I was doing a show for a friend of mine the other night,it was at his wedding reception.My assistant was'nt with me that night,I had just produced a dove when I realized that I had no one to take my bird, so I just set him on one of my shelves on my table. well I forgot he was on there,he jumped up and flew across the room swooped at the crowd,and their was one man standing in the back of the room, totally bald.well of course the bird landed right on his head.I felt totally embaressd, the guy was really good about the whole thing, he must have stood there for 20 minutes while eveybody in the whole place, took pictures, it made for a great promo shot.

A situation like this is too beautifulto have planned. as long as the "birdman" wasn't angry, he probably was flattered to have his 15 minutes of fame. Did you take the credit? Some would have.

That's hilarious! I don't have much hair on my dome, so I must be careful or I will end up with the bird on my own head!

By the way, you should have titled your thread "magician gives bald spectator the bird!"

I could have never planned it this well, once I figure out how to post the picture I"ll put it on here.

I once did a library show in the town of Frederick, OK.

The finale was the balloon to dove. The balloon pops and the dove appears. She sits there a moment and takes off across the library (I thought I had clipped his wings more recently than that...). She seemed to find a spot to land, so I thanked everybody and ended the show, hoping to get there before anyone opened a door.

Apparently the news photographer got there first. On the second page of the article that came out the next day was a picture of Dudley sitting on an IRS binder. The caption read: "Doin' what comes naturally..." Yes, she had very plainly soiled it.

I just considered it as performance art. ; ) From what the librarians later told me, the entire town had cheered her gesture.

I told this story in my book ("Dick Oslund - Road Scholar") but, it fits in right here!

I started using several doves in 1970. I did the productions when I had a young lady from the audience, on stage. At first, I just produced the two birds, one from a Torino Dove Bag, and, one from s couple of silks. Slowly, the routine expanded, with bits of business, involving the birds, until, I was filling about 8 minutes with those two birds. One of the bits was, that one of the birds would take off and fly around me and,land on my head. (this always got a nice laugh, and, sometimes, applause!)

I was doing a "floor show" (on a gym floor) in a high school. The silly bird flew in a bigger circle than she ever had. She flew about in a 10 foot circle, and landed on a teacher's head in the front row. This got a much bigger laugh than usual. I walked quickly to the teacher (worrying that the bird would take off again) and gently picked up the bird and headed back to the "stage area". The laugh continued, and, then grew louder, and was getting screams of laughter. I turned to look back, and the teacher was "combing something" out of his hair! I waited for the laughing to fade, and, with a big smile, continues the routine. At the finish of the bird routine, there was much greater applause, and laugh, than usual. I was thinking, "how, can I train the bird to do that, every show?!" It never happened again!

Dick:

Thanks for sharing that. Its a great story.

I was asked as a photographer at a theatre show and when the performer produced an owl wich was supposed to land on a blindfolded spectators arm (he "chose" an owl from a selection of animals so it was kind of a prediction) the owl flew over the crowd but did not return to land on the spectator's arm, it landed ond stayed put on my lens instead.... wish somebody took a picture of that becouse obviously I couldn't

How about a Macaw swooping down on a man and stealing his toupee? Sorry, it only happened in my mind's eye.

Mine was in the early 70's and the director of a Christmas show told me what song would be the last one by the choir, after which I'd come on. I was doing doves at the time. So during the show I waited to hear the songs of the choir before I loaded the doves. Well, it got to the song I was told would be my cue, and they kept going and going and going. So I decided to let the doves out of my coat, and one flew up into the "flies" which are like bars that other curtains or backdrops could hang from but were just empty rods. I'm forgetting to mention the choir was "in 'one'", in front of the curtain which was closed. I wanted to lower the bar to get Samson my male dove, but the ropes were all locked off (to prevent injuries etc.) So I climbed up the rope ( I had been a gymnast) and went hand over hand out to the bird, put him in my coat one-handedly, and behold, that was when the choir stopped their endless encores which I wasn't told about, and the curtain opened.

The audience could see my feet. I let go and landed hard at center stage (almost broke my ankle but remembered that Houdin went on with a broken ankle so I just did the show) but what a terrible opening which I just tried to ignore for the rest of the show. I had choice words for the choir director after the show.