I am working on what to do illusion wise for my show. I know I want to produce a woman and then use her in a sub trunk type escape.

For the production, I am considering 3 different methods, but am open to other ideas as well. I am thinking of these three because they are by design or with modification easy to pack to flat for storage and transportation and can be done for a minimal amount of money.

I am wanting to know from those who might have used these what your thoughts are as far as ease of use, impact, and potential issues (angles, lighting etc)

I plan to use these for club, stage, festival type shows.

I am considering Victory Cartons or Arabian Tent made of thin plywood and hinges together instead of cardboard or Lady from the Light. I know Lady is a bit bigger, but have some ideas on how to construct it so that it can pack and move easier.

Any thoughts or suggstions of other items to consider? My budget is limited at this point and I only have one assitant, and she is going to be produced.

All three production illusions are good choices, but with several points to consider. For club/stage/festival shows, you must know your available staging. All three illusions require, at minimum, wingspace in which to conceal the loading of the assistant. For Victory Carton or Arabian Tent you would need a dolly of some sort to get the illusion/assistant onstage.

For Shadow Box you need a darkened stage (obviously).

Also outdoor shows can present problems of their own. Even a small gust of wind could cause any of these three illusions mentioned above to fail.

One of the charms of Victory Carton and Arabian tent is the speed at which they are done. For that purpose, when I used to do the tent, I did use cardboard. You can either leave it brown to lend credence to the unprepared nature of the cardboard, or you can decorate the cardboard to the themeing of your choice. In my case the cardboard actually lasted several years before needing to be replaced. The lightweight features allowed me to move the pieces by myself very rapidly and smoothly. I think that, for me, framed wooden pieces would be too unwieldy to perform smoothly.

You might consider a dollhouse illusion or one of the many, many, many variations on that prop. Only minimal backstage space is needed and it's not terribly difficult to conceal loading the assistant. Mine is built with a castle theme and the entire thing breaks down and transports in the base. If I leave the legs on the base I can set up/tear down the illusion in about 2-3 minutes. If I add the legs to the time it's about 5 minutes more, but could be made quicker if I were to use T-nuts.

Best of luck!

Festivals and fairs are the toughest to do illusions for especially productions because of the minimum space you have for loading..
I do a swordbasket and metamorphosis.. I had a doll house and got rid of it for that main reason... due to the fact that there are no wings..

Daniel

Thanks guys!

This is why I brought this up before moving forward. The workings of all three are within my wife and my abilities, but I didn't want to start building until I fully understand the issues involved with each choice.

Any one have any suggestions for other production methods that can fit in the trunk of a Honda Civic?

My Light cabinet takes up very little space. 8inches by 2 inches and then a small bag (grocery bag size). It can also be done in day light (without the light effect) but is angle sensitive.

Andrew Mayne has a bold production in The Secret Illusion Show that takes up even less packing room. It does not use any box or cabinet. Extremely angle sensitive.

I've got that book and I like the produciton he goes over. In fact, the escape I refered to in my original post is the one in that book. It spoke to me because it gives the same visual to the audience as the Metamorphisis with out the trunk. I can fit the the required materials for the Escapist into the Honda

My only problem with that particular production is that it would need to happen right away in the opening of the show. That is not so bad in and of itself except that I was planning on using this production and escape as a closer since it would be the biggest part of my show, and I wanted to end on a high note like that.

Now, if I can find a really great piece to close my show with, I am very open to rearranging the sequence. Luckily we are still in the planning phases, so we have a lot of time and room to make adjustments.

As it sits now, the two strongest things I have in terms of impact on the audence would be bill in lemon or swallowing razor blades. I was planning on including both in the show anyway. Would these be considered strong enough to be closers if I did the production and escape as the opener?

I used the ghost house variation on the Arabian Tent Illusion when I was doing my Phantasmagoria show...which we did in the parking lot of Halloween Costume World. We constructed the panels from plywood. They worked out quite well and even withstood a few pretty strong wind gusts.

Drew, I have used both bill in lemon and the razors in my outdoor festival shows for years. Both are very strong, and when I am not doing large illusions the bill in lemon is my closer. Problem with starting the show with the big trick is that, in my opinion, everything else will look small in comparison. We usually close with the sub-trunk outdoors at fairs and such when using big tricks. You really want to try to come up with something big to close with if you are opening with something large....or find a way to move the large trick to the end. A good possible ender that is easy to transport and plays big is Faulkenstien and Willards Gypsy rope tie. All you need is the curtain and it is pretty much angle proof. They explain the method on thier DVD set. I agree with the above as to performing large illusions at outdoor events...there are many problems to consider. Wind is the most common, and the usual lack of stage wings, etc. Things like sword basket and sub-trunk tend to cover the need as they are virtually angle-proof and don't need any "pre-set" time. Good luck.

Thanks for the input! You nailed it with your comments about everything else looking smaller, which is why I wanted to use this stuff as a finale after some other strong, but smaller scale effects.

Maybe I need to give up on doing them together and think about opening with the production and closing with the escape.