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Hi guys

Watched An Audience with Joe Pasquale last night, and im slightly annoyed . As part of the show, he performed what has been my closing and in some ways "signature" effect, The Vanishing Bandanna!

Ive been performing TVB for over 3 years now, and i will now have to find a new closer, as millions will have watched last nights show because of the recent "Im a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here!" and now the comment will be, "weve seen Joe Pasquale do that one Mark"

Any ideas for something different, for a comedy routine, for example the animated drawing board?

Cheers guys

Mark

Which is fair enough, once a trick has been seen on TV the public will instantly jump to the conclusion that anyone else they see doing it is copying whoever did it on tv and so their opinion of that performer will not be as high as it would have been if they had not seen said effect on tv. If the same thing had happened to me I would be looking for a new effect, how many times have you done a card trick and someone has mentioned that they've seen Blaine or another tv magician perform it? They will often say it in a very dismisive manner because they genuinely believe that you are just copying. If your earnings depend on the opinions of your audience you can't afford for anyone to pigeonhole you as a plagiarist when you aren't at all

If you get regular rebookings based on an effect your rebook rate is going to plummet if averyone has seen it before because the novelty of seeing it for the first time won't be there.

Though I've never performed it (it doesn't fit in my pocket very well) I can heartily recomend the animated drawing board, I know that there are a number of preprepared tapes available for it and certainly at least one performer has produced a video (performance only cos that's all you need) of his routines.

If anyone missed the show, the item in question can be seen (and purchased) here! http://www.emagictricks.co.uk/product_i ... ts_id=4475

For an interesting (and controversial) discussion on the subject, click here.

A large can of worms there for sure! Intriguingly, UK English wouldn't normally suffer from the wordplay/confusion - we don't often use the word 'bandana', we're more likely to call it a neckerchief, and 'banana' would normally have second 'a' as long rather than the short ones which rhyme with bandana.

I enjoyed Joe's show - especially the stupid throwaways like 'My grandfather was an Elvis impersonator but there wasn't a lot of call for that in 1938', but the last bit with the Gonzos fell a bit flat. At least it wasn't an hour of crummy repeats!

This ( i.m.h.o dreadfully un-funny) effect has been around for a hell of a long time.Even Copperfield does it on the great wall of China special.

Interestingly enough, the discussion in the link above reveals that the guy who they claim invented the routine also took it out of his act when it appeared on TV performed by David Copperfield.

daleshrimpton wrote:This ( i.m.h.o dreadfully un-funny) effect has been around for a hell of a long time

Well on the first count I have to disagree - or at least offer my own HO. I have seen this performed 20-30 times, and I don't think I have ever seen it not get great reactions, even the times when I know some in the audience have already seen it. To say it is unfunny I feel is just nonsense. Lay people seem to just lap it up. If it wasn't hilarious then so many magicians wouldn't be doing it. In fact. I would even suggest that it has become a classic of comedy magic. (oooohhhh - them's fighting words)

However, on the other part to the statement I would have to agree whole heartedly. It has been around for a long time, and just about every (well at the very least a very lot of) magician seems to have added this to their repetoire. And why not, it gets good reactions.

But even if Joe Pasquale hadn't done it on TV, I think it is now well past it's sell by date. As I mentioned before. Everyone is doing it, and I would bet that statistically any audience you do it to has people that have already seen it. So if you are not being compared to JP, you are probably being compared to other magicians in the area.

To highlight this point. I have seen several stage/parlour magic competitions over the last few years and it is unsual if the VB isn't performed. On some occasions it is even performed by several of the entrants...

and finally. To put another side to the discussion. Just because other people are performing it, is it wrong to keep doing it yourself? (in hopefully your own way). After all if we were singers we may cover songs by other artists. How many illusionist acts are uniques? There material is often repeated with shadow boxes, sword boxes, zig-zag tubes and the like. That is why it is so refreshing to see originality in these types of acts.

and to end up - just as a FYI - I am pretty sure that Joe P. was the first person in this country to be doing VD (of course I could be wrong)

bananafish wrote:I am pretty sure that Joe P. was the first person in this country to be doing VD (of course I could be wrong)

Sometimes you type something and it just comes out wrong (sorry bananfish) FOCL !!! (feeling itchy now!!!)

L8R

I would have thought that most kids wouldn't have seen it yet. Also those kids that saw it at one of Mark's shows that then saw Joe Pasquale do it on TV, I assume will think Joe is copying Mark lol

I hope so, as i love that routine to bits, its the makings for a great comedy act!