Hey guys..

I have the 20th Century Underwear, and I am going to include it in my (short, about 10 minute) act.

I am opening with The Silent Treatment, and then doing the 20th CU, then finishing with the Anderson T&R Newspaper w/ dove production ending.

The problem is this: I really don't think the 20th CU would be too appealing if I just took out the silks, tied them together, put them in the front of my pants (by the way, I'm doing it to myself instead of a volunteer), tell the audience the knots are going to untie themselves inside of my pants, wait a few seconds and say a magic word, then pull them out to show the underwear tied between them.

I feel that it would be more of an 'effect' if I tied them, put them in the pants, told the audience what is going to happen, and then looked down and tell the audience they haven't quite untied all the way, so it may take a little longer; THEN I go into doing something else. This is where you guys come in. I'm not sure of what to fill with that gap.

I was thinking about tying the silks, etc, and having them in the pants throughout the whole T&R Newspaper effect, and pull them out to reveal the underwear at the end, then run off stage in 'embarrassment', but then that ruins the dove ending I had planned.

PLEASE help me out with this one, as the show is in one week, and the rehearsal is tonight.
Thanks guys,
-Vinnie

Posted: Feb 2, 2007 4:04pm
Come on guys.. Please?

-Vinnie

You don't have a reason for the underwear yet, so drop the idea for now. Don't do this to yourself; i.e. put yourself under pressure a week before a show because you just insist you have to work in underwear for no good reason. I know you have purchased Eleazar's "Every Century Silks" so you can use that method, if you wish, to do a regular 20th Century with ungimmicked silks (forget the X-Treme version with the signed silks for now) and just vanish a silk and pull it out of your pants tied to the other two. That allows you to just produce the dove in the silks at the end. Save the underwear treatment for another day, another show when you have had time to think about it. Don't do a trick just because you CAN without thinking about whether or not you SHOULD do it.

I used to do a similar routine using I think what Abbotts called ‘Houdini Outstripped.’ I did it on an audience member, generally only in adult only audiences. Generally managed to pick out a "good sport" and replaced the underwear with a huge pair of ladies pink panties, with lace sewed on them, and a "His" embroidered on the front. It went over well, got a good laugh, and of course I had to openly thank the "volunteer" for going along with it, like he was in on it all the time.

It was played as an "escape" up to the point the underwear popped up. So it was played for humor, like a prearranged joke, and the pretense was an escape. Like above, you have to have a reason for the underwear. The way you present it has to have a reason other than you just jerked you’re own shorts.

Unless you’re doing something like a fast series of effects, stuff appearing left and right, you in you’re rush to keep up stuff the silks in you’re shorts (they are produced tied together first) and at some point trying to catch up reach and pull them out, only to discover you’re shorts attached, but then you do a quick double take and go on to the next appearance or vanish. It has to lead to something, make sense, or have a reason. Other than self-humiliation, why would anybody jerk his or her own shorts out in the middle of a magic act?

Hey guys, thanks for the help.

Well, last night at the rehearsal the guys and I worked it out, and I am totally ready for it.

It will be put into not mine, but the helper on stage (who is also the Emcee). We have worked it out so that it will be funny and make sense all together.

I appreciate your guys' help.
-Vinnie

Sounds like a good idea and sight gag both the way you have it planned.

Hey Vinnie,

We do it as the ending to the silk to egg routine.

We bring up a volunteer and tie the silks together and stick them into the back of his pants letting them hang out like a tail. Then we go through a silk to egg routine and when we get to the part where the real egg is cracked into the glass, the question arises, "So where did the silk go?" Answer, "It's now tied between the two silks we've had ________ hold onto all this time." And then the reveal.

We've had a lot of fun with it and it has lots of room for comedy and good fun.

All the best,

Rob

Nice, Rob!!

I like it!
-Vinnie

Yep!

I have friends even crazier than I am!

Go for it! (We'll block the guys with the white coats for you.)

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander