The Ultimate Identification
As far
as any lay audience is concerned, a magician
is a man who takes a rabbit from a hat ... the
ultimate identification. Now, how would you
like to walk onto a stage with a newspaper in
your hand and a top hat on your head, go straight
to a thin-topped table, show the hat empty,
open the newspaper and place it over the hat
... remove it and a rabbit pops its head over
the brim. And, having done that, what are you
going to follow it with ? ? ? That's your problem.
I'm going to give you the first part. With a
female assistant to bring the newspaper on-stage
to you, it is possible to use this item as a
finish.
For a
start, you get a small rabbit -- a Netherlands
Dwarf is the best for magical purposes. Don't
start trying this with a great huge raging New
Zealand White weighing about a ton because you'll
never make it. I was talking to Alan Shaxon
on this very point. Every magic book makes out
that rabbits are all the same size. Of course,
they're not. They vary from 3 1/2 lb. babies
to enormous dog-like creatures. My "Ferguson"
weighed about 25 lbs. and scared the hell out
of a miniature poodle we had. He used to sit
on his back-side and "pedal" at the dog with
claws about an inch and a half long.
Anyhow,
you've got yourself a small, and I do mean SMALL,
rabbit. You have to make a holder for it. Take
a square of hard-wearing cloth and put the rabbit
in the middle. Then lift the four corners and
put them together so that the bun can stick
his head out of one of the "sides" but NOT get
his wee paws out. If he can get his paws out,
he will be able to claw his way out.
The idea
basically is to be able to keep his paws in
but not make the thing too tight around his
neck or you'll strangle the poor beast. It all
depends on the size of your rabbit. By dint
of cutting the square to the correct size you
get the thing comfortable and the right size.
Now you hem it.
At each
of three corners you sew with strong thread
a 1" inside diameter ring. To the remaining
corner you sew a loop of shoe-lace. Put the
bun in the middle, thread the shoe-lace through
the three rings and hold the thing up in the
air by the shoe-lace loop.
Check
and double-check that the situation for the
rabbit is the same as it was when you held the
square by the four corners. The "take-up" in
sewing on the rings will compensate for the
extra slackness due to the shoe-lace loop going
through the rings. Remember, the comfort of
the bun is your number one concern.
Transfer
your attentions to the newspaper. Take a large
newspaper, not a tabloid, and fold it into four.
Of the several people I've shown this idea to,
they've all at this point gone their own ways.
The best was Clive Hawthorne.
You've
got to put inside it an upright with a peg on
it which will allow you to hang the bag onto
it. Clive put a bit of aluminum which was about
1/4" thick, bored a hole through it around 1"
distance from the top edge and then shoved a
thin bolt through and ran the nut down the bolt
to hold it steady to the ally plate. The plate
was only 2 1/2" wide. He bent the bolt upwards
so that the bag wouldn't fall off.
I suggested
filing off the threads so that the shoe-lace
loop would detach itself easily but he said
it wasn't necessary. I'd used a metal slat which
had pegs on it for hanging kitchen utensils
and sim- ply snapped off the other pegs. This
is glued inside the paper. Holding the paper
at the bottom as one does, half under the left
arm, Ieaves you with a good grip on the metal
strip through the paper. The bun in his bag
is nestling behind the paper and against your
left chest.
Walking
out onstage with your left side to the audience,
you remove your top hat and demonstrate it is
empty. If you can throw it up so that it does
a somersault, AND if you can be SURE of catching
it again -- do so. As you turn to show the newspaper,
you scoop the rabbit bag into the hat off the
peg.
Turning
back to the table, place the hat on it and cover
the hat with the paper. You can unfold one crease
of the paper if you wish ... it makes it seem
more unprepared ... and lay it over the hat.
Inside the hat, the rabbit will find itself
settled quietly after the storm and proceed
to take an interest in its surroundings. It
will feel the constrictions of the bag have
relaxed and it can move its fore-paws. It will
also discover it can stretch its back legs.
As soon as you remove the paper and it sees
the light shining into the hat, its natural
curiosity will lead it to raise itself and look
over the brim. From there you can bring it out
into full view. Make sure when you do this that
it doesn't get one of its little claws hooked
through the cloth bag, otherwise you will make
the spectacular production of a rabbit complete
with cloth-holder dragging after it!
If your
girl assistant brings the newspaper on to you,
get her to hand it to you with her grip on the
top from sufficient height that it appears natural
for you to grasp it from underneath and place
it under your arm. You can then give her your
opera hat and she opens it and closes it and
hands it to you. Naturally, to do this she comes
from the stage-right to approach you coming
from stage- left.
ANOTHER
WAY:
About
10 years ago, I played with an idea which appeared
to work, although I never did it in public because
it would require me to have a new tail-coat
made and I didn't feel it was worth the expense.
In my earliest days, I had a tail-coat of my
father's which had been altered to (more or
less) fit me. There was a pochette in the left
tail. The coat had cuffs on the sleeves.
I got
a large opera hat and fixed a hook on the brim
at the spot where it was widest in the front.
A rabbit was in the pochette. Showing a hat
to myself in the mirror (madness becomes all
magicians), I placed it from my right hand into
the left. What actually happened was, I hooked
it onto the sleeve cuff and steadied it with
my left hand outspread till I had brought it
down to my side, right next to the pochette.
Turning
to the left, I picked up the tripod table with
my right hand. The left hand went into the pochette
and removed the rabbit. It then twisted around
so that I could put the rabbit into the hat,
although, I still held it in case it dropped
out.
Replacing
the table on its legs, I turned and took the
hat from the coat cuff. This gave the impression
I was actually taking it from my left hand.
Holding it high, I placed it on the table, when
the rabbit popped its head out.
Hartz,
when doing his famous "Devil of a Hat" production,
used a very over-sized hat. It is quite feasible
to use a hat on the stage which is quite a bit
over-sized, provided of course, you don't attempt
to pat it on your head when it will go over
it, down to your neck. The over-size gives you
a greater capacity. The average hat used by
magicians just about contains a rabbit and no
more. Your greatest problem is to PREVENT the
rabbit showing before its time, unless you use
a very small rabbit.
When, about
1956, everyone was going mad on the Pollock dove-producing
kick, I tried out an opening stunt which seemed
to work quite well. I made a little white holder
to take a small rabbit. With a length of black
nylon line, I attached it to a white silk scarf.
Placing the scarf around my neck, I held the rabbit-holder
inside my coat with arm pressure. When the scarf
was taken in both hands at either side of the
body and gently wafted, it appeared to be a normal
scarf. Reaching just above where the load was,
the scarf could be pulled from around the neck
and bunched up with the rabbit container being
pulled out and hidden among the folds. Opening
the holder revealed the rabbit.
|
