talkmagic.co.uk

Hi All,

Im a newbie to this site.
I have a kids magic show and Im wanting to start a 5-10 minute routine with a vent puppet Ive bought.
Hes a boy puppet by magic light puppet company (safire illusionists) and has a great face, orange skin and bright orange hair.
Im trying to get to grips with some ideas for the routine.
Ive been practicing the voice which I feel Im almost confident with but am struggling with ideas for the script and I want to get starting.
Any ideas ? Kids are between 5-7 usually.
I want him to be naughty and call me names etc etc.

Thanks
JAMIE

the y routine is funny with a puppet, say what is the last letter but one from the alphabet.
"y"
because I'm asking you.
"y"
oh well if your going to be difficult about it whats the last letter in today.
"y"
don't start that again just answer the question.
"y y y y y you dunder head"
well if your going to get angry about it back in the box for you.

get the idea.

First of all Im assuming you are more experinced than I seeing as I just started learning vent yesterday. I can give you some ideas on the script though.

What is the rest of your act like? what is your character (not the doll's)? Are you looking for specific ideas or broad concepts?

If the vent act comes first you could use it to introduce the act, maybe you could tell the kids what you are going to do, and have him tell you that your act is rubbish and bully you into doing more impressive tricks.

Maybe you could do some one handed tricks and have your dummy "expose" their secrets to the kids, forcing you to get read of the doll.

If you check the archives you will find a huge list of puppet resources around here that I posted some months ago. Too, Steve Axtell happens to be a member, so shoot him a PM, I'm confident he can help you with pointers, etc.

ArcticBanana wrote:Maybe you could do some one handed tricks and have your dummy "expose" their secrets to the kids, forcing you to get read of the doll.

The only place in which I've come across a routine somewhat along those lines is in fiction, specifically in Li H'sen Chang's magic routine on Doctor Who (Talons of Weng-Chiang). In this particular example, the magician performs a levitating lady illusion and the dummy makes several attempts to guess how it is done, only to have the magician "disprove" each suggestion in turn. For example, the dummy suggests that the lady is held up by wires, so the magician "disproves" this by waving a sword above the levitating lady. The routine is rather more dramatised than that, but I'm summarising. [The Doctor Who thread would be a better venue for a more detailed discussion.]

I don't know whether the writers of the story came up with this routine idea by themselves, or whether it is a reference to the routine of at least one real magician from the historical period in which the story is set. I've always suspected the latter (if only because that would be more interesting) but without any evidence. Either way, Li H'sen Chang is the example that my mind immediately turns to when I think of the following quotation:

T.A.Waters wrote:We've all seen film and stage actors portray magicians, and be more convincing in the role than "real" magicians who have been doing it for decades; might this not be because they actually ARE "actors playing the part of magicians" -- rather than simply giving lip service to an old saying without even trying to understand it?

Im going to need to track down that episode now.

I just came up with that idea off the top of my head, but I did watch Dr. Who a lot when I was younger, who knows (NPI) ...

thanks for the reference