Been doing routine out on the streets of Auckland. Its been going well but I have a a few kinks I'm sorting out.

Its a 3 effect. door way act pulling crowds about 15 lasting 15 minute. The effects are,
1- Sponge balls from purse frame,
2- Fibre optics (Single rope),
3- Egg bag,

I seem to be losing people during the egg bag. The routine I use is almost the same as when I do it in a parlour setting. But people seem to switch of on the street. Its got a bit better with some new humour put in and using a cute kid as volunteer. My qustion is has any one else done the egg bag on the street and had any problems with it. I don't know weather to keep working at it or move on to something else.

My experience with the eggbag on the street has been the same. Although it is an effect I would always perform in a stand up show I don't do it much on the street for this reason. When I do do it, I cut out some of the phases. Egg goes in the bag, it vanishes, spectator holds the bag, spectator makes the egg reappear. Doing it like that has worked better for me on the street.

Dai Vernon once told me that during the vaudeville days, the egg bag
was so commonly performed much like the standard cups and balls routine,
that the theatre director would have signs stating,

"NO Egg Bag Please!"

Here is the Egg Bag at the boardwalk at Disney. I couldn't finish the video.

http://youtu.be/q1H6kJhlwuQ

Id do the eggbag on the street and in the beginning I had to learn how to do it. the secret is keep it tidy and the audience involved. not like the above video. my routine is production - vanish under the arm and appear in the bag while child does the trick. don't milk the under the arm bit like some do in a childrens show, it won't work. engage some reaction the move on. keep it simple and tidy.

While I love the egg bag routine myself, I've learned the hard way that it only works under certain circumstances.
Properly done, it's a brilliant comedy bit (well, at least my routine) that has anyone with a sense of humor in stitches.
Done at the wrong time, it will KILL your show.

I still wince at the last time I performed it for an audience that was... less than receptive.

Lesson learned the hard way...

I've begun to move it more to a draw position or as an off beat in the middle of my set.

I think Payne's routine would play pretty well on the street. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgJwmrAhzwg&feature=related

Excellent routine!!

Thanks guys thought I was losing the plot a bit. Like I say works great in my parlour act but crashes on the street.

aussie magic, Robert Blake and Exuth thank you for sharing your experience I think your right strip it down to it bare basics. Also Gr8gorilla good video makes me feel better about mine anyway lot of work to do. Tboehmlein thanks for a place to move on to.

Yellowcustard, before we have closure on this subject, let me just say in my experience.....the egg bag is/can be absolutely 'FANTASTIC!!!!' on the street. I use it
It packs small, plays big, can use a spectator, no table needed, easy to understand.....and kills.

One thing that may cause you a bit of a problem on the street is that if you use it as a stand alone piece, you're gonna have closure at the end of the routine. And closure can be a killer in losing people,

IMHO the egg bag is VERY character driven. The standard routine has an egg vanishing and reappearing inside the bag which isn't really that exciting by itself.

Excellent example of getting much more out of it is, of course, Jeff Hobson, who does a wonderful piece with it. The eggbag he sells, by the way, is IMHO the best bag out there. He also included a small DVD with it when it came out and the info he gives is really really practical. I have one of his bags and "don't leave home with out it'.

I'll be honest though and admit it took me 2 or 3 years to really get to the point where I was able to get the most out of it, on the street....where you don't have a captive audience.
So hang in there with it, it DOES have huge potential, trust me

You know, this is a very astute observation... and one I missed completely. Thanks, Stperformer- I needed that lightbulb moment.

Well done.

Here is my routine. I have done it at the local tennis club. my routine is build on the street. my favorate trick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6akKM5W1nc&feature=relmfu

Wow!!!!!! Thank you for sharing that Robert. I enjoyed

So cool I think I need to keep working on it. Thank you for all the advice so far. And if there is any more ideas or comments keep them going. I will also update this post with what I try and how it goes.

Nice thread...............

A quick up date on how things are going. First up here is a quick phase by phase account of my egg bag routine which as mention works fine in parlour situation but dies on the street.
1-Show bag empty,
2-Make egg appear,
3-Make egg vanish / under the arm joke,
4-Egg reappears but its invisible,
5-Volunteer throws invisible egg in bag.
6- Real visible egg appears..

All of this is done with a volunteer. Each phase kind follows this set up. I say to my volunteer I go 3, 2, 1, on 1 you wave your hand over the bag, And if something amazing happens the crowd will go crazy.

In a close environment this works well. But not so good on the street. After watching some video of it on the street. I realised a few things. The problem is there is to much to follow for a street routine. Also if you come in after phase 3 you have no idea what's going on. The other issue is I make the egg appear at the beginning so once I make it vanish you know it will come back. So wait around for that to happen. This also bring up the advice from above post strip it down.

Here is what I do now and its working better. It starts by getting a cute kid up I do a few silly bits to make the kid laugh. Then I show the egg bag and the egg. By the way a kid holding a egg cup with a egg on it with a outreached arm. The pressure is on the kid not to stuff up so the audience gets behind him. I also deliver my hat line at this stage.

Here are the phases,
1-Make egg vanish / under the arm joke,
2-Egg reappears but its invisible,
3-Volunteer throws invisible egg in bag.
4- Real visible egg appears

Section 2 and 3 were cut for a while but people do like the invisible egg and I now take the opportunity to call back to on of the jokes earlier with the kid. Also less people leave so less people join as there no space.

This is now working better and seem to be shaping nicely. Few other things that I have thought about is the rope trick I do before this is done over my head so lots of people can see it. So I do the egg bag up high and kid is on a fold up foot stool and has a wand.

There will another up date about this with a video.

I like Tarbell's course which uses two spectators. (I did make one change. The routine, as published, has you find the egg and vanish it with one spectator then turn to the second spectator and do the rest of the routine with him. I decided at the end, he WOULDN'T find the egg in the bag and I would turn to the first spectator (with the Devil's Hank) and find it there.)

A bizarre thing. When I decided to get the full Egg Bag routine, Tannen's catalog said I needed two eggs, the bag and a devil's hank. So I bought everything. The instructions that came with the Egg Bag said NOTHING about the second egg OR the devil's hank. The people at Tannen's didn't even know what the catalog was referring to. *sigh* But I did find it finally in volume 2 of the Tarbell course.

Yellowcustard, if you take out the invisible egg pass it on to somebody in the audience that person passes it on to another and to another - gooing aroung the whole audience ending with the child who throws the invisible egg in the bag and takes out the visible egg.

this way the whole audience is involveld and curious to see what will be happening and you make it mighty big, everybody is involved.

You have just an insane amount of energy in that - I love it. I watched it with my girlfriend, who teaches 4 year olds all day, and even she said that doing that once would wear her out.

@Tesla that's not Gr8gorilla, he just put that yout vid up for an example