Karrell's
"TRICK-KEY" CASE
My
favorite of the many brilliant conceptions of
the late Al Koran is his effect where a finger
ring is borrowed, vanished and reappears inside
a leather key case, fastened to one of the key
holders. As good as the effect is, the method
(although good also), was not a practical method
for me to use under the conditions that I normally
work close-up. To re-set the original, version,
you have to leave the room and remove your coat.
The conditions that I work under seldom give
me time to even reset a one-way force deck,
therefore I searched for a simplification of
method that would give me the same effect.
The
following method is what I came up with. I've
used it for a couple of years and have shared
it with a few of my closest magic pals. Just
recently, I decided before my method gets lost
to oblivion (oblivion is a guy who gets credit
for a lot of tricks), that I would share it
with all of you. Buy yourself a nice leather
key case. It should be the regular threefold
type case. There's a metal bar at the top of
the center panel, and fastened to it are the
snap-on ' swivel key holders. The center holder
must be sprung open slightly so that it actually
becomes a hook. Don't open it too much, just
enough so that a finger ring can be slipped
on and off it easily. That's all the 'gaffing'
you need. You need no 'reel' or any other gimmick
for my method. (How's that for simplification?)
You'll
next need a method for vanishing the rings.
I use a ring box, into which I place the borrowed
ring, and then as the box is closed, the ring
is stolen out. This super move is the brain-child
of my old buddy Walt Rollins, and is fully described
in a trick of Walt's put out by Magic Inc. called
"Ring-O." You should have this anyway, but in
case you don't, you could use the old dodge
(since I work a lot of shows for a car company
of the same name, I use the word a lot) of having
a duplicate ring sewn into a little corner pocket
of your handkerchief.
Now,
back to the key case. Put keys on all the holders
(except the one you opened up). I use the aluminum
keys they sell now in bright colors. You twist
the center hook outside of the case, and then
snap the case together leaving the "hook" outside
(see drawing). The placement of the key case,
I leave to you. You might want to put it in
your side coat (hooks down) on my left side,
just under my coat.
WORKING:
Borrow
the ring. Apparently place it in the ring box
or under the hanky. Either way the ring ends
up secretly palmed in your right hand. The right
hand reaches for the key case and at the same
time slips the ring onto the hook. I've found
the best way to do this is to push the ring
all the way up on the shank of the hook, and
then as you pull the ring downward it will slip
onto the hook. (Fig. 2.) The right hand then
raises the case with the key concealed in the
right palm (Fig. 3.). By this time, the ring
has vanished and the magi says "Sorry, but I'll
give you my car instead. That's if you can pick
out the key that starts it." I've put the patter
before the move, so here's the move.
 As
you lift the key case into view, the back of
hand is towards spectators in order to hide
the ring. The case can be revolved between the
thumb and first finger without the ring showing.
After the finish line of the patter, unsnap
the case with your left thumb and finger and
pull the case slightly to the left. This will
pull the ring from your right fingers into the
rest of the bunch of keys as they fall from
the case. After they see the ring, you (with
some pretended difficulty please) remove the
ring for them.
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