Magic Lessons #32 – Jumping Flea Magic Trick
I’m a fan of this Jumping Flea Magic Trick. I have my own favourites that I perform regularly. Too many of these style magic tricks end up like rubber band gymnastics: lots of twanging moves that are essentially just slightly changed from the ones previous.
I’d suggest the best way to incorporate rubber bands into your routine is to bring one out and just do one magic trick with a few eye catching moves and use it to locate a card selected by the audience. If you are looking for some good examples, look no further than Jon Armstrong, I highly suggest you check some of his work out.
The Jumping Flea Magic Trick is great if you are looking for a fun use for those snapped rubber bands you have lying around. Rubber bands are amongst the cheapest props when it comes to magic, so why not treat yourself and snap one just for the purpose of this magic trick.
The Origin of Senor Valdez:
Senor Valdez, The World’s Strongest and Happiest Bed Bug takes a magic trick that is commonly performed with a rubber band and a wedding ring and transforms it from a puzzle to a piece that is charming, fun and equally cryptic.
Senor Valdez Performs the Jumping Flea Magic Trick
Senor Valdez, the name, references the silliness that Jay Sankey achieves with the name Senor Wences, who was a Spanish ventriloquist with great charm and amazing talent. He died in 1999 at the age of 103. I’d recommend searching out some of his work online. He was a great performer. The Jumping Flea Magic Trick pays homage to this by including a highly strained and exotic bug that adds to its charm.
In the video I raise my shoulders when I applaud Senor Valdez, this helps to exaggerate the disappointment that ends the routine by visually seeing my shoulders fall. It’s exaggerated to the point where it is almost the cartoon version of the emotion. This performance tip can be good to remember when performing the jumping flea magic trick.
The download includes the images that you place on the magnifying glass as shown in the video. There are multiple sizes, one in front of a blurred hand if you want to pretend that Valdez is on your hand rather than a plain white piece of paper and one in a printed magnifying class if you would rather go with ease.
Click this Button to Download:
If you feel so inclined, you can ignore this gag all together and just settle with the old style ring on the rubber band magic trick too.
Did you enjoy this Jumping Flea Magic Trick? To learn more simple magic tricks Click here!