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Tail Spin - Children's Magic

THE EFFECT: You show a picture of the cutest little ol' donkey you ever saw. But the poor fellow is missing his tail. Slide the donkey picture into an envelope with a large window. A child pretends to throw the tail, and when you pull out the donkey, the tail is stuck to his nose. His eyes are crossed and his ears bent back in surprise! Kids howl! It's not the helper's fault -- you know how stubborn donkeys are!

Put it back in, try again, and this time when you pull it out, the tail is completely gone. You look all around for it, and suddenly the kids scream their lungs out because the tail is hanging out of the back of your trousers!

COST: £19.99 from MagicNevin.com - http://www.magicnevin.com/proddetail.as ... ail%5FSpin

DIFFICULTY: (1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)

Tail Spin itself 1 - very easy to perform, however, you have to vanish the donkey's tail twice, so this part (which you have to do yourself with a change bag, other similar prop or sleight of hand) can be as easy or as difficult as you like.

REVIEW: Large, bright and colourful, with an endearing design, also packs flat, so ideal for the chilren's magician to slot in his routine without upsetting his suitcase of props too much. The included routine is basic, but this sort of thing - like Hippy Hoppy Rabbits or Run Rabbit Run relies more on the magician's presentation than anything else. The premise of the trick is a good one - let a young helper stick the tail on the donkey, then try to do it yourself by magic, with hillarious results. While I haven't performed this live yet, it ticks all the boxes, and -almost- does what it says on the tin.

I say almost, because the product description doesn't mention any prerequisits, on the website, yet you do need some way to vanish the donkey's tail (about 4 inches of bright red rope), and the instructions assumes that you will have a change bag, or know how to perform a simple vanish - twice. Now, it's possible to do a french drop, or other similar sleight to vanish the tail, but it's not as clean as it would be with a coin or sponge ball due to the size and shape of the tail, so it might be better to employ another method. Luckily, I'm sure most of us will be experienced enough to be able to vanish the tail easily enough, it's just, like I say, assumed that you will be able to do this.

The card board that the donkey is printed on is of good quality, as is the envelope, so I can see it lasting many performances, and the tail is colourful, although my wife commented that the frayed bit at the bottom wasn't very well finished (looked ok to me). This is a really easy trick to perform, the instructions are clear, and will have young children eating out of your hand. I would certainly recommend it. 8/10.

Did my first public performance of this last Sunday. The trick went down very well with the age group 3-5, and got laughs in all the right places. The comedy tail on your own bum at the end went down a treat, so all in all, one that I'll be keeping in my routine for some time to come methinks.

I have had good luck with this too!
It is very funny when you ask kids to cover eyes and some go right for it.