The Poking Machine

Here’s a heads-up on a non-magic product you might be able to find a use for in your magic performances. It would be especially good for any type of seance effect. Although I could see it having many other potential uses.

Imagine you’re around a table with a couple friends, asking for the spirit to show you a sign he (or she, these days women can be ghosts too) is present in the room. Moments later a framed pictures falls off a bookshelf or a glass topples off the counter in another room.

That could definitely be a pants-shitting sort of moment in the right scenario.

The product is called Fingerbot.

It’s essentially an automated finger press so you can control non “smart” devices with your phone or voice.

It’s meant to turn on your lights or your coffee maker or whatever. But it seems like the sort of thing you could easily rig up to push something or drop something. And depending how cleverly you set it up, they wouldn’t be able to trace the fallen object back to this little plastic box nearby.

I’m also thinking of having it set up on top of a (non-moving) ceiling fan blade, ready to knock a coin or some other object off of it. That way I could take a coin, do some sort of complete vanish with it, then have it “rematerialize” and fall from the sky into my hand.

It’s about $35 on Indiegogo. I’m going to pick one up. I’ll let you know if I end up coming up with anything particularly interesting to do with it. And if you have any ideas, send them my way.