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Some beautiful magic tables are manufactured by my friends, Ed and Joy Wilcox. I had them make up a special top hat table in red glitter plastic for my ìchild-brideî Lynn, to use in her magic dance routine. There was a good picture of Lynn and this table in my book, ìClever, Like a Foxî (page 161).
Lynn used this routine in a variety revue that we were both appearing in, so the fact that the large top hat was rather bulky and heavy, didnÃt bother her because she had a husband to carry it around for her. When she started using the table for shows where I would not be working with her, she and I set about to design a similar top hat table that would be collapsible, would fit in a suitcase, be a lot easier to handle, to set up and break down. We came up with a table that fills these requirements perfectly. In fact, it worked out so well for her that I borrow it to use myself occasionally.
| HereÃs the way the finished ìHatableî looks. Conversation: Photographer… ìDad, this shot is too dark. Let me take overî …Father…(sternly) ìNever mind, if I do that it will hold the book up a few more days and Edwin will write me a threatening letter!î |
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To build it, I drew an oval (for the brim of the hat) on a piece of quarter inch plywood. A circle was drawn inside the oval and when this is sawed out, it becomes the bottom of the hat. This brim and bottom are the only wooden parts of the table.
Next, take some heavy black materialóof course, you can use any color; we used a black with a silver fleck in it. Take a piece of the material and using the wooden circle, you cut for the hatÃs bottom, forming the cloth around it.
What you need is a cylinder of material about 12 inches high. One inch at each end of this cylinder should be cut around the entire circumference with slits. Using glue or staples, fasten the hat bottom, inside one end of the cylinder. The other end has the strips glued or stapled to the brim of the hat. When this is done, cut a circle of black felt in the same manner as you did the wooden parts. Cover the top and outside bottom part of the hat with the felt, by gluing it in place.
Fasten your table base flange to the hat as in illustration. We also used a chrome drum stand base for the table, which you can buy in any music store. As you can see by the photo, it makes a novel, attractive table, that only weighs a couple of pounds and packs perfectly flat in your prop case. Pretty nice, isnÃt it?
ìCLEVER LIKE A FOX is another of the beautiful lifeÃs work books from Supreme. This time from the funny and commercial mind of AmericaÃs own Karrell Fox. Contents include material from Mr. Fox which may surprise many including Close-up, Cards, Platform Magic, Mentalism, stage material, lecture notes and novelties and MORE AND MORE. A fine work.î
óTom Zoss, (Columnist in M.U.M Magazine)
ìI still havenÃt FULLY digested the excellent contents of CLEVER LIKE A FOX. Indeed a book which should be on every magicianÃs bookshelf and one which I personally highly recommend, full of practical material for the serious working performer.î
Christopher Woodward, Jersey
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