Bob Kline’s Bottoms Up by Woodmagic Studio

A rare Woodmagic Studio item from Howard Hale, that I have only seen once before.

Tracking down the origins of magic effects is often quite difficult. This effect is built by Howard Hale under his Woodmagic Studio banner.  In the instructions it says the effect is Bob Kline’s Bottoms Up c. 1995, created in wood by Howard (Howard created a number of versions of Kline’s magic under license). Howard, even uses Kline’s bottles and includes the routine from Bob Kline too. At the top of the instructions it has:

“A First Class Pocket Size version of the Famous Tricky Bottle“

However, as far back as 1947 Abbott’s advertise an effect called Bottoms Up which looks pretty much the same made with regular beer bottles in The Sphinx.  And if you look for Topsy Turvy Bottle (which is how Bottoms Up was referred to in a club report for Howard Hale when demonstrating Bottoms Up c. 1999) you’ll find a pocket size version advertised all the way back to 1927 in The Sphinx.  Are you confused yet?

So not sure exactly who invented this effect originally but this is Howard Hale’s version of Bob Kline’s version.  The main difference between Howard’s and Bob’s is that  Bob used paper tubes and Howard is using these fine quality wood veneers.

Effect: The effect is well known: spectator and magician both cover their miniature bottle with tubes and follow directions of turning everything upside down.  Magician’s bottle is always right side up. Spectator’s bottle is upside down.

(Notice: as clearly mentioned in the instructions, sometimes the tubes may not stay perfectly round due to the physical nature of the wood used to make them.  But if you simply rub them back and forth in your hands quickly it is easy enough to reform them back into round cylinders again.  They still look great on your shelf in either shape, but if you are going to perform you might find this tip useful!)

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