talkmagic.co.uk

The Effect
A 16 phase eye-popping rope routine with over 22 killer moves to choose from!


Never cut your rope again! Dust off your ropes and fast forward into the future with Richard Sanders’ eye-popping, mind-crunching multi-phase rope routine. Learn the amazing NEW super visual moves that amazed magicians during Richard’s lectures at FISM 2003. Fiber Optics is a 16 phase rope routine packed with NEW super visual moves designed to thoroughly amaze


Cost

24.95 (stupid keyboard doesn't have a pound sign ) from Alakazam

Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

3

Review
The "Never cut your rope again" line is a pure lie cos you have to cut the rope to size for the trick, but other than that your fine.
You start off with typical Professors Nightmare ropes (i.e. a small; a medium & a large rope) & do the whole routine where you make the ropes equal length, deciding that this may be too dificult to follow, you remove one of the ropes, deciding that maybe even 2 will be too confusing you fuse the 2nd onto the 3rd, leaving you with 1 length of rope, you then proceed to do all sorts of eye popping moves like, taking the ends off the rope leaving you with a complete loop of rope, replacing the ends you then take the middle out of the rope & restore that. Finaly with your fingers you cut the 1 rope into 2 & reintroduce the 3rd rope & then restore them all back to the original lengths...
(Also included is a routine that uses one length of rope, but I haven't watched that yet)

When I watched the presentation of the trick I thought that it was gonna be a daemon to learn, but it turned out to be Micky Mouse with a mega phone & All the moves are explained really well (& Ad nausium) by Richard Sanders - I was getting most of the moves within 10min of watching the DVD & would have probably had it polished enough to perform by yesterday if I hadn't accidently taken the ropes out with me (I'd put them in my pocket after practise & then gone out with some friends) & lost the one piece , so now I need to replace my rope

Overall

This trick will go down well with all ages & all performance situations (can be done close-up or stage)
It's super visual; packs small & plays big & is about 5min long
10/10
C.U.P.S = 12/10

I agree, I bought this about a month ago as I loved the performance that opens the DVD. I too expected it to be seriously hard but found it much easier than expected. I spent the first two hours just watching the performance over and over again - it's that visual.

The instructions are recorded very well on the DVD, some of the best that I've seen and I found the hardest part was to memorise the sequence of moves in the right order, along with the patter. There are two different performance suggestions included on the DVD and the timing of the patter is important as this provides some of the misdirection.

Please don't rush out and buy this DVD as I want to be one of the few performing it. Seriously, this is a fantastic routine, highly visual and does everything it says on the box. I performed it today as it happens, and received 'wow' comments. People don't know what to expect, what's coming up and by the time they see the move, let alone trying to figure it out, you're already into the next move in the routine.

It also fits nicely into the middle of my cut and restored routine if I want to pad it out, not that it's needed, but it's just a nice option to have!

One point to watch out for. DO watch the whole preperation section before cutting your rope to size! I paused the DVD after Sanders gave his preferred measurements but then found the ropes to be far too small for me (6ft 7" tall you see). The DVD shows you how to measure a custom length of rope and I watched for the length of the rope against sanders body when he was holding it straight in the performance (roughly shoulder to knee). I then cut the same for my rope which probably makes my ropes about 10" longer. Cut the small piece first and keep this to the same recommended length unless you have large hands in which case add about an inch.

Also, because of the handling I found that the ends of the ropes fray VERY quickly so the first thing that I did was to bind the ends with some cotton to stop this. Works a treat!

Good luck!

This arrived yesterday and I spent about an hour last night on the first 3 moves (out of 22). Its surprisingly easy and when I showed my family the results - three different length ropes become all the same length, then two of them combine into one long rope, the look on their faces was all I needed to tell - this is a real winner and the ropes are completely examinable! Fantastic.

Hi all

I don't own fibre optics, but would like to give you my reaction on how it went when I saw it.

It was only two weeks ago, and I had a pre-audiotion for an audition, with my local circle. Another candidate was there, and he got out the three ropes, and decided to get the ball rolling. The guy who was watching us, looked at the other guy, and rolled his eyes, as if to say, "Oh no, not this again" Even I thought he would just be doing proffesser nightmare, which I learned as a young kid.

But then he started the routine, and we all kinda sat up together. He performed it so well, and it really is a beautiful routine. I must say, I was stunned. He said himself, he only bought two weeks prior to the interview, and he had it to a T.

I was a layperson to that trick (like I am to a lot ) and I highly recommend it. As was said, packs small, plays big.

Nice one by Richard Sanders, love his stuff.... off to practice now

Mark

Although the Sander's taught routine starts with three ropes, I start with a single 2.5 metre rope which is cut by a spec into what they believe are three ropes of the same length. I show these before putting one aside and then go into the fibre optics routine from that point.

I don't do the professors nightmare section until then end of the firbre optics routine which is the first time that the short peice of rope is shown.

I then restore the rope back to a single piece as in Joe Riding's 'roped in' routine. I end by giving out the restored rope as a souvineer.

Firbre optics is without doubt one of the best rope routines out there. Extremely strong and visual stuff.

Anything like this one http://www.emagictricks.co.uk/product_i ... ts_id=4946 ?

Thanks Mandrake - I haven't seen this one before and the CUPS is kicking in.

There are some similarities in presentation but the way that I perform uses a different technique. I can see how most of the demo is done through knowledge of other rope effects that I do. There are some interesting subtleties.

My variation on Fibre Optics is taken, as credited from Joe Ridings roped in routine.

I'll study and write a review when it arrives.

ritcherd sanders (sorry about my spelling) is really good at explaining fiber optics. if you enjoyed fiber optics GET SLOW BURN it rocks

hugh wrote:ritcherd sanders (sorry about my spelling) is really good at explaining fiber optics. if you enjoyed fiber optics GET SLOW BURN it rocks

If you KNEW you'd spelled it wrong, why type it? The correct spelling was at the head of the topic post?

oops sorry about that i am new to magic forums

I got this about a week ago, I was looking for rope magic because it packs small, plays big and it's so versatile.

I couldn't decide whether to get the 'Award Winning magic of Francis Tabary' (which is a book) or 'Fibre Optics'. As a newbie to rope magic I thought that learning the moves from a DVD would be easier, I could see how they flow.

The great thing is that you can mix and match the moves with each other, though I don't think I'm going to do that because I'm not experienced in rope magic so it would be easier to learn the routine than do it as it came to me, though I'm sure more experienced rope magicians would be happy varying their routine depending on the audience and situation.

One thing that I would have liked to have seen is him performing the routine to both a live close up audience (table hopping perhaps - as he suggests) and to an audience on stage. He actually shows you the routine close-up and stage but there is not much difference apart from they zoom it out a tiny bit for the stage view. I think on many DVDs (with the exception of L & L DVDs!!) there could be a lot added to seeing the routine performed to a live audience.

By the way, it is availabe from http://www.magicbox.uk.com/exec.php/pro ... /11590/61/

Last point, Richard Sanders has very annoying laugh.

Whilst I agree with you in principle, I don't think that seeing this routine worked live would add anything that isn't already covered in the teaching. My own view is that many (I admit not all) of the DVD's that include live performances do so as they are somewhat week on other content and / or the live footage is used as a convincer for what may be considered by some as a weak routine.

Fibre optics is strong routine that works well in a close up situation but like everything else, you need lots of practice and confidence in your performance. It is also not as angle sensitive as you may think, when performed in a live situation but it's still worth giving consideration to angles, none the less.

Although Fibre Optics is flexible and with experience, you can flit from move to move and re-arrange the moves but I would also recommend the Tabary material as there is even more rope trickery from what I have seen and heard so far.

dat8962 wrote:...Also, because of the handling I found that the ends of the ropes fray VERY quickly so the first thing that I did was to bind the ends with some cotton to stop this. Works a treat!

Good luck!

Sorry Dave, this may seem obvious, but how did you exactly go about binding the rope ends with cotton? Does the binding in any way get in the way of your performance or affect the ropes versatility? Does it matter if the binding can be seen? And what is the thickness of the rope you use?

I apologise in advance for all the questions, but you seem to be quite knowledgeable in this area. So any advice coming from you would be much welcomed and appreciated.

Not a problem Costas - always happy to help.

Firstly, buy some cotton and a sewing needle. Match the cotton to the colour of your rope but I will assume that you're using white rope. Thread the needle with the cotton and then sew a little of the cotton onto the end of the rope. When the cotton is fixed, just then wrap it around the end as tight as you can without breaking the cottor. Make sure that it's neat and I then to wrap about 4 or 5 millimetres of the end in cotton. Then sew the cotton back into the rope end so that what you have wrapped is attached and won't come loose. Then, simply take some sharp scissors and and trim the remaining end and the fray neatly down to the cotton. Repeat on the ends of the other ropes.

What you should now have is three lengths of rope with the ends bound, but the specs WILL NOT notice this and it makes no difference at all to your handling - it just stops the ends of the rope fraying and unravelling as you perfrom with them. I use standard thickness rope and if you look at my video postings of this and other rope routines in the FIle Sharing section you will see what I mean.

On Tabary's rope video he recommends that once you've cut your rope you can dip the ends in glue and let them harden. This will also stop the ends fraying although I haven't tried it yet. I think something like UHU would be best as it's a general and clear adhesive.

Anyone had any experience with dying ropes? I want some black rope but can't get it anywhere so was thinking of using some clothes dye that you put in the washing machine.

I didn't know Richard Sanders until I get this video. And I'm really amazed. He's really great guy, entertaining and can teach well.
I think I will get the other dvds he did(with cards), I hope they are as good as this one.