Greetings,

Strange how things "stick" in your mind and even stranger is when they come back and link together

An idea for a routine came to me after reading threads here.

In one thread Vovin mentions santa claus and a comment in the same thread by Doug Byrd that he does not perform for children

Sorry not to quote you directly guys but I don't know how to do the quote thing

This got me to thinking.........here goes with the routine

Through some trick or pact Old Nick & St Nick have to change places for 1 night.....Old Nick wins and guess which night he picks............Christamas Eve

So what's in the presents now......

Again some influence from threads here:

Golfballs become eyeballs
Cindy Doll becomes voodoo doll
Finger ring becomes just the finger

I'm sure you can think of plenty of others

The last one is a book of Grimm Fairy tales & Nursery Rhymes

What happens if Jack pushed Jill down the hill......murder trial & execution ..smoke and bad smell from the book

What happens if the 3 bears got home early.....blood soaked bed linen. I'm not suggesting dragging bed linen around but a scrap would do

Pinnochio......nice version dances on the palm of your hand........to be replaced by darker version

Alice In Wonderland........queen of hearts "off with his head". Opening for a card routine ?

The last though was how do you carry this routine around.......the book. A type of Grimoire. I'm sure I've seen carrying cases in the form of books on the net......I believe Blackhart in the UK do something like this .Don't have one myself but you get the idea and I'm sure he would not mind the advertising

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BlackHart/

It may have been done to death before, but being new I have an excuse

If anyone is interested feel free.....10% would keep me happy

Oh for a spell checker.......surry guys

Love your ideas! Why not have the giant Grind jacks bones to make his bread. Or tell the real Cinderella and have the stepsisters cut off toes, which are produced, to get the shoe on. or the elves and the shoemaker..Elfshik boots or did the run out of material need leather..Hmm tan shoemakers hide...Tons of ideas...
Most magically yours,
WR

If you're looking for a case to carry it in and didn't want to fret over making it yourself I'd start with a wooden book looking box they sell in stores like Bombay Company. It's called a Memory Box and can be found here...

http://www.bombayco.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc......nbr=8027

It's perfect for the GRIM tales. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

In one setting I'd only tell 3 (for me 3 is a MAGICK number, but then again I can make 3 last for up to 30 minutes with the right hook). As you finish tale number 3 and depending on your crowd start into tale number 4 and then as an afterthought tell them that it will have to wait for another night.

For a case that looks like a book, check Mary Tomich's company at

http://www.thaumysta.com

about 99% of her stuff is created with the bizarrist in mind.
Best regards,
Tony Razzano

I think Dr. Jaks carried his close up in a book years back.

Some nice ideas here. Many of the Grimm tales WERE grim I believe, but have been sanitized over the years. Good luck taking this forward.

Paul Hallas.

I like the idea of Old Nick and St. Nick changing places.
But imagine if it worked the other way: St. Nick replaces Old Nick.
Instead of the eternal torment of the fires of Hell, you'd end up with the eternal torment of watching PeeWee Herman re-runs!
cheers,
Peter Marucci
showtimecol@aol.com

PeeWee Herman... I think your thinking of "A Nightmare before christmas".

I like the jack and jill idea... you might try Hobbie lobby for boxes that look like books.. I know they have em... although you can see the hinge they look nice. Asta...
MR.E

I have no wish to cause offence here and I may have read something into MR E's post that was not intended but I know of the film but have never seen "A Nightmare before Christamas" I never considered the idea a knock off.I have no idea if the film mentioned includes the idea of the devil replacing santa claus on Christamas Eve.....If Tim Burton got there first all dues to him, but I came to the idea via a different chain of thought and believed it was worth sharing
If by 2 Santas you refer to Old Nick and St Nick........The term "Old Nick" is one of many nicknames for the devil

Very nice idea, it really has nothing to do with "A nightmare before christmas". In the movie, Jack Skellington(the pumpkin king) kidnaps Santa & takes his place. The idea of the devil switching places is quite differen't.

Santa satan
Hmm....same leters.

Greetings,
The idea of a bloody ending to these fairie tales is very creative. I can envision routines with poisonous apples, splinters from Pinnochio, a shard of the magic mirror, and more...

Personally, I've been doing Nursery Rhymes (Jack Jump Over the Candlestick, Three Blind Mice, Sing a Song of Sixpence, etc.) for some time. These grand old pieces have some very mysterious or dark histories to them. The best part is the audience is familiar with them but has never wondered about their origins.

The fairy tales have that same advantage - they are familiar and probably have not been revisited (in their minds) in this gruesome fashion.

TTFN,
Sam Haine

I'm amiss as to the publishers these days... in the early 20th century there was a series of Fairy Tale books put out known as The Red book, Yellow Book, Blue Book, etc. in essence, these collections reveal the original (not politically correct) forms of the Grim & Goose lore... trust me, the wolf wins in almost every instance and there is some brutality revealed in these books that goes waaaay beyond some of the current Hollywood imaginings.

I love the Christmas story thing... I feel inspiration coming on... but I have to fit it into my existing "Dickens Ghosts" format... I'm open to ideas re" the famed spirits of "A Christmas Carol"...