That's a good idea, SilvaAce. I like it.

Hey Bryan, I have a full routine in my book "Kids Think It's Funny" which involves shooting a rubber chicken out of a cannon. The chicken's name is "The Great Tetrazzini". Lots of fun gags and comedy in the routine, could easily be a trademark bit in your show.

I have been doing an original signed card inside a plastic egg in a rubber chicken since the mid 90s. I perform it in just about every show - it has become somewhat of a trademark routine of my show - if you look at my promo, one of my logos includes the rubber chicken (Good version of this logo on my twitter page). This thread was just shown to me, so I thought I'd post!

Here are some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n1ve1JMsB0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95KmAwxu2HI

Tom Ogden has published a routine with a rubber chicken.

It's certainly worth checking out if you want to go down that route.

Is the rubber chicken really a prop that lends itself to comedy? Maybe: in the hands of some, a few, performers.

However I think it's more often than not a symptom of a performer relying on a prop to be the comedy content of their show.

It's a bit like using a toilet seat. There really isn't anything intrinsically funny about a toilet seat or a rubber chicken. I believe anyone thinking that there is in for a hard time in generating laughs.

Tom Ogden's routine is notable for using the rubber chicken as a 'prop' in the way a prop should be used. That is as a support for a routine. In his routine he uses it and get laughs rather than just trying to get laughs from the fact it is a rubber chicken.

I think it's a point worth taking on board.

The Rubber Chicken is an icon. Just holding onto one gets laughs. I have been searching for a tie that looks like a flat rubber chicken. I have thought about making them up as juggling clubs using the "Blues Brothers" soundtrack. Just some thoughts.

Charlie

Rubber biscuit with the rubber chicken. Good one Charlie!

Oddly enough, very few places carry rubber chicken ties.
What's the world coming to?
This is as close as I could find...
http://www.easleys.com/rubberchickentie.aspx

The deluxe, professional chickens are hard to locate these days too.
Wore mine out after many years and can't find a replacement.
They're scarce as hen's teeth!

Charlie,

I guess we have a difference of opinion on this. Whenever I've seen anyone "Just holding onto one"
hoping that that's "enough to get laughs" the result has been precisely the opposite.

Each to their own.

Is that a chicken at the top of your strait jacket...

That would be a great place to do a revelation of a previously chosen card, or marked coin reappearance.

I don't use a rubber chicken.

I do have a sound activated chicken that gets faster and faster in doing the chicken dance...while I juggle....further and further apart..that is left side objects and right side ...

Sealegs - I see your point, and have to agree.

It's funny looking at the progression of what the Chicken Trick has meant to my show over the last decade and a half. I'm sure I initially used a Rubber Chicken because I thought it was instant laughs before I knew how to be funny.

Now I look at it as an interesting juxtoposition against my otherwise organic show. As my show has become somewhat satirical, the chicken trick itself has indirectly become a satire of what my show used to be.

Sealegs,
Do you know in which book Tom Ogden published his RC routine? It sounds interesting.

Michael,
Your routine is great. It seems to combine the magic and comedy nicely.

Steve Hart put out a routine called "It Tastes Like Chicken" in which appears you bite off the RC's head and then magically restore it.

Rob,

Although I knew I had this routine some where I couldn't recall exactly where. Turns out it's in a set of his lecture notes that I bought from him at an IBM British ring convention probably 20+ years ago. So that's not really much help. Maybe you could try contacting him directly.

The only gag I ever came up with for a rubber chicken was taking one out, saying "I don't get it", then putting it away again.

Magic George,
Maybe the rubber chicken is an American thing. Does the R.C. have comedic popularity there in Britain?

WOWA All this technical talk about rubber chickens. As stated earlier in this topic I have used a rubber chicken in my shows for many years; at first it was something I would use to fill the gaps or lows in the show, like any comic prop if it is handled properly it can produce some good reactions. Since 1996 however the chicken has become a full 9 min routine in my show.

I first saw a rubber chicken being used by a magician while I was in junior high school in the 80’s. He used a large egg and produced all sorts of items from it that he had vanished earlier during the show. As a young and inspiring magician I thought it was dumb but funny at the same time. At this point in my life (15 years old) I wanted to be a grand illusionist not a comedic magician so I felt many of his magic tricks where dumb but also funny this guy was the first comedy magic I ever saw live. In 1996 I discovered the power of such an item in my show as a magic prop, and worked with it till I was able to make it a comedy piece that I am very proud of and one that has become a staple in my shows.

Robert Haas had the opportunity to see my show one evening and afterword’s asked if I would be willing to release the routine to the magic community. At first I was hesitant to say yes because I felt this was my pet routine honed over the years from trial and error as well as suggestions from many of my magic friends, yet also because of this the routine became very comical and he was right in saying my routine can be performed by just about anyone doing standup magic. So in 2009 Magic Enhancer started the research and the work for releasing my routine “Cheeka” to the magic community and I am happy to say it will be on the market next month.

http://www.magicenhancer.com/

--Floyd

I think people know of rubber chickens in the UK it's a weird item you see in joke shops but noone actually has, but certainly you don't get a laugh just by having one.
You can get a laugh from a good gag with one but surely that is the same for most objects..