Hey I'm prepping a year or two in advance, for my Junior or Senior year of high school I want to preform at the talent show at my school. I want to put some comedy into it. I want to product a fake dove and bash it and have feathers fly. I'm not sure what I need for this so maybe you can help me. Here is what I am thinking

A medium size cloth
A dove pocket ( I think )
..

Does anyone know where I can get a (fake) real looking dove that you can make it's head move with your finger?

Nielsen makes the most realistic ones. They're toward the bottom of the page at:

http://www.nnmagic.com/magicitems/stagemagicpage_al.htm

You'll need to cut a slit in the bottom in order to stuff the feathers in and have them come out properly when you are ready for them to do so.


Lyndel

Awesome, thanks a lot

Hi Blindside785:

Why would you want to appear to bash a dove? And...how would that be funny?

Ron

Yeah, you might want to rethink that. Wasn't it Harry Anderson who got a ton of complaints for bashing a fake guinea pig?

Killing a fake dove is not funny. I would not do it.

Better to just come out with the dove sitting on your shoulder. Walk forward and do a quick effect while as an offbeat you reach up and pet the dove. Smile and turn around and walk a few steps upstage. Maybe toward your table. On your back are white spots right below the dove. The spots dipping all the way down the back of your nice coat.

Turn back around and point at the dove and then wave your hands from side to side and shake your head side to side as if saying no. Smile and reach up and remove the dove. Hold the dove gently, pause and then fold the dove up and place it into your breast coat pocket.


Ray

The Amazing Jonathan does or used to do a similar bit in his show. Fielding West also did something similar with his "Bob The Bird" as I recall. I saw a comedy act at a convention in Florida win with a comedy act in which he "bashed" doves.

Cheesewrestler, actually Harry Anderson who ATE the guinea pig on the Tonight show. And even if the effect generated complaints, it also generated free publicity for Carson, Anderson, The Tonight Show, and NBC.

I think it could be funny - but maybe that's my warped since of humor. I guess it's the context of the effect... Let's not condemn Blindside without even knowing anything about the routine he is planning guys!!


Lyndel

Hey Lyndel,

After reading your post I think that it may be funny. You will never know unless you do it! Heck, we all try new things to see if it would work. So with this thinking I changed my mind. Go for it!

Ray

A few years ago I saw a latex dove but it was made like a roast chicken. To be used in a dove pan. I forget who made it though

I think what the idea lacks at the moment is a motivation. Why are you smashing this dove? What has it done to you? If the dove has done something to damage you or your act(defecate on your jacket, bite your finger off, or any other number of things), then you have a motivation of sorts, and a potential laugh at what the bird has done. Here's an idea for a routine inspired by some of Magical Dimension's thoughts in an earlier post. Use it if you like, skip it if you don't. The way I have it staged, it would have to be your opening trick, but you could modify it to use it later on if you want.

Walk out on stage and produce the dove by some method. Perch it on your shoulder, smile and pet it, and then turn around to go back to your table. The audience sees white splotches of bird scat going down your shoulder, and you notice it shortly after their laughter. Rip the bird off your shoulder and turn to the audience as you give it a a furious glare. Pick up a bag and place the bird inside, then proceed to smash the bag a couple times on the table. Walk up to the front of the stage, and rip the bag open, causing a shower of feathers to fly out.

It's pretty easy to do, and all you would need is a method of dove production, a latex dove, a bunch of feathers and a rip-apart bag. Your dove idea could be really funny, I think you just have to play with it a bit. Let me know if it works out for you.

Just my two cents,
Alex Leidy

I believe (if memory serves) that Carl Ballantine also did a comedy version of this. He'd place a dove in a bag, visibly (supposedly secretly) switch the bag to guarantee the laughter rather than a "What the...", then announce the bird vanished, inflate the bag and pop it causing a cascade of white feathers to float to the ground while he grimmaced and quipped, "Oops." Done properly and with properly slapstick method and timing, this routine is hilarious. Done poorly or in bad taste and you'll have an audience walking out on you and children hating you. Tread carefully!

Skip

If you watch Fielding West DVD he says that he says 2 things
1 - don't just use a fake dove
2 - Always bring it back

Me personally I unfortunatly don't have the luxuary of a real dove, so I use a nielson and after producing it and am patting it, it "bites" me and I yell throw it to the ground and stomp it. While the audience is in shock I casualy pick it up and say whats ur problem??? it's not like its real. I usually have a female from the audience next to me on stage.

That's right! It was a funny bit. I don't want to expose a working pro's methodology of course (cough c*tt*n c*ndy cough), but it was pretty obvious he wasn't eating a raw guinea pig. And yet people complained!!!!

So that's why a highschool kid doing a highschool talent show ->might<- think twice about doing that type of effect.

I guess it all depends on the audience too. Today I received a call from a young man of high school age who had inadvertantly called me looking for a magic shop. We got into a discussion about magic and he told me that he is inspired by magicians David Blaine and Chris Angel.

Now these two magicians are not really my cup of tea, but I didn't tell him that because he had been so enthralled with them and their style. He even commented on a couple of the effects that he had seen them perform. I told him that the particular effects that he was talking about had been originated by magicians who had came before they were born. Of course I caught myself sounding like "an old timer" so I backed off a bit on the corrections and just listened to his excitement.

His excitement reminded me of my own excitement when I had first watched Doug Henning, David Copperfield, and Blackstone Jr. - It's just that magic has changed. Just like music has evolved so has magic. Teenagers today might be bored with the likes of Blackstone, Karrell Fox, etc. I'm not saying we should all embrace this new style of magic and all of us become "street magicians" or "bizzare magicians," but we need to be a bit more open minded when it comes to trends.

The Blaines and the Angels represent their generation. It just so happens that a lot of people in that demographic are much more desensitized to violence due to video games, movies, etc. "Bashing a dove" may seem abusive and mean to some of us older folks, and may make his high school teachers cringe at the talent contest, but to his classmates who are all a part of this new generation, I guess it might be considered "cool."


Lyndel
(An old-timer who is trying desperately to continue to think young)

I doubt if a high school talent show participant can give the effect proper context, to make it funny. I don't know him personally so I can't really state it as fact.

It has been done, and has been done funny, but I can list at least 10 to 1 guys who fail horribly to guys who get it funny.

Try it, if it dosn't work, drop it. Pretty simple really.

I probably would've thought it was a cool idea when I was sixteen, and so would most of the sixteen-year-old boys in my class. At a certain point in one's life one has the sensibilities of a sixteen-year-old, ya know? And a while later one develops more mature sensibilities. To think young is one thing, to try to persuade yourself that Froot Loops really are the ideal breakfast food is something else again.

What's wrong with Fruit Loops?

:bg:

Lyndel

In terms of what a high schooler would like, there are always diverse tastes. My school has an animal awareness club, and I have a feeling that doing a bashing dove routine would anger them quite a bit. On the other hand, there are some guys who would think this kind of thing is just hilarious. Just like with any age group, it's a mixed bag.

-Alex

"oot", not "uit".

I stand corrected.

:jump:


Lyndel