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asopfable New user 3 Posts |
Hello! I am interested in getting some opinions. I have been working on a routine that is presented as follows:
In the beginning of an hour long stage show, the performer talks about the "rules" of the show. He mentions how cell phones are allowed, but if seen, will be taken and vanished. To illustrate this concept, he asks for a volunteer. He wants to make sure the volunteer is truly random, so he throws a brick (foam) at the audience. The brick is tossed around until a spectator with a cell phone is willing to come up. The spectator is brought to the stage. They are told that they will not have the phone for the duration of the show, but that the phone will be returned to them unharmed. The volunteer agrees that this is okay. The phone is placed in a hank and disappears. The volunteer is sent back to their seat. The rest of the hour long set is done. One of the routines at some point throughout the show involves a person coming up on stage, and selecting a card. The performer guesses the card, incorrectly, and sends them back to their seat, but asks them to hold onto the card. For the final effect, 6 volunteers are brought up on stage for a game show style effect that involves rolling a large die. They sit in 6 chairs. The volunteer in the 6th chair is the volunteer who so graciously contributed his cell phone. All 6 sides of the die are shown, showing the audience that it is "fair." 6 bags sit on a table, numbered accordingly. Volunteer number one rolls the die, and retrieves his prize. It is shown as junk. All 5 volunteers do this, and they all won junk (tissue, grass, leaves, sticks, candy wrapper, etc). Volunteer number 6, gets the prize in the last bag. It is opened, and shown to be the cell phone. (This 6 bag routine is from Maven's "Nothing") Audience applauds, and performer sends all other volunteers except one with cell phone back to seat. Man with cell phone is still on stage. Performer thanks the man for his participation in the show, and re-affirms the randomness of his choosing by recalling the brick that was tossed out. During this interaction, the man's cell phone starts to ring. The volunteer recognizes the call coming in, as the performer takes the phone. The performer answers the phone with a delightful "Yellllo." The performer introduces himself and the circumstance in which this person has called. He asks the person to hold. He then asks the volunteer who "Jack" is, or whatever the name is that shows up. The volunteer describes this person who called, and his relation, whatever it may be. The performer starts talking to Jack about something the volunteer mentioned. After about 15 seconds of inconsequential conversation, the performer gets an idea, and asks if Jack has knowledge of the cards in a deck. The phone is then put on speaker phone. Jack, is asked to think of a card. Jack says his card, which everyone hears, including Jack's friend, the volunteer. At the same time, there is a gasp from the audience. The woman who picked a card earlier is asked to say what her card was. Her card matches what Jack said. A round of applause is given to Jack, the woman, and the volunteer who lent his phone. The volunteer is sent back to his seat, and the performer accepts his applause as the curtain falls. The volunteer recognizes the call coming in, and knows whoever this person is. The audience, and the volunteer, all hear the person on the phone say the card. I actually performed a variation of this at a family show that I did for the recreation department in a nearby town. It played really well, but I had to use a stooge for the volunteer who lent his phone, which led many to see through the illusion. I wanted to develop a way to get a truly random person up on stage, and still have the effect work. Thoughts? Anything I could do to enhance it? My fear is that people will still believe the person who lent their phone is a confederate in some way. I've had an account on here for almost a year and still haven't posted anything, but I want to start getting more involved in this awesome community. Thanks for reading! |
ZachDavenport Inner circle Last time I posted I had one less than 1196 Posts |
That sounds like a great routine, but because it has so many elements you need to make sure the patter is very well written. I can't think of a way to do it without a stooge, but you could make it look like it is not using a stooge if you give the stooge a brick before the show, then throw out 5 bricks in a cluster, and tell them it is 6. After throwing them around a bit tell the people left with the bricks can come up on stage. Because the stooge had the brick from the beginning he is included. Then just proceed with the routine as planned.
Reality is a real killjoy.
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asopfable New user 3 Posts |
I like that idea, although the method I use does not require a stooge be selected. It utilizes dual reality. However, using a stooge makes things much MUCH easier. Additionally, I only need one person to come up in the beginning, not 6. Although if I was using a stooge, I could just trash the part in the beginning where the volunteer's phone vanishes and then proceed to do the 6 bag routine with only 5 people on stage (one of which being the stooge). The last prize (a bag full of cash, or my watch) would be the one I get while all the other prizes are trash. As the volunteers walk off, the stooge's phone could ring and I could proceed with the routine from there.
Hmmmmm. What would be REALLY cool is if I could bring 6 people up in the beginning, make 6 cell phones vanish, and have them all select their phones in the bags when they are rolling the die. Although if I wanted to pull this off, I have a feeling that they wouldn't be bags that contain the cell phones, but boxes instead. Hmmm, back to the drawing board. Thanks for the idea Zach! |
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