Multiplying Magic Between Your Fingers

by David Ginn

I CANNOT RECALL the fi rst time I saw a

magician perform the Multiplying Candle eff ect.

But certainly it was a turning point in my magical

life. Before that —

During my fi rst year in magic, around age twelve,

I acquired my fi rst set of Multiplying Billiard Balls.

Th ey were hollow red plastic about 1.5 inches in

diameter, and I practiced long hours learning the

“billiard ball move” that separated the shell from

a single ball. I developed some kind of routine, I

don’t remember what.

As a teenager reading Th e Tarbell Course in Magic, I learned and practiced thimble

magic, somewhat like billiard balls, except the thimbles appeared on the tips of your

fi ngers. I borrowed my grandmother’s silver thimbles and worked magic with them.

Later I discovered a set of Multiplying Spools of Th read. Yes, there was such a thing.

Th ey were spools with larger holes for fi ngers drilled in them. I used those for a lot of

shows. But the problem with both thimbles and spools was the same — they were too

small to be seen by a crowd of any size.

Once I even had a set of plastic Multiplying Shot Glasses. Th ey were painted with

a dark red color to appear half full of liquid inside. Th e shell was a plastic shot glass

cut in half and hinged with cellophane tape! Now what was a teenage boy in the Bible

belt doing making shot glasses appear by magic? I played with them, but never used

them in a show.

Th en I read one of the early really important books in my magical life, John Booth’s

Marvels of Mystery. John’s billiard ball routine with the “cannon ball ending” struck

me as the best thing I’d even read. So next I got myself a set of white two-inch bil-

liard balls, practiced the old shell move, and created my own “cannon ball.” Yes, I took

a six-inch rubber ball, cut a three-inch hole in the back, and sprayed the rubber ball

white many times. I used a black top hat with fl ash paper pinned near the top.

Once I made the billiard balls multiply, I

dropped them one by one into the hat (actually

into the rubber ball). Th en I ignited the fl ash

paper (WHOOSH!), turned the hat upside-

down over my palm, and lifted it off to reveal

the single large white ball. It really played well.

Once more, thank you John Booth for making

me look good!

Somewhere along the way, maybe in my late

teens, I saw somebody do the Multiplying Can-

dles. Yes, the same sort of between-the-fi ngers

multiplying thing as billiard balls, but these candles were really lit!

Th e 1962 Tannen catalog described them, as you can see in a scan nearby. Don’t you

just love the artwork — the mysterious magician with burning candles appearing at

his fi ngertips! Candles, candles, candles!

Yes, I had to have them. 1962 price:

$10 per set, left or right handed. I settled

for right hand only. After all, $10 was a

lot of money for a college student back in

the 1960s.

I chose the Earl Morgan Nesto Candles mainly because of the price. Later I dis-

covered a more expensive set from Owens (around

$75) which allowed you to separate the candles. I saw

Fantasio use these, I think, on the Ed Sullivan Show

in the late 60s.

Th e Earl Morgan style candles were four half/shell

candles hinged together as in Figure 2. By swing-

ing the candles into the right, one went inside an-

other, then inside the next, and fi nally inside the last Figure 2

Tannen Nesto Candles Ad

Abbotts Multiplying Candles Ad

one. By holding them as in Figure 3, I could use my

thumb and fi ngers to open them one by one as in

Figures 4 and 5.

Each candle had to be fi lled with lighter fl uid,

two of them by dripping fl uid into the wick and

thus into a smaller chamber, the other two from the

bottom into cotton. Until just before I used them,

I kept the candles upside-down inside a plastic pill

bottle mounted with tape inside my ice bucket re-

ceptacle as in Figure 6.

Sometimes I used a Bic butane lighter to start the

candles. But if I had a Fantasio Vanishing Candle

nearby, I used the Bic to light it fi rst. As I put the

lighter back in my bucket, I picked up the Nesto

set (hidden in my hand), cupped my hands around

the Fantasio candle wick, and lit the white candles,

then sort of made the fi rst little candle appear by

magic.

From there I caused them to multiply from one to

four at my fi ngertips.

But there had to be an ending, and here is what I

created:

One by one I made the burning candles vanish

by pretending to take one away with my left hand

(secretly swinging that candle into the next shell)

and tossing that supposed candle into the air. I re-

peated this twice more. When down to one candle,

I changed that candle into a 36-inch picture silk.

How: Go to my website (www.ginnmagic.com)

and check out the hidden tutorials. Homepage click

on DON’T LOOK, then click on JEWEL in the

crown. Th ere you can learn the John Booth hand-

kerchief fold.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

I prepared a 36-inch Rice Circus Clown silk us-

ing the John Booth fold/roll and mounted it on a

3-inch bobbie pin to secure it. Th en I pinned that

(safety pin) inside my coat on the left side. When

down to one candle, I walked slightly left and for-

ward toward the audience, extending the candle as

though to give it away to someone. During that

move my left hand slipped under my coat and stole

the rolled clown silk.

I pretended that no one wanted the candle, so I brought my hands together, blew

out the candle and swung it back towards my palm (Figure 7), immediately using

both hands to open the 36-inch silk using buttons sew into one-inch squares of felt

in the top two corners. Th us I changed the last lit candle into a beautiful picture silk,

something like you see in the old photo Figure 8.

Th e Multiplying Candle routine I used constantly

in shows for over 10 years. Even when I “retired it,”

I continued to use it a dozen times each year in my

Magical Wonder Show as a part of my silent magic

to music sequence early in the show. It always played

well to family audiences.

Now it has been at least 20 years since I’ve per-

formed this, one of my personal all-time favorite

magic eff ects. Would I put it back into a school show

now? Hmmm, I don’t know. Yes, I still use the Hot

Book in a reading show, and that’s real fi re. Yes, I

would use a Fantasio Vanishing Candle. So yes, I

would probably again use the multiplying candles if

I wanted to deal with loading them with lighter fl uid

each time.

Funny thing: all those years I used the same set

I bought for $10 back in the late 1960s, and they always worked fi ne. Th ey still

work now. But during my lecture tour of 1996 I visited Col. F. M. Seymour’s house

in Little Rock, Arkansas. He had lots of used magic for sale, including some of my

Figure 7

Figure 8

early out-of-print books (yes, I bought them), and he had a new set of right-handed

Earl Morgan Nesto Multiplying Candles for $25. I bought those also, and I’ve never

used them. But a good magician needs a back-up model of his favorite props, and it

was just the right thing to do. You’ll see two photos of those candles nearby in Figures

9 and 10.

What else can I say? I still love the Multiplying Candle eff ect.

David Ginn, Summer 2012

Figure 9 Figure 10

Here are two views of my brand new, never used set of Earl Morgan Nesto Candles. Figure 9 is the audience view, of course, and Figure 10 shows the back view. Check them out—even the wicks have never been lit! I bought these in

Col. F. M. Seymour’s Magic Shop in Little Rock, AR, in 1996 when I was lecturing there. I even bought $60 worth of my own out of print David Ginn books!

You can go to YouTube and search Col. F. M. Seymour/David Ginn to see him talk about it. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBk98yZii0o