I'm retooling my current corporate show. Do any if you currently do Zombie in an
adult show? What's a good source for some Zombie moves and routines?

All magic is excellent for adults shows.

See:
Al Schneider's DVD
Jeff McBride's stage magic DVD

Routines are created by the person who is using the props. There is not set routines, only ideas on moves and you assemble them in any way you wish.

Mr. Schneider's is a very short routine with some revolutionary thinking and creativity.

Buy the book Lewis Ganson Teach-in Series compilation. Great resource on classic magic.

I'm with Bill.
The Zombie is a floating effect and a routine where you interact with each other.
So lets say your show has a floating effect, a vanish, an impossible location and some kind of dismemberment as the categories you work with.

The question becomes what order and what style your formula will be.

First, learn the moves in those sources and put together a routine - then you tell us - what works for you. The most important factor when performing this is not the "Point A to Point B mentality" but your ability to assign a charictor to the ball make it appear to act independanty from you, like a good puppeteer.

You may find your motivation in the music you select or you may construct a routine based on various moves that just seem to flow- together, for you. Just remember, the ball must act independently but sometimes you have control, sometimes it has control and sometimes you both interact cooperatively. You're in a relationship with an inatimate prop that the audience believes is alive, if only because they suspend their disbelieve, because you, yourself, have suspended your own disbelief.
----

Could we possibly make this a sticky, since this is a popular subject that reoccurs with regularity.

Neil Foster OPENED his school assembly program with ZOMBI. For magicians, he CLOSED with it. Try to find a tape of him doing it. It was his masterpiece.

Here's Neil Foster from way back when...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOSkcjrOE7I

Here is a plug for my Zombie.
It was developed in my earlier days of magic.
The best gigs to get were blue and gold banquets.
You set up in a corner and were generally surrounded by the kids.
So, I developed the routine to be surrouned.
I went to an Abbot Get To Getehr one summer long ago and Ab Dickson said he heard I did it surrounded.
We were sleeping in someone's attic and Ab got all 10 magicians to make a circle around me while I performed my routine.
The idea was that someone would yell out when they saw the method.
During the test, no one yelled out.
Then Ab asked me to do it on stage on the showroom floor during the convention.
That next day I waited to go on. I was told to wait for a signal from someone to perform it.
I waited, got the signal, and did the routine.
What I did not know that Ab was with Niel Foster. Ab waited until Niel had a quiet moment.
Then Ab stood at his side and gave the signal at which time I got my signal.
I was told that Ab said to Niel, "What do you think of that. He does it SURROUNDED."
Apparenlty Niel said, "Well, it had to happen someday." Then he turned and walked away.
Understand that Niel inspired me to do Zombie.
Years before I took a date to see magic in Toronto.
Niel performed. While watching Neil do his routine, I felt a stinging pain in my right arm.
I lookd down and my date was digging her nails into my arm with a deep whisper, "How does he do that?"
Needless to say, I became a beliver.

Caution however.
This is a very difficult routine.
Done well it is incredable.
Done poorly, well, you get the idea.

Some advice here about doing it would be in order by those that use this.
Thoughts on finger care and philosophy would be appropriate for those that are new.
By the by my book is on amazon dot com. Search on "Al Schneider Magic."
And thank you Mr. Baker for reminding us of Niel's routine.
It is a fond memory.

Al Schneicer

I forgot. I must add one thing. I close my close up act and my stand up act with this. I have no choice.

I bought the abve-mentioned Al Schneider on Zombie in a lovely gold, hard-bound edition in about 1983 or so from Brad Burt's magic shop in San Diego. I wish I still had it. It got lost in a transcontinental move somehow.

Zombie has been my pet effect since about 1980, and while my current routine cannot be performed surrounded, every phase of the routine is informed by Mr. Schneider's excellent thinking. I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who is serious about performing the effect well. The book will challenge you, and make you THINK. Don't delay, get your copy today!

I believe Al Schneider's zombie routine is also available on an instructional DVD; right, Al?
http://dennymagic.com/store/al-schneider......785.html
I'm not aware if Al sells it on a website of his own.

I remember when Al had a one-man Parade in _Linking Ring_. Great material there, too, which has no doubt been collected and expanded upon in his books.

----- Sonny

I now am selling all my books on amazon dot com including Zombie. Seardh on "Al Schneider Magic." This guarentees this material will be available for some time to come. The DVD also has the routine. Can't rememember how effective it is. Been a long time since I made it. THe amazon dot com book is a copy of the gold covered book. The pictures were reshot from the book so the suffer a bit. It never has sold well and has been purchased only by those very serious about magic.

Al Schneider

Oops, just reread the thread. I repeated myself. Sorry.

The one thing I feel has been lost over time for the zobie ball is it was shown to be a HEAVY object (A shot put). That was why it was impressive that it could float. The only person I have seen do this in the last decade or so is Charlie Fry with his zombie bowling ball.

Something to think about.

Hmmmmm. I thought Karson initially used a toilet float for the zombie ball.
I also think he was really big on the ball floating through a linking ring.
Just wondering.

Al Schneider

Ldl1017:

You might want to check out the booklet "Further Tips on Zombie"...lots of good stuff there...

Al Scneider and Dick Oslund:

Seeing Neil Foster doing his Zombie routine when I was 7 years old during a SAM Assembly 8 Magic Show in St. Louis is what inspired me to become a Magician....

Neil was MAGNIFICENT!!!

Hey! Now we know whom to blame!!! Hee hee!

I remember the Zombie through linking ring in either _Tips on Zombie_ or _Further Tips on Zombie_:
http://www.noveltyguns.com/tips-on-zombie-manual.jpg

General Grant had a nice, literally flashy ending to his Zombie routine. It may have been written up in his lecture booklet. From the description of Grant's DVD "How to Make a Living Stealing... Doves of Course" sold at Stevens Magic
http://www.stevensmagic.com/shop/how-to-......l-grant/
it sounds like Grant's finale is explained there. Grant said at his lectures that Neil Foster said his ending was the best finale for a zombie routine he had ever seen.

----- Sonny

---I recommend Al's BOOK (amazing) over his DVD it's a tad more work but it will bring more of 'you' to it. I’m so glad it’s out again (I love my gold one.)

---Jeb Sherrill’s DVD Set is encyclopedic, very HIGH on my list.

---Note the PERSONALITY Neil Foster gives the ball, it's a key element.

---Yes, Karson loved his hoop (go search my "hoop" comments in another thread.)

---YES! It is far more impossible seeming to levitate a Heavy Object than a light one, go for the heavy mime (e.g. genius Russell Crowe)

Magically, Walt

That is how he invented it I heard. He saw the floater in the back of a toilet and was like "Hmmm..."

I posted this comment and removed it twice but just can't resist.

You mean, "He saw a Float"... A floater is something completly different and in the UK it has even more meanings.