Need help with Bunny Production

All beginners in magic should address their questions here.
Guest

Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 14th, 2006, 6:19 pm

Im a beginner and i need help with two things with this effect:
1. I was planning on getting Morrissey's Super Pan, but if you have anything better in mind that will fit a DWARF Rabbit please let me know (or better quality)
2. I am having trouble coming up with a routine. I need to come up with something so i know what i can tie it with but all my ideas seem stupid. I dont want to steal your routines, but if you could come up with something new.

I would appreciate it....

(Im willing to buy a Bunny Pan from someone used)

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 14th, 2006, 8:50 pm

When I did birthday parties and the like, I used the Bunny Box similar to the Circus Wagon production box. I always closed with the rabbit production because you can't really go on with a live rabbit sitting there and 30 screaming kids who want to pet it.

I can't remember where I bought it. It was plenty big for the rabbit to sit during the entire show, etc. Keep in mind that depending upon where you live, the rabbit can get very hot sitting in a tight space. You don't want to produce a dead bunny. You probably won't get booked there again if you do.

Tony Brent
Orlando, Florida

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 14th, 2006, 9:40 pm

There is a GREAT bunny production in the Al Baker book.

The book will be a bit of an investment - but there is several careers worth of stuff in there that will play GREAT for kids and adults alike.

I think it's an investment that you certainly won't ever regret.

Mr. Stickley

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 14th, 2006, 10:16 pm

I think you could produce a bunny with the "Inside Out Production Box" described in "The Conjuring Anthology[/i] by Jim Steinmeyer. I don't think you can buy one, so you'll have to build it. But it's a much better trick than any dove pan, and building it will make you a much better magician than buying a dove pan will.

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 14th, 2006, 11:38 pm

One of the very finest bunny productions was fully described in Tarbell. It was Jim Sherman's, I believe. The performer did the Die Box, ending with the die reappearing inside the magician's top hat. The assisting spectator was asked to reach back inside the hat to make sure there was nothing there....and there wasn't.

The performer then showed the bottom of the hat, all while standing away from a table. The spectator was asked to hold the hat and suddenly found the hat became heavy. The performer reaches inside and finds a live bunny from a hat that was just examined and found empty. It's terrific, it relatively easy....a bit of practice, and you'll have something that will make the kids go nuts.

Someone else here will have to supply the specific volume of Tarbell since my library is in storage, prior to a move.

Best of luck.

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 15th, 2006, 1:10 am

Jim Sherman's Rabbit Production
Tarbell vol 3, pp. 398-403 (Lesson 44)

Houdini quote from p. 398: "It looks so impossible, and yet there is the rabbit."

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 15th, 2006, 2:13 pm

Thank you so much. I cant believe how much help i recieve from really great magicians. It takes a real magician to keep the magic alive. I have recieved so much help from fellow magicians from where i live and from here. Thank you again.

Since you all were so much help, would you mind just putting a yes or no to the following things for a childrens show? i am going to tie things together...

Cups and Balls (candy suprise final load)
Gag Bag zipper model (banana)
Vanishing Bandana (banana with own version)
Cake or Bunny Production
Vanishing Wand
Egg Bag
Spongeball Magic
Cut and Restored Rope
Nelsen Vanishing Bottles (ketchup)
Magic Coloring BOOk
Square Circle (in mark wilsons complete course)

Thinking About:
Raven
D'lites
Light flight or some object levitation

i would appreciate it thanks. you give very good advice

Jeff Haas
Posts: 957
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: San Mateo, CA

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Jeff Haas » September 15th, 2006, 3:06 pm

For a small group of kids, that's a good start on a show.

Routines for the cups & balls, cut & restored rope, and sponges are in the Mark Wilson Course you already own. It's a great resource.

The Raven is really a closeup trick, you want to do living room/parlor type magic. D'Lite isn't effective in a lot of conditions, because it doesn't show up. And it needs to be part of a bigger routine, otherwise it's just a gimmick. The Vanishing Wand should not just vanish but reappear somewhere; a vanish by itself isn't satisfying, especially to kids. I'd skip the floating/flying invisible thread stuff, it's too finicky (and too obvious.) It also doesn't have an ending.

Try and replace the coloring book with a different effect as soon as you can. It's good but way overdone, every damn clown in America (and probably the rest of the world, too) has one.

Doing a great routine with the egg bag is a study that's worth as much effort as the cups & balls. There's lots of info out there on that, it's mainly a piece that allows you to interact with a kid.

You've got three productions listed...end of the cups and balls, bunny, and the Square Circle. You don't need that many, you can pull all the giveaways out of the Square Circle. Use traditional large balls at the end of the cups & balls. And end by making the bunny appear, you can't follow that.

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 15th, 2006, 3:18 pm

Thank You, would you recommend a alternative to the coloring book? lol. Um also the reason i am not having the wand re appear is because i came up with my own effect and i didnt really want to give it out until i saw it was successful. also the vanishing wand im talkin about turns into a silk, so....does that change anything or do you still feel the same? i am definitely going to do the bunny last, but did you say get rid of cups and balls and the square circle? i was confused

Jeff Haas
Posts: 957
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: San Mateo, CA

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Jeff Haas » September 15th, 2006, 11:41 pm

Sorry for not being clearer...you've got three productions:

- Cups & Balls, final load of candy
- Bunny production, from undecided prop
- Square Circle, which is a utility prop that allows you to produce other props for the show, or just produce a bunch of stuff for the routine.

My suggestion is to keep the giveaways to the end of the show, and produce them out of the Square Circle, either as the only thing you take out of the Square Circle, or the last thing. Since the design of the prop in the Mark Wilson Course looks like a top hat, it might be a good routine to show it empty, put some "ingredients" into it to make candy (silly stuff that would never make candy in real life) and then produce the candy and give it out.

Including a final load of candy at the end of the cups & balls would just duplicate the Square Circle. So instead, end the cups the traditional way with the large balls. Also, depending on how many people are in an audience, the amount of candy you can produce from the cups & balls is much smaller than what you can produce from the Square Circle. And you always want to make sure every kid gets something!

There are plenty of other tricks to replace the coloring book with, just nothing exactly like it. It's possible kids will have already seen it, that's why I suggested dropping it when you can. But for your first few shows, you've got it, use it and see how it plays. It's visible for smaller audiences.

If you're going to turn the wand into a handkerchief, that's fine. But usually kids want to see something important like a wand come back. You could easily "find" it later in the Square Circle.

The toughest thing about entertaining family audiences is being able to engage kids and their parents. That'll take awhile for you to figure out what works for you. You've got a good start with some classic tricks, get in some rehearsal time and do a good job!

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 16th, 2006, 3:03 am

Thanks a lot, i really appreciate it. Your so much help. I dont have the coloring book yet, so thats why i was asking if you had an alternative. What do you get the best reactions with, with kids? I have an idea for a trick i think is orginal that im thinking about including...can you email me so i can ask you about it? thanks.

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 16th, 2006, 6:27 am

Instead of the Magic Colouring Book you could do the Stamp Album trick which is basically the same trick technically, but appears to be a different effect. Basically a stamp album is shown to be empty, a bunch of loose stamps vanish and are found in the album. There is a well made version on the market.

There is an excellent rabbit production in Eric Wilson's book that was reprinted with the Bert Easley book, available from most dealers for a few dollars.

Please do try and make your show at least a bit different from everyone else. Far too many magicians think that by buying Run Rabbit Run, a Magic Colouring Book and a Hippity Hop Rabbit they are now children's entertainers. All they are doing is wallowing in the mediocrity that encourages the perception that children's magicians are on the lowest rung of the entertainment ladder.

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 16th, 2006, 11:12 pm

i posted my performance some what on here already i kno i am not a childrens performer but i have a longing to want to learn more

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 18th, 2006, 4:52 am

Another replacement for the Coloring Book is a trick like "Portrait of Grandma" in the Wizards' Journal #9. You can easily make one yourself (Jim Gerrish gives an easy-make version as well as a more difficult woodworking version), but you'll have an effect the kids haven't seen before (and gotten inside magic sets!) as well as one that can be changed to match the seasons or the situation. It's on my site, The Magic Nook. While you're there you might want to look through my drawer full of Kid Magic for more ideas of Do It Yourself Magic.

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 18th, 2006, 5:15 am

Originally posted by Steven Moormann:
i posted my performance some what on here already i kno i am not a childrens performer but i have a longing to want to learn more
If you want to give shows at decent fees to people with money, a study of spelling and punctuation would be a good place to start.

Guest

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Guest » September 22nd, 2006, 1:49 am

Originally posted by Jeff Haas:

The Raven is really a closeup trick, you want to do living room/parlor type magic.
The Raven is not a trick. It's a tool. You can vanish anything that is light enough for it to work with.

Jeff Haas
Posts: 957
Joined: January 17th, 2008, 12:00 pm
Location: San Mateo, CA

Re: Need help with Bunny Production

Postby Jeff Haas » September 22nd, 2006, 6:18 pm

You're right. It's also the wrong tool for the kind of family shows he's trying to do.

The Raven is designed to work for a small group of people, standing around, looking down onto the magician's hands (as Blaine used it.) And it vanishes small objects which may not be that visible in a parlor/platform show.

But in a family show, there's usually a group of kids sitting up front on the floor...looking up at the magician. So any kind of holdout or topit is really a poor choice for that kind of show.


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