Magic Kit
You’ve seen them before. These kits can be found in toy stores and online, promising to provide any experience you could ever want. They offer everything you need, from the small stage to the tiny microphones, right down to the instruction booklet with easy-to-follow diagrams and step-by-step instructions.
You’ve probably been tempted at one point or another — but what’s inside of these fancy packages?
We explore how these sets came about and what they contain. We’ll explore the origins of the two most popular magic kits, as well as how they’ve evolved over time.
Some may be surprised to learn that these sets don’t contain magic at all. Instead, they are designed to promote creativity and imagination in children. But great magicians like Dynamo got their start in their early years with a magic set. By focusing on these areas, the people behind the kits hope to cultivate a greater interest in music and other forms of art and entertainment.
Magic sets first came about in Germany sometime during the 19th century. They provided children with everything they’d need to host their own “magic show,” but didn’t contain any real magical elements — instead, they served as a platform for children’s creativity and imagination.
The First Magic Kits
The first magic kit box was patented in Germany in 1891, and by the end of the century, there were more than 200 different magic set toys on the market. During this time, many companies were producing kits, but only two are still around today.
They’re both German companies and both take their name from a popular magic trick called “Bilbao.” In this trick, a performer covers his hand with a glove that’s filled with plaster (hence the term “glove trick”). The performer then waves his hand over a cloth that’s tied to a rope hanging down from the ceiling. The rope is attached to the glove through a small hook, when the hook falls through the loop in the cloth, it’s caught by the rope and held fast. This makes it appear as if the performer’s hand has vanished, but the rope is tied off at various points around the room. It’s a convincing illusion.
The name of that trick comes from Bilbao in Spain, and this is where part of this story begins. In 1880, a man named Juan Jose de la Cruz was at a circus show in Bilbao when he saw someone perform an act involving a magic trick that leaves him invisible. It was convincing It caused him to faint.
Taken by the act, De la Cruz invented a similar trick using a cloth instead of the rope, allowing him to vanish his hand even with his arm outstretched. Another performer saw this act and bought it from him, adding it to his own act.
This performer’s name was Joseph Pappenheimer and he took the trick around Germany with great success. He traveled much he eventually became known as “The Bilbao King.” He had such a following he never needed to use an assistant to make the trick work; he could do it himself.
In 1892, Pappenheimer was in a small town called Wiesbaden when someone approached him with an idea for a new trick. They asked him to make the illusion even more convincing by pulling on both ends of the rope at the same time. Pappenheimer agreed, but the trick didn’t work well. He suggested they try something else.
As a way for Pappenheimer to remember what they were trying to do, the other performer placed a piece of paper in his pocket with the name “Bilbao.” Somehow this idea became associated with the existing trick, and by 1902 every zoom magician had begun referring to any trick involving a cloth as “the Bilbao Trick.”
While there are several ways you can perform the Bilbao Illusion, it became famous when it was used on stage. In 1903, someone at an opera performed it during the magic act. The audience loved it much they demanded Pappenheimer perform it every night.
This led to other performers adding the trick to their acts, but none of them used Pappenheimer himself. With his popularity fading, Pappenheimer moved on and eventually ended up in Germany’s Black Forest, where he started working as a lumberjack.
Meanwhile, someone else in Germany was taking advantage of the popularity that the Bilbao Trick had generated. In 1907, some businessmen took this trick and created a magic set based around it, with dice and playing cards. In 1912, they started a business called “Die Schwindelfirma Bilbao GmbH,” which translates to “The Bilbao Company of Swindlers. ” They advertised the kit as being able to perform the Bilbao Trick. In other words, it was only a few steps from being a regular magic set.
The kit was popular and became one of the first kits available in department stores across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It eventually spread to other countries. But when World War I started in 1914, many of these companies moved out of Germany and brought their Bilbao Kits with them. One of these was the Swiss company Guido Huwiler & Co., which ended up moving its entire factory to France in 1922. There, they released a new kit called “Pappenheimer’s Magic Kit.”
As for Joseph Pappenheimer himself? He didn’t retire entirely. After moving to Switzerland, he continued to work as a lumberjack. On October 18th, 1928, he was knocked unconscious by a falling tree and died before he could receive proper medical attention.
Among the numerous effects in the original magic kit box was one called “The Bird Cage,” a simple two-person trick that left spectators mystified when performed on stage. Because of its popularity, it became the most copied effect in magician magic history.
During the 1910s and 1920s, performers like Robert Harbin and The Three Deuces toured the United States to perform this trick. In the early days of television, many shows broadcasted magic shows in their entirety . During this time, The Bird Cage was a familiar sight on many sets.
Eventually, it became familiar that most people associated it with learning magic tricks on television. Longtime viewers remember how in 1984, a desperate magician performed The Bird Cage on an episode of “The Merv Griffin Show.” Though he only got one bird out of a cage for his big finish, most viewers still felt cheated because they expected him to be able to get all three birds out of his small cabinet. It was a bad trick and an embarrassment for the magician, who was dressed as a carrot.
The trick which helped make The Bird Cage famous has its origins in Germany. In 1924, a man named Walter Coutts invented an illusion called “The Miracle Trapeze” that fooled audiences everywhere. It involved two people standing on either end of a bar while the other person sat between them on a trapeze (hence the name). The performer would pull on one side then swing across to give the appearance of flying in mid-air.
In 1929, someone modified this act to include caged birds instead of people. It became known as “The Cage Act.” The deception involved the birds flying out of their cages to perch on the performer’s shoulders, while he spun around inside a cage of his own.
While this trick was popular in Germany, it wasn’t until 1932 that someone figured out how to do it on television. That year, magician James Randi released a video showing how to do The Cage Act for home viewers . Whether it still fooled audiences after doing is unknown.
It’s unclear why this trick became popular in Germany. Possibly because they had more caged birds than people? Who knows? But thanks to German performers like Hans Klaff and Harry Blackstone Sr . It has become one of the most impressive things you can do as a magician on television.
Since its beginning in the early 1900s, magician magic has constantly been changing. Many early tricks have been forgotten or replaced by newer ones that are more impressive. But The Bird Cage and Bilbao Illusion both remain at the top of their games even today. Regardless of the magic kit price, magic sets have proven to be two of the most enduring examples in all magic, having changed with each decade and carrying on for over a hundred years.
it all started with a piece of ripped paper and an idea for a new magic trick.
