Elephant Fly by Stoner’s Inc, Klamm Magic, Ed Eckl

This is a version of the Afghan Bands which is based upon the mathematical principle known as the Mobius Strip discovered by mathematicians in 1865 and adopted by magicians by the end of the 19th century. A description of the Afghan Bands appears in Later Magic by Professor Hoffmann (1904) and also in Vol. 4 of Tarbell (1927).  I learned about the Afghan Bands from Marvin Kaye’s excellent book: The Complete Magician (1973) the routine for which was created by Phil Foxwell  though there was no credit given to Mr. Foxwell.

Early versions were done with paper, then cloth and c. 1977 Ed Eckl published in his Gardyloo lecture notes the zippered version which he marketed through Excelsior Productions c. 1983 as Moby-Zyp. By using a zipper you are always ready to go and there is no set-up or replacements required.

Klamm Magic c. 1992 created their own version (without consent from Ed Eckl or Excelsior Productions). Dick Stoner sold the Klamm Magic version with his own routine: Did you ever see an Elephant Fly?

Effect: Two long loops of paper (or cloth) are cut (or torn) lengthwise to produce typically,

• first the expected two separate loops,
• then, surprisingly, two interlocked loops,
• and finally a single double-length loop.

(Gary Ward – Linking Ring, April 1994)
Text Source: askalexander.org – click for details

Found something wrong? Help us improve things by clicking here!