Occasionally my friend Eirian and I discuss unsalvageable magic tricks¹. Often such tricks are brought to our attention by an unsuccessful attempt to rehabilitate them, such as this A for effort example by Alakazam
Before continuing, I should probably explain what I mean by unsalvageable.
The effect shown above, typically known as the Pom Pom Pole or often the Pom Pom Prayer Stick is an extrapolation from the Chinese Sticks, and just like the Sticks, it’s one of those effects which is a staple of children’s magic shows but has a method capable of fooling reasonably intelligent adults
The only problem with it is that it presents a difficult question:
What is it?
Children asking this question will be satisfied by the explanation that it is a Pom Pom Pole, totally unfazed by the fact that it has no practical purpose or application outside of the trick itself. Adults on the other hand will quickly shift from the realisation that it exists purely for the trick to a more pertinent question: How much did you pay for that.
Because ultimately thats what it is: A thing you bought to do that trick and for no other reason. As seen above the solution to such tricks is usually to redesign the prop in order to make it seem less alien, but as is the case above it all gets a little bit steamed hams.
“So you drilled through your pen to hang all your other stationary on strings threaded through it.”
“Yes”
“And to do this you took out all the ink, rendering it useless as an actual pen?”
“Yes”
“Can I see it?”
“No”
Okay, if you’re so smart, what’s the answer?
This is why we discuss them as unsalvageable magic tricks. Because I’m not sure there is an answer.
I have a few incomplete ideas, starting from the premise of “what could have 4 cords hanging from it?”
So far the best ideas I can come up with are²:
The Universal Adapter
A USB conversion dongle with a USB-B, -Mini, -Micro and -C connector on each part, with a centre section held together by a male/male USB-A dongle with the guts drilled out to make it work.
But I’m not sure you could get the right thickness of cable through it to work right.
The Fashion Phone
Okay so this is a longshot but in Japan, stay with me here, there’s a huge market for fashionable phone accessories, which they call Strappers. We call them phone charms.
These things:
These exist because the second age of cellphones (including the mighty Nokia 3210) all had a hole to attach them to a lanyard, which you actually hang anything from, so long as it had a loop of cord attached. Smash that into the Harajuku fashion scene and you get young Japanese women wearing half a pound of neon makeup expertly balanced on 5″ platform shoes waving around a phone you could use as a fairly effective cat o’ nine tails³.
Modern phones are too sleek and densely packed with features to have such frivolity, but most phone cases still have these vestigial holes, and so gaffing up a phone case to have two charms hanging from opposing corners.
The problem then is that phone cases, as a rule, don’t snap in half.
That’s all folks
Those are my only two ideas for an Even vaguely real looking object that could work in this routine.
It is probably for this reason that the trick has become known as the Pom Pom Prayer Stick, as the introduction usually involves the explanation that this is some kind of religious artefact used by an unknowable exotic culture and I keep telling you not to do that!
¹ I have suggested that we turn these discussions into a podcast but whenever we consider it we generally come to the decision that we aren’t divorced, middle aged men trying to hawk brain pills and protein powder, so there’s no point.
² For once I don’t mind if you take one of these ideas and manufacture it, because I have neither the time or inclination. All I ask is that I get a free one, my name in the credits and TEN MILLION DOLLLARS.
³ Please don’t read this to mean that I am disparaging the Harajuku fashion scene. They have literally everything I want, I am in nothing but a state of pure awe at those girls.