Tag: pinnacle

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.

No Contact Roving Magic…

It’s a strange world we’re working in. I was just hired to do roving magic, and in a pre-covid world that’s not strange, however it is in the covid world. That means I need to on some no-contact close up magic. The booker wants something that resembles traditional roving, not small “street style” shows, so I will be working out of my pockets with no table or sound system.

Before you get on me about working during the pandemic, there’s a few things I feel I should mention. Way back in March when cities and states first started putting in regulations I decided that I was going to go by what the local health department where the venue is located says is OK (read the post here). Doing a live, in person show is allowed where the venue is located, and there are some restrictions that I’ll have to follow. I’m not required to do a no contact, however that’s what I’m planning on doing.

Looking at the restrictions, I can still do a lot of my normal roving set that is kept in my pockets. However I need to work on a couple things to add to my normal set. I’m going to add some rubber band tricks. They are small, but can play from a short distance. I’ve done rubber band tricks in the past, so putting them back in isn’t too hard.

The one trick I’m adding is ring on rubber band. In the past I’ve played with the one in Michael Ammar’s book, as well as the one in Thomas Blomberg’s book. I just downloaded Pinnacle by Russ Niedzwiecki and have Pi: Ring on Band by Michael Scanzello on it’s way to me. I think I can put together a workable sequence, it just needs to be a few phase. This is more to have as filler if I need to add some time to a set.