Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Rat Trap Illusion

I have been travelling this last week. Went to the beautiful island of Cyprus. One night I did a comedy magic session for about a hundred conference delegates. The audience were brilliant and very responsive. The highlight of the evening was persuading a VIP to place his nose in a vicious rat trap in order to set off the powerful blade.

If you have not seen this effective but simple stunt it looks extremely dangerous. Most magicians use specialist props for their dangerous illusions ranging from guillotines, to powersaws going through thin boxes. The problem with this is that though they look great, the audience knows that most households do not have a guillotine lying around. They suspect the equipment is gaffed and so the tension in the performance is minimal.

A rat trap though is a familiar item. It is larger version of a mouse trap. When demostrated before an audience the blade is pulled up and the trigger switch is inserted into the bait plate. I demonstrate the force of the blade by seting the trap off with a plastic teaspoon. The teaspoon is shattered into several pieces by the smash of the powerful spring loaded blade. the audience gasps and it is genuinely scary.

It's when a volunteer is bought out and you set the trap up again that the danger really kicks in. My guest in Cyprus was quite certain that there was no way I was going to damage a VIP, but the fear in his eyes was priceless. He watched all my moves carefully and could not see how he was going to avoid the trap going off in his face. The audience loved it and the tension and the comedy maxed out leading to a perfect climate to the show.

Want to know what happens with the rat trap? Check out the e-book How to do Gospel Magic for instructions at www.gospelemagic.com

Enjoy

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