And, with these words, which introduced a key chapter in his classic book, Pet Secrets, Al Baker began an entirely new sub-genre of magic. His work in the area of magic with fine threads and hairs has been continued by such modern masters as Finn Jon, Socrate, John Kennedy, Steve Fearson, Jon LeClair and, of course, Michael Ammar.

It makes sense that Ammar would be the one to synthesize just about all of the available information on thread magic and rearrange it into a comprehensive whole and this is exactly what he’s done in his brand new set of videos, Easy To Master Thread Miracles. His past projects of this type, notably the Cups and Balls videos along with the companion book and the Easy To Master Card and Money video series, all met with enormous success. What’s more, thread magic, particularly the Floating Dollar Bill has been a part of Michael’s performance material “A” list for quite some time. In fact, one only has to recall the double take Johnny Carson did when Michael moved his hands away from the floating bill momentarily when he performed the piece on The Tonight Show to be convinced that Al Baker’s words are true. Perhaps thread magic, when performed correctly, does seem to be real magic.

I say “correctly” because the double-edged sword here is that thread magic, when performed haphazardly with no attention paid to the performing conditions (particularly lighting), amounts to little more than exposure of a potentially powerful methodology. In my own experience, I recall working at a restaurant some years ago and when I reported for work on a particular evening, the bartender said, “There was some guy here last night doing tricks.” “Was he any good?” I asked. “He was trying to do some card tricks,” the bartender replied. “And, he was making a dollar bill float.” He continued, “The only problem was that everyone could see that he had some stuff that looked like a spider web that he was hanging the bill from. We all kind of lost interest after that...” I knew two things right away. I knew my job certainly seemed secure but I also knew that I could never do any thread work at that restaurant, at least for some time.

The road to the successful use of invisible thread—that is, accomplishing the illusion of animation or even levitation—is fraught with pitfalls. In most effects of this kind, whether it’s a dollar bill floating in the air or David Copperfield flying across a stage, the best guess as to how it’s done by any modern audience is likely to be pretty close to the actual method. As the great Carl Ballantine was fond of saying, “How else...?”

So, while the use of invisible thread may be easy to master, convincing the audience that you’re not simply hanging an object on something they can’t see isn’t quite as easy. However, in the three volumes of Easy To Master Thread Miracles, Ammar not only teaches the mechanics of thread magic but also spends quite a bit of time on its presentation and the psychology behind diverting the audience away from the methodology. For example, in his now classic handling of the Floating Bill, the bill really only free floats for a moment and by the time the audience realizes that they’ve just seen the impossible, the moment is over, leaving them wondering whether their minds or eyes were playing tricks rather than the magician.Attention is also paid to the proper conditions for thread magic to be deceptive.

As with past Ammar projects, this new set of videos is organized in a very structured fashion, taking the viewer from simple animations with short lengths of thread that can be easily set up and managed through intermediate effects that are a bit more involved and finally ending up with elaborate effects that are truly mind-bending. You’ll make the journey from small yet effective miracles such as “Tahoe Tessie and the Magic Postcard,” Ammar’s take on Ben Harris’ “Cosmosis,” to awe-inspiring moments such as “The Floating Lifesaver.”

Great effort was made to be practical with these videos, also. I understand that practical is not a word usually associated with invisible thread work but you’ll soon discover that thread can be used in walk-around situations as well as parlor and platform with just a modicum of care and attention. It’s one thing to learn how to perform with invisible thread and it’s quite another to figure out how to get it to your performance venue in some kind of workable form. Thankfully, Ammar uses a portion of Volume 3 on just the subject of storing and transporting thread.

Ammar also spends quite a bit of time on the various gimmicks and gadgets that have been and are currently being used to dispense invisible thread, including John Kennedy’s Stealth Retractor and James George’s various invisible thread reels. In fact, it was a pleasant surprise to see George as Ammar’s special guest on these videos and if you own any of the various models of the ITR, you’ll be especially appreciative of George’s exposition of how the ITR is constructed, how it can be repaired and of course, how best to use it.

I was also very happy to see that some attention was given to magic with a traditional reel. The thread isn’t invisible but the miracles a good old-fashioned reel can create are still effective. Even the old gag of passing a silk through a microphone stand is given a fresh coat of paint here and makes one realize just how strong a piece of magic this bit really is. Seeing it again made me start wondering which drawer my old Kirkendall reel was in.

The bottom line is this: if you want to do thread magic, it’s all here —all of the hookups, the various kinds of thread, elastic and non-elastic, the different gimmicks and anchors, and even how to make your own invisible thread. Combine all of this information with dozens of powerful effects and you have the most complete resource for thread magic ever assembled.

Spend some time with this set of videos, master the techniques that suit your style and venue, and you’ll be a part of Al Baker’s exclusive club in no time—a magician that audiences will swear performs real magic.

From L&L Publishing Presents, Special Issue Number 18
Article Written by Jim Sisti