Effect: You display a small black ball which
you explain is really your pet, Spot. You tell him to bounce and he bounces. Tell him to
roll over and he rolls across the table. Tell him to sit up and beg and he just sits
there. In your anger, you hit him, but perhaps a bit too hard, for when you lift your hand
there is a flat, black spot on the table, and the ball is gone.Effect: You display a small black ball which
you explain is really your pet, Spot. You tell him to bounce and he bounces. Tell him to
roll over and he rolls across the table. Tell him to sit up and beg and he just sits
there. In your anger, you hit him, but perhaps a bit too hard, for when you lift your hand
there is a flat, black spot on the table, and the ball is gone.
You decide to give Spot a second chance at life by
allowing him to help you find a selected card; he is, after all, a retriever. After having
a card peeked at, you take Spot and throw him at the deck and he disappears at your
fingertip. Suddenly, little barking noises are heard from the cards (with the help of some
poor ventriloquism). You spread the deck face down across the table and, lo and behold,
one card has a black spot on its back. When you turn over the card, it is, indeed, the
spectator's card. To end the trick happily, you proceed to peel Spot off the card's back,
and then roll him between your palms until he regains his former round shape.
Items: You need one small. black ball,
preferably a "Super ball" from a vending machine or a handball. You'll also need
a deck of cards,. and two identically sized two-inch spots. Make one out of thin metal or
cardboard and another out of contact paper. Color them both black and stick the contact
paper spot on the back of any card; place that card on the bottom of the deck. Place the
deck in the card case. Have the other disk palmed in your left hand.Items: You need one small. black ball,
preferably a "Super ball" from a vending machine or a handball. You'll also need
a deck of cards,. and two identically sized two-inch spots. Make one out of thin metal or
cardboard and another out of contact paper. Color them both black and stick the contact
paper spot on the back of any card; place that card on the bottom of the deck. Place the
deck in the card case. Have the other disk palmed in your left hand.
Performance: Take out the deck and ball. Go
through the above mentioned patter and by-play (see the Ruminations below for more
approaches and patter). After the ball refuses to listen to your commands, stare at it/him
angrily as he sits on the table. Then with the disk palmed in the left hand, strike the
ball on the table. Let the disk fall to the table's surface as you palm away the ball and
place it in your right pocket or lap it. Pick your hand up to show that you've squashed
him (an alternate handling here would be to squash the ball between the palms of your
hands; this might actually facilitate the switch).Performance: Take out the deck and ball. Go
through the above mentioned patter and by-play (see the Ruminations below for more
approaches and patter). After the ball refuses to listen to your commands, stare at it/him
angrily as he sits on the table. Then with the disk palmed in the left hand, strike the
ball on the table. Let the disk fall to the table's surface as you palm away the ball and
place it in your right pocket or lap it. Pick your hand up to show that you've squashed
him (an alternate handling here would be to squash the ball between the palms of your
hands; this might actually facilitate the switch).
Now look at the disk and act like you're sorry for
letting yourself go. Cut the bottom card to the center of the deck and riffle force the
card with the spot on its back. Place the deck down and pick up the disk. Vanish as you
see fit (a French Drop works nicely here), then spread the deck face down to expose the
spot on the back of the selection.
After you show the selected card is correct, peel the
spot off. Place the spot on your left palm; the contact side will stick to it making the
next part quite simple. Hold your hand up to show the spot on it, and retrieve the ball
from your pocket or lap and palm it in the right hand. Turn the left hand over and cover
the right palm. Cup the hands as you slowly roll your hands together as if the spot was
turning into a ball. Finally, lift the left hand up to expose the ball in your right hand.
What you've really done is very similar to a shuttle pass; you’ve pretended to pass
an object from hand to hand while actually switching one for the other. Take care not to
expose the spot on your left palm as the left fingers take the ball and place it in your
pocket. While the hand is in the pocket, curl your fingers inward and scrape the spot off
your palm.
Ruminations:Ruminations:
1. If you hold the ball in a certain grip, you can
toss it away and it away and it will bounce back to you. Sorry, but I can't recall the
name of the stunt. Here's the brief description of the actions required: hold the hand
palm up and curl the middle and forefingers inwards. If you place the ball on top of the
first joints of these two fingers and wedge the ball against the base of the thumb, a
strange phenomenon occurs when you straighten your fingers out sharply in a snapping
motion. The ball will fly through the air, bounce a few feet away and then return to you.
This could be the way the ball fetches an imaginary stick and brings it back to you.
2. Vanish dog biscuits on a pull during the effect to
reward your pet for its good work.
3. Use Paul Harris' "Hi-Ho Silver" coin
vanish [see his book SUPERMAGIC] to vanish a dog biscuit. After you show the selected card
with the spot on its back, place the card on top of the deck. Reach into your pocket. take
out a small dog biscuit, and place it on top of the card. If you execute Paul's vanish, it
will look like Spot ate the biscuit.
4. Have the pet’s name "SPOT" written
on all the spots and the ball.
5. Try using a topit for visual changes and
restorations of the spot.
6. If you perform this while sitting down, lap the
ball as the disk is switched in, and later try the reverse for the change of the disk to
the ball.
7. Never peel the spot off, but simply tilt the deck
toward yourself and pretend to peel off the spot when you make the ball appear (remember
Bob McCallister's "Watch the Spot?"). This way you can repeat the effect for
another group later on, and simply use a double lift to show the spot on the back of
another card (try a handling like 'The Chicago Opener").
8. Women will love this effect because they will
think it’s so cute. So if you think women are cute, you should do this trick.
9. Have Spot take a bite out of a card by switching
in a card with teeth marks cut out of it.
10. Have a micro-cassette recorder in pause mode and
a cassette with a dog whimpering and barking recorded on it in a jacket pocket. When you
first take the ball out of the same pocket, activate the recorder so it whimpers. When the
ball is returned to the pocket later, play the tape once again so it barks happily.
11. Do a coin roll with the disk as you tell Spot to
roll over. Then look at the ball and say, "Sure, now you roll over. What are your
trying to do? Make me look bad? I hope the ASPIA doesn't hear about this. You know them.
That's the Association for the Protection of Imaginary Animals." Pause and look at
the ball and say, "And you better not say anything about those pink elephants
either."
12. Try using the "Hi-Ho Silver" vanish to
make it look like Spot sinks into the deck to find the selection. Place the disk on top of
the deck, perform the vanish, then spread the cards to show Spot on the back of the
selection.
13. A French drop makes the final restoration look
nifty. Have the ball finger palmed in the right hand and the disk displayed in the left
hand. Pretend to grab the disk with the right hand. Then with the right fist stretched
out, open the fingers and throw the ball down so it bounces back up for a fast
restoration. This makes the change fast and visual; it will look like you threw the disk
down on the floor and it bounced back up into a ball.
14. Have someone hold Spot in their fist while you
have a card peeked; this way they can't say he ever saw the card.
15. Use a "squeaker" (as popularized by
Daryl) to give your pet a voice. After he vanishes into the deck, you can ask your
audience if they heard Spot arrive in the deck. Then poke the deck and make him squeak.
16. Patter idea; "I know he looks like a little
black ball, but just try to think of him as a 'toy' breed. He thinks he's a Dalmation;
that's why I call him Spot."
17. Here's a strange idea: Come out with a card case,
and everyone will expect a card trick. Tell them the case is your pet's home, then open
the case and shake the ball out. Later reach in and pull out the cards from the same case.
It's simple -- just have the ball palmed and pretend to shake it out of the case -- the
cards were in there all along.
18. My final rumination has to do with my original
routine I found in my notes from 1978: try using the kangaroo Ball effect first. It's an
easy effect to recreate though I've not seen it advertised in years. Basically, it
revolves around a ball that will bounce fine for you, but when you hand it to a spectator
it refuses to bounce; it just sits there. I leave it to you to figure out the handling and
blending of the effects.
