Dan Sperry Made in China PDF

DAN SPERRY S MADE IN CHINA

1Copyright Dan Sperry and The Spooky Kids www.dansperry.com

I’m not sure you’d really call this magic per say. It is just something cool I came up with for doing like floating bill, bill switch, or something like that. I remember hearing a guy do a joke when demonstrating the floating bill at a mall magic shop by saying something like “there’s a lot of these floating around these days”, like he was doing it as a way of checking to see if the bill was counterfeit by holding it up to the light. Typical stupid magician line…except this one was super corny.

So of course I thought about a way to try to make sense for saying that line and sort of a way to take some more heat off of any possible way of causing the bill to float or to help ditch any gimmicks. So I came up with the MADE IN CHINA bit that I’m about to explain. Like I said it isn’t necessarily a “magic trick” or “routine” so I can’t make any promises as to how cool it will actually be for your character to do it. I’ve honestly only done this a few times since walk around or street magic really isn’t my gig, and it really does get a good reaction of curiosity, your audience will be trying to hold it up to the light as soon as they get it back and checking for signs of a slit in the bill, etc. It should not be done just by itself, but as a little cute add on to whatever it was you were doing with the bill before like pen though dollar, floating bill, etc. So here it is…

WHAT IT IS:

After doing you favorite bill bit, such as floating bill or pen through bill the magician makes a remark about how advanced the government is getting on cracking down on fake money. There are many ways of telling like wiping a special marker across the face and whatnot but the easiest is holding the bill up to the light and seeing the hidden face or message printed within the bill.

As the magician says this he also offers to show this to the audience and displays the bill on both sides to be completely normal and borrowed from a spectator and all that jazz. But when the bill is held up to the light printed within the bill is the big words MADE IN CHINA. He shows this to the audience and can make some remark about how even our money now is coming from China or something stupid like that – I don’t do



comedy so this is difficult for me to contemplate. When the bill is handed back to the spectator and they try to hold it up to the light they cannot get the words to show up.

THE STUPID SECRET:

All you have to do in order to create this little special effect is take some clear plastic overhead projection screen film that you can find at any office supply store like Office Depot or Office Max and cut out a strip the width of your middle and ring finger and as long as the distance from your first knuckle joint of your middle finger to the base of your middle finger. This will make it especially easy to finger palm.

Now go on your handy dandy computer and find a big bold font and type out the words MADE IN CHINA so that they’d fit within the space of the film. The best is if you can find or have a stencil like font on your computer, that’s what I’d really recommend doing, but it is not necessary. So now you have this printed out and what you want to do is take an Exacto knife and cut out the letters to make a stencil and place that stencil over the plastic piece and color it in with a sharpie. Once the sharpie marker ink has dried turn it over and color it in on the other side too so that you have a completely ink black printed lettered piece of plastic. That’s it! That’s all this little gimmick is, nothing too crazy.

IN PERFORMANCE:

You should probably start with the gimmick hidden using your favorite method. I prefer swallowing it in a balloon and retrieving it later in private. Or if that’s not your style you can just keep it in your right pant pocket. Or if you’re left handed your left pant pocket. This is totally up to you and whatever you’re more comfortable with.

When you’re ready to perform just casually display the bill after doing whatever it is you’re doing with it and just put your hand in your pocket in a normal fashion. Don’t move your hand around down there like you



usually do, just keep your hand normal and still. When you reach in you should let the plastic piece go into finger palm position. As you begin talking about fake money being printed or whatever you want your patter to be bring your hand out and show the bill both sides with the plastic piece still clipped in finger palm position.

Keep the back of the bill facing you and make some comment about holding the bills up to the light and seeing things imprinted within the bill. As you do this sort of try to look up and away for a good light source to take too much head off your hands and the bill. While you do this little clever ruse use your thumb to help flip the plastic piece behind the bill and hold it there with your thumb along with you fingertips. It should look as if you’re just normally holding the bill by your thumb and fingers openly and clearly. Once you’re good to go just hold the bill up to your light source. Usually I flip my fingers around so I’m also looking up at the face of the bill so I can help sort of eyeball the gimmick. Just press it right up to the bill and the light will sine though the clear plastic and the black lettering will boldly show up. You don’t have to worry about it being straight or anything, I kind of like it if I can sort of get the lettering to be at a slight angle.

To ditch the gimmick simply just pull it back into finger palm as you bring the bill down out of the light and show it both sides as you did before and try giving it a little snap even and then hand it back. You can put the gimmick back in your pocket or by any other fashion as you go to get something different like a pen or something like that for a different routine.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

Keep in mind that you can really have anything appear within the bill. You can make a little pair of sunglasses or a Hitler mustache and make it appear on George Washington’s face. Or you can have it say “you’re a loser” or “Queen of Clubs”. Really whatever you want it to have “within” the bill. This is really something you can carry with you all the time, in your wallet, etc. So even if you’re caught in a situation where it comes up that you’re a magician and you get put on the spot you can bust this out



since you’re virtually prepared for it not matter what.

Honestly with things like The Davinci Code and National Treasure there are any number of themes you can base your patter off of. Just have fun with it!



Dan Sperry Made in China PDF

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