Although I feel it is in poor taste to perform
Houdini Outstripped with a volunteer, does anyone feel it would be funny and in good taste to perform it on myself, sort of like "I will escape from this" type
of thing? Would it be tasteful to perform this for a family show?

It's not too far removed from Professor (Charles) Cheer's Comedy Rope Routine...it ends with the performer's underwear on display for everyone to see. I've been using this for almost 20 years. I think if it's performed on yourself, it's perfectly fine.

Steve Thomas

I perform this all the time WITH a volunteer for family audiences! (not children's shows but family crowds) and it plays very well.

I think it is less funny to do it on yourself but with a good presentation it could work!

What if the performer's underwear was to be a g-string and a bra (performer being a man of course!!!)?

Hi David:

I see no problem in doing this with an older boy. I know David Ginn discusses this particular effect in his "School Show Presentation" book/cassette. He basically thinks the same: doing it for a younger child or any girl would be in bad taste, or questionable at best. But for an older boy (say, 10 years and up), it is fine.

Ron

I know of a magician who does the bra trick for kid's shows and produces the bra from down the front of young girl's top.

I don't know of any complaints from any audiences but I DO know of SEVERAL parents who loved it and found it hilarous!

Go figure....

OK, here is your complaint.

I used to book acts other than my own. If I had ever found out that an entertainer had "Pull the Bra" out of a "young girl's front" it would have been the last time they worked for me.

Period.

Ron Calhoun

Humor that puts the specator in the spotlight can be a tricky thing. It really depends on your character, presentation, and venue. The best way to test if you should be using it is to ask a very trusted friend or two to watch you perform it live. Tell them you want honest feedback.

I have watched so many people use the bra trick or Ding Dong and think they were hilarious, but were actually just sophomoric at best. The performer was laughing the hardest, not the audience. But they can not see it because they are too close to the problem.

Matt King does the Card from Zipper routine. His character and performance is so disarming that no one is offended and it is hilarious. However, I watched another performer do it at a comedy club and he came off lewd and cocky. The audience was impressed that he could do it (what he focused on) but they found his trick/joke to be without class (what he did not focus on).

David, I hate to say it but it really comes down to the presentation of the trick along with your character that will determine if the trick is in poor taste or a fun hilarious bit.

Sergeant

I agree with Steve. To my knowledge no one has ever had a problem when I perform Professor Cheer's Rope Routine. If you pull your own underwear out, then the joke is on you, and I don't believe anyone in the audience will be embarrassed or offended. They usually just think it is hilarious.

Regan

Ron-

I'm with you! I'd never perform it or book a guy who did.

It think it's because, as performers, we need to be oversensitive to that sort of thing. It only takes ONE complaint about that sort of thing and your rep would be ruined.

I get a bit angry with all the magicians out there who think that the funny stuff is just the blue-oriented stuff. Although blue stuff is funny, there are lots of other possibilities to produce comedy and laughter. All you have to do is to stop thinking in a magician's way (that is, to rely on the effect to produce comedy} and start to think like a comedian (that is, to take apart the effect and build it in a way that is funny, or add a gag, contrast etc., etc.).

Let me give an example: let's say 20th Century Boxers. You vanish the hanky, only to find it's not tied between the other two, and you find the hanky somewhere else: in a tube that you showed empty. You vanish it again to find it in another place. You repeat this around 4 times, finally finding the boxers between the hankies.