After I did my show yesterday with my hands free vent Toucan, Taco, I had a couple of kids come up to me and say; "I know that bird isn't real."
I just act surprised.

I'm thinking to myself; no kidding, Steve and his staff, made the puppets to look funny, not real looking. Of course I have had some kids think that Taco is real.

we took our toucan for a stroll through the mall the other day...and the kids just flocked to him.... the funny thing was...several adults believed the arm illusion to be real and thought the puppet was a robot that sat on our arm... we didnt give away the secret....

cc

Exactly! I've had engineers in the audience a few times that I've performed who "figured it out". One said, "you have cables on your fingers down in the glove and they move the mechanical bird!" The other said "it took me a while to figure out it was animatronic, nice job". Ax

One woman thought the Toucan was real and I was fake (fur & eyeglasses). I told her I was real but she wasn't convinced until the bird said it.

I don't own any Axtell Auto-Bot stuff yet in my army of Axtell Puppets. But, I do have the arm illusion. I have used it several times with the Axtell Benny Bird, which I call Beck Er Bird. It is so much fun to watch people try to figure out how you are working the bird while holding your arm out like that. Once in awhile I will give them a hint. {:->
I had one little girl back in December. Maybe 8 years old or so. She was with her Mom and her older sister. She kept staring at me and Beck Er Bird. Of course Beck Er and I talked to her and she would answer and go along with what ever I was trying to pull. She finally said "Is He alive?" She asked me a couple of times in front of other children which looked on for an answer from me. I kind of changed the subject by getting Beck Er Bird to talk to all the kids standing there at the moment. The little girl did not let up, but eased back as she let me do my thing. Then she came up to me again and stared at the Bird. "Is He alive?" I looked around. No one was really watching us. I bent down to her ear. I said, "I got a secret." "Don't tell anyone." "He's a Puppet." Her eyes got real wide, like "I KNEW IT!" She smiled and skipped/ran to her Mom as if she had just got the cat out of the bag. I never noticed her telling anyone. Just saw her proud that she knew a "Secret". I love kids. They are so cute some times. {:->

Right Chris?

Taco is now almost 3 years old now. Almost as soon as I started to use him in a show I realized I like to keep the illusion that he is real to some kids.

First off, I built what looks like a live animal cargo crate. Then I started to put Taco in it before my magic show actually ends. He starts to yawn and says he is getting tired. I tell the audience that he is only 2 years old and he needs a nap, and then I quickly put him into his cargo crate.

After my show I have many children come up to his crate, which has a screen opening, which one can look into, but they can not see anything. Anyway, some kids try to talk to him. I just tell the kids he is sleeping.

If I want to, I have also made it so that there is a tape recorder behind the screen that I will sometimes play. There is about 30 minutes of silence, (My magic show has ended) and then followed with Taco's voice singing, and saying; "Hello," "goodby," "goodnight," and many other silly things.

If some kid asks me if he is real, I say; "He is real to me."

I get that with my puppets especially when I am doing walk around. I make it look like I am trying to cover their ears and say "Shhh. You know he isn't real, and I know he isn't real but HE doesn't know he isn't real. I don't like to tell him."

That's a very cool bit Neale... it makes the puppet even MORE real by saying that. Ax

Steve, I got that line from David Ginn when he does his sheepdog puppet.

The cage & tape recorder idea is brilliant.