For those of you that use the Lota bowl, how many times through out your show do you empty it? Just curious becaise I just got one to put into my show. How many of you out there use the lota? When I got one at my local shop they had this strange look on their face like, "what, you are going to do something that old"? I like the gag myself and don't know why I have not used it before.

Thanks
Steven

I use one in a modified Chris Caphart routine. I only empty it about 4 times during the show.

I empty it 3 times. It is just one part of a the routine that I do at the end of my show. I get a lot of reaction from it.

I've never done it as a running gag in my shows. I have used it as part of a routine, and I also do it 3 times. I think the rule of three applies here unless you are doing it as a running gag.

Regan

I do it four times.

Actually, the last time, I start to pour it into the bucket, but then decide to throw the contents of the bucket into the crowd. (I switch buckets to one with streamers in it.)


Lyndel

I have acquired a couple of hip flask lota's...you know, the stainless steel "back pocket" type flask that's perfect to hold some good old fashioned "licker".....I fill both up with water prior to adult shows, and set one on top of my perfroming table. I pour myself the "final" shot from the flask into a shot glass, and drink it. After my first bit, and virtually each subsequent bit, I repeat the gag, ultimately taking 6, 7, 8 or more "final" shots from the flask. The flask will pour about 7 shots, so if I go over 7, I switch out the second flask from inside my table. I get LOTS of laughs from the lota flask....I use it in virtually every show, other than kid shows of course. I've not been able to find the lota flask other than from some guy in Denmark who sells on eBay. Never seen it in a store. I like Lyndel's idea of throwing the streamers or confetti into the crowd after conditioning them to believe there is a never ending suply of water in the bowl. Funny stuff!

Pardon my ignorance...but what are you guys doing with the Lota Bowl....I have one but have never worked it into a routine......

Do you guys mind sharing some ideas?

Thanks,
Dorian

I've used the Lota Vase as a running gag but in a two year residency. Liquid effects need careful consideration anywhere but especially in domestic circumstances. And water doesn't travel well and a Lota can be very slow and time consuming to empty. Travelling water in something like that is asking for trouble. In a residency, it's a lot easier.

I did twelve different magic shows in a two week rota which was the average holiday period then. So it was a visual link across all the shows and gave me both an opener and a warm up and a continuity. Even when you see the same crowd every night the mix is different and you can't ignore the opening essentials.

First year I worked it three or four times in a performance. The first being the opening and the subsequent two or three between routines.

The second year I changed it. I linked it to a Drooping Daisy made by that great London magic prop maker, Jack Hughes. Put simply, the Daisy was a big thing in a plant pot which looked at the audience and slowly went over sideways, the head swivelling as the stem went over. Very graceful

Some water in the pot and up it came again. Repeat. Except if you knew how you could vary the duration it stayed upright. So I used the Lota the second year to feed the Daisy and it was used just as a common opener to all the shows. But quite how fast and slow it fell over varied from night to night.

It allowed me to walk right across the stage with the 'empty' Lota and turn and go rushing back as the Daisy went down.

It was a much better use of a funny Daisy and a very deceptive Lota Vase holding far more water than the audience ever imagined.

Mine was of spun aluminium made by Peter Diamond of Preston England who may still be supplying them. A classic but it needs a routined approach, especially for children and family audiences otherwise it can be repetitive - which of course is the whole point of the effect.

But it needs to be entertaining.

I don't do water tricks because I'm a kack-handed eejit and am bound to cause some mini disaster when transporting liquid.

I've heard of that style of drooping flower (never seen one though). I think combining it with a lota vase is the the best idea I've heard for a lota.

I've never got a good as reaction for a running gag (or call back) from children as I have from adults.

George

I live in the wonderful sunshine state of Washington. I was going to use mine as a rain catcher. Iff it is not raining than all the more fun to see the water keep showing up in it. I had thought I would empty it a total of four times starting right after the opening sequence and then just berfore the finale. I was kind of at a lose at this point until I read Lyndel's post. I really like that. I wish I had seen the Drooping daisy, it sounds like a great idea to use the lota with. Sounds like the comedy out of the flowwer would be really funny.
LVMagicAl. I think I have seen that for sale on ebay.
Dorian, I have had mine for awhile now and have just decided to put it into my act. I was always trying to put it into just one routine and I did not feel comfortable so I decided to use the running gag. If I had really thought it out I would have done something like Tony did but for some reason I just could not come up with a good idea like his. I would like to say writers block but I think now it is just age..hehehe

Steven

I would use a Lota for as many times as you can get a good pour. If you have a good bowl. (Sherman or P@L you can get at least 4 usable pours but more if you know how to milk it or reload it)
Obvoulsy there is no magic for the first pour. That is the set up. What can get the crowd going is when you pick it up and it appears FULL again. This is why proper technique and a good prop is needed. Most newer devices just do not produce the quanity that I feel are affective. The P&L just holds so much water for its size and deceptive shape.

SO three is safe (remembering the magic only happens twice), 4 is better if your lota can give a good 4th pour.

LTM, I agree with Tony that one flaw in design of most Lota is that it takes a while to dry out.
A tip is to not try to tip the water left out but to stick a sponge, super sham or absorbant towel in the bottom and let it suck up the bulk. Let it soak in remove and ring out. That will get most of it if not all.

Now that is really interesting. Is a Lota Bowl really a bowl? To me a bowl is flattish and wide.

What I used was a Vase, flared mouth, waisted neck down to a rounded body. I seem to recall I could if I wanted get 8 or more pours out of it and they were good long pours. They would easily fill the 'bucket' in the Drooping Daisy.

3 or 4 seems rather small but perhaps the pours you mention are very large.

Traditionally of course in the UK it was known as Water from India.

P&L and Sherman were/are copper spittoon/chamber pot shaped. Think more of a round wish bowl but in metal. In the US a Vase might be considered long and thin for the most part. These were round with a flared top and flat base. Some call it a Lota Jug but I guess you could call it a vase if you stuck some flowers in it. So the most accurate and less appealing is to call it a spittoon shape or fish bowl. The current Morrissey ones also have a spitoon shape and are not as deceptive or fluid in shape if you ask me.

I used to work with Jack Adams and his Incredible Merlin Magic Show. Jack had several P&L props that he actually used IN the show. And if they were broken he would use say a P&L duck table as a side table in his house.

So this is where I fell in love with the P&L Lota. He also had a "Sherm" which was a close match. The device seemed to hold much more than the once you can still get by Morrissey. (At the time, I am nto sure how the Jumbo compares but I do not care for the material and shape) http://www.magicnevin.com/prodimages/lota12morrissey.bmp which really does look a spit bucket.
P&L to me is just a more appealing design. Sorry I could not find a photo of it to link.

A few years back one could find some of these on ebay. And you know, once one gets $200 for the bowl the next guy tries for more. There was one guy from the south east just bidding them all up. I think I got mine for just under $300.
I think they originally sold for $15-18 in the 1960s ....

It makes it hard at that price to just pull it out and use it in every show. I save it for the stage shows.

I will share that some plastic toy versions are in magic sets and at a camp I could hear whispers from a few explaining how it works.

Water from India huh? Not very attractive or clean but I guess no less than thinking of what is in a spittoon. And one Halloween show I dyed the water red and made it "the ever filing jug of blood"...

I've found that using it as Chris Capehart does on his DVD is a HUGE hit with the kids. I empty it before every trick and the kids seem to get more excited about it than almost anything else I'm doing. It's a great running gag. When I was asked to do my nieces birthday party, she specifically instructed her mom to make sure I did the sponge ball trick and the trick with Matilda. (Matilda is the stuffed pig I have sitting on the Lotta Bowl.)

Mike

We used to have spittoons in a few of the old fashioned clubs in the early days. And sawdust. Hence Spit & Sawdust. It all vanished when the clubs went upmarket in the 60s.

No, mine was definitely a vase, with a slender neck. It would just allow two fingers inside so if something dropped in you needed some form of tweezer to lift it out. It was too tall for your fingers to reach the bottom.

Ahh then it is more than a GAG. I personally do not consider it a joke or a gag. I am sure with the reactions you get that you were just using the term "running gag" for lack of better phrase. Maybe "running effect"? I guess it is the same with the use of "sucker trick" MOST of us know not to make "suckers" out of the audience and use the phrase to describe that sort of effect.

It never hurts to break the mold and time for an update of jargon.
Good to hear though someone else get that wild reaction with a lota as well.
When one does not lock it into a GAG, it can be quite magicial.

Mghia
You know you are right. I should remeber that the gag is the thing I take off of my assistant just before I let her out of the box to help with the show.

Happy Magic
Steven

I don't remember for sure but I think that even Chris Capehart uses the term, "running gag", in his DVD. I think the term fits although, sure, it's also more than that and magical. I call it a gag because it's something short and funny that the kids get a lot of laughs out of and is more about the humor of the effect than the "magical-ness" of it I think.

Just my opinion.

Mike

Hi guys, call it what you want.
I personally feel a "gag" or throw away is something that is exposed or revealed. A gag is a joke and while some of the lota products are more along that line since the water output is so small with some (that it is a "joke"). I think, since I have seen how good the reaction can be, that is not a joke. Yes I have kids bouncing around every time I go near the jug and many times, if I play it too good. that is all say 4 year olds will care about. "Check the jug, check the jug" they might call out in the middle of an different routine. So I am not clear if they think it is funny really but they are seeing something magicial.
I guess it depends on the routine you do. Sorry I do not not know who Chris Capehart is.

But hey, I am also the type that believes the term misdirection and "sucker effect" is also wrong.
BTW I like Tony's routine of the wilting flower. Tony, do you feel the fact that the vase was full again to be lost? Didn't most focus on the flower standing back up? Do you feel they still made the connection that the vase was empty and now is full again? I can picture the reason why the flower wilts, but was their a reason the vase was full of water again? In the routine I do, an imp fills my jug when I am not looking. Was their any reason explained or did the children help make more water to help save the flower?

I like using it in reverse. I fill up the center (not the "sides") and use wax to keep it there. Then I tell kids when I get thirsty I sometimes drink with my fingers. There is more byplay, then I show them. I put my finger in it and take off the wax with my thumb. Then I "drink" it like Mork from Mork & Mindy. Of course, this means it is a small group, like a BD party, where all or most can see the water go down.