Fun at home and a Vaudeville trick

The Physics Girl, Diana, has a rush challenge of performing 20 at-home physics experiments for bored kids and parents in a 5-minute time limit. Of course, the time limit is optional so take as much fun and try as many as you like. (Some fire is included and grownup supervision is recommended.)

At the very end, I was delighted to see the “Eggs and Glasses” which is just a demonstration of inertia, but used to be part of the stage performances of a Vaudeville magician, Emil Jarrow (1876-1958). A few years ago, I was working on a video archiving project for The Screening Room and came across the master French comedy magician Gaëtan Bloom performing the same stunt on Spanish TV.

It’s a simple thing you can try at home. There’s no secret to it beyond what’s demonstrated in the clip. But if you don’t commit to it, you can have an awful mess to clean up.

A bit of Movie Magic

For the past year, I've been working quietly on a project I'm now thrilled to share. A new addition to The Screening Room, an online archive of vintage magic videos hosted by Magicana brings the private magic video collection of Larry Thornton to the world for free.

Larry Thornton, of Calgary, Alberta, recorded magicians in his hometown and at magic conventions across North America. Many magicians, still well-known today, were captured looking younger than I could imagine. The process of digitizing the 8mm reels has been slow and careful and now the archive is finally available. 

Take a look at a short sneak preview and visit the entire collection through the button below.