I've been using a few different Sight Gag's in my routines for the street as well as for the restaurants I perform for.I was just wondering if anybody has some really good sight gags that you wouldn't mind sharing.I have a really good one that's pretty funny and has gotten a great response on the street. It entails the use of a set of coiled Paddles Like the ones a paramedic uses. They're great to pull out when someone is really crackin up laughing and can barely breath. It's pretty funny when you pull these out. You can also go the extra step of adding a Funken ring for sparks too if you want.Its even funnier if it's an older person that is laughing.Share your best with us.Thanks in advance.

I can see a lot of uses for these.

If you have a really dead audience, you can jump start them.

Use a kazoo if you need a motor running (buzzsaw)

I just did a show where I had to dress up like a cowboy.
we had a gunfight at the end. when I pulled my gun my pants fell down.
pretty funny.

I love sight gags! If you can find any of Ken Brooke's books grab them. There is some great sight gags in those books! All of Bob Read's books and lecture notes had great sight gags as well. Tom Burgoon is also a master of the sight gag he sells some of them for very short money on his website along with ideas. Googly eyes, half size rubber chickens, super neck cracker, power pickpocket, as well as a bunch of other stuff. Charlie Frye's videos are just chock full of darn good gags.

Old vaudeville blackouts, the old Robert Orben booklets, and old comedies by the masters, Keaton, Loyd, Chaplin, Arbuckle, Langdon, W.C. Fields, The Marx brothers, and Laurel and Hardy, are also treasure troves.

Your local library will have a lot of this stuff for free and check out any books on vaudeville. Just tons and tons of stuff is out there if you know where to look.

There ain't nothing like a darn good gag.

Best,

Dan-

I like to start shows in those rollershade glasses from the Eye Doctor's with the crazy eyes under them (I'm sorry, I just got my pupils dialated). I prouce a rather large spider from a deck of cards (I havn't quite got all the bugs out of this trick yet). I have a huge Zippo Lighter that always gets a laugh on sight(just about any oversized items gets a good laugh). Hot books, Magic for Dummies, etc, rubber hands(they do come in handy)...
-Sandwich

One of my alltime faves is the bouncing handkercheif. A lacrosse ball fastened into a bandana, wipe your brow, hurl the bandana to the pavement & BOING!!! The looks on people's faces are priceless. (I got the lacrosse balls from the Duke university team.....said they wouldnt be needing them for awhile)

The bouncing hank is a classic! Tons of stuff like that in Pat Page's books 1012 clown props and his new book on physical comedy. I should have mentioned them earlier. The thing about site gags is you have to find the ones that work for you in the context of your show, you can't just stick it in it really needs to be part of the routine for it to get a good laugh.

Best,

Dan-

Great Post's guys. I was hoping someone would put some up, but I wasn't expecting such a great response. Danny Hustle, I've often read your posts and your comments and just by my notes alone I know I can trust your judgement. Thankyou for your helpful information as always. I appreciate all of the other responses as well. I purchased my set of "paddles" for the cardio shocker at Spencers gifts in the "special toy section" I believe it was originally made as a joke for other reasons. The bouncing hank sounds hilarious. Can't wait to see if it fits into my show anywhere. I also use a fake rubber hand for my show.(I thought it was funny that you mentioned that Sandwichical.-Pm me if you want my idea on that) Thanks again guys for the ideas and reference information.
Illuzns

Danny:

You're much to well read... Wow! I don't know what to say except form an ol' pro you gave me some very good resources that I have completely forgotten about... Thanks.

I use the "simple" version of the neck cracker (the one you can usually improvise at any party) as part of the opening talk for my hypnosis shows. I do the "Welcome to my hypnosis show, ladies and gentlemen - hypnosis relies on the power of suggestion and I, er... um... ouch..." and reach up and CRACK my neck by pulling my head over to one side.

I then stand there, twitching for a second... then grin, and say, "for those of you who didn't believe in the power of suggestion before this show started - YOU DO NOW!" Then reach under my vest and remove the "gimmick" which is actually a common every day item, grin and toss it over my shoulder and get on with the show.

This is NOT exposure to my way of thinking, but a GAG and it serves a VERY important purpose in the show - when the audience hears my neck CRACK - they ALL respond with an "OOOooo!!!" and grimmace!

Which gives them a visceral experience of just HOW POWERFUL suggestion really is, right from the start!

Diabolical - you BET!!

Commercial &^# skippy!!!

Copyrighted - ABSOLUTELY!!! By Lee Darrow, C.H. 2006, ALL PERFORMING RIGHTS RESERVED for use in hypnosis shows or mentalist shows.

Lee Darrow, C.H.

I've been using a type of "cracker" in conjunction with the animal trap.

The trap bites (1st shock);

They see that I am apparently ok, then four of my fingers and part of my hand gets peeled off (2nd shock);

They are let in on the fact that it is a gag, then I straighten my fingers using the "cracker" (3rd shock).

That's the one that gets 'em!

Funny and well-timed - Yup!

Copyrighted - not exactly.

Protected by my friends in the magic community... priceless.

I love sight gags and use lots of them.

Danny, to add to your list of the old masters: The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, or Lucille Ball. Loads of great sight gags in these folks' work!

~michael

And to add to my list of great sight gags is Michael Baker's floating finger illusion. Always in the pocket ready to pull a good laugh. GREAT STUFF!

Best,

Dan-

That a Boy Danny!

That is always on hand, I use it daily and it rocks every audience I do it for. It is so fun to watch 100 to 200 people with their fingers pressed together and laughing. Thank you Michael Baker. I hate to sound like another well known magician, but I own two...

Thanks guys! The fun part for me... watching the looks on the people's faces change when it sinks in.

~michael

Well, it's not exactly what a lot of you might consider a "Sight Gag", but I have a little bit of fun using Mier Yedid's Finger Fantasy(Usually doing the vanish of the ring finger. This works well worked into a routine at the end after a kid has helped you and you say "Great job... Give me five...(Kid high fives you) then you say "Give me FOUR..." and do the vanish of the ring finger. I use it all the time in my restaurant gigs and it has worked pretty well for streetshows as well.
Thanks for all your insight (No pun intended).
Illuzns

Another one I do is the "limp arm" bit, where the arm "dangles" from the elbow and you tap it with the other hand and it swings back and forth like a pendulum. Tap it harder, and it swings wider. Smack it and it goes ALL the way around!

I also will use the old mime bit of leaning on an invisible ledge while people are looking through a deck of cards during my Card to Forehead routine, sometimes bringing my hand, with the elbow still "resting" on the "ledge" up to scratch my head and then dropping down to flop back to the "ledge." This gets quite a few laughs.

I also have a series of variations on the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" hand salute that I do that I use from my years of working Star Trek conventions, and I can clap with one hand - honestly.

That last one got me kicked out of the Midwest Buddist Temple when I was about 16 years old. Just because the Abbott told the koan about trying to become Enlightened is like trying to hear the sound of one hand clapping to a bunch of people at a festival there. I was sitting in the back row and tried to clap with one hand and did it - just to see if I COULD do it.

He looked up at me, grinned and said, chuckling, "You ... out."

Lee Darrow, C.H.

When I first walk up to a table cold, I sring cards vary loudly from one hand to another. It is very visual and very audible. It gets everyones attention. It tells them that I am the magician without me saying a word.

Martin Gardner's, "Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic" has many great gags and bits.

I've got the Baker Finger Sausage Illusion as well. Love it.