A Primer on Dove Magic
Hi Leodini,
I want to go into dove magic. I’d appreciate it very much if you will help me start my study by pointing me in the right direction.
Please suggest resources. I’m willing to buy books and videos on the subject. I’ve found, however, that the literature on dove magic is so extensive I don’t know where to start.
I know you are conversant with dove magic. I saw you once transform a dove into a duck, which was very amazing and amusing. If there’s anyone who can help me, I’m sure it’s you.
Sincerely,
Dan Dove Dove
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Hi Dan,
Here are a few resources on dove manipulation that I’d like to recommend to you. They are all videos, because I believe you’ll learn dove magic easier from an instructional video than from a book. The timing and body/hand choreography is just too difficult to get down pat by reading instructions from a book.
However, if you learn faster from a book, you can’t get wrong with Marian Chavez’s Encyclopedia of Dove Magic. The methods are a bit dated, but the book includes a Primer Guide to Caring and Handling Doves, which can be useful to beginning dove magicians. The book also contains two gems, namely, Neil Foster’s Dove Production (which, if I’m not mistaken, was sold by Abbott’s for $25 a few years ago) and Slydini’s Master Dove Production.
If you want to learn body-load dove effects, stay away from Tony Clark’s Unmasks II video. Except for a bonus section at the end of the video teaching a sleeve steal, all the other dove productions use props. If you want to learn visual dove magic, my suggestion is for you to learn body loads and steals, instead of using bags, Kleenex boxes, gimmicked newspapers, etc.
Tony Clark’s Behind the Seam’s video, on the other hand, is a must-buy if you want to start right with your dove magic study. It will save you hours of experimentation and take away the guesswork on where to place the dove bags inside your coat. Most of all, Tony teaches you how to look good in your costume and not look like a stuffed turkey even with four doves under the coat.
My only complaint is that I bought this video long after my body-loading and stealing techniques have been so ingrained in me that I no longer have the willingness to change techniques. But I have incorporated some of Tony’s ideas on anchoring the loops, fake shirt front and sewing the dove bag on the vest instead of inside the jacket.
The Art of Dove Stealing video by Victor & Diamond is a good resource also, teaching a beautiful method of splitting a dove toward the end. But if you already have the Shimada video, you can skip this video, as some of Victor & Diamond’s ideas are similar to Shimada’s as taught on his DVD.
Doves 101 by Andy Amyx is the video you should have. Andy teaches the modern methods of stealing doves from body loads using dove holders and invisible harnesses. After the preliminary section on Dove Care and Training, Andy shares his sleeve-toss techniques that will allow you to produce a dove in a very visual manner. Ball to Dove, Dove from Cards, and Gloves to Dove are three sleeve productions he teaches on the tape.
His Gloves to Dove (using ungimmicked gloves) is the one I’m using now in my show. His technique allows you to toss the gloves in the air one after the other (to prove they are separate and not attached to something), yet instantly you produce a dove from the gloves. Very magical yet easy to do.
I love Andy’s Invisible Harness Techniques, especially Dove and Cane (using an easier method than Shimada’s) and his Dove Split (he teaches two methods).
Now, if you (or your doves) are not yet ready to use invisible harness, there is a section on Dove Bag Techniques. Three methods are taught on the tape, enough to get you busy for many weeks to come.
One more video worth watching—“The Cabaret Act of Mehdi Talbi”. The video is not about dove magic but about Mehdi Talbi’s 12-minute Cabaret Act, which has a Dove sequence in it. You may want to watch it just so you can see how he segues into the dove act and gets out of it. And, oh, he has an excellent idea on sewing the dove bags inside his jacket so that the bags are totally invisible even when the jacket is opened. He also has one of the cleanest steals I’ve seen for a long time; although he uses a lot of cover (24-inch silks) his dove production is a joy to watch.
Finally, search high and low for a copy of the video How To Make A Living Stealing Doves DVD by General Grant. It is a treasure trove of a lot of things about dove magic.
Stay magical,
Leodini
For me the 2 best dove acts are Lance Burton’s and Shimada’s! It’s like Magic! It almost as if the doves are appearing in the hanky without any moves at all. Shimada’s manipulation act is so simple and deceiving. He shows the hanky, turned his hand and, alas! the dove is climbing up on his finger. Don’t even get me started on the dove-in-the-fanned-card! he he
Go for Marian Chavez’s Encyclopedia of Dove Magic and Andy Amyx’s Dove 101. They’re good sources. Andy put a good emphasis on Dove Care, Training the Dove and selecting the right Dove.
Andy also teaches “return flight” technique.
I think I have overtrained my doves on this. Every time I toss them, they return—not to me but to the woods. Kinda exasperating to chase them up trees very often.
Stay magical,
Leodini
Hehehe. . . thanks to this post I remembered a good humor in Magic.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I will now present to you my powers in levitating a bird”. LOL.