It's a Snap! by Bill Wisch

This is a small miracle, typical of Slydini's impromptu repertoire.

He'd always be able to do a trick without any preparation, anywhere...anytime, using an object at hand. Conversely, I remember him spending literally an hour getting ready for a presentation that any other magician would have began with about 5 minutes set-up time. He wanted things to be perfect when he did his classic effects and he wouldn't work if things weren't exactly how he wanted them. His impromptu effects also would not be done if things weren't the way he wanted them to be...PERFECTLY CASUAL!

Anyway, he would do this item anytime a rubber band was handy.

Effect:He would pick up a rubber band...look at it...and proceed to pull it apart. Lots of little pieces! You actually see the little pieces! This would go on for about a minute or so. When he did this to me at a lesson I wondered what the heck he was doing because I saw him actually pulling the rubber band apart...into a dozen or so little pieces!

Then he blew on it and dropped it on the table...ALL TOGETHER! No switch...no fuss...no kiddin'! I was totally fooled!

Method:Simplicity itself. You don't tear anything! You just ball up the band and keep it between the thumbs and index fingertips.

In the process of kneading the band you pull it apart about an inch every so often and let a little piece, that comes loose naturally from one of the sides during the separation, snap back and then go back to the kneading movements. Your hands are constantly changing, palm up and palm down, while you're kneading this little rubber ball. It's a little like you're trying to make a small ball from a soda straw wrapper. Only with this when you separate the fingertips and thumbs the audience sees and HEARS little bits of the rubber snap back.

This looks EXACTLY like the band is being torn. I know because I actually thought he was tearing the band! Here we go again...if I hadn't witnessed this I wouldn't have thought it could work, let alone be stunning.

Tony Slydini and Bill Wisch

You know the adage...it's not what you do but how you do it? Well, this one also involves WHEN you do it. It should only be attempted as a casual handling of the band. In other words, let's say you have a band around your card box and you remove the cards from the box...hand them to be shuffled...take the band off the box and start pulling it apart. This is not a "spotlight" presentation but a "casual" one...while the spectator is shuffling. Try it...that's the only way you'll believe it.

Slydini told me the REAL secret to making this appear so natural and real. This is the golden rule of method acting when performing your magic. You actually experience that which you pretend to be doing! He had actually sat around his studio one day with a bunch of rubber bands and took one by one and actually tore them apart! He had lots of mirrors there and had observed himself...his hands...arms...face....reactions, etc.. He told me that if I did that, my hands, reactions and timing would be perfect automatically...even to the little stings that you would get if actually pulling the rubber apart. He was right!

Need I say more?