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Hey guys and gals. Just a quick question for you, and if you can help then I am very thankful indeed! Im going to be performing russian roulette, but I need an alternate ending - something to do with the nail to finish.

at first I was thinking along the lines of performing "staked", but Im performing this on the 24th, and realise I wouldnt be able to get it in time due to money issues.

I hope you people can help out? any "alternate endings" to do with the nail? as the problem is, most russian roulette is the same - the audience reaction is (mostly) "well of course he wasnt gonna hurt himself - its a trick" so I'm hoping for something I can do with the nail after the trick to make it different from everything else. as i said, staked would have been ideal, but I cant afford that amount of money at the moment due to a budget

so all ideas would be very useful!

and also, if anybody has staked they wish to sell, let me know! I will be eternally thankful!!!

cheers in advance!!!

edit: I had an idea of "messing up " russian roulette - if anybody has a source for how to stick a nail through your hand, please let me know

Maybe a nail bending effect? To show that had it all gone horribly wrong you could have saved yourself at the last minute?

Surely any kind of further trick with the nail makes the problem you are expecting worse, not better. If you can stick it into your hand with no ill effects, then, at best, it wouldn't have mattered if you'd got it wrong because your powers as a fakir (or whatever) would have saved you. Same with a bending nail effect.

At worst, the audience will assume it was a trick nail and you'll lose all credibility.

My personal view is that you're creating a problem when one doesn't exist. Finish the routine by dropping an apple or orange onto the upturned nail, or hammer it into a block of wood.

The drama should come from the possibility of you getting hurt. If you take that away, it's 'just' a magic trick.

You could do something genuine with the nail, like the Blockhead effect, but again I would say that weakens the Russian Roulette idea. The nail is uspposed to be dangerous.

actually - dropping an orange, or hammering it into a block of wood....thats not all that bad?

cheers for that!

I don't know alot about Russion Roulette, etc....however, I can think of a few ideas that would involve your nail (providing it is a real nail)....try having a card selected/signed, and then put back into the deck....have deck shuffled and then literally nailed to a board with the nail right through the card.......then use some "magical" method of removing the card from the nailed deck.......just thinking outloud here really!!!! However with some polish on the handling, you could make a really good effect out of this!

On the subject of thinking outloud and on somehow connecting it to another trick.

Jay Sankeys nailed involves a pic of a card nailed to a block or table...maybe this could be connected somehow?

Frankly, I think you're putting too much effort in...

If the Russian Roulette goes well, there should be a definate 'full stop' at the end.

Don't run if you ain't being chased, mate...

seige wrote:Don't run if you ain't being chased, mate...

How good a quote is that!......We are all likely at times guilty of overconvincing, etc.

You could take the Penn & Teller route. They do a trick with a "lazy Susan" (small spinning table, for those not born in the 70s) on which sit a number of mousetraps. Each mousetrap is ready to snap, but each has a string tied to the bar. The table is spun and Teller and a spec take it in turns to touch the trigger plate of one of the traps. If memory serves, at one point Teller springs one of the tied traps, but screams and squeezes out a squib (probably just a sachet of ketchup) thus you have the drama of it going wrong, and the fact and relief that it didn't.

I haven't got the Spike but worked out in my head a comedic routine for it which ended in a similar way. It's all about creating that brief moment where people believe it has gone wrong, and then a split second later making it clearly apparent that you were joking. I think this also gets round the fakhir problem above.

problem is though, they know where the nail is. though im thinking that if i scream, then they jump anyway because of the tension of it

Ah yeah. I really ought to have acquired a better understanding of the trick in question...