Okay, I'm pondering this and would like some feedback. In the show I'm putting together, an assistant "vanishes" (actually, is squished flat) due to a "mishap". While her body's in no shape to function, it turns out her spirit's still around, though, animated as my Kinetic Sphere. At the end of the KS routine, of course, I need to restore her to normal. I was originally thinking something like the Blammo Box would work, but realized I could make this possibly more dramatic (and/or funny) by taking more time with the appearance.

Can anyone recommend any other appearances (apart from Blammo Box) that I should look into? (I should note I'm not really interested in the Shadow Box at this point, though it might work if nothing else comes to mind...)

I think you need to "unsquash" her. Does the audience see her in the squashed form? One trick, that other magicians have used, is to take a pump and "reinflate" her. The best way to show that is to put the flattened form in some receptical with a cloth over it. Then, put the pump tube in there and as you pump she rises up a bit by bit until you take away the cloth and she is there.

This is "inspired" (ok, ripped off from) by the sword basket routine by Ed Alonzo where he tries it with an inflateable assistant, pops here and then reinflates to a regular asisstant.

Another, very wild, idea is that you have your squashed assistant as a large paper cutout that "accidentally" gets put into a paper shredder. She then appears out of the waste basket that the shreddings go into or have the shredded paper go into a big confetti "storm" with some smoke and she steps out of it.

Well, the inflatable reappearance sort of precludes me performing this in Texas and eight other states... I do like it though, but don't want to copy someone else's idea.

Maybe I should have posted this in Double Dare- I like designing my own illusions where I can (though I'll build from plans when I have to.)

Interesting idea with the shredder- I was toying with the idea of having one of the stage hands "accidentally" shred her. That leaves open the possibility of the full restoration from shredded paper, or even a more "regular" appearance (as having nothing to work with means I can do whatever I want...)

Anyone else have a thought or two on this?