Einstein’s Blackboards by Jeff Busby, Dominique Duvivier

What a lovely effect and set of props from Jeff Busby and Dominique Duvivier.  The craftsman-made pair of miniature blackboards (4.5″ x 3.5″) with mitered mahogany frames work perfectly and look amazing. But what really brings this set home for me is not just the main routine, but the other three routines from:

• Gaëtan Bloom,
• Jon Gordon and John Hotowka,
• Nathan Phillips

and the 20 pages of instructions with tips, history, and all sorts of details that Jeff Busby was famous for.  By reading through each routine you might decide to choose a single routine or pick and choose from multiple routines.

For me I was drawn to Nathan Phillips routine with the production of the mini coke bottle as the final kicker so the first thing I did was to track down the perfect coke bottle (which I did).

If you are looking for a unique item to perform that is easy to do, magical, entertaining, comical and a little different, but is also an outstanding collectible you need look no further, Einstein’s Blackboards has it all 🙂

Includes:

• Beautiful miniature mahogany blackboards.
• Gimmick to reset them.
• Plastic Kazoo.
• Mini 3″ Coke Bottle for the Nathan Phillips routine (bonus).
• Upgraded Kazoo as seen in the video (much better than the cheap green one) (bonus).
• Full and Detailed twenty pages of instructions.

Effect: Showing two small blackboards, you comment that they’re souvenirs of the famous mathematician Albert Einstein’s work. The blackboards are covered with miniatures of Einstein’s equations on each side. The display of each side is done openly and fairly – no tricky moves – the blackboards are held one in each hand and very slowly displayed. (In fact, as you’ll read, the, spectators handle the props at the beginning.)

As you patter about the magic of Einstein’s numbers and theories, you place the two blackboards together. You rap them several times with your hand, then lift one away … all the numbers have slid to one end of the slate, overlapping each other – a very funny visual effect! You immediately hand this slate to the spectators, allowing them to look over the changed surface.

Now you talk about Einstein’s escape to America from the Nazis in 1933, and his love for his new country. You slowly turn over the other blackboard and show the numbers and figures have magically rearranged themselves into the image of a Coca-Cola bottle! This bizarre result gets a solid laugh!

But, you’re not finished yet. Making your next patter connection between mathematics and music, you take up a kazoo and play it over the blackboards … and instantly reveal a musical score has appeared over Einstein’s equations! Again, the slate is immediately handed for examination.

Finally, you jump to the subject of film. After a visual gag about that famous movie The Ten Commandments, the final surface is shown inscribed with a representation of the Tablets! Again, the slate is passed for examination.

At the end of the routine all four surfaces of the two slates have changed and both blackboards are in the hands of the spectators!

Aside from being an intriguing visual effect, the apparatus is beautifully designed and exquisitely craftsman made, with a terrific method. And, the method is almost effortless. During the routine you just put the slates together and it works! There’s no pushing or pulling of sliding panels. Moreover, as you’d expect from a pro who uses the effect in his act, the slates are completely self-contained! Nothing is lapped, stolen, or palmed.

Nothing is added or taken away during the routine. You can do it anytime and anywhere – there are no angle problems. You can do it completely surrounded, standing or sitting. You can use the props without fear of detection – the spectators handle the slates throughout the routine.

Even the most rigid inspection will never expose the gimmicks. How good is the gaffing? It is so undetectable that when I first offered these to our clients, we got phone call after phone call from saying we hadn’t sent the gimmicks! We had … they just couldn’t find them!

But, though the props were great, the original instructions that came with the slates when we first offered them as the Magic Boards Plus were terrible: the manuscript was just a little over one page – a garbled and incomplete translation of what Dominique really does, illustrated with a few fuzzy scanned photos. Though many performers were able to decipher how to unlock the slates and perform the routine from those instructions, I wanted to do it better, so anyone could learn and do Einstein’s Blackboards without difficulty.

To help, top professional Gaëtan Bloom offered to do a step-by-step explanation of his friend Dominique’s routine. In an eight-page fax, Gaëtan detailed each move as Dominique does it, plus all the patter lines for your benefit. Then, Gaëtan added his own subtleties and gags for the routine. Our talented artist Don Albrecht whipped up a batch of his fine drawings to supplement Gaëtan’s explanation. In addition, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse from two friends in England: Jon Gordon, head of a leading graphic design firm, and John Hotowka, top flight trade show professional, had developed a terrific routine for Einstein’s Blackboards. They took the time to write it up in detail – each move, the staging, and all the patter – and sent it along. So, I’m including their superb routine with this outfit.

With this manuscript I’m including extras that allow you to change the climax so Einstein himself appears on the blackboards for the Jon Gordon and John Hotowka routine! More about that later. There’s another bonus with what you are now reading – one I didn’t mention in the formal advertisement for Einstein’s Blackboards – a routine with an additional ending that is really sensational. This comes from our Canadian friend Nathan Phillips who has done a lot of work with Dominique’s props. In short, I’m supplying you with everything you need to work with Dominique’s Einstein’s Blackboards. You’ll learn exactly the way Dominique Duvivier performs it in his shows, and you’ll learn how the top pros have added to and changed Dominique’s original version to suit the way they work.

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