Please Go see That!!

[Guest]

And there you go..... spot on guys

The routine was well constructed - the music was great - the way she aimed the bumps and grinds at specific sections of the audience was hilarious - and no one actually believed she was going to remove her kit did they?

Look at the face on the guy in the audience when she took her bra off - he thought she was going to fake it and walk off and he was gobsmacked when she turned round and carried on with the trick.

High magic it's not - but it is great entertainment

Bob

[Richard Kaufman]

It's unimaginable to me that anyone would think something so stupid and piggish is entertaining. It might be fine for a dingy strip club someplace, but televised in a theatrical venue? It really is an abomination.

[Mark Collier]

I also think it's hilarious. I love the contrast of her walking out in a business suit and then doing all the goofy mugging as if she is doing some great trick with a stupid little silk. I think the comparison of her gyrations to Elaine dancing on Seinfeld is exactly right. Her stripping is not sexy. She is making it all about this trick that nobody else cares about. She stays with the same goofy character and ridiculous facial expressions no matter what articles of clothing are coming off next. No matter how naked she gets, I'm laughing at her face.

[Guest]

Richard, lighten up and laugh a little. At least the only thing she exposed as her body as compared to exposing how many effects are done, ie. ashes on the palm, salt shaker through the table, etc.

[Guest]

Jeez Richard, lighten up. There is no way that act was suitable for a strip club - it was not remotely seedy. ANd what was "piggish" about it? Should it be on prime time TV? Perhaps not - horses for courses.

But put the act in the contect of her other work and it is not that outlandish.

Put it purely in the context of the venue where it appeared, and it was pretty bloody funny...

You are entitled to your opinion, of course - each to his own. But I wouldnt dream of coming on here and getting on my high horse to state my disbelief that anyone could NOT find it funny. I just accept that some people are blind to certain types of humour.

That's why a lot of British humour never makes it successfully across the Atlantic without being butchered (witness "The Office")

Bob

[Guest]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
Hey Matt, when are you going to feature Ursula in The Magic Circular?

Assuming that was facetious, I would ask why would he? She's not a magician after all.....

[Richard Kaufman]

And why isn't she a magican? She's doing a magic routine using magic props.

I think a public performance where someone sticks a thumbtip in her censored is apropros ONLY for places like strip clubs.

[Dustin Stinett]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
And why isn't she a magician? She's doing a magic routine using magic props.

I trained an actor to do a few magic tricks in a play that ran for several weeks at a local college. Though he did them well, he is still an actor, not a magician.

I do think she has great technique, but she needs to learn how to use a thumb tip properly.

:D

[Jeff Haas]

Those wacky French Canadians! First the mix-up with their King, and now they show this on TV!

[Andrew Martin Portala]

Well like Vernon who once said,"I don't care what it is,just do one trick well and better than anyone else!"
There you go.
But I'm joking.
However, I think she rip off the act from someone else .
About 6 months ago I was web surfing and found a video of a guy from europe doing the same thing but the last part the silk appear covering his you know what. I'll try to find it but the woman is better.

[Andrew Martin Portala]

Oh BTW didn't Bill Goldman just write a little booklet about her,"My week with a Stripper"? :D

[Guest]

ha!
Steve V

[Guest]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
And why isn't she a magican? She's doing a magic routine using magic props.

I think a public performance where someone sticks a thumbtip in her censored is apropros ONLY for places like strip clubs.

I do magic routines with magic props but I would call myself an amateur or hobbyist rather than a magician.

I would probably describe Ursula as a performance artist rather than a magician - she just happens to parody a magic routine to great effect in this case - I don't think she will be applying to join the Magic Circle any time soon... cut her some slack on the magic will you (it wasn't HER who submitted her video here for critical acclaim!)

You mean you actually fell for the idea she stuck it in her ***? Her sleight of hand is better than you think then.... :)

[David Scollnik]

Originally posted by Richard Kaufman:
It's unimaginable to me that anyone would think something so stupid and piggish is entertaining. It might be fine for a dingy strip club someplace, but televised in a theatrical venue? It really is an abomination.

Well, it WAS performed and filmed in Montreal.

Coincidentally, I happen to be in Montreal this week attending a conference at the University of Montreal. I am staying in a very nice part of the city, yet I have observed at least a dozen strip clubs and sex shops within a stone's through of my hotel.

Apparently Montreal is the sin city of the north.

[David Scollnik]

Ursula's performance raised the bar for all of us.

(I hope the double entendre is not too subtle.)

;)

[Jeff Eline]

I am not, in the least, trying to defend her ham-handed 'technique', but I just showed the clip to a friend and he thought it was kinda funny. He then turned and said (seriously) "but how did she make that hanky disappear?"

[Tom Stone]

Originally posted by Matthew Field:
You think I have it in my coat? I'll remove it. Concealed in my skirt? Off it comes.

I was a bit surprised to see this number, since I'm used to see it done by Lasse Flygare, a swedish magician who has done this routine here and there in Europe since the 80's.

The main difference is that he removes the shorts with his back to the audience, and when he turns around, the hankerchief is found tied around his genitals, and then he immediately cover himself. (actually, it is a pouch sewn from a hankerchief - but the glimpse is so brief that everyone assumes it is tied there).

I find Lasse to be funnier, as he acts as if the audience put this demand on him to be more and more "fair", and seems almost embarrassed himself.

[Guest]

Richard...how about an interview for Genii???
It would be fun to hear what SHE has to say. Wait. I can hear you say : she doesn't deserve it. Well she got more than 60 posts right here.

wo! just got an image of what she could do with a D'lite...

[Andrew Martin Portala]

Originally posted by Michel Huot:
Richard...how about an interview for Genii???
It would be fun to hear what SHE has to say. Wait. I can hear you say : she doesn't deserve it. Well she got more than 60 posts right here.

wo! just got an image of what she could do with a D'lite...

That's funny

[Guest]

I agree with Matt Field's reply. What's even funnier than the video is reading the 'outraged' responses here!

It's like telling a dirty joke at the bar, and some twit 'tut-tuts' it!

Lighten up.

Old-fashioned variety in the UK was full of acts of this nature. (Recall Joseph Pujol - Le Petomane ? The fart*r!)

I've seen 'em all. (Before I turned 'pro' as a magician, I was House Manager of a Theatre for 20 years.)

Other odd acts I saw:

Tony Danzo (piddled naked at a great distance into a lotta vase)

Reg Moores , still alive and performed at IBM British Ring, DRANK Dry Ice - for real! Then - set a 4000 volt charge through his body so he could light up a hand-held flourescent tube - for REAL! (I know Reg, by the way!)

Sabrina (did naked card fan flourishes - dissappeared last fan up her ****)

Also - none of you guys been to Edinburgh Fringe Festival?????????? AND - go to a few old SOHO bars in London. It makes this girl's act look TAME.....

Paul Gordon

[Guest]

Originally posted by Paul Gordon:
I agree with Matt Field's reply. What's even funnier than the video is reading the 'outraged' responses here!

It's like telling a dirty joke at the bar, and some twit 'tut-tuts' it!

Lighten up.

Old-fashioned variety in the UK was full of acts of this nature.

Exactly! Much of British humour in general is based on a "lack of taste" - witness Monty Python (which admittedly it took the Merkins 30 years to "get" by which time the original shock tactics were outdated), The Young Ones, Bottom, anything with Ricky Gervais in it..... all hilarious, but probably all styles of which Richard would heartily disapprove

Bob

[Ian Kendall]

Bob - when I saw Ursula at the Fringe party last year there were about 500 people watching that stage at the time. From the conversations later as I mingled (and from reports from others who had seen her previously) _everyone_ knew where the silk came from at the end.

Take care, Ian

[Guest]

How about this from British Radio in the 40's and 50's:

Captain Pugwash had two 'innuendo' characters which the BBC 'missed' for years: Seaman Staynes and Master Bates.

And the Goons (I think) character: Hugh Jardon.

If we can't lighten up 60 years later...well!!!!

Paul Gordon

[Guest]

Originally posted by Ian Kendall:
_everyone_ knew where the silk came from at the end.

What - they knew it came from a thumb tip?

[Dustin Stinett]

Okay, enough is enough. Im giggling like I did 40 years ago when I first played my parents Rusty Warren record Knockers Up! without their knowing it. (And the I hate box tricks line almost made me fall over laughing; at work, thank you very much!) But the fact is we have beaten this one to death. It has nothing to do with lightening up or being anal. Its quite simple really: Its just a matter of taste.

Dustin