Hi,

I'm planning for a talent show in April at my school and I really want to throw doves into my act and I'm starting from scratch. I'm new to dove work but I'm no stranger to doves themselves. I helped my buddy take care of his for years but never had the desire to learn untill now. Now he's moved away and I kind of want a fresh perspective on it. Any help would be good I'd Like to do body loads but I know that is more advanced, and I was also looking at the torch thru arm to dove effect but haven't heard anything about it. Any advice would be so greatly appreciatd.

thanks,
Josh

Josh, check out the many topics here on the Café about this. The first thing you want to do is get some reference books or vids. Helping someone raise doves and actually raising and working with them yourself are two different things.

I'd recommend Tony Clark unmasked, Andy Amyx dove 101, Encyclopedia of dove magic, Gen Grant's how to make a living stealing...doves, just to name a few.

Body loads aren't that difficult but starting out with props is a good idea. Get the dove or doves as soon as you've done the research and spend as much time with them as you can between now and April.

Definitely start out with doves and props because it takes a good bit of practice to do body loads well because dove work is not easy. Hope this helps good luck

Take care,

Tim Kutch

Dave,

What magic shop did you go to for the packages in your arms? The small one looks like it could fit in a dove pan...

I don't think Tannen's carries them. I could be mistaken. :-D

Josh,
Something you might want to look to since your just starting with doves is a trick like "The casket of Pandora" where you have a tube in which you put a silk in one end and produce the dove from the other. It's a very good trick for beginners in the "dove" area. If I'm not mistaken Abbott's may carry them you might want to try http://www.magicauction.com and go under the dove area too for different tricks so that you wouldn't have to worry about putting an act together using dove pulls, hope this helped some!
~Jess

Oh, man, this brings back memories...

Back around 1970, I was putting together a cards-and-doves act along the lines of Channing Pollock's. First time ever working with the birds. So I read everything I could get my hands on before I even bought them.

Anyway, so I decided there was no way in the world I was going to clip their wings to keep them from flying away. Period. I'd seen too many acts where the birds had clipped wings and it looked horrible. I wanted my birds to open up and have this gigantic clean white wingspread.

So I started training them to get used to me. I built a cage in the basement and piped music overhead to get them used to the noise. Then eventually I let one out to get it finger trained. Of course she flew to the most inaccessible corner in the place and perched there. Well, I'd done my homework and expected this, so I just walked over, stuck my finger out horizontally, and said, "Perch."

At which point, she flew to the second most inaccessible place and perched there. So I walked over and repeated the drill.

At which point of course she flew right back to the first most inaccessible place...

This went on for a while, until yours truly began to get irritated. But she still didn't get the drill. Doves are like that.

I continued with the drill, but, finally, exasperated, I started to say, "Perch, dam*it" when I stuck my finger out.

And that's when she started to perch on my finger.

This is a true story. Absolutely true. I couldn't make this up if I wanted to.

Anyway, the bird's name became... Dam*it.

I went through the same drill with the next two birds. Exactly the same drill. Their names? Birdbrain and Stupid-looking.

Hey, I was nineteen at the time, okay? A high-strung teen-ager with absolutely no patience. Just gads and gads of ambition...

But, ta-daaaa, the moral of the story is that I used those birds in any number of shows and they never once flew away. Never even looked like they wanted to. I used them in the middle of a shopping mall, a large theatre, an auditorium, and lots of other places, and they always stayed put. With that beautiful, huge, spotless white wingspread.

Best wishes to you.

Cool, thanks for the advice so far. I did a search and it didn't turn up much but is there a card to dove production out there or something to that nature that uses normal size cards?

The dove on cards production is not in print or video to my knowledge. I finally got to see it at a convention. Daniels did it in his Winning SAM competition act. After you get familiar with dove productions you will see how it is accomplished. It does take a lot of practice.

Shimada also does the dove on cards production and shows it on his video. No explanations, just the effect.