I've known about this since reading about it in my first kid magic books, but never tried it myself. I recently realized that I've never seen it actually performed live, so figured I'd give it a try. It was actually pretty fun to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdfM8aqVrM&t=3s

Nicely done!!!

Egg-ceptionally well performed.

Really cool! I know it works, but still cringed until they fell in. Great job!

Hi David. Bill Okal used to close his street shows with the Malini stunt.It was his money or hat trick.

I did it for YEARS, in my school assembly program, for all ages. It was FUN, and ALWAYS got a "big mitt". It involved 13 props and water, but, it was worth carrying. I had seen it done, and the late Larry Weeks ("This is the army" fame) sold me a plexiglass tray, when I decided to do it on the road. I helped my pal, Karrell Fox, when he wanted to do a juggling bit in his W..C. Fields act.

The late George Jason, "got" 12 + minutes out of it! (12 minutes of LAUGHS, and APPLAUSE.

The late Emil Jarrow, a "standard act" in vaudeville (bill in lemon fame) CLOSED with INERTIA.

The late Robert Parrish wrote, "Great Tricks Revisited". He described at least a half dozen of the old timers' routines, including Max Malini's. I often used Inertia, when I was on an "all magic" bill. (Novelty!)

I wrote some notes on Inertia, in my book. I had red lighted it, when I down sized my prop case.

Hi Charlie!

I guess I should've guessed that you'd actually performed this, Dick
It's good to hear stories of it being done out in the real world. I really enjoyed doing it for the video, but don't see myself putting it in a live show anytime soon, unless I can come up with a decent presentation.