More Ring on Rubber Band…

Continuing the last few days work on to the hopefully have a working Ring on Rubber Band trick, I’ve tweaked some of the jokes a little bit. I changed some of the punchlines and streamlined the script to tighten it up.


“This is the most expensive trick I do. The rubber band cost me 37 cents, but the ring cost me half of everything I own. The ring represents the 18 years I’ve been married and the a rubber band which memorializes the one time I bought broccoli just to let it rot in the crisper”

Show ring and rubber band. The rubber band is around your left index and thumb. Point to the sides of the rubber band as you say:

“This rubber band has two sides, just like congress…the Senate and the deep state.”

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


Push the ring through the first side of the rubber band

“Through one side, that’s the easy side. It’s the bunny slope of the rubber band. The second side is the most difficult, it’s the Mount Everest of Magic. Three men have died trying this next part, but they all had preexisting conditions…and latex allergies.”

Push the ring through the second side of the rubber band.

“Like Coachella, we’ll take it off one band at a time.”

Pull the ring off the rubber band one side at a time.

“and that’s how I wrote my wedding off on my taxes!”


The script is a bit better. I’m not happy with the the “Coachella” line between the on and off phases. Right now that’s a place holder for something better.

The hard thing about right now with COVID restrictions is that I can’t just go out to a bar and try it out and get feedback from real people. The trying and tweaking phase is much clunkier and time consuming.

Revising a Script…

Today is an extension of yesterday’s post. I’m working on a script for my Polaroids to Envelope trick. I’ve build upon the yesterday’s script and fleshed out the hook a little bit more. Here’s the script as of this morning:

This is some of the most important stuff in the world to my wife and I. These are Polaroids of our pets and our daughter.

We have Talia who is a dog. She’s a Lhasa Apso which is means food vaccum.  Talia’s favorite things are belly rubs, long walks and playing call of duty…and we don’t even own an xbox.

Then there’s Taco Tuesday who is a cat.  He’s loves cheese, milk and pineapple on pizza.  Which is how you know he’s a rescue.

And finally we have loucy who is a rat, she loves bossing around the dog and cat. We’ve got a reverse Tom and Jerry situation.

Here’s a common day at the home, when I’m home…I turn on the vacuum turn on and Talia disappears!

Of course you’ll always find her in Ella’s Room…Her extremely messy room.

Then when the UPS guy knocks on the door, Taco Tuesday will won’t be found.

You’ll find him hours later buried under the blankets on Ella’s bed.  A bed that I asked ella to make two years ago.

Later in the day when I go to feed loucy, she’s totally gone!

Of course she hasn’t been there for hours, she’s been hanging out on Ellas desk…distracting her from doing home work.  Ella calls it “proRATstinating”

And that’s a normal day at home!

I need to go back and make a lot of the punchlines stronger. I also need to start doing the trick while saying the lines. That will help me rewrite what doesn’t flow naturally from my mouth. Still more work to be done, but the trick is making progress!

Writing for the Vanishing Bird Cage…

Yesterday I was doing some writing for the routine for the vanishing bird cage. The basic flow of the routine is the box is introduced, the cage vanishes and the bird reappears in my pocket. Here’s the first rough script that I wrote: When I was a 7 years old, I wanted a pet bird … Continue reading “Writing for the Vanishing Bird Cage…”

Yesterday I was doing some writing for the routine for the vanishing bird cage. The basic flow of the routine is the box is introduced, the cage vanishes and the bird reappears in my pocket.

Here’s the first rough script that I wrote:

When I was a 7 years old, I wanted a pet bird more than anything…even more than a pet tyranosaurs.  Turns out my brother is allergic to birds, so my mom got me a rubber canary. One the plus side his cage is clean, on the minus side I’ll probably die in a coal mine.  I also learned I’m allergic to latex. 

He’s trained to do tricks.  Stay…incredible. Freeze…amazing.  Play dead (shake cage)…tah-dah!

Most amazing trick he does is jump up, eat the cage,then fly into my left pocket, which is amazing because everyone knows canaries are right handed. 

Drum roll…One Two Three 

OK, the above isn’t the worlds greatest routine, but it’s a start. Then I just wrote some random jokes for it:

This cage is made of reinforced suitable for holding pretend animals and despot rulers. 

The cage looked soo much bigger on the ebay listing

You can’t spell PETA without pet.  

The decline in this tricks popularity corresponds with the decline of coal miners.

Display at a coal mine supply shop

I like the “despot ruler” joke, however I don’t think it will get a big laugh.


Next I tried writing the script again with a slightly different approach:

This is the only trick in the show that I didn’t invent, so it’s the best one in the show.   It was invented in a magician in the 1800’s named Dekolta. He was famous for making his wife disappear…he also held the guinness world record for most number of marriages.  

He’d take a cage with a canary and make it disappear.  This is the actual cage he used, and inside is the actual canary he used…according to ebay.  

Unfortunately this trick is copyrighted by the magician’s guild and I can’t show it to you.  So I’ll do it undercover of a handkerchief.

It happens quick.  1, 2, 3

What I don’t like about the above trick is that I’m telling them about a trick that someone else did. I should really be telling them something about me, or what’s happening now, not two hundred years ago.

I gave the script another try with another approach.

When I was a teenager I went to magic camp…I know, can you believe I turned out this normal.  I got to see Harry Blackstone Jr do a trick with a canary in a cage, I always wanted to do it.

I begged my mom for a canary…I wanted to do the trick more than anything…even more than a a normal social life.  Mom said I wasn’t “responsible” enough for a pet, so she got me a rubber canary. One the plus side his cage is clean, on the minus side I’ll probably die in a coal mine or from my latex allergy.   

This cage was made by my middle school shop teacher / life coach, and is suitable for holding rubber animals and despot rulers. 

His name is frankie, he likes sunflower seeds. 
(put sunflower seed into cage and falls through)

He’s trained to do tricks. (put sunflower seed into cage and falls through) Stay…incredible.  Freeze…amazing. (put sunflower seed into cage and falls through) Play dead (shake cage)…tah-dah! (put sunflower seed into cage and falls through)

Most amazing trick he does is jump up, eat the cage,then fly into my left pocket, which is amazing because everyone knows canaries are right handed.  

Drum roll…One Two Three

I like this script best, as you learn a little bit about me. I think that the feeding the rubber canary is an original bit. There’s still a long way to go, and this probably isn’t what I’ll use, but it’s something.


Hook for Coat Hanger

Right now I’m getting to the writing phase of the Silk thru Coat Hanger trick that I’m working on. The hardest part it to come up with a hook for it. by hook, I mean a presentation hook, not the literal hook. I need to figure out why I’m doing this. So far I have … Continue reading “Hook for Coat Hanger”

Right now I’m getting to the writing phase of the Silk thru Coat Hanger trick that I’m working on. The hardest part it to come up with a hook for it. by hook, I mean a presentation hook, not the literal hook. I need to figure out why I’m doing this.


So far I have a sequence of four moves to do with the silk and coat hanger, that gives me a starting point. One of the moves is similar to the linking ring gag where you show it’s an “optical illusion” with the rings linked, then turn your body 90 degrees and the rings are unlinked. With that used in the routine, I could use the optical illusion angle.


Personally I don’t like using optical illusions as a hook for the routine. Whenever I see someone do it, it feels like they didn’t try to come up with something better. This is probably the biggest challenge for the routine.