Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

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JR Russell
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Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby JR Russell » November 15th, 2012, 7:45 pm

For all my fellow Magi who were in attendance at the Genii Bash and congratulated me on winning Little Man in the raffle, my advice to you is to be prepared if you ever take the Little Guy on the airlines! :o

It all started innocently enough: I won the Little Man. I traveled light and packed everything in my carry-on suitcase (even the Genii Bash Portfolio got crammed in) :sick:

Me and Little Turd made it to the Orlando airport at 3:30 AM (yes AM :sleep: ) for our 5:30 AM flight back to sunny Seattle. Our adventure began when we tried to pass thru TSAThe officer politely called me over and had me open my bag, he wanted to see what was in the metal lunch box sized containerI told him that I had just come from the 75th Genii Bash Magic Convention and he apparently had not heard of it (what?)the fact that I was a retired Navy Captain and former Naval Aviator impressed him even less. :confused:

Upon opening the metal box we found, a clay-like substance the was obviously some sort of plastic explosive. We also discovered various mechanisms (all concealed btw) and another device in a box with more explosive Play-Do. It also contained a DVD on how to mold the Play-Do into a Little Suicide Man :cool:

By this time several other TSA members gathered to say hi and inspect my loot and I was asked to take another trip thru the metal detector. I had already emptied my pockets of anything metal but fortunately I still had some rubber bands on my wrist.

I began to show that boys some Crazy-Mans Handcuffs and various other stuntsto include Thumb-Thru-Ear and Meir Yedids missing fingerI was able to get to my wallet and do BWavethankfully I attended the Max Maven/Eugene Burger Lecture on equivoque at the Bash and one of my new friends correctly picked the Queen of DiamondsWe also owe a debt of thanks to Jamie Schoolcraft for his Flipper and Troy Hooser for his routine to win over the second TSA agent. The third and forth TSA agents came on board thanks Roberto Giobbi because I was able to get to a deck of cards and did his Color Changing Deck routineby this time I had made some new friends and me and Little Crap were allowed to pass :whistle:

I am sure that if and when I ever open the box to do something with the Little BastardI will have a good story to tell as to how I came into possession of him and why he walks so funnyhe was probed by 4 TSA agents. :crazy:

The TSA gang were VERY impressed with the Genii Goodie Portfolio and they even helped me find a compartment with stuff that I didn't know was there! ;)
JR Russell
"Fly Navy"

Kelly Rusk
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby Kelly Rusk » November 15th, 2012, 10:40 pm

Magic comes through to save the day!! This is a great story of being prepared.

Seriously, I'm sorry you had to go through all of that but, it sounds like you maintained a good attitude and creatively handled the situation. We can all learn a lot from this story.

Thanks for sharing.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 16th, 2012, 4:17 am

Jim, next time I'll give you a chance to pick a book instead.
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AJM
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby AJM » November 16th, 2012, 4:57 am

Folks - RK has just confirmed there will indeed be a 'next time'!

You read it here first!

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 16th, 2012, 5:28 am

Let me rephrase that, since there won't be a "next time."

Jim, in the future, if I give you something, it won't be anything with clay or a little mechanism in it.
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erdnasephile
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby erdnasephile » November 16th, 2012, 8:29 am

I'm glad the TSA is keeping us safe from the scourge of animated play-doh.

I think you handled the situation quite well, JR!

(IMHO, the worst thing you can do with TSA (or a cop for that matter) is to mouth off or cause a ruckus--that never ends well).

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 16th, 2012, 8:37 am

Showing them tricks usually defuses the situation.
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JR Russell
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby JR Russell » November 16th, 2012, 10:25 am

we did have some arts and crafts going on at the end...everybody wanted to make something with the Play-Do...happy and amusing ending
JR Russell

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Jeremy Greystoke
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby Jeremy Greystoke » November 16th, 2012, 10:30 am

I decided to forgo the TSA Kabuki Security Theatre scene with the Genii Bash and opted to rent a car and drive down from Virginia. Several times at Magic Live, I've spent part of the Thursday or Friday afterwards engaged in packing up a box or two of newly acquired loot and shipping it back via UPS.

Best experience, though, had to be flying back from Vegas with six decks of Wynne playing cards I had gotten at Gambler's General Store. The kind salesclerk there had found a nice little white box to hold the half-dozen decks. Neither of us realized that, at the airport scanner, the white box in my luggage would be indistinguishable from a block of C-4 explosive. Hilarity ensued.

Jeremy

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erdnasephile
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby erdnasephile » November 16th, 2012, 4:03 pm

I saved a couple of bars of soap from a fancy hotel back east. I found out the hard way those apparently look a lot like explosive material on the x-ray scanner.

Leonard Hevia
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Re: Tale of Little Man from the Genii Bash

Postby Leonard Hevia » November 16th, 2012, 7:26 pm

Poor Little Man! Having to endure the shame and indignity of a full body search by the TSA.

I'm sure he sang Hot Burrito #1 throughout the ordeal:

"...I'm your toy, I'm your old boy..."


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