xx Marvin teaches Lights From Anywhere xx
This unique magical invention will allow you to capture everyone’s imagination, start a fun conversation or even lighten the mood at any gathering.
These special Lights from Anywhere props are designed to look like the end of your thumb, and appear almost invisible when worn – especially when your hands are in motion.
Don’t worry if your skin tone is either lighter or darker than the thumb tips. No one will be paying attention to your thumbs – just the lights. Also, as described later, the thumbs are hidden behind your fingers. Inside each thumb is a specially designed light mechanism. This mechanism is secured in place and cannot be removed.
Using Lights from Anywhere
To use the Lights from Anywhere, slide them onto your thumbs until you touch the secret mechanism inside. If you force your thumb in too far, the light will come on all the time. If that happens, just pull your thumb out slightly and the light will go off.
With the thumb tip in place, you can turn the light on and off at any time just by applying a little pressure between your thumb and fingers.
To keep the thumb tip out of sight as much as possible, move your hands in a smooth and fluid motion and casually hide your thumb behind your fingers. You can also point your thumbs toward your spectators without the thumb tips being obvious.
Making a Light Appear
To apparently pluck a light out of thin air is very easy with your secret Lights from Anywhere devices. However, to create a perfect illusion you must practise in front of a mirror. With a thumb tip on your right thumb, reach forward and pinch the air as if grabbing a small object between your thumb and fingers. As your fingers touch, the pressure will light the thumb tip.
Remember to act as if the light were a ‘real’ object that you have ‘caught’ in mid-flight. Hold it gently as if you have captured a delicate firefly, or maybe pluck it from the air like an apple from a tree.
What gives the illusion a magical quality is your body language as you produce the light!
Making the Light Vanish
Just as important as making a light appear is making it vanish! While apparently holding the light between your thumb and fingers, keep it gently moving so that no one can focus too long on your thumbs.
When you want to make it vanish, you could just release the pressure and let the light go out. However, that would give your audience too long to focus on where the light was coming from.
Instead, make a gesture that draws the audience’s attention away from the thumb tip. For example, you could pretend to throw the light up in the air, put it in your pocket or simply place it back where you apparently found it.
The important thing is to keep your attention (and therefore the audience’s) on where you placed the light, and not on your hands.
A Magical Vanish
A very magical vanish using only one Lights from Anywhere device is to mime placing the light into your empty left hand.
As you apparently leave the light in your left hand, curl your left fingers around the imaginary light as if you are holding it. You can then ask a spectator to blow on your left hand. When you open your hand, it will appear as if the strange light has magically vanished. This very strong magical effect is similar to what magicians call a ‘French Drop’. Of course, because the light is not a real object like a coin or a ball, the move is much easier to perform.
Pass From Hand to Hand
Now you have got the hang of using one thumb tip, you can begin using two. With a thumb tip worn on both thumbs you can immediately begin passing the light from hand to hand. Pluck a light out of the air with your right hand and then mime taking the light in your left hand. Do this by lighting up the left thumb as you release the right thumb.
By passing the light from hand to hand, the light takes on a magical quality.
Throwing From Hand to Hand
Using almost the same technique as the previous effect, it is possible to ‘throw’ the light from hand to hand. Instead of taking the light, mime throwing it. Release the thumb as your make the throw and apply pressure to the other thumb as you mime catching the light. An important point is not to go too fast.
Remember, if you were really throwing a light from hand to hand, it would take a split second to travel the distance between them. The greater the distance, the longer it would take. Make your movements as realistic as possible by considering the timing and the ‘weight’ of the light. This will help create the illusion of it flying through the air.
Throwing to a Friend
A really cool variation of throwing the light is to do it with a friend. By standing a few feet away from each other, a very humorous and visually puzzling game of catch can be achieved. All you do is mime throwing and catching a light. This works especially well in a dark room or at a party. The more people there are around (and even between) you and your accomplice, the more fun will be created as everyone gets in on the act!
Pass Lights Around Your Body
Again, with two lights it is possible to create the illusion that a single light is orbiting your entire body. To do this, produce a light in your right hand and then pass it around your back (out of sight of the audience). As you do this, bring your left hand behind your body and ‘pass’ the light from your right to left hand. Then take your left hand from behind your body to reveal the light.
You can then, if you wish, pass the light back to your right hand in front of your body before passing it again behind your back. This creates the illusion that a single light is travelling around your body.
Through Your Body
A smart variation on the ‘light around your body’ illusion is to take a short-cut and apparently pass the light through your body. Using exactly the same method as passing a light from one hand to another, you can pretend to push the light into your belly button. Next, pull the light out of your back with the other hand!
A Light Snack
Of course, now that you can push lights through your body, you can even pretend to eat them! Simply produce a light from the air and mime putting it into your mouth (making the light vanish as you do so). Pretend to chew the light as if you really had put something in your mouth. Now, you can either ‘spit’ it back into your hand or even pretend to swallow it. You could pretend that the light is cherry-flavoured.
A Light Drink
Next time you are at a party, you can create a cool illusion by holding a glass or bottle while wearing your Lights from Anywhere thumb tip. By pushing the thumb tip against the glass, you can make the entire drink glow!
Radioactive Popcorn
This is a fantastic variation of the previous effect. Instead of a glass of liquid, you perform this next time you are at a cinema with a bag of popcorn. In the dark of the cinema, you will be able to make the entire bag glow. Of course, you can pretend to eat the brightly lit popcorn.
Feeling Light-Headed
Producing a light from thin air, mime pushing it into your right ear. Then, with your other hand, pull it out of your left ear. This is a classic effect with the Lights from Anywhere, so practise timing it to look like the light is travelling through your head!
Hot Ice Cubes
It is said that ice is lighter than water, and now you can prove it by making your ice-cubes light up! Simply pick up an ice cube between thumb and index finger (while secretly wearing your Lights from Anywhere thumb tip). By squeezing, you can make the ice cube light up.
Collecting Lights
A popular routine with Lights from Anywhere is to ‘collect’ lights. Wearing both thumb tips, ‘grab’ a light with your right hand and pass it to your left. Now, pretend to place the light into your left pocket as you grab another light with your right hand. You can repeat this process as many times as you like, apparently finding an endless number of Lights from Anywhere!
Collecting Lights Finale
When you want to get rid of the thumb tips at the end of the trick (this is called ‘ditching’), you can use the following clever method.
Perform the ‘Collecting Lights’ routine for a while, then end on the following variation. Instead of pretending to place a light in your left pocket, actually place the whole thumb tip into your pocket and leave it there. Now produce the final light in your right hand and really pass it to your left (actually take the thumb tip in your left fist). Immediately place that in your left pocket as well. As you perform this last action, mime taking one last light with your right hand but discover that you have apparently run out of lights. As you act disappointed, you will be able to show both your hands completely empty. Both thumb tips are safely stored in your left pocket!
Lights to Pocket
Although the previous method of ditching the thumb tip is very subtle and clever, you may wish to end up with a thumb tip in each pocket instead of both in your left. If this is the case, you can always be very direct and produce the final light in your right hand. Instead of passing it to your left, you can place it straight into your right pocket.
Light Through Spectator’s Hand
When playing with the Lights from Anywhere, it is always important to emphasise that these mysterious lights are real objects appearing and disappearing. Because of this, many spectators will ask if they can hold them! If they do, say, “Why, certainly! Please hold out your hand – but please do not drop it”. As the spectator holds out his or her hand, mime placing a light on their open palm with your right hand. As the light touches their palm, you can pass the light through their hand by ‘plucking’ it out of the back. This is an identical move to passing the light from hand to hand as described earlier. However, because the light is apparently passing through the spectator’s hand as they try to hold it, the effect becomes much stronger and more interactive. Please remember that your spectators are the most important part of the show. You must never try to humiliate them by making them look silly. Don’t overdo this effect!
Throwing a Light in the Air
This is a good way to vanish the light, or even to make the routine feel much bigger. You can pretend to throw a light high into the air and then wait expectantly for it to fall back down.
This pause in the routine can be amusing, as you impatiently wait for the light to reappear. If you like, you can eventually find the light on the floor – or even under a spectator’s foot!
Bouncing Lights
In the same way that you can throw a light from hand to hand, you can also mime bouncing it on the floor and catching it. When you do this, try to mime the weight and timing of the light hitting the floor before you catch it. You may want to practise with a real ball a few times, so you can imagine what it feels like to really bounce an object off the floor. Remember, it is your body language that will sell the illusion of the light bouncing. With practice, this illusion is very strong.
Sticky Light
After a couple of bounces you can try to stamp on the light with your foot. Then you can mime peeling the light off the sole of your shoe like chewing gum. If you want to be really horrible, you could then pretend to pop the light in your mouth and start chewing it!
Did You Drop This?
Following on from the shoe trick, you can have great fun with young children if they are wearing those trainers with the lights in the heels. Bend down and pretend to pick up a light from the floor and ask if they have dropped it. You can then very kindly mime popping it back into their trainer.
Christmas Lights
Actually, you can pretend to break and fix almost any lights you find. A particular favourite of mine is to pretend to pull a light off a Christmas tree, then look worried before magically placing it back where it came from. This is an unexpected and quirky effect!
Splitting the Atom
Up until this point, you have never shown your audience that you have more than one light at a time (even though you are using two thumb tips). Of course, pretending to split a light in two can be very magical. You can then either mime fusing the two lights back together, or maybe pretend to place one in your pocket as a spare.
The Light Vacuum
As a neat variation of eating a light, hold one in front of you and mime sucking it into your mouth (almost like blowing out a candle in reverse).
Blowing Lights
After sucking a light into your mouth, you can blow it back into your hand. Using a kind of ‘spitting’ action, blow the light out and ‘catch’ it in your fingertips.
Glowing Ears
Another illusion you can try is to make your ears glow! To do this, puff out your cheeks as if holding your breath and grab your ears between your thumbs and index fingers. By gently squeezing you can light the thumb tips, which will glow through your ears!
Glowing Banknote
Many shops now have fake banknote detectors at the counter. These usually work by shining a UV light onto a note and, if it glows, then it is a fake. With the help of your Lights from Anywhere, you can make any banknote glow! Next time you are with friends, offer to check if their money is real. Hold the banknote between finger and thumb (hiding the thumb tip behind the note). Begin to rub the note with the other hand, saying that if the note begins to glow it is a fake. You can then light the thumb tip to prove that the note is a forgery!
The Chinese Lantern
Another nice routine with a borrowed banknote and two thumb tips is to wrap the note gently around your thumb and make it light up (like a miniature Chinese lantern). You can then apparently unscrew the light bulb and take it out of the note at any time. To do this, light the other thumb tip and release the first. Finally, put the light back into the lantern before blowing it out.
Jumping Lights
As you pick up and pass lights from hand to hand, you can also create an interesting illusion by apparently putting a light in one place and then pulling it from another. You can make it look like you are teleporting a light from one box to another, or even passing lights through tables, doors, bottles or people!
Live Wire
A fun effect with an electronic safety screwdriver! Usually these screwdrivers only light up when in contact with an electric current. However, when holding a thumb tip, you can make the screwdriver light up at any time. You can make it look as if there are electric currents going through the entire house!
Shaking Tea Bags
It is a little-known fact that if you shake an ordinary tea bag fast enough, it will glow! Of course, this is not really true – but with the help of Lights from Anywhere, you can make it appear to be true!
Something In My Shoe
As you are walking along with friends, start to complain that you have something in your shoe. Stop for a second to take your shoe off and pull out a glowing light!
The Haunted Light Bulb
This is a very spooky effect. Display an ordinary light bulb and a handkerchief. Explain that the light bulb comes from a haunted house, and that it possesses strange powers. Showing your hands empty (although you are secretly wearing one of the thumb tips) hold the light bulb in your right hand and cover it with the handkerchief. Now, at any time you can make it look like the light bulb is glowing by squeezing the thumb tip under the handkerchief. Of course, you can then hand the bulb out for examination, to prove that it is not connected to any other power source!
Appearing Beads
Secretly hide some beads or a necklace in your left hand. Now produce some lights with your right hand.
Mime putting the lights into your left hand over and over, finally opening the hand to reveal the beads. It will appear that the lights have transformed into the beads!
Light-Up Toy
A fun joke you can play with the lights is to pick up a small toy and make it light up as you squeeze it. Casually comment that you never realized the toy lit up before. You will convince everyone that there is a previously unnoticed light inside the toy. Of course, when anyone else tries to find the light, they can’t!