Joe I think the rubber chicken is just a funny prop for kids to begin with cause it just looks funny. In my own routine, I not only show it, but I use another proven kid show method to milk it for even more laughs.

I usually do spotty or measle bag with this affect with agirl on my right and a boy on my left. I ask my wife for a special magic wand but I do NOT look at my right hand as I am talking to the boy on the left. In the meantime my wife is getting and placing the rubber chicken in my right hand. I think it is the wand as I state to the boy how important it is to have a good magic wand that works, He will start giggling the moment he sees the chicken.

Now this works based upon 3 things 1) rubber chickens are just funny to kids 2)the fact that the wand is not a wand but a chicken and is not what it is supposed to be is funny for kids and 3) The "they see it but magician does not see it" prinicple.

Once this kid starts laughing, the girl soon follows as I am shaking the thing near her as I am talking to the boy saying giggling aboiut magic wands is silly and we need to be serious when using wands. Of course when you tell a child NOT to do something, they only tend to do more of it, which is exactly what I want happening. I then hear the girl laughing so I switch hands and turn to look at the girl. I still do not notice the chicken and now the boy sees it near him as I say to the girl what is so funny about a wand?

Then finally I do see it and do a double take. As soon as I do this double take, the entire audience of kids just laugh their brains off. It is funny how it happens and how much laughter I can get out of a non-magical item but kids eat it up and love to have fun with it.

Kyle

Popsy Topsy Wand
Giant Foam Top Hat
A child's sock

Topsy Popsy Wand
Snake Can
Qualatex 260 (uninflated - stretch it out and snap yourself in the nose and brace yourself for the roar of laughter!)

Hi Kyle,

Thank-you very much for your thoughts and your routine for the rubber chicken. It will definitely be on my next order. Thanks again.

Joe

I'm ready to order my Rubber Chicken now, can anyone make a recommendation as the best place to get one and if there is one in particular everyone recommends. Thank-you,

Joe

Why did I ask the question? To get a list of Comedy Props and Ideas to last a lifetime. Thanks to all that participated! There are lots more comedy props out there. Here is a Summation of all the above listed props:

What Are Your TOP 3 Comedy Magic Props Used in Your Kid's Show?


• ABC Gumball Re-Combobulator
  
• Backward Scissors
  
• Balloon: 260 (un inflated - stretch it out and snap yourself in the nose and brace yourself for the roar of laughter!)
  
• Balloon: blow up a balloon only to have the darned thing fly out of your mouth all over the place will bring joy to all onlookers.
  
• Black Hand Towel gag.
  
• Blooming Bouquet
  
• BOXER SHORTS appearing where they shouldn't.
  
• Boxer Shorts: on Myself (20th Century Method -Sponge Bob)
  
• Break-away fan
  
• Card from mouth (giving the card gets the laugh)
  
• Change Bag used with the D'lite
  
• Change Bag which looks like the udders of a cow.
  
• Change Purse Frame
  
• Comedy Faucet (Milk from Head)
  
• D'lite
  
• Earmuff Hat
  
• Egg: Plastic Egg Banged on your head
  
• Electronic Chicken that goes off for the 2nd and 3rd time at a random time in my program.
  
• Flower: Bouquet: magnificent bouquet I have paid a fortune for that when uncovered looks like a weed
  
• Flower: Vanishing flower
  
• Flower: Water Powered Wilting Flower was always a good one but not always practical.
  
• Flowers: Timed delay wilting flowers from Warren Stevens
  
• Funny Blindfolds
  
• Funny Hats
  
• Giant Fly Stuck To My Forehead
  
• Giant Fly swatter with a spider on it (Pops in with Elastic string)
  
• Giant Foam Top Hat
  
• Giant funny glasses used for safety glasses when doing needle through balloon
  
• Giant Jumbo Glasses
  
• Giant Pop-Up In A Magic Spell Book that 'scares' me,
  
• Giant Q-tip
  
• Giant Scissors
  
• Giant size comb
  
• Giant size toothbrush
  
• Glasses: various kinds of funny glasses
  
• Hocus Pocus Hare, a sucker type trick...
  
• Honker Horn (like found on a bicycle)
  
• Money: Burning an adult's money
  
• Mouth coil- and it doesn't matter how you produce it!
  
• Mouth squeakers
  
• Music: I edited as a comedy prop. It is playing from a CD I edited myself while I perform. There is a section of the music that starts to play slower & slower so it sounds like my battery is going flat. When I try to fix it the music starts going too fast and ends up playing double speed (like chipmunks). It is not difficult to use some audio editing software to make your own custom CD like this. Comedy props don't have to be visual.
  
• music to do start slow and end fast Nearly Normal juggling routine.
  
• Music: sound generator that has buttons for : boing boing, wah wahhh, kaboooob, alarm clock...
  
• Nigel (pictured)
  
• Paper Balls Over the Head
  
• Pauses And Double Takes (my Nearly Normal face).
  
• Phone that doesn't ring- but LIGHTS. "Let me know boys and girls won't you". Just lean onto a battery operated circuit switch or step onto a switch to activate. When you finally answer it, it squirts water in your face! (Excellent Running Gag)
  
• Plastic Chicken Wing is produced from Egg Bag.
  
• Plunger
  
• Plunger under a wizard hat
  
• Plunger Under Wizards Hat - I wear it
  
• Pop Off Wand
  
• Puppet: Rabbit in the Hat (can't speak enough about this prop), this routine is full of funny props also like a box of dove soap (he produces a dove that's not a dove, it's a bar of soap- that's because he only does clean magic etc.)
  
• Puppet: Rabbit in the Hat, a cob-a-corn (half eaten) or a toy cob is produced.
  
• Real Looking Doughnuts that I sneeze out of my nose.
  
• Rising wand
  
• Rubber Chicken (Also can be used with a parachute )
  
• Rubber Chicken, Mini (only 4'' tall, plump and squishy)
  
• Snake Can
  
• Sock: Child's Sock
  
• Socks: Dirty Pair Of Socks
  
• Sponge: String Of Foam Sausages after a good sponge ball routine, just stick the balls into a change bag and suggest you will try and vanish them only to have them change into these...sausages!
  
• Spring Snakes
  
• Springs Snakes out of anything
  
• Talking Teeth (for the little ones)
  
• Toilet brush as a wand used for brushing their hair
  
• Toilet Plunger
  
• Top Hat with a fez inside it- I put the top hat on the kid's head and say it looks too big, then take it off. The remaining fez always gets a good laugh.
  
• ugly giant scarf
  
• Wand: Any wand - just hit yourself on head with it
  
• Wand: Bang Wand
  
• Wand: Barbie doll on the end of a wand (my magic blonde)
  
• Wand: Beacon Wand. Old Supreme Item
  
• Wand: Break-away wand
  
• Wand: Disobedient Wand
  
• Wand: Fishing Pole Wand
  
• Wand: fly swatter instead of a wand- of course the kids will tell you that you are wrong.
  
• Wand: Giant Pop Top Wand
  
• Wand: Giant Spring Snake Wand
  
• Wand: Multiplying wands.
  
• Wand: Nesting Wands
  
• Wand: Plunger painted like a wand.
  
• Wand: Silly Billy "stretch" wand
  
• Wand: Silly Billy's Feather Wand
  
• Wand: Silly Billy's Silly Wand
  
• Wand: Spring Snakes from Giant Wand (25 of them)
  
• Wand: Spring Wand
  
• Wand: Spring Wands out of a can (See Barry Mitchell)
  
• Wand: Topsy-Popsy Wand -
  
• Wand: Wand Bar- a wooden bar with 6 colored wands in it. When the kid tries to take one out the rest fall through the bar- excellent for misdirection as well.
  
• Wand: Wobbly wand from Warren Stevens
  

Wow...you have even put them in alphebetical order!

I cannot choose my top 3...I just have so many and they all get good laughs, sure some better than others occasionally but that depends on the crowd.

The list you just formed is a great one though!

Toilet paper
mouth coil
squeekers

1. Break away wand

2. The balloon that doesn't stop squeaking even when you let all of the air out

3. My collapsing bird stand with a foam dove taped and another one stapled to the perch.

4. My pulling a hat out of a rabbit routine. I have used this for several years and it's guaranteed laughter.

TomK

Too many to mention but the top one would be break apart stool.....where the legs fall off when th helper picks it up .......break away wand......wand to snake....break and snake tray and many many others.....for me the comedy prop is an essential part of any children's show .
Derek
http://www.derekrutt.com

Tipper Clapping Monkey
Rupert Selberg Figure
Talking Mask

1-Clatter Box
2-Bongo Hat
3-Rocky Racccoon

Buckethead, growing/shrinking head, egg to rubber chicken in dovepan

Comedy Bra, done on myself...

Underwear in Silk Chain - produce from a change bag, get stuck, pull out... surprise, feel around, cover butt, act embarrassed... You got what I mean?

Big comb - you must look good on stage...handsome...comb all the hair down to the face...

1. Can 'O Wands
2. Sponge Ball from mouth (unsanitary, yes; funny, yes!)
3. Sunglasses donned in the middle of a routine for no reason at all.

TomK...pulling a hat out of a rabbit? Sounds great. Can you share that bit??

Mouse trap with swollen thumb (best when accompanied by a snapping sound, and a howl of pain).
Wand to Snake (As I'm about to hand the wand to the kid, I say: "Careful, you don't touch ME with the magic wand.....or you might turn me into a SNAKE!" Then as I hand the wand to the kid, the wand turns into a snake, I wrestle with it, throw it in my trunk, and "kill" it.)
Breakaway Wand (No matter how many times kids have seen it, they will love to see what YOU do with it.)
Doug

In my school shows, I do a mentalism routine with a paper bag over my head, so I can't see what the various volunteers are doing--it was kind of a no-brainer to me that the bag should have a silly face on it. I have the face towards me when I show the bag empty and normal, and then turn around to put the bag over my head. I wait until after the first bit to turn back around and let them start to notice the face.

My favorite comedy prop is a length of red ribbon and the Sid Fleischman patter for "Cutting a Girl in Half" from The Charlatan's Handbook. Yes, it's for kids. And it's brilliant.

Number three? I'm one of those "The More, The Merrier" kind of sponge ball guys when it comes to the climax. Never less than 10. Those little balls flying everywhere is gold, and I've never had a problem getting them all back--when they've gone that crazy, kids are always proud to have found one.

Oh, wait. I have to mention this one because I only recently found out that not everybody does it this way. This gag plays great for the littler set.

Do Hyrum the Hank, but the gag is that Hyrum only moves when you look away. Why do you look away? Because you're looking for Hyrum, who's supposed to come help you. When you look away, the hank wiggles and the kids scream to you that it's moving. When you look back, the hank's stopped cold. The harder you look, and the more exasperated you get, the wilder the kids go.

It's also nice for bedside stuff at hospitals--you just pull it out and you're ready to go.

On a side note, I stopped using "Hyrum" a while ago. I was doing a school show where they didn't want me to use the word "Magic" in any part of my bit, so as not to offend those sensitive to the occult. I figured ghosts were probably a bad idea, too, so I changed it to "Hank, the Invisible Circus Midget," just to make sure I was still at least a little politically incorrect. It played better, so I've used that ever since.

I guess for me it would be Barry Mitchell's Can-of-Wands, Silly Billy's Feather Duster Wand, and the old Supreme Tipple-Topple Wand.

Folks, I amended my needle and balloon routine to incorporate Danny Diamond's 260 balloon Snap.

What a great bit of business, and for 10 cents, how can you go wrong?

Glad to see you found a good and cheap bit o' business, SeaDawg, but that Balloon Snap certainly ain't “Danny Diamond's” - I got the idea from Patrick Page's Funny Business for Kid's Shows DVD. But I'm sure people have been snapping themselves in the schnoz with 260s for many, many years now. But there is a slight technique to snapping yourself with the balloon - do it wrong, and you can really do some eye damage (note: the kid's WILL still laugh if this happens, but your pain will be real, not acted).