More Magicians Jokes Everyone has used
By Tim Shoesmith
Where are you from…I’m sorry…no I heard you the first time I’m just sorry.
So the magician asks his new friend and assistant onto the stage and during the normal comedy banter of asking their name, profession etc, they ask where the person is from.
“Leeds” they reply.
The magician retorts, “sorry”.
The unsuspecting helper repeats themselves, “Leeds”, probably a little louder and with some irritation.
The magician then tops it with, “No I heard it the first time, I’m just sorry!”
Wayne Dobson a very successful and funny magician made this line work consistently but it needs a level of maturity to get it right.
For example if your helper tells you they live in Kensington or Henley on Thames responding with, “I’m sorry” doesn’t really work. Equally well if most of your audience is from Leeds and you respond in this way you are hardly likely to make friends.
This is a permanent marker, it had permanent marker written on the side until it rubbed off.
So many magicians uses it and I’ve never seen it get a laugh. Need to try harder.
Check the ring does it have any holes in it? No except this one!
The magician gives a large ring, ten to twelve inches in diameter, to their spectator and asks them to examine it.
“Can you find any holes in it?” they ask.
“No”, says the helper.
“What about this one”, says the magician pointing to the hole in the middle of the ring.
This does get a good laugh.
I used this for sometime mainly when a small child was on stage, in the hopes that they would point out the hole for themselves. When this happens you get one of those magical moments where the child takes credit for being smart and the audience not only warms to the child but if you play it right they warm to you as well. The laughter could go on for thirty seconds to a minute.
This is a felt pen, I know it’s a felt pen because I just felt it!
I think this was written by a friend of mine called Terry Seabrooke, who died recently. In his hands it was comedy gold but it is too often used by a performer with the wrong comic persona and it gets nothing at all.
The head Shrinker
I often perform the Head Shrinker. It is what we call in the trade ‘a banker’ a wonderful illusion which gets the most amazing reaction and is very easy to do.
Unfortunately it has become so popular now that it has been dropped from my act and many others.
It is a trick for the novice comedy magician! There are a number of reasons why this is not a great trick just an easy fix.
First of all you have to be very careful with your demographic. The younger you are the more you see. If you perform this for a young audience they will see the illusion instantly, however with middle aged people it takes a few seconds before they react and for the older generations they can see nothing at all. At best only seventy percent of your audience will see anything at all, at worst the whole audience looks blank.
The second problem is that your audience need to stare at the rotating disc for thirty seconds which is dead time. A skilled comedian would get through three magicians jokes in the same time. Also it can be difficult to get an audience to concentrate in that way.
It is a beautiful illusion which can generate huge laughs but I think most magicians should move on.
I often talk about the different kinds of shuffles that a magician can use “we have the overhand shuffle, the Hindu shuffle, the rifle shuffle, and the lester shuffle” when you get the response of “what is the letter shuffle?” You respond by handing them half the deck and continue shuffling normally saying “now I have lester shuffle” (less to shuffle)