Over the last year, this has become one of my favorite effects to share with my close-up audiences. If you are familiar with the classic Boomerang effect, (and maybe dismissed it as too simple to include in your own performances), I encourage you to check this out!
I have always loved the Jastrow Illusion, most commonly known as the Boomerang illusion. I had a small cardboard version in the very first magic set I owned, back in the late 1960’s, and I still think it is such a cool optical effect. Then along comes Tori Suzuki , who adds a very smart (and so-simple-why-did I not think-of-that?) element to the illusion when he created the Sakkaku Scale trick for Tenyo. It added a number of very deceptive dimensions to the effect.
Early this year, I came across an economical cardboard version of the Boomerang trick, that had a Blue Santa, a Red Santa, and also the Boomerang shaped ruler (similar to Suzuki's Sakkaku Illusion set). So I gimmicked the Santa Boomerang’s using Suzuki’s approach, and created this version of the Sakkaku Illusion with these Santa boomerangs.
Yes, I wish these did not have Santa printed on them, as it seems to limit the performing relevance to only late in the year. But I have found that showing these to audiences all year round is not a problem. The illusion is so strong, and I developed patter that talks about Santa wanting to lose weight in preparation for the end-of-year holidays, so performing the effect outside of the holiday season is still logical.
Well, I had a chance to get more of these Santa Boomerang sets, and I knew my loyal TMGS customers would like to perform this one, too. So I got some more for you, and I wrote up my handling and patter, accompanied by pages with fifteen color photos, so you can learn to do great effect.
The handling is very close to that of the Sakkaku Illusion routine, but with a couple added touches of my own. And when done with these larger Santa boomerangs, the changes are more startling than in the small Tenyo Sakkaku Scale effect.
Okay, enough intro. Here's the effect:
you show a thin cardboard Red Santa boomerang, and place it on the table. You then show a similar "ruler" boomerang, and place it next to Red Santa -- he is just over 7 polar inches. You then show his lesser known brother Blue Santa, and he is clearly measured at slightly less than 7 polar inches. (The patter is about both of them wanting to be the tallest, leanest Santa, since that is the new image for Santa in the modern health-conscious world). So with a few flexes and stretches, Blue Santa grows to be longer than Red Santa. He is now about 1 polar inch longer than Red Santa, who is compared to the Ruler and has not changed size. So you now pick up Red Santa, give him a few flexes and stretches, and now he is even longer than the longer Blue Santa -- both are much longer than the Ruler now.)
The routine comes to an amazingly visual climax, (because Red Santa learns that the world really does love the traditional short, stout Santa image), and the audience sees Red Santa VISIBLY shrink from longest to shortest -- not just shorter than Blue Santa, but also shorter than the Ruler! Again, I emphasize that this shrinking is such a cool optical effect that audiences gasp as they see Red Santa shrink. (You will love practicing this, to watch the effect yourself.)
In the end, you pick up Blue Santa (about an inch longer than the Ruler), the Ruler, and Red Santa (about an inch shorter than the Ruler), and you put them away.
No moving parts, nothing added or taken away -- just a very cool adjustment to the classic Jastrow Boomerangs, combined with clever and subtle handling.
CAVEATS: I already mentioned that the Boomerangs are printed with Santa images -- if you are handy with crafts, you could probably cover them with some solid color paper, or other stretched image. But as I said earlier, I find this routine plays great in the middle of Spring! The other caveat is that the boomerangs are printed on very thin cardboard -- about as thick as cardboard used for cereal boxes, etc. This gives them nice flexibility for the "stretching moves", but does make the boomerangs somewhat fragile. I recommend keeping them in a sturdy reinforced envelope.
I have spent a lot of words describing this one, because I want you to know just how cool it is! If you like unusual, visual magic, you'll LOVE this one.
Brand new with my detailed instructions, patter and photo illustrations.
