I recently bought a magic drawing board - what a brilliant prop to use in my show. I've come up with an add-on attachment to make it easier to move the eyes, so that you have 4 fingers holding the board and move the eyes just with your thumb. It's a u-shaped piece of metal screwed onto the eye movement. I don't know if I'm the first person to come up with this but I thought I'd just like to share this with you. I welcome any comments if you'd like to know any more.
Thanks very much for your interest in my idea. I've just had an e-mail from Steve Axtell asking me if I can send a photo of how it works - so when that's done you'll be able to see it from his Ideas page.
Don't forget the part Steve demos where you turn the board around to sketch something. In the video it is the eyes. Your back hand can cover the mechanism thus "showing" the back of the board for a moment.
I have found the small version to be invaluable! It fits any theme and packs easily. When someone calls and says, "We're doing a ______ birthday. Do you have anything?" I can say I bring ventriloquist puppets and birthday magic tricks. But the finale is when I draw a picture of _________ (fitting their theme) and the picture starts to move it's eyes. While the kids are yelling out "The eyes are moving!" the drawing begins to move it's mouth and talk! Get your camera ready to take a picture of the kids when I start to draw that picture!