As hard as I have tried over the years, this routine is by far my most requested by repeat clients. I have my own twist to the presentation and have even been selling my specially designed devils hand made specifically for this routine.

It all comes down to what the audience wants to see.

Yeah well I guess I could be a member of a wedding band that would scream everytime someone asked me to play the MACARENA!!!! Similar point.

Thank Goodness someone on this site speaks the truth! Its not about the performer, it's all about the audience! If the audience thinks it is magical, funny, and want to see it, who am I to tell them no?

I, too, have adapted my own routine. I include several sight gags, audience participation, one liners, and have eliminated the cassette entirely (except in certain situations where I use a CD). I always kill with this trick ad the audiences seem to remember this one more than most of the other ones. Actually there is only one other routine they remember more in my show.

I challenge anyone who does'nt like this trick to rework it and make it a superior piece of magic. You won't have to go far.

S. Patrick
Posted: Sep 9, 2004 5:25pm
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Oh, and a side note.

I am also a professional DJ. Here is a small list of songs that I get requested at almost every wedding that grate on my nerves. However, I do play them because that's what the client wants.

Macarena
Electric Slide
Cotton Eyed Joe (Rednex)
Grease Megamix
YMCA
White Wedding - Billy Joel
Gettin' Jiggy With It - Wil Smith
Baby Got Back - Mix-A-Lot
Paradise By The Dashboard Light - Meatloaf

S. Patrick

James --

Looking at your web site, adding this routine should be a no brainer for you! Have been doing this routine for years and ALWAYS goes over huge - the audience will have so much fun with the whole act that the vanish at the end is almost secondary.

Not sure why all of the debate in the posts below -- if someone can't sell this effect, and bring pure enjoyment to his audience in doing so -- probably in the wrong business....

Paula is so right.
The Vanishing Bandanna is not a bad trick and is actually a masterpiece of comedy. Apparently some are not able to see that.
I've seen a 1000 magicians do ambitious card or coins across. I guess those must be overdone and if you do them you are a "hack".
Please!
Duckster your argument is weak at best.
If you don't like the trick so what, that is your choice. Don't bash others who do like it and use it quite successfully.
It is ALL about entertainment! Not pleasing our ego.

I've enjoyed the debate in this post. I'm in the camp of people who believe that it is not only ok to do a routine that your audience will enjoy, but it is your job as an entertainer. If the bandana's what the audience wants, that's what they should get. With that said, I also agree that any routine must be performed properly.

Duckster - perhaps the magicians you saw may have been hacks regardless of what routines they were performing. How did you like the rest of their shows?

Duckster,
Hate to beat a dead horse but I need to jump on the bandwagon. Whats old & worn out to us is still new & fresh to laymen if they've never seen it. Every magician I know has performed the invisible deck and it still gets me how many people have never seen it and are totally blown away by it. Classics will remain classics. It's up to us to get them looking new and exciting.

Wow, all this talk has made me want to add it to my show...

I thought this was kind of funny the first time I saw it, not terribly funny at all the next few hundred times, but then saw Steve Daly in Las Vegas (Tiny Bubbles) do it, strictly as a fill in in a show, and laughed harder than I have in a long time.

As many of you have said, I think this is about the performer and the audience both. This crowd was a range of randy college boys, foreign tourists, would-be golddiggers, and regular tourists, and all of them laughed, and a lot of them were talking about that trick at the end of the show. Why? Because the performance was spot-on, drop dead funny, and totally honest with respect to the character. Even if they had seen it, they had never seen it like this. That makes it new to the audience, I think.

Like I said, I think it's overdone, but I liked it. That's part of the fun of seeing a good performer I guess.

I always get requests for this trick as well and it's all about my facial expressions. They love it aso that's what counts.
But when it's not performed well ... man it stinks!
Cashetta

I've looked at this site and it shows a picture of the trick but I don't see where I can watch it in action. I would really like to see this trick.
LouLou

LouLou this Trick is Great a sure fire Laugh Getter.

I actually do the routine all the time and love it but I would like to see it being "killed" on the website but I can't find the video for it. Can anyone help me out?

Thanks,
TM

Use it, polish it, get your laughs...

Just don't be hyping yourself on your website as "extremely original" or "the second coming of comedy magic..."

Don't drag that hack into a real comedy club. People coming into a comedy club or competition and doing Bandanna, Kate & Edith, and Paper Balls... you make it bad for everyone. Comedy clubs don't want any of us because of those of you who bring that hack stuff in there.

I worked at the original comedy workshop with the comedy greats back in the '80's. Kinison, Hicks, all of the outlaw comics. I was in my teens when I started there, and the owner told me that I could do comedy magic, but if he ever heard me using any hack magicomedy bits, I would be asked to leave. At that time, I made up my mind to follow his orders, and my career was changed forever.

Know your place.

That being said, if you're filling your act with surefire routines that you saw elsewhere, don't expect that you will stick with your new, original routines to polish them to the point where they are as good as the easy, conventional stuff that's been contrived for you. If you're just out there looking for the most popular comedy routines, you might as well be selling insurance. This is an art, and if you don't develop a voice, a character, a distinguishable personality, then doing the shows becomes a real bore.

The real pride of being a comedy act of any kind is when you can come up with a line or a bit, and everyone who knows you says, "hey, that sounds like a ------- (insert your name here) bit..." or "that sounds like something that ------ would say..."

That is when you understand the power of avoiding what everyone else is doing, and you take the road less travelled.

WOW -- Amen!

Hey every one please say HELLO to my new best friend!

I haven't watched this thread for months and I am shocked to see it is still going.

Everything he say is 100% and should be etched in stone some where because those
are words to live by.

Imagique, I agree with you 100%. To an extent. I still do think that the Vanishing Bandana is a great routine. And the only reason for that is because lay audiences love it. I wish they didn't because the trick is not that great. but it has got me a lot of booking. The rest of my act is very original, but that ios the one routine that I do use that has not been concieved by myself. The only reason I still keep it in my shows is because it is solid. I am a theatre major, I have taken improv classes, I do stand up-comedy so I actually know what I am working with and how to present this routine and how to make it funny and not just like everyone else doing. I have seen this trick go awful too many times. also, if your career has been changed for life, would I be too rude in asking what your name is so you can back that statement up with some credibility?

Credibility? Read my words. If you don't agree with them, then whatever. I'm not going to start a magician's credentials "yellow gasoline projecting" contest. You can look up my posts and find out who I am easily enough, if you're so inclined.

But I bet if we had a yellow gasoline projecting contest mine would go farther because mine doesn't curve..... think about it...

It needs to be released on audio CD

It already has, check hocus pocus for the new and improved one