I was in Japan recently and I saw 2 or 3 instances of sidewalk vendors doing a magic trick. They had a paper doll which would dance when they waved their hand over it. The obvious conclusion would be that they had a string connected to the doll, but I was pretty close and I didn’t see a string. Also, their hand movements didn’t seem to correlate to the doll’s movements.
The doll could lie completely flat and then jump up and dance around.
I was too cheap to actually buy the magic trick, but I still want to know how they did it
My guess would be a real skinny wire from the belt buckle area, or so, out to the doll. My buddy is an amateur magician and does the “Floating Dollar Bill” trick. Even though I know how it’s done the wire is hard to see. That and the fact that he’s a laugh riot and does hysterical misdirection the whole time…
I had a “dancing hankerchief” (first, you put a little boogie in it) that was activated by a wire attached to other hand, that is, the hand NOT being waved around.
I bought that floating dollar bill trick a long time ago - the string is so incredibly small (yet unbelievably strong) you wouldn’t believe it, it’s hard to see even a few inches from your eye.
The effect might also be achieved with a really powerful magnet and a concealed metal thingy in the doll. I’ve seen magicians use this technique to make matches in their hands move, without the use of strings.
It’s not wire per se but like sailor said a strand of a nylon thread.
If you look closely at a nylon thread it is made up of many strands.
A single one is very hard to see unless your holding it up to a light or have it on a white surface.
The strand is then attached to their mouth, ear, top button on thier collar. By then slightly leaning backward or dropping thier hand out from under the doll it will seem to float. Using a free hand to bump or interfere with the hanging thread will move the doll around also.
So the majority opinion is that there was a thread, just not attached to the distracting hand. Ok, I can live with that, but I want to go back and see if I can spot it now that I know what to look for.
Isn’t that a great reason to want to go back to Japan
You can make one of these “Dancing Johnny” dolls with a single strand pulled from a black nylon stocking. Under most lighting conditions, the thread will be nearly invisible.
The guys who peddle this toy in Japanese cities are pretty adept with them, although some of them employ an assistant. Their hand gestures obviously have nothing to do with the doll’s movements because they don’t use their hands to move the doll. It’s magic.
They usually sell for 500 yen (about five bucks, US), so, yeah, Crazy Pawn, you were pretty cheap!
