Spirit Cabinet (Willi Wessel Collection) by Alan Warner

For more details on Willi Wessel’s unique Alan Warner collection click here.

One of Alan’s earliest teak items from his second Mini-Magic catalog c. 1981.  This is a unique and difficult to find item with an interesting story line.  What is also great about this effect is that you can change the final production item to suit a different patter line should you want to tailor the effect to a specific event.  Magical and flexible, what more could you ask for?

Effect: The performer raises the decorated top of the piece of apparatus until the empty inner Spirit Cabinet is fully revealed. Three blank-white oblong plastic cards are then displayed and slipped into the cabinet through a slot in the top. A spectator is asked to select mentally a playing card and the spirits of the cabi­net are then called upon to write down the name of that card. Raising the top again, the performer then removes one of the white plastic cards to see if the spirits have successfully named the spectator’s chosen playing-card but the plas­tic card is still blank.

The spectator is asked to name his card so that everyone can concentrate his or her mind on it and perhaps link up telepathically with the spirits of the cabinet and encourage them to communicate. Again the top is raised and another card removed, this time with a little more success as it has some writing on it. But unfortunately the spectators minds have inadvertently made contact with a CHINESE spirit who has written his message (the name of the chosen card) in his own language.

The spectator is now asked to concentrate on the colour instead, and this time it is hoped that contact will be made with an English speaking spirit. However, the last plastic card, when removed from the cabinet, is completely blank.

“By this time.” remarks the performer, displaying the now empty cabinet, “you must all be wondering if there really are any spirits in the cabinet. But let me as­ sure you that there is always at least one FRENCH spirit permanently in residence. The performer shuts the cabinet and then raising the top again he reveals a minia­ture bottle of a French liqueur which completely takes up the interior of the spirit cabinet.

The surprising finale comes when the spirits in the cabinet are called upon by the performer TO PROVE THEIR EXISTENCE AND MATERIALIZE, and this they do … IN THE FORM OF A MINIATURE BOTTLE OF LIQUEUR!

Handcrafted from SOLID TEAK, the cabinet stands approximately 5 1/2″ high.

The apparatus comes complete with The Alan Warner Routine.

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