Hat Gag

I do this sometimes. This is the clean version. If teenagers are watching, the "bird" would look different.

The Thing

Bill Abbott released "The Thing" a few year ago. Technically a variation on the zombie ball. The levitation of "nothing" was something I liked, as it motivated the cloth. Without it there would be no effect. So I bought it. Then after experimenting with it became apparent to me that there needed to be "something" that that is levitated. The "nothing" was just not enough.

So I wondered what object could be "something" and "nothing" at the same time. So the soap bubble was the logical outcome of this. Soap bubbles float, which is a nice thematic link to the levitation.

So things fell together. And the presentation I used to do was way too kitschy for my character, so I changed it more and more and it became this script of our brain refusing magic. This version you hear in the video is much abbreviated and the original German version is a lot more fine tuned.

Also adding the glass ball enabled me to draw attention away from the cloth near the end. In fact I have a spectator take out the ball from the hat. The popping of the "Soap bubble" is a rather recent addition... I don't know why I didn't think of this before as it logically ends everything nicely.

let's talk about the handling of the thing. Most moves are taken straight from the DVD that Bill Abbott supplies with the routine. But two finesses are my own. First the twirl of the cloth. It may seem like a minor point, but it adds to the deception a little. Holding a cloth from the diagonal corners and twirling it like a rope sells the idea that the cloth is normal. The gimmick is unseen and even to those magicians knowing the secret this struck them as nice. The other thing is the starting position of the levitation. I don't hold on to two corners that are next to each other. I hold on to diagonal corners. And then I make the ball jump. Once. Somehow this really resonates with regular audiences. When the ball jumps, they jump. I like that. It's just a small touch, but I proud of it.

The music used in this video is by Darkmaster603 and is used by the Licensing Terms of Newgrounds.com. That means Attribution: "You must give credit to the artist." Check! And Noncommercial: "You may not use this work for commercial purposes unless you make specific arrangements with the artist." Check!

Three Balls in the Hat

So we gotta thank Slydini for the basic effect idea. He used to do it with paper balls that went into a box. And what a long sequence this was. Lot's of hand washing and all of that. So I changed it. I have this hat anyway, so I substituted the box for the hat. Slydinis version is one behind, mine one ahead.

A while ago I saw the great Dani DaOrtiz doing a similar routine using sponge balls. And it was a great routine if you work close up. A nice little convincer was the use of a different colored ball. It really makes it harder to follow the one ahead nature of the routine. So my mind started spinning of using three different colored balls. It doesn't make the routine any harder or less practical, yet it makes it harder to imagine the basic concept, ergo it make the routine more deceptive.

So what have we got? A simple vanish and a natural hold out. So the lapping or the need to sit was eliminated. Of course is makes the routine much less angle proof. So this is a routine for the stage. Hell yeah I just realized that the Slydini version actually is a close up routine. This version can be done, and should be done on stage. On the street I would substitute the hold out that is being used here for the pouch and I would use smaller balls... no wait I would use nuts and bolts. They're funnier.

Here is what I think makes the routine work. It is a nice combination of surprise and suspense. The audiences see the balls vanishing, but not arriving in the hat. This is merely implied. So there is this growing suspense if the balls really are in the hat. I like that.

Oh the music.... It's free to use, if I mention the creator. So credits go to "Panacea4" and you can find his Newgrounds profile right here.