talkmagic.co.uk

TrueWizard wrote:

How many days in advance you buy the fishes ?
1. What do you use to carry the fishes to the venue ?
2. What is the maximum time for the small gold fishes to survive inside the gimmick [edited by mods]?
3. What do you normally do with the fish after production, keep them for the next show or giving it out to one audience ?

Hi guys.

I just have a few comments.

First of all, I don't know about the US, but here in Europe I think using goldfishes this way could get you more trouble than "good will". It is ok to use doves or rabbits to some extent (at least IMHO), but fishes are different and here is why:

If you hand them out to the spectators, what do you think they will do with their new pet (the fish)? They didn't really expect to walk into a show and leave with a pet, right? Because it IS a pet! They'd need care, water, aquarium, food etc to survive.

So, I think handing them out is a bad idea. I know it could be a stunning trick, but I'd leave it if I was you (which I'm not )

If you still want to use fish, keep them your self after the show. Have them in an aquarium at home and bring them to the show when you need to.

Just take care of them like regular people care for their goldfish ...

I think you'll find that it's also against the law to give away an animal like that with out first making sure that there is a decent tank already set up.

I used to work in a petshop and we weren't allowed to sell any animal, even fish if

1. The customer was under 16
2. We didn't feel they had the correct equipment to provide a decent place for the fish to live (we'd insist that if someone was setting up a new tank, they bought the tank at least a couple of days before any fish)
3. We suspected that the animal was being bought as prey food for another animal

This could be our policy but I'm sure that there's some law behind it.

Keep in mind to all whenever i give my oppinions, Im thinking U.S, Over here there are no real laws on giving out goldfish, Again the impact of recieving "anything" from a magician is something that lasts along time, Working with animals (as unpredictible) as they are Makes a effect greater, if your doing a effect, and its not illegal, then go all the way... but thats just my oppinion,

So, TrueWizard... where do you perform usually in the US?

I perform as a hobby, I rather teach then perform, i did it at Local Cafe called Debra T's , i did it there while serving for nine years, I did a version of stigmata (not really all that great of an effect) but it led me to do many (believe it or not) church Dinners at Holy trinity and st. stanislaus, I also Performed at a local dinner by request from the manager a couple a times, Arlington Dinner, Now i just perform close up here and there as in a gas station or the mall.

Most of my work and experiance with close up came from the 9 years at debra T's

, Thanks for asking

Mandrake wrote:There's an effect called Little Fishy by Diamond Jim Tyler - fish, bowl, water, the whole shebangl gets produced. Google around but you can get info at http://www.worldmagicshop.co.uk/little- ... -4223.html

Cool, that's much more what I'm looking for. Thanks!

cant you use sliced carrot instead of fish ?

u can eat the fish after u produce them

Lady of Mystery wrote:how would you like to be kept cooped up like that just to entertain somone and more than likley die at the end of it?

Well that does sound a bit like a normal gig for me...

Seriously, I used to work in a circus and if you think that Magicians get bad press for animals, it's nothing to the kinda press circuses get. Now in my first year of circus work we had animal rights protestors camp outside the show, interestingly the only animals we had in the show were three ponies and a llama. These would run around the ring and do a couple of very small jumps,one of them would also sneak into the ring and eat some mashed potato*. The press reported we had monkeys, but this was because we had a pair of trapeze artistes dressed as chimps during our previous years christmas show! The second year we went all human and retired the animals, but still the stigma continued. I recall the attitudes of people to circuses was sometimes totally irrational, even after telling them there were no animals they still persisted in treating us like animal abusers...
Personally I don't want to use live animals in tricks, it's not my style and I'm afraid it leaves me a bit cold when I watch it, but I think that different animals have different attitudes to performance, dogs and horses seem to enjoy it, but I doubt that goldfish or doves do...
Antway, I didn't want to rant, I actually just wanted to pass my jokey comment at the top but got carried away!!!!!

(*the ponies not the protestors)

Deejay,
Why not give Lady of Mystery, the goldfish, and me a break and not do the routine; it isn't that impressive anyhow.