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Spellbinder Inner circle The Holy City of East Orange, NJ 6438 Posts |
I have collected a number of "Silent Partner" routines over the years, many of which I have written and used myself. I will be releasing these one by one, the first in the current Wizards' Journal #15 (on my site). A "Silent Partner" routine makes use of a hand puppet that performs magic, with you as the puppet operator and magician. These puppets do not speak, so no ventriloquism is required (I am the worst jumpy lipped ventriloquist that ever was - even worse than Edgar Bergen!). I am also against puppets that are constantly whispering to you, so none of my routines commit this rude act in public, unless they whisper that they have to go to the little puppet rest room. Some of the puppets speak foreign puppet languages that you have to translate - high squeaky pitched voices that only you can understand- but these are special cases and follow special rules I will describe beginning in issue #16.
Another rule I have is that the puppets must never compete with you as a magician, so none of the magic tricks they do are ones you are likely to also be performing in your current shows. In other words, they will never do a "cut and restored rope" routine because you might prefer to do that one yourself, with both hands free! All of the magic effects they perform are either original, or ones I am sure you don't already perform. I'd like to hear from anyone who currently performs with a "Silent Partner" to see if you also have special rules like these, suggestions for unusual puppet magic tricks, and so on. I am purposely NOT posting this in the ventriloquists section, because these are routines mainly for kid show magicians, not puppeteers or ventriloquists who don't do magic.
Professor Spellbinder
Professor Emeritus at the Turkey Buzzard Academy of Magik, Witchcraft and Wizardry http://www.magicnook.com Publisher of The Wizards' Journals |
jakeg Inner circle 1741 Posts |
There is, (or was), a silent ventriloquist on you tube. One of the funniest routines I've ever seen with a puppet. Done right, these can be absolute gems with great audience reaction. I think that it hinges on how alive the puppets appear. I saw Kimmo on the you tube, and he's a true master at it.
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Rupert Bair Inner circle ? 2179 Posts |
My dog puppet does the vanishing beads thing with the stand. My monkey does a flower trick...and my monster puppet keeps making me sweets appear to make me be his friend again. These are all in different shows tho..one silent partner per show. Being upstaged once is enough.
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Spellbinder Inner circle The Holy City of East Orange, NJ 6438 Posts |
I think of the silent partner as a puppet mime... with handicaps. Its face is absolutely expressionless, so it must use mime to show emotions. Its arms are almost in splints, and of course it has no real hands or fingers and yet can appear capable of directing traffic and performing surgery using mime. It has a hand shoved up its back and no real legs, yet can appear to walk, run, hobble, and do the moonwalk using mime skills. So the magician who uses a hand puppet as a silent partner, while not a ventriloquist, is definitely a mime - at least with one hand tied up.
Professor Spellbinder
Professor Emeritus at the Turkey Buzzard Academy of Magik, Witchcraft and Wizardry http://www.magicnook.com Publisher of The Wizards' Journals |
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