the thumb tip and you

Choosing a Thumb Tip - The Magician's Secret
by Shane

Back when I first started in magic, I bought a wonderful collection of tricks in a box, each one lovingly made by the Reiss Company. Unlike things my little 8-year-old eyes had seen in the back of comic books (at the age of 35 I'm still trying to make puffs of smoke appear at my fingertips), this line of "magic toys" were instructional, well-made, and useful: I learned basic sleights like the French Drop, the classic palm, the double-lift, and the finger-clip switch. More importantly, I learned presentation (and I wasn't an 8 year old kid trying to pretend to be a guru from Prutombora, thank you very much), misdirection, and the biggest thing of all, which came in an ominous black and green box with huge white lettering proclaiming "THE MAGICIAN'S SECRET!"

One pleading moment with my grandmother later, and I was the proud possessor of THE MAGICIAN'S SECRET! I felt more raw power then than any head of state, more wisdom that was in the Alexandrian Library, more insight than the Oracle of Delphi! Stronger than a locomotive, even!

I was a little disappointed at the contents: one thumb-tip (adult sized) and a 12-page booklet. But I persevered, and I relished as only an 8-year-old can, the look on my parents' faces when I started doing some of the routines.

It appeared THE MAGICIAN'S SECRET was really just that. A Secret. And a bloody good one. The box didn't lie. In the right hands, it's completely invisible, even to those that already are "in the know", practitioners and heathens alike. Since that time, I've seen the most observant spectator quake with astonishment. I've seen other practitioners shake their heads as their mental inventory of gimmicks is checked off, one-by-one, leaving them with no clue except that they know someone who does it better.

All this caused by some thoughtful planning, some careful consideration, and a piece of molded rubber. Life, my friends, is good.

Before we get too deep in this, we need to talk a bit about the way we "know" how to use a thumb tip and the correct way to use a thumb tip. They are probably two separate and distinct things.

First, the tip itself. Let's run down some things you've heard before:

"A tip should fit fully over the thumb."
"A tip should rest comfortably just over the knuckle."
"A tip should match your real thumb in color."
"A tip could be made of stainless steel and not be seen."
"A tip should be made out of hard plastic."
"The best tips are made of soft vinyl."

And the list goes on and on.

Here's the definitive description of the perfect thumb tip. Consider this the last word, gang. Trust me.

The perfect thumb tip fits rather snugly over the knuckle of your thumb, loose enough that you can pull it off without a struggle (or a "pop") but tight enough that gravity doesn't become your enemy as the thing goes bouncing across the floor when it falls off. Don't think that your thumb will ever be totally crammed into the tip; it will either have something else in there (a hindrance to thumb-cramming) or has to be taken off quickly and smoothly, which simply cannot be done reliably if you've packed the poor tip with your opposable digit. Snuggly over the first knuckle - no more, no less.

The perfect thumb tip would be an exact color match of the thumb you've come to love and adore throughout your life. Good luck. In most cases it won't happen. Get a tip as close in color as possible, but worry more about matching the inside of your thumb with the tip - this is usually much easier to do and, in virtually all cases the inside of the tip, that is, the side opposite the nail, is what spectators will be exposed to the most. And, yes, in theory a thumb tip could be Day-Glo green with red stripes and nobody would see it (because of technique), but why take chances? Match the color of the tip as closely as you can to the inside of your thumb.

The perfect thumb tip could be made of rubber, plastic, ceramic, aluminum, or depleted uranium. The answer here is simple: it must be comfortable to you. Wear it around the house for a while - if you can function and forget the thing is on your thumb every once in a while, chances are you've found the match. And the perfect thumb tip.

Okay, so you've got the thumb tip sitting in front of you. Now what? Simple. Go get another thumb tip, another perfect one, and some bright red paint. Apply the paint to the tip. This is your practice tip.

What? You thought this was going to be easy? Perish the thought, pal! Welcome to a new level of tippage! You'll be more than amply rewarded, so hang in there.

So now you have two perfect tips, one of which is hopelessly ruined by the application of red paint. Here's what you do with it: everything you would do with the unpainted one.

This is probably the most aggravating practicing you'll ever do this side of a muscle pass, to be honest. Because as you practice a routine with the mutilated tip, you'll be doing your utmost not to flash any of the red in front of the mirror, while at the same time making the most natural finger and hand movements and positions possible. You are striving for a perfect world where you and the tip become one. Okay, maybe that's a little Zen-ny, but it's true - to make a tip work, you've got to be natural to the point that the tip just seems like an natural extension of the way you normally do things. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

Practicing with a tip involves three stages:

No tip. Just make all the moves of the routine with your bare hands and no gimmicks at all. Pay attention to every detail. Examine how you hold your hands, how your fingers move, and the position of your hands in relation to each other. Most importantly, think about what you're trying to do and how you would do it normally. For example, putting something in your left hand from your right never involves poking it with your thumb. So don't do it. Look at how you normally put something in your left hand from your right. See? No thumb-poking. This is the single most important stage of practice.
Practice tip. Now perform the same routine with the red tip in front of the mirror. Mimic as precisely as possible what you saw in step 1. Don't worry about flashes of red; get the mannerisms in place first. Once you've done that, make small changes where you see flashes of red. And small those changes must be; bigger changes will look unnatural and you'll end up either starting over at step 1 or coming across as using a tip. Neither of these makes for happy moments or fond memories. Small changes, pieces of fine-tuning, will pay off big. When you're looking natural and not flashing, it's time for…
Perfect tip. Perform the routine, with the fine-tuning, with your perfect tip. You'll find out that you now have a tremendous amount of leeway because of the flesh tone - forget about it. If you think of that coloring as a way to get, well, flashy, you will get busted. Remember steps 1 and 2 and you'll be in perfect shape.

That's all there is to it! Now all you need is a routine to go with it. Which brings us to a nice little effect.

I claim no rights to the contents on this page. All words are written and copyrighted by Shane and were found at Visions.

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