Dennis has asked for some ideas for one handed (not under handed) magic so a person can use the bird puppet and still do magic. So let's brainstorm.
Here are some I've seen and liked a lot.
1. Large change bag can be used to have the bird demonstrate inside and out using his head to push. He changes a silk that way.
2. Stiff rope is a great trick for one handed use. You can't seem to make it obey, but the puppet can, unnoticed by you at first. (Look, don't see concept).
3. Using a table you could do the cake pan trick. I like to produce the foam birthday cake. A foam Frosty the Snowman is also available for those of you planning to purchase a snowman Axtell puppet.
4. Duane Laflin sells a black silk streamer that changes to a rainbow silk. I believe it can be done with one hand.
5. Have fun with mental magic by blindfolding the puppet and letting it guess which card was chosen, etc. (You get to see the card.)
6. Another great mental magic is to have an envelope, a pencil, and three cards. The volunteer will take the three cards out of the envelope, lay them face up, and tap one of them with the pencil. Let's say they are the 3 of spades, 4 of hearts, and ace of clubs.
If they choose the ace of clubs you turn the envelope over. On it's back it says "You will choose the ace of clubs."
If they choose the 4 of hearts you will ask them to read the pencil. "You will choose the 4 of hearts."
If they choose the 3 of spades ask them to turn that card over. On the back it says, "You will choose the 3 of spades."
Tony, one of the features for years at the Vent Haven convention was the booth for Morrissey Magic. For over half a century this Canadian (Toronto) firm has delivered magic to any place in the world.I've contacted them and hope they'll respond to this forum. The Morrissey catalog is bigger than the Sears catalog in the States and is a real wish machine for people who love magic. They also sell( this can cost!) the rights to perform some of the most famous illusions of history. Here's their address. http://www.morrisseymagic.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/contact.htm
Calling Morrissey's..like, it's your turn, eh?
Ron
I visited Morissey Magic and felt the prices were high. I finally noticed that it said, "All prices in Canadian dollars." Ron, do you happen to know the current exchange for Canadian to U.S.?
Like I checked it out 'cuz I was just in Trawna,eh?
February 4 2008, 12:17 PM
Tony, we were in Toronto yesterday afternoon. Dan Morrissey says they manufactured some items back when the Yankee dollar was higher than the Canadian loonie. Far out house mortgages south of the 49th parallel have changed that combined with incredible money being paid for Canadjun oil and natural gas and the Canuck buck is now higher.
So, in a nutshell, the prices for Morrissey-manufactured items can seem high to Jose can you see adherents. In any case here's an easy way to convert dollars to loonies...http://coinmill.com/CAD_USD.html.
Ron
I never sausage a link before! Thanks! It looks like we are neck and neck with the Canadians having more cents on the hundred. (I know, I know!) Beautiful tricks, but I'll have to wait for Christmas.
I just found this thread...I should check here more often. Thanks for the great ideas.
So far I have dove pan (double)with birthday cake, lotsa vase, "stiff" rope, some foam eggs, and I've been practicing the "professor's nightmare" rope trick.
Dennis....welcome out of the closet! Keep coming back...this is one great place to hang out. It's been very fun getting to know you at our 4:00 daily chat. I think you hold the record for showing up the most. See you there....
Speaking of the Board....and Popups....there is a new pop up Magical ending that has been invented by magician scott Francis for the Magic Drawing Board. We will be selling it to go with the Magic Drawing Board. It is really a great kicker and gets Scott a standing ovation every time.
Dennis..I used the Morrissey magic funnel just before my vent part. I used Doctor Pepper. It was a smash! remember..little kids don't know how a pump handle works so you have to model it. I can't elaborate anymore about this trick, but if you have bought it from Morrisey then Dan will e mail you the instructions. If that doesn't work then I would e mail the how to to you..especially the prep before the show.
I don't think I have broken any magic laws in this note. If so the California Cutie will lash me thoroughly about the head and shoulders with a wet noodle!.
Ron
Sorry Dennis, I was baffled by the obvious. The funnel is not one hand magic, unless you're the type who can wallpaper a wall one-handed. I use it just before I destroy what people believe of ventriloquism.
In fact, if you purchase the funnel it is advised to have the little tots in front of you. At one point, you have to demonstrate how an old-fashioned pump handle works, then you should be crouched down with the kids in front of you facing the audience. Then you have to hold the opaque vessel to catch the stream of Dr. Pepper shooting from the child's elbow.
I know this sounds difficult..it's not. Also one learns as a primary teacher to hunch down so the little people are not intimidated by your height.
Again, I do not believe my info borders on a mortal sin against the code of the ring. This is because I have not released any details which would explain why it would be difficult to do one-handed funnel magic with the munchkins.
Wanlu might work with an assistant , in addition to his sound tech, so then I think it could then be done with one hand.
Ron
Greetings and hallucinations,Tony.
In yesterday's show, I found it challenging with Bern to do the "exercises" in Axtell's superb Old Storyteller routine and hit the right cues on my IPOD. Is it simpler for you with the bird or the bear? For example, with the stiff rope can you manipulate the rope with the bear's paws or your bird's beak? I find it difficult to have Bern(Floyd) hold on to something like a rope or a gimmick wand.
Part two and this is to Steve and friends. Have you seen anyone do vent with the Axtell sound effects. They are so effective and the kids howl, but I feel like the one-arm wallpaper hanger sometimes as I try to do vent, sound effects, and illusions.
Now, I know it CAN be done and I will get it, but I would appreciate some tips from some other vents.
Thanks, Ron
I haven't tried the rope myself, so I can't answer that question. I have enough trouble using it with two hands. I saw someone do it and thought it was very clever. He was using the opossum, I believe, which would be more similar to the bird.
The Old Storyteller would be cute if you brought him out with the fake chattering teeth, said you couldn't understand him. He spits then into your hand (you take them out) and they start chattering. "I couldn't find my teeth so I had to borrow my wife's."
Kimmo (John Kimmons) does a great rope trick with one hand and a puppet on the other. In fact he just last week won first place doing this with Willie the Kid (Charlie) at Blackpool Magic Convention. He not only won first place as "International Children's Entertainer" but also won the overall "Comedy Award" for the event... something that a kidsshow performer has not won there before!
Ron - if you find it hard to turn on / off or pause the sounds on the ipod, you might try the foot pedal pause system Steve Jones sells. I have a link to it here http://www.axtell.com/axtrax.html (on the left side).
Sorry, Steve you have kept suggesting the CD pedal unit.
I finally wrote to Steve Jones tonight and invited him to write to your forum and answer a few questions from vents who are interested.
Ron
Senor Borders,
"Here are some I've seen and liked a lot.
1. Large change bag can be used to have the bird demonstrate inside and out using his head to push. He changes a silk that way.
3. Using a table you could do the cake pan trick. I like to produce the foam birthday cake. A foam Frosty the Snowman is also available for those of you planning to purchase a snowman Axtell puppet."
Now you stiffed on number 2..the stiff rope after shooting my hopes so high a few weeks ago with your post!
#'s 1&3--Can the bird( cut to the chase..can the BEAR use his
paws?)to twist the handle or(new models) push the button of the change bag?
Can the bird or bear really open the dove pan..it gets a little tight at times?
Dear Tony, do you ever use music or sound effects in your Follies? If so, how do you activate the music?
With great hopefulness I await your reply.
You're right. I did not answer specific questions. I have a tendency to read the instructions and then answer select questions, which drives the IRS crazy.
The problem is that I can't read the post once I hit respond. I'll try copy and paste. Be right back.
"Here are some I've seen and liked a lot.
1. Large change bag can be used to have the bird demonstrate inside and out using his head to push. He changes a silk that way.
3. Using a table you could do the cake pan trick. I like to produce the foam birthday cake. A foam Frosty the Snowman is also available for those of you planning to purchase a snowman Axtell puppet."
Now you stiffed on number 2..the stiff rope after shooting my hopes so high a few weeks ago with your post!
#'s 1&3--Can the bird( cut to the chase..can the BEAR use his
paws?)to twist the handle or(new models) push the button of the change bag?
Can the bird or bear really open the dove pan..it gets a little tight at times?
Dear Tony, do you ever use music or sound effects in your Follies? If so, how do you activate the music?
With great hopefulness I await your reply
If the dove pan is stiff it is most likely because it was not made by a Canadian magic company. Try Morissey. Or, check before the show to make sure the inner metal bands are perfectly vertical. If they angle they can mess things up easily.
I don't hold anything with the bear's paws. I will do a repeating cigarette trick and suppose the orangutan could hold that to start. But the repeating pattern occurs using his mouth to hold the cigarette. I pretend to take it out of his mouth, but I'm really palming one. I keep pretending to put the palmed one in a bucket or in my pocket where I palm it again and pretend to pull one out of his mouth again. The one in his mouth can just stay there or you can make the switch, whichever looks better. This could also be done with a multiplying foam banana, I imagine.
You will have to flip the button on the change bag. It has to be the extra large size which will allow the birds head to go into the bag. Or you could use a hand puppet. No mouth, but your thumb and fingers can do the work with the hand puppet's little arms.
Keep trying the rope trick. Let me know how it works.
I have yet to use music with my ventriloquism. I have a variety show with Ventriloquism, Illusions, and Puppetry (the V.I.P. show) and use music behind the magic and a puppet song or two. Very low tech. I push the button behind the curtain and then come out and do the magic.
Many ideas I share are things I've seen and appreciated, not things I do myself. I am a master of mediocrity.
2) You can force a card (probably using two hands) and then have the puppet reveal it it using almost any method imaginable, virtually all of which can be done one-handed.
3) Barry Mitchell has a trick called "King Eno" that can be done one-handed.
4) Barry Mitchell also has a trick called "Mother of All Diamonds" and/or "The Gold Redeemer" (they are basically the same trick with only one additional prop to buy to be able to do both tricks) and both can be done one-handed.
5) Sucker Die Box can be done one-handed.
6) Sammy Smith has a trick called "What's My Job" (and another one using animals where you create a strange combination of one animal's top, another middle, and a third bottom but the name slips my mind right now). In both tricks the spectator "freely" selects the thing which is later revealed. A puppet can bring out the prediction then the puppet is returned while you allow the spectator to select, then the puppet comes back out to reveal that the selection was predicted from the very beginning.
Even tricks that don't seem like they can be done one-handed can be modified with a little thought to work one-handed. For example:
I do the Ball and Vase Trick in one show with a puppet. In order to do it one-handed I split the ball apart and glued a magnet inside so that I can use it with a chop cup. Thus the ball goes under the cup, vanishes and reappears inside the vase, only to later vanish from the vase and reappear under the cup.
Mixing puppets and magic is something I really have a lot of fun with. The two routines I’m going to describe could be done as a magician with an Axtell puppet on one hand, but I like to just have the puppet perform magic by itself. Many of my puppets have gloves for hands. So they can perform magic while I’m out of site. Steve can sell puppets like that too!
I have my wizard puppet show some red thread (It’s really yarn so it can be seen.) He drops it in a dove pan, puts the lid on and sets it aside. Then he gets out a Spelling Bee trick. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a magic sign that you have a volunteer mix up the letters and then it spells things. Hank Lee carries them. The Spelling Bee has the word THREAD on it. The wizard has a volunteer choose letters at random until it magically spells the words RED HAT. Then he opens the dove pan to show a red hat… And all this is done with my left hand.
If you do gospel routines, the Spelling Bee can start off saying the word VARIOUS. You can talk about the various ways people try to get into heaven. Then the letters can be jumbled to say the word SAVIOUR.
My Scrooge puppet (an Axtell Story Teller) can do a Mizer’s Dream. His Gloved hand has a thumb tip in it. And, inside that thumb tip there is a magnet. I purchased a magnetic fifty cent piece from Johnson Products Inc. That way he can easily pull coins out of the air. The magnet keeps him from dropping the coin and he can easily hide the coin if he needs to. I have a chick pan with a jumbo fifty cent piece in it. When Scrooge hits the pan with his hand it makes a nice “Clink” sound and people think they are hearing the coin drop into the pan. He pulls some coins out of the air and then asks everyone how many coins should be in the pan. The audience yells out numbers and Scrooge pours out the one jumbo coin. He then puts the jumbo coin back in the pan and puts the lid on. He takes the lid off and spring bills pop out.
I think that puppets can make magic much more entertaining. They add personality to tricks that could be boring otherwise.
Nicely done,guys. A few questions, please. Is the Sucker Die Box big enough that kids can see it from a school gym stage?
I don't know some of the other effects so I'll bounce them off Dan Morrissey in Toronto.
One question from me involves my duck pan which is a success with my Rocky Raccoon. It's a double load, but I still haven't hit the groove with the double effect yet..i.e.-the idea hasn't happened. Any ideas without describing the illusion on an open forum? Super ideas. Ron
Even though a die box is small, it reads well from a distance. Kids can tell when the bright red die has disappeared.
Here’s another idea I just remembered. D. Robbins has (or had) magnetic Hippity Hop Rabbits. They work just like normal rabbits, but there’s a magnet that steals the gimmick for you. Unfortunately, they are just about four inches tall, but they sure are easy to work with one hand.
I own a double load dove pan, but to be honest, I’ve never found a good place to hide the second gimmick.
Okay I get the double load now, but the second pan has to be hidden somewhere to use after the first load has been presented. So that's probably means in my magic table..wooh, that will be a little tickety boo..actually the Morrissey cake
according to Dan is a natural.
I think I have skirted the ring secrets rule because there's a lot of stuff I have not described. Ron
Remember the comic strip that came with every piece of gum?
Back to the double load duck pan. I talked to Dan Morrissey this afternoon and he said, "Ron, do you have a magic table?" and I said, "I do..I do!"
He suggested one should make ONE'S presentation with the first pan, return the top to the loaded 2nd pan inside my table. Okay, so my guess yesterday was right on.
Yet today he added ,do something else, and then wait a few minutes before you extract the top(now loaded again) with its second load.
Again I have not mentioned any of the secret-explanation details because of ( a few bars of Fiddler on the Roof..TRADITION!)
Dear me..20 to 50 more centimetres of snow expected tonight and Saturday.
"If I were a snow blower..."
Ron