hollowing the tips out I can manipulate them using a couple fairly easy thimble exchange moves!).

You have to think out of the box in magic! That is what magic is!

OK, so you want a reference that is more general yet includes the basic slights you will need to do the pencil up the nose, ear, eye, butt and out the mouth but is not limited to cigarette magic. Then buy Kaufman and Greenberg’s re print of the classic “Greater Magic” by John Northern Hilliard (first edition 1938). It has more magic than you will ever use. It has over a thousand pages of magic.

Hope this helps.

Greatly. Very helpful. I just didnt realize that I could do so much without smoking, using cigerette moves. Many thanks mumblepeas. Many thanks.
-Casey