Price$3.50
Media TypeTrick
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedMar 16, 2003
Bashful Lock
Royal Magic
(Based on 3 reviews)
Reviews
(Top ▲)
Overview
I have performed with this little marvel on my TV series over the years. It always gets a lovely reaction from the stumped helper as these little challenges do.
I learned very early in my long career in the broadcasting media that these silly little stunts set a really good scene for presentations of a larger nature. I had a formula for many years. One silly but fun, one where you teach something and one final flabbergaster or illusion. It's such a sturdy format.
Luckily I have had the original 'West Germany' lock since I was a child. These, if they can be found, are beautifully made and do look solid and convincing. These, like all of the other early versions, were meant to be a trick you performed after using a large hole in the centre to cut a cigar. Seems like a quite okay thing to do in a casual atmosphere though I am still have no idea about cigars and their cutting but that must happen to the cigars we have always understood to be rolled on the comely thighs of the ladies in Cuban cigar factories. If ever there was a presentation idea then that is it.
I also love the wonderful sense of ingenuity with this lock. The creator seems to have understood a lot about how humans behave. When any person puts the lock, with both hands, behind their back to open it they automatically turn the lock upside down and thus completing the skulduggery. In that unique moment, the lock can be opened. They pull the two sides apart. Then when they close it and bring to the front they automatically hold it upright which locks it. The exasperation on their faces as they can't open it again is priceless.
How very, very clever and much more ingenious than 90 per cent of magic apparatus that we know and love. The principle is marvellously far ahead of, say, the primitive bumping of cups on a surface to make a ball appear.
The 'foreign' sort of locks are cheap and they do rust. That's why they sold for less than 50 cents when they were first knocked-off from West Germany by Japan. In their 'let's copy everything the West loves' days. I would say you could easily step out on a Tonight show and get a huge reaction with one of these from the host. Nice lead in to a Thumb Tie … with lots of hands going behind backs and hilarious skirmishes.
The little things do seem to count.
(Top ▲)
WHAT YOU GET
You get a cheap little lock with no keyhole and written instructions on a piece of paper roughly twice the size of a business card, single sided.
WHAT IS COOL
This could possibly be part of a cool routine, but the instructions didn't provide a single idea for ANYTHING that I think would pass for magic. What they described, most any child would figure out in a few seconds.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
I think the problem with this is that in my opinion, you have to come up with a cool magic effect that is not just about you being able to open the lock and others not. The reason is that when I first saw this, I thought “I bet the lock will open depending upon how you hold the lock”. That is the only possible method. I feel like anyone with half a brain will figure it out.
I thought of one idea in the suggestion section, I’m not sure how strong it is.
Product Quality: It is a cheap looking thing that sort of looks like a lock, maybe. It actually looks more like some sort of bug with pinchers and no legs. It does seem to work as described, but I’m not sure how long it would last. It would probably last a long time if taken care of. I don' think it would stand up to even accidental abuse.
Method: There really isn’t a magic trick described or explained. Personally, I don’t think presenting this as a lock that only you can open is even a magic trick, and I think that most any participant will figure out how to open it, probably in around 15 seconds.
While the instructions do not say anything about this, the lock has the engraving: “I will open behind your back”. I believe this is designed to throw people off as you suggest that anyone could open it behind their back, but only you can. However, that set my 11 year old back only a few seconds and then she figured it out.
Explanation Quality: The “explanation” is literally 22 words long. It is an explanation of how to open the lock, not really an explanation of a magic trick.
Ad Copy Integrity: The ad copy is not terrible, as they describe it as “a puzzler”. However, they also say: “that will keep your friends guessing”. Of course, that would only work if your friends are either toddlers, idiots or heavily intoxicated.
AT A GLANCE
Skill level required: 1 of 5.
Audience management skill required: 5 of 5. It is just too easy for someone to figure out.
It is really a puzzle and on a scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty, I would rate this one 0.5.
Performance angles: 360 degrees
Reset time required: You can reset in front of your audience.
DIY time involved in advance: None.
VERDICT
This is NOT a magic trick. It is a VERY puzzle that is not much of a puzzler. My 11 year old daughter figured it out in 10 seconds. Even though I thought up a couple routines which could use this prop in perhaps very entertaining routines, I rated this low because the creators thought of literally NOTHING that would be magical.
Since the lock looks like a bug with pinchers, perhaps it would be good to draw a little bug on blank card stock, cut it out, and stick it to the lock with double sided tape.
Routine Idea One: Perhaps you could incorporate this into a three card monte routine. Let’s say you have a monte routine that uses one or more gimmicked cards. Punch holes in them close to the top edge so that they can be secured by the lock. Then, get matching ungimmicked cards, punch similar holes, and place them in your pocket with some sort of divider. Place the gimmicked cards in the same pocket on the other side of the divider. Do your monte routine and then put the cards away. Then offer to show them something weird. Take out the ungimmicked cards and place the money card in the middle of two cards and lock them in the “bug”. Tell them that this “bug lock” will only release it’s prey with a magnet and an internal combination. Tell them that it works like an old fashioned school locker combination lock, but you use an external magnet to rotate three internal disks that must all line up for it to open. Hold the cards so the lock dangles down and ask them to try to open it. They won’t be able to. Show your hands empty, show the money card in the middle and have them place a handkerchief over your hands. If you practice this, you can open the lock and transfer one card from one end to the other, placing the money card at one end instead of the middle. You tell them that the handkerchief is enough to confuse anyone into forgetting where their card was. “For all the money in the world, where is your card?” Of course, they are going to say it is the middle. Show them that their card has jumped to the top or the bottom. I would suggest that in this routine, you never open the lock again and you simply tear our their card, write something inspirational on the card, sign and date it, and give it out as a lucky souvenir.
Routine Idea Two: If you use a ruse that the lock will only open around 24 hours after being closed, you could use this in a borrowed ring routine. If you combine this with a Himber ring routine, you could create a comedy routine where you talk about how the pincher bug will only close up on your ring, and you demonstrate putting the "jaws" of the pincher bug over your ring for just a split second and then pull it back, as if it wasn't enough time for it to close. You then borrow three rings and you have them magically link to each other and you accidentally have the pincher bug attach to their ring. You can then have them say silly things to try to get the pincher bug to "release". If you hold the ring so the lock dangles from below, they will not be able to open it as you hand is in the way for them to hold it upside down.
Of course, these are just brainstorming ideas, but the point is that I think this really needs to be incorporated into a different routine where it DOESN’T become a challenge to open the lock. As you can see from the Monte routine above, the routine is not about the challenge to open the lock, it is about the cards moving impossibly on the lock.
You get a cheap little lock with no keyhole and written instructions on a piece of paper roughly twice the size of a business card, single sided.
WHAT IS COOL
This could possibly be part of a cool routine, but the instructions didn't provide a single idea for ANYTHING that I think would pass for magic. What they described, most any child would figure out in a few seconds.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
I think the problem with this is that in my opinion, you have to come up with a cool magic effect that is not just about you being able to open the lock and others not. The reason is that when I first saw this, I thought “I bet the lock will open depending upon how you hold the lock”. That is the only possible method. I feel like anyone with half a brain will figure it out.
I thought of one idea in the suggestion section, I’m not sure how strong it is.
Product Quality: It is a cheap looking thing that sort of looks like a lock, maybe. It actually looks more like some sort of bug with pinchers and no legs. It does seem to work as described, but I’m not sure how long it would last. It would probably last a long time if taken care of. I don' think it would stand up to even accidental abuse.
Method: There really isn’t a magic trick described or explained. Personally, I don’t think presenting this as a lock that only you can open is even a magic trick, and I think that most any participant will figure out how to open it, probably in around 15 seconds.
While the instructions do not say anything about this, the lock has the engraving: “I will open behind your back”. I believe this is designed to throw people off as you suggest that anyone could open it behind their back, but only you can. However, that set my 11 year old back only a few seconds and then she figured it out.
Explanation Quality: The “explanation” is literally 22 words long. It is an explanation of how to open the lock, not really an explanation of a magic trick.
Ad Copy Integrity: The ad copy is not terrible, as they describe it as “a puzzler”. However, they also say: “that will keep your friends guessing”. Of course, that would only work if your friends are either toddlers, idiots or heavily intoxicated.
AT A GLANCE
Skill level required: 1 of 5.
Audience management skill required: 5 of 5. It is just too easy for someone to figure out.
It is really a puzzle and on a scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty, I would rate this one 0.5.
Performance angles: 360 degrees
Reset time required: You can reset in front of your audience.
DIY time involved in advance: None.
VERDICT
This is NOT a magic trick. It is a VERY puzzle that is not much of a puzzler. My 11 year old daughter figured it out in 10 seconds. Even though I thought up a couple routines which could use this prop in perhaps very entertaining routines, I rated this low because the creators thought of literally NOTHING that would be magical.
Suggestions
I really racked my brain as to how to make this work in a magic routine. It is interesting looking, as I said earlier, it looks like some sort of legless bug with pinchers. So, I came up with two ideas:Since the lock looks like a bug with pinchers, perhaps it would be good to draw a little bug on blank card stock, cut it out, and stick it to the lock with double sided tape.
Routine Idea One: Perhaps you could incorporate this into a three card monte routine. Let’s say you have a monte routine that uses one or more gimmicked cards. Punch holes in them close to the top edge so that they can be secured by the lock. Then, get matching ungimmicked cards, punch similar holes, and place them in your pocket with some sort of divider. Place the gimmicked cards in the same pocket on the other side of the divider. Do your monte routine and then put the cards away. Then offer to show them something weird. Take out the ungimmicked cards and place the money card in the middle of two cards and lock them in the “bug”. Tell them that this “bug lock” will only release it’s prey with a magnet and an internal combination. Tell them that it works like an old fashioned school locker combination lock, but you use an external magnet to rotate three internal disks that must all line up for it to open. Hold the cards so the lock dangles down and ask them to try to open it. They won’t be able to. Show your hands empty, show the money card in the middle and have them place a handkerchief over your hands. If you practice this, you can open the lock and transfer one card from one end to the other, placing the money card at one end instead of the middle. You tell them that the handkerchief is enough to confuse anyone into forgetting where their card was. “For all the money in the world, where is your card?” Of course, they are going to say it is the middle. Show them that their card has jumped to the top or the bottom. I would suggest that in this routine, you never open the lock again and you simply tear our their card, write something inspirational on the card, sign and date it, and give it out as a lucky souvenir.
Routine Idea Two: If you use a ruse that the lock will only open around 24 hours after being closed, you could use this in a borrowed ring routine. If you combine this with a Himber ring routine, you could create a comedy routine where you talk about how the pincher bug will only close up on your ring, and you demonstrate putting the "jaws" of the pincher bug over your ring for just a split second and then pull it back, as if it wasn't enough time for it to close. You then borrow three rings and you have them magically link to each other and you accidentally have the pincher bug attach to their ring. You can then have them say silly things to try to get the pincher bug to "release". If you hold the ring so the lock dangles from below, they will not be able to open it as you hand is in the way for them to hold it upside down.
Of course, these are just brainstorming ideas, but the point is that I think this really needs to be incorporated into a different routine where it DOESN’T become a challenge to open the lock. As you can see from the Monte routine above, the routine is not about the challenge to open the lock, it is about the cards moving impossibly on the lock.
(Top ▲)
I don't know a magician who actually uses one of these-I did however, come across a performer/author on the internet, who does include the Bashful Lock, in one of his story telling routines. A Google or two would provide the reference, as I cannot recall his name. I keep this, along with a few other items, for when I know I'll be meeting up with children. It's an innocent little puzzle/trick-and it's quarter size and design seem appropriate for small hands. This lock actually had another function in days gone by-it was fashioned out of sturdier metal, and was used as a locking cigar cutter. It also reminds me of something that one may have received as a Cracker Jack prize, but, back in the 1940's or 50's. It just has that penny arcade prize quality to it, and speaks of another era-back when toys and tricks were simpler, and made of more natural materials.