?

No- I always use a mirror box...

Yes. I used to do it all the time in my kid shows. I used the Die Box routine ending with a rabbit from a top hat that is in Tarbell.

You wouldn't happen to have any videos up of your kid shows, would you Whit? I'd like to see one.

(I was in a Pop Haydn mood last night and watched four or five videos. No kids in sight.

But then I switched to Tommy Wonder videos, because there is this woman in several of them who is wearing a really short skirt....)

Uh, no, I've never pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

About twenty-five years ago, a fellow magician and I were hired to do a magic show for a motorcycle dealership.
He would begin by offering to vanish a motorcycle, but he needed a volunteer to help.
I would raise my hand and come up on the portable stage.
I helped him move a small motorcycle into a cabinet...where it vanished. B.A.
Then I told him that wasn't so much, I could do magic, too.
He challenged me (Remember, we're working together).

I called for a motorcycle helmet from the displays. It was brought to the stage.
Then I asked for a checkered flag, displayed on the wall.
Put the flag over the helmet...magic words 'n' stuff.
Pulled the flag away.
Huge white rabbit.

We did the show twice. First time, B.L.; second time, Flag L., just in case anybody watched both shows.

We gave the rabbit away after the second show.

And here's the snapper on the story:

That night the family called the motorcycle dealership.
They'd taken the rabbit home and it'd had a litter of seven little bunnies.

We didn't even know it was pregnant!

But imagine what an effect THAT would have been if the rabbit had delivered in the helmet.

Only time I ever pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

Great story.
You still did quite a nice apparition effect to the happy winners: it's like the overflow of little sponges at the end of a sponge routine.

True. Maybe we should have taken another bow.

In response to the initial question, yes. I do it in every one of my shows for children/families. Like Whit, I use my own variation of one of the methods in Tarbell.

IMO producing the rabbit in an otherwise empty top hat is the ONLY way to do it. That's the way everyone expects a "real" magician to do it. Furthermore, it's so easy to do it that way that the only excuse for using a mirror box or some other "contraption" is to support the guy who makes the contraption -- but that's just my opinion.

There is precious little "classic" magic that isn't in Tarbell and one of the things that makes Tarbell so valuable is that so few people bother to study it these days.

Funny you should mention.
I got volume one down from the bookcase yesterday, with the idea of making the set my "reading-in-bed" books again.

Every once in awhile, you've got to go back to the basics.

The question remains what to do with it after it's been produced. There's something lacking in simply having it taken away by an assistant - IMHO.

The rabbit out of the hat (my own routine) is the feature effect of my show. To answer Jonathan's question, if the party is small enough (under 20 kids) I will let all the kids pet the bunny. Then I do the Hippity Hop Rabbits with rabbit on the table. This adds are very funny moment when I seem to think the kids want me to turn the real rabbit around. I don't know why the audience thinks its funny, but it is a guaranteed laugh.

The last time I pulled a rabbit from a hat, the hat had a casserole shape and the rabbit was well cooked with a creamy mustard sauce: I think it had a very good effect on all the guests.

Sorry I took my food for thought

:)

Thank you. Can it be done in a close up Ken as Theo Annemann said: “There is a big difference in working from the stage and mingling with the audience. There are a lot of performers who can put on a model act from the stage, but when it comes to a private or impromptu drawing room entertainment they are "out." Why? Because they are not adept at working with their audience personally. The performer can stand on the stage and show a hat empty and then produce a rabbit with ease and the spectator cannot say a word or make a motion to prevent the working of the trick, but in the drawing room and club he feels at home enough to make remarks about this and that, and at the same time comes in contact with performer enough so that some motion at a critical time in the experiment he may be helping is going to ruin it. There is the difference. The close worker must be always ready to place his wits up against those of the spectators seated around him and beat them at their own game but at the same time keeping a perfectly gentlemanly poise.” I have never done it and wanted to as it is such traditional trick that, well I want to. I normally only do card work and in a drawing room sort of place you see. I can not recall even seeing done by a magician actually. I looked on youtube and did not find a clip of it there, although I did find a blue version.

Am I right if I understand that basically stage (or any set up where magic is simply demonstrated: parlour, drawing room and club) where distance creates a dominating position at the expense of personal contact, and close up where magic is personally shared at the expense of ... distance and domination.

Naturally what people experience themselves, will leave a stronger impression especially if they did take actually a part in producing the effect: hence the bigger success in close up of tricks with audience participation: four coins across is less impressive than four coins to the spectators' hands (with equal performance quality)

In answer to several of the comments/questions above, with the method I use distance is NOT a factor. Even when performing on stage (as in an assembly program at a school or evening show sponsored by the PTA) I begin the routine on stage, but -- assuming that I will still be able to be seen by the rest of the audience -- then walk off the stage to the front row of the audience where I can let the children look into the hat -- or even put their hands in it -- and see/feel it empty just SECONDS before the rabbit appears. Same thing when performing at a child's birthday party in a home or in an open field at a corporate or community picnic in the summer. Even when the rest of the show is on stage, I do the rabbit production close-up. In outdoor performances, if someone in the crowd is wearing a suitable hat, I will borrow it and produce the rabbit in THEIR hat, then put it into my top hat and return the hat to its owner. Sometimes a parent will give the birthday child -- or each child at the party -- a toy top hat. In that case I'll produce the rabbit in the birthday child's hat. I take advantage of any opportunity to make the effect as "magical" as possible.

Although I only include the rabbit production in my children/family shows, I find that the adults are just as mystified as the kids when the rabbit appears -- they always think I'm just joking and can't really do it until the rabbit actually appears. The only reason I don't feature it in my adult shows is because adults -- despite being fascinated when I do it -- perceive it to be a trick for kids and would think I was "talking down" to them if I suggested including it in the show.

As to what to do with the rabbit after it appears, since the rabbit is always my closing effect, at parties in the home I simply put the hat with rabbit inside on my table and let the children come up and pet the rabbit. When performing on stage -- assuming the crowd is of manageable size -- I enlist the aid of one or two parents to monitor the situation and keep the kids in line, then place the hat with rabbit on the apron of the stage and let the kids come up and pet it, then exit to the wings as the curtain closes, then go out in front of the curtain to chat with the kids as they pet the rabbit. If the situation doesn't permit that, then I carry the hat (with rabbit) off with me when I exit the stage.

BTW my rabbit is trained to "pose" in the hat for petting and will stay in the hat for as long as necessary (even an hour or more) until I put its carry case next to the hat at which time it will hop into the carry case. Rabbits are incredibly easy to train if you start when they are only a few weeks old.

Thanks I will have to look into it all. I have some books at home and I will have to dig into them.

Back in the 1980s a local performer did a magic show 'ala the 1880s,' and included pulling a full-grown rabbit from his topper.
He simply wore his hat throughout the show, with the rabbit tucked inside seated on his head and waiting for its debut.
If the rabbit needed to void its bladder before being produced, the performer 'sweated more than usual.'

Orson Welles tells a story about going to a movie mogul's birthday party. He knew in advance that people would be called upon to entertain...Garland to sing, Barrymore to recite, etc, so he took along a rabbit in a body load.

Nobody asked him to perform.
And for three hours, he said, he could feel the rabbit peeing.

The secret to avoiding the problem described by Steve Mollett and experienced by Orson Wells is to be sure your rabbit is empty before you leave for the gig (i.e., nothing to eat or drink for 8-12 hours). That's how I'm able to produce the rabbit in a borrowed hat without fear of a mishap -- but when I use a borrowed hat I still make a point of looking into it and saying "I'm awfully sorry. She's never done THAT before." just before returning it to its owner.

Since I keep my rabbit in an outdoor hutch year 'round I've never bothered to housebreak any of them; however, a rabbit CAN be trained to use a litter box.

Yes, I do it all the time.
Just the hat and the bunny.
No bags,or any rabbit holders.The hat is shown empty before the bunny is produced.
The bunny is comfortable before the production.
TrickyRicky