Tag: magic joke writing

Writing for Ring and Rubber Band…

In yesterday’s blog post I started writing about putting together a script for the Ring on Rubber Band routine that I’m working on. We’re really starting at nothing and trying to come up with something to say, otherwise the routine is 12 seconds long.

Let’s start by making some associations to the props.

Ring:
-wedding
-fashion
-circle
-gold
-marriage
-expensive
-cheap

Rubber Band
-office supply
-latex (or not latex)
-holds things together
-yellow (or whatever color it is)
-rubber band gun
-circle
-snap

Using that list, how about I introduce the props by saying, “a ring which represents the 18 years I’ve been married and the a rubber band which memorializes the one time I bought broccoli (asparagus?)” I think I prefer saying “bought broccoli” as the alliteration sound funnier in my head.

Let’s keep writing and see what comes up:

“Just like congress, this rubber band has two sides, a left side and tea party”

“I will push the ring through each side of the rubber band defying the restraining order from the laws of physics.”

“This trick is even more dangerous once you know that I have a latex allergy.”

“The best part is that I can write off my wedding on my taxes”

“The rubber band will jump through the ring like a tiger through a flaming hoop in the circus”

“Through one side…that’s the easy side. It’s the bunny slope of the rubber band. The second side is the double black diamond. Three men have died trying this, but they all had latex allergies.”

“Beyonce’s favorite trick”
Do the hand dance move from the Put a Ring on it Song

“This is probably the most expensive trick I do. The rubber band cost me 37 cents, but the ring cost me half of everything I own.”

“I tried to do this with the governor’s ring, but they escorted me out saying I had to have an appointment”

“I showed this trick to Pete Rose and when I told him what was going to happen he said, “I BET you can’t do that”…”

For the quick little writing session, I wrote down everything I thought of. I didn’t censor any ideas because I thought they were bad. Bad ideas may lead to a good idea, so they stay. Obviously I won’t use all of the jokes and I’ll have to arrange them into an order that makes sense. That’s a job for tomorrow.

Ring on Rubber Band…

The trick I’m working on is Ring on Rubber Band. I’ve got the technical end of Russ Niedzwiecki’s Pinnacle routine figure out. I had to make some adaptions to how he handle the ring and band. In Russ’s routine he holds the ring and band at belly button height. I want to move it up closer to my face, so a couple of the hand positions needed to be tweaked.

Now that I can technically do the routine, I need to figure out what to say. One way to do this is start by writing what you have to say, then figuring out how to make it funny. Here’s what I need to say and the important actions that accompany them:

"I've got a ring and a rubber band."

Show ring in right hand and rubber band looped around the index finger and thumb of your left hand. 

"The ring will pass through each side of the rubber band, one side at a time.  The pass back through each side of the band"

Ring passes through each side to have the rubber band in the middle  of it, then passes back through to be completely free of the rubber band

There’s really not much to say right now, and it’s clear to me that the routine needs a presentational hook, and some sort of ending. That may be a joke at the end, but simply going onto the rubber band and then off lacks an ending.

In tomorrow’s post I’ll start to write some things to say.