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Tall Fish Tale

Written by holavaguy on . Posted in Magic Tricks.

I have been performing the “Tall Fish Tale” trick for over 30 years, based on the old “Clippo” principle. In George McAthy’s “Smart Business for Magicians and MC’s (Book Two”), published in 1946, he describes a “Fish Clippo” effect that does not have the same surprise ending as my “Tall Fish Tale”.  

Effect: The magician shows a cut-out of a fish from a newspaper. The magician folds the cut-out fish in half and cuts a piece off the center of the fish, and when the fish is unfolded, it’s smaller but still whole. The magician repeats the cutting and unfolding of the fish until the fish is about six inches long.   The magicians then pull the fish apart to reveal just a fish head and tail with a fish bone in between.

      Preparation:

  1. From the classified section of a newspaper, cut out a fish 18 inches long by 2-¾ inches wide (fig.1). Use the lines of the classified section of the newspaper as cutting guides, cutting 3 columns wide..
  2. Cut a second strip of paper 22 inches long by 1-¾ inches wide (2 columns wide)(fig.2). Accordion fold the strip as shown in fig.3, making approximately 1-½ inch folds, leaving a small section “B” of paper as shown in Fig. 5.
  3. Cut “V” notches out of the accordion pleated strip as shown in Fig 4. Make the notch slightly rounded to prevent taring when pulled
  4. Using rubber cement, glue end “A” to the fish cut out as shown in Fig. 6.
  5. Glue a 1-¼ inch strip of newspaper loosely across the accordion-folded packet as shown in Fig.7. Make sure the strip is not glued too tightly but rather loosely across the packet so that when end “B” is pulled, it will easily unfold. Trim the 1-¼ inch strip along the outline of the fish.
  6. Apply a fairly good coating of rubber cement to the entire fish, including the area under flap “B”.  When applying rubber cement, avoid going over what you have already covered. Allow the cement to completely dry (one hour). Repeat applying a second coat of rubber cement and let it dry for several hours.
  7. Sprinkle a small amount of baby powder over the dried cement and brush the powder with a piece of tissue paper over the entire paper fish. Using a paper towel, lightly wipe excess baby powder from the packet to the tail of the fish. (wipe in one direction only).  Fold the fish in half (rubber cement to rubber cement) with a piece of wax paper between the folds to prevent the halves from sticking until you are ready to perform the trick. Using wax paper will allow you to prepare several tricks at one time. They will last month’s unit. Ready to perform

Presentation: Hold the folded fish by the head/tail with the tail facing you. Let the taildrop toshow the entire fish. Bring the tail back up to the head of the fish and cut about 2 inches off the center of the fold. As you cut the paper, the rubber cement will cause the paper to re-seal. Allow the tail to drop to show that the fish is still whole but shorter. Repeat the cutting and unfolding of the tail until you are left with about six inches of fish. Holding the fish’s head in your left hand, take hold of both the tail and end and tab B (fig. 4) in your right hand. Separate the hands slowly to reveal the fish restored as “bones” (Fig. 8).

The pattern I use is when I catch a fish, I trace it on a piece of newspaper, cut it out to show my friends how big a fish I caught, and show a traced and cut-out of a Sun Fish. I get the audience to say “how big” and cut the fish and say OK, this big. I repeat until you are ready to reveal that I ate the fish and traced the bones to show my friends.

Note: Because you are cutting across a 3” wide piece of paper, it’s important that you cut as straight as possible, or the fish will come apart when unfolded. Using a fine ballpoint pen, draw straight lines across the un-cemented side of the fish for each piece you want to cut off. The lines are not visible if you use the classified section of a newspaper.