Call Back
(My take on the nest of boxes)
by Isaac Louie

Isaac Louie is a variety performer based in the Pacific Northwest. Recently he's written a book called "Scan This Book" which is full of magic tricks, mentalism, gags and promo giveaways using barcodes that can be scanned with a smart phone. For information about this book visit: http://www.BarcodeTricks.com

One thing I’ve never like is how most magicians perform the nest the of boxes trick. They borrow an object, it disappears and it’s in the box, all in a nice 5 minute chunk that wraps itself up nicely. I
think there are a couple reasons most magicians do it that way is
that:

1) That’s how everyone else does it

2) The box is expensive and they want to get a whole routine (or as much time as they can) out of it.

The problem I have with most presentations is the flow. They borrow a watch and it disappears. Any reasonably smart person in the audience will know it’s going to reappear somewhere. The magician keeps the person on stage and introduces the box. Once again any reasonably smart person in the audience will know the watch is going to come out of the box. Then the box is open and sure enough eventually the watch is in the innermost box and this nice linear flow takes away most of the surprise factor of the trick and it becomes a puzzle.

Before I start with my solution let me tell you a little bit about my background. I’m a full time performer and I work in a variety of different markets from Comedy Clubs, to Schools, to Casinos to just about everything. I got my start working in the comedy clubs performing a hodge podge of stand up comedy and some magic. In comedy
writing there is a thing called a “Call Back”, it’s where you refer to something that you mentioned in an earlier joke…and that was my starting point to my presentation of the nest of boxes.

Also for what it’s worth this will apply to any “impossible location” that you can load with the object in full view. So things like a Mullica type wallet would work or even a Bill To Lemon if you put the lemon is in a paper bag.

Here’s the basics of my routine: At the beginning of the show I introduce the box and mention that no one has ever guessed what’s inside it. Now I have people make guesses and I give some humorous clues (which are actual clues, but funny). I put the box on the edge of the stage or with someone in the audience and say, “We’ll open this a bit later in the show and if anyone guessed it correctly you get to keep what’s inside.”

Around the middle of my show I do a trick where a signed borrowed dollar disappear and ends up reappearing at the end trick. At the end of the trick I trade the signed dollar for one that’s not written on. Here’s what has happened the dollar trick has nicely wrapped itself up and in the audience’s mind the signed dollar is out of
play…but I have it. Most of the audience will forget you even have the signed dollar! However the goal is to get the signed bill in your possession, not necessarily make them forget you have it (it’s a bonus if they forget).

Now the 2nd to last thing I do in the show I reintroduce the box which has been sitting on the floor, or better yet in the audience on a table or a chair next to someone. Bring it onstage and recall some of the more interesting guesses that people made. Open the box and reveal the signed dollar!

That's the bare bones of the routine. Over the spring and summer I ended up doing this routine about 175+ times and for me it’s proved to be a hard hitting routine.

Having the Nest of Boxes as a call back instead of a tight routine really puts the surprise back into the Impossible Location effect. By doing a bit where I have people guess what’s inside allows me to get the boxes in play early on so the audience is aware of them long before they are used and I get about the same amount of time in the show out of the Nest of Boxes as if I had just it in one straight little routine.

Also recently I have made one change to the routine. In the show I also do a trick with a signed jumbo card. So I’ve been loading both the signed jumbo card and the signed dollar into the Nest of Boxes at the end of the show. I’ve found it gets better reaction than just the dollar about half the time, the other half it gets about the same reaction as just the dollar. Personally I’m fine with the little bitof extra work to get a better reaction half the time!

If you are interested in my full routine there is a video of it on my DVD lecture notes that I put together for a lecture I did at Kramien Magic Jamboree, you can get that on my website: www.isaaclouie.com

I’ve also used this idea close up with the Coin in Nest of Boxes (the round brass ones). You just need to have two sets. One set you introduce at the beginning and you switch in the one with the signed coin later in the show…but still delay the revelation till the end. I switch out the boxes while moving things on the table to clear space to do the Endless Chain trick. When the tricks flow isn’t linear it will make it much harder for the audience to remember you ever touching the Coin in Nest of Boxes to switch it out (and takes a ton of heat off the switch). However in a close up walkaround type situation this is a bit tricky to reset easily, so I save it for special groups.

Inspiration: I was love the idea of bringing the signed object to a second location. I was first turned onto this in one of Gary Oullette’s Fulminations columns in Genii where he talked about card to wallet and the only reason you do it is after you pull it out the first time, you immediately reload it and reproduce it a second time.

Isaac Louie