Here is a sneak peek for the Axtell Customer Forum. This site is not yet official, but I wanted you to see it first. Check out the new - BIG BABIES! http://www.axtell.com/big_babies.html>
This product isn't just for ventriloquists. I can see corporate speakers using one, magicians playing a song and using it. This should definitely be on an upcoming AxTrax. Perhaps, "How Dry I Am" for the song! Or a remake of Amy Grant's baby Christian song, "He's just a fat little baby".
Ax
Big Market for Big Babies
December 8 2006, 6:32 PM
Yes, the magicians I've shown it to are just going nuts over this. We'll probably make a version (or only make it) with live human hands, so the person in the rig can have their real hands showing in sleeves of the baby, so they can suck their thumb (think magician's secret) and do all kinds of sleight of hands things.
There are two different concepts for the prop:
Audience Volunteer - turn them into a baby and if you are a vent, do baby cry, baby talk, etc. If not a vent we'll make a baby routine on CD for you.
Wear it Yourself - Tell your audience, "I'm always asked how I got started in (vent or magic)... I thought I'd show you... (turn on music)....put on the rig (off stage or even in front)...and bingo you are a YOUNG Magician doing your first trick....or a YOUNG VENT making a Teddy Bear talk!
More ideas??
Ax
impressions
December 11 2006, 10:23 PM
Great ideas, Steve! You could tell people that you are an impressionist and would like to do an impression of ___________ (some famous person). You started doing this impression when the celebrity was younger so it may not sound exactly like them now. (How about a remake of Rod Stewart's "Forever in Blue Jeans?" It could be "Forever in Pampers") Or perhaps "Yesterday, When I was Young". "It's Yesterday Once More".
For churches it has to be Amy Grant's song, "Just a Fat Little Baby"! It's old enough to be new again.
At Christmas you could have Silent Night playing and then slowly add cow sounds, sheep, camels, a crowd, and the baby cries.
Follow up or precede the Big Baby routine with the magic trick by Samuel Patrick Smith. I forget the name of it, but you wind up with a picture of a baby. I think it is called, "What's My Job?"
Ax
Baby steps
December 13 2006, 6:10 PM
Great ideas Tony! One step at a time.... Thanks....I'll add them to the page. I'm taking things slowly to get thru Christmas.... hundreds of orders!!! Ax
Ax
Big Babies Ideas
April 21 2007, 6:37 PM
Here are some of the ideas for BIG BABIES by Axtell Expressions
Select and audience member and pretend to hypnotize them so they go back to their childhood...even further...to babyhood! Play lullaby music as they regress! Reveal them as an infant and tell the audience a series of embarrassing things they did when they were little! Put on "Shake Rattle and Roll" and have the baby do a dance and shake a rattle!- Put a big bib on them and feed them baby food and burp them!-You could wear a pirate's hat and have pirate props and be Pirates of the Crib-bean. ...Rick Mearns-My idea is to vanish a silk with a thumb tip, then suck your thumb, leaving the tip in my mouth, pretend to look for the silk in my diaper etc. Then there would be a loud recorded burp and then I would pull the silk from my mouth. You could also have the silk reappear inside a baby bottle. Another idea for a bottle is a "snake Bottle" with spring snakes that scare the "baby." You run out of milk, shake the bottle - still no milk, open it to see what's inside, then SNAKES! - Mike Bent-It might be funny, or just plain gross, to "vanish" the silk into the TT while it's in your mouth, (babies seem to put everything in their mouths), and have it reappear in the the diaper. Ken Dumm
-Imagine producing a continuous stream of silks out of the diaper or spring flower bouquet - hillarious!-How about a two person mind reading act (comedy) with an assistant? The baby would be the receiver. Could be hysterical with the right patter. Baby jokes galore! Steven Steele-Daryl had a trick in his lecture years ago called My First Magic Trick. You showed a rattle that rattles, and a squeek toy that squeeks, you do some magic, now the rattle squeeks and the squeek toy rattles! I use to do it all the time. Mike Bent-Great idea Steve! Just a thought, but maybe it could be used like Ken Scott's Fantasy Magician. Keith-This routine would be great for a birthday party, get Dad into the "costume", and the kids would go wild! Potty the Pirate-I could use it for a flash back sequence to when I twisted my very first balloon animal! Don Caldwell-If afforded the luxury of a stage with wing space, you could step off stage as the "way back" harp music plays along with a voice over possibly about starting out in magic at an early age, etc.
At the right moment, you costumed in the gimmick and seated in an office chair with rollers, glide out to center stage to do the bits... The skirting around the "crib" hides the office chair and the gliding on stage and off lends to the "flashback" / "dreamy" mood that one might want to present with this. Fog optional...
A good lead-in to the effect would be the Baby Gag effect
One could also work a rattle box monte type of an effect into it - substituting the boxes for actual baby rattles if doing a talking routine.
Seems that a vanishing milk pitcher or the jug by Dan Harlan would be easy to work into this bit.
How about some music? Hit Me Baby One More Time, I'm not That Innocent, Santa Baby (for holiday shows), I Want Candy, uga chuka/hooked on a feeling song from Ally McBeal
Balloon artists - a pump under the gimmick, with a hose going through (behind the diaper) so that it looks like Baby inflates the ballon by pooting into it???
Baby food in mouth / mouth coil out...
Balloon swallow bit. Babies put everything in their mouth...
Big glass of milk beside crib, baby can't reach it so he cries... Then in a moment of inspiration, reaches into his diaper for an eight foot appearing straw (appearing pole that looks like a straw) problem solved...
Lyndel & Company
-One of my ideas for a routine (that I have started planning) would be to hear a baby crying off stage > walk off stage for a second and pick up the cry baby > perform cry baby bits in my arms > calm cry baby down and put him in a pram > rock cry baby to sleep > point to a spectator (adult) who was laughing during the cry baby bits > invite him on stage > ask him how he would feel if every one laughed at him? > sit him in chair > put on bonnet > whisper some instrucions as I cover him up > let the fun begin.
At the end of the routine, when every one claps their applause, the little cry baby starts screaming again because he has just been woken up and I thank the volunteer for doing such a good job at disturbing the litle baby and so I calm the baby down and sit the volunteer in the chair again on stage and perform the growing and shrinking head illusion on him. then I send him back to his seat and continue with the show.
Every so often the baby will (in the pram) will burp, fart, make noises, cry, giggle etc. Daniel Ryb
-I think if one can get about five of these, a Baby YMCA song number would be so funny. As usual, this will be another Axtell Hit Product! Wanlu-Very funny, I like it plain & simple. It's a kodak moment for the audience to see one of them look like a little baby. With proper routine & music, can be real winner. It's Magic!-I can't wait to use it. Can you imagine Chuckles the clown as a baby. Humm I wounder what a baby clown eats.... Oh well can't wait. Chuck Lyons-
Since you can't get a full size baby bottle inside the diaper (you can get a stubby one in no problem) you can pull out an inflatable baby bottle like is listed in # 13 below. (Links to Jumbo size props). Then proceed to blow it up and drink from it!
-Don't know about a clown, but I think a baby Einstein would eat baby formula... something like E = mc˛.
Rick-
I can see me ... using the break-away wand, wacking my head with it and it breaks, wailing, atomic light bulb crying when it goes out, and putting it in my mouth lighting it up, comedy stretching tongue, giant tooth, some squirting device, and a rabbit from diaper. .....
Imagine doing a Corporate banquets show and having a baby CEO.
Ever wonder what Santa was like when he was a real little guy? (Christmas Shows)
Ever wonder what Frankenstein/Dracula/Wolfman did when he was a little guy? (Halloween shows)
Ever wonder what a Cub Scout/Boy Scout did when they were a little guy? Dennis Michael
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How about performing the floating pacifier, ala Zombie Ball. Or a "milk pitcher" type baby bottle. I also see oversized props working well with this baby get-up (ie: jumbo spoon, jumbo comb, jumbo baby bottle, jumbo pacifier, jumbo telephone, etc.) Jumbo Linking Safety Pins! Or how about halfway through your baby routine, you stop, reach BEHIND your diaper, pull out a jumbo pin and say, "I thought something felt funny back there" I'm not sure what the item would be yet, but something like Dan Garret's sponge Bananas would work well with this baby/diaper set-up. Sponge cigars would work if someone is doing the Baby Herman character... and they're about the same size as the sponge bananas.
Topsy Turvy bottles with baby bottles! A lot of comedy possibilities here with a volunteer (child or adult)
2.) French drop a small ball (or whatever), either lap or ditch the ball as you go inside the diaper for some "magic woofle dust"... a small can of baby powder. You could even go Lisa Menna wild as you shake the stuff all over the place. In the end, after the dust settles (hehe), the ball really does disappear. Warning - I don't know how hard it'd be to clean baby powder off your crib set-up. You may want to either mime shaking on the powder OR load the can with confetti, which brings me to another idea to play with...
3.) "My favorite part of the day is when my mom puts baby powder on my butt. In fact, some days I dream about THAT all day long". Go into Snowstorm In China.
Rick Mearns
