Dan Sperry - Technical Dove Tosses
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CreativityTranscript
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00:07 I'm B.R. I need help.
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00:30 Hi everyone, I'm Dan Sparry and this is the DVD version of my notes called "Deja Vu, Secrets of Return Flight Training".
00:37 This DVD teaches you how to return flight train your birds and utilize them in your show
00:43 using sleeve toss techniques and other tossing techniques for having your birds fly out
00:48 and come back to you or come back to a table, a perch, whatever you like.
00:54 Sleeve tossing and return flight, as far as magic goes, really started with Shimada.
01:00 He was kind of the first magician to ever really do that.
01:03 Since him, other guys like Tim Starr have taken it and utilized animal training methods
01:08 into training the birds to come back.
01:11 But really, bird training has been around for a long time and magicians have really started to begin to use these
01:17 techniques in their acts to get birds to fly back, get birds to go to different props.
01:23 Not just birds, other animals as well.
01:26 You're probably also wondering why would you want to use return flight training
01:30 if you're not necessarily going to be sleeve tossing.
01:33 I think this is a great way for you to establish a connection and a bond with your doves.
01:39 A lot of guys will tell you you need to work with your birds every day.
01:42 Well, what does that mean and what can that do?
01:44 Well, that establishes, like I said, a connection.
01:46 You become the safe place as far as the birds will begin to trust you.
01:50 This way of having a training regimen with your birds will turn you into more than just the owner
01:58 or the guy who feeds them.
02:00 You're going to notice, you're going to pick up on the individual personalities of these birds
02:04 as you're training them and you'll establish a connection with them
02:07 and get to know them not just as pets, not just props, but as living, breathing creatures
02:13 who are just as important in your show as you are.
02:17 One thing that we should point out right away is that return flight training is not 100%.
02:23 Animals, I mean, these guys, look, their heads are this big, their brains are that big.
02:28 They're going to do what they want when they want.
02:30 I don't care what anybody else says.
02:32 I have yet to find a way that is 100% accurate.
02:36 This method just happens to be my method that I found that has worked out best for me
02:41 and it has been very successful.
02:43 Out of all the other methods I've trained, this has just kind of become my own little mixed bag
02:48 of training methods.
02:50 This is what I came up with that works good for me and that's why I'm sharing it with you right now.
02:53 Whether you're going to be actually sleeve tossing in stage performances
02:56 or just tossing a bird after a production, just giving them a nice little toss,
03:00 just as a nice flourish, or just, like I said before, just using this to establish a way
03:07 to make a connection with your birds and training them, whether they're new birds, old birds,
03:12 it doesn't matter.
03:13 This is a great program to use for your doves, no matter how you get them or when you get them.
03:18 I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have success with it, as I have.
03:22 And with that said, let's get started.
03:25 Okay, right now we're going to talk about what you need to get set up
03:33 before you get started with the actual training process.
03:36 This is a version of a behavior modification is really what it all boils down to.
03:41 It's behavior modification using a reward system and that reward system is food.
03:45 We're not going to starve the birds, we're just merely making them hungry
03:48 and getting them on a feeding schedule.
03:50 Kind of basically they're going on a diet.
03:53 Feeding schedules are common with any kind of animal.
03:57 I know dog trainers, pet owners of all walks of life that use a feeding schedule
04:02 and behavior modification basically.
04:06 You're feeding the birds or the animal from one location specifically at this certain time of the day
04:14 and they're only eating for this amount of time and they're only getting this much food.
04:19 Basically that's what it boils down to.
04:21 It's a behavior modification training method.
04:23 What you're going to be is you become the food dish for 10 minutes a day
04:29 at a specific time of the day.
04:31 This way, like I said, we're not starving the birds, we're just conditioning them
04:35 and modifying their behavior to know that they're only going to be eating at this time of the day
04:41 and the food is only going to be coming from you.
04:44 Now in this training process, I always train in pairs.
04:47 This is because I have discovered that a sort of jealousy will form between the two birds
04:55 in the actual steps to the return flight training.
04:58 So I recommend using two birds at a time when you're training.
05:02 The birds can be any age, it doesn't matter.
05:04 So you have your two birds and you will need to set them aside in a separate cage.
05:08 You'll notice this is how I have my birds set up.
05:10 I set them up in pairs.
05:12 Your setup might be different, but when you have chosen the two birds that you want to start training with,
05:18 you're going to need to set them up in a separate cage
05:21 because depending on how you feed the other birds,
05:25 you're not going to want them to be able to have access to the food at all,
05:28 even meager table scraps.
05:31 So these birds are going to be set up separately.
05:33 I even put them in another room where I set up a divider so they can't even see the other birds eating
05:38 because it kind of breaks my heart to see these other guys eat and they're stuck going, "What's going on? We're hungry."
05:43 So that's what you're going to want to set up.
05:45 The first step of that is you're going to basically need to pick a -- set aside a couple weeks to work on this
05:51 because every bird will develop differently.
05:54 I'm not really sure how this is all going to turn out or pan out with the doves that I've chosen,
05:58 but this is all -- it's going to be different for you, it's going to be different for me,
06:02 it's going to be different from when I start training again in a couple months,
06:06 when I train the next couple birds.
06:09 It's just all going to depend on the bird.
06:13 So set up a time frame of a couple weeks where you can devote 10 to 15 minutes a day, every day at a specific time.
06:20 What you're going to want to do is don't feed the birds for about 24 hours, at least 24 hours.
06:24 Don't be stupid. Don't starve them. Give them 24 hours without food.
06:29 And the first step is day one is you're going to have the food in a little cup in your hand.
06:34 What I use is a one-cup measuring cup, plastic cup that you get at the dollar store.
06:38 Basically you just hold it in your hand.
06:40 You put one bird on your hand, and you set another bird a couple feet away on a perch,
06:44 and you just let the first bird eat.
06:46 This bird will become curious and will establish jealousy and want to jump to your hand.
06:50 When that happens, you put bird A away when bird B jumps to your hand, and you just swap back and forth.
06:57 That's day one. Day two, you start getting farther and farther away.
07:02 And by about day two or three, you want to see them start jumping.
07:05 You want them to start taking flight to get to the food, because by day two, day three, they're actually going to be pretty hungry.
07:11 Day one, you're probably not going to see much progress.
07:16 They're not going to respond. This is going to be a new source of food.
07:18 They're not going to be too sure about it.
07:20 It's just going to all boil down to the mentality of the bird.
07:27 "My no means" is what we're going to experience when I train.
07:30 It's going to be the same with you, like I said.
07:33 Over the course of the training time, you're going to be separating them farther and farther,
07:37 getting them used to flying to you, getting them used to seeing you like this,
07:40 with the dish that will actually be camouflaged behind your hand.
07:43 This is what you want them to fly back to, because in performance, you're going to be holding your hand out,
07:48 and you want them to know that your hand is going to be a safe place to perch.
07:52 Now, within the first couple days, by about day three,
07:57 you should be able to start giving your birds a little bit of a toss, a little bit of a let go,
08:01 and have them turn around and fly back to you.
08:03 This is going to train them to go out, come back, and fly to your hand,
08:09 because they're so hungry that this is going to become a safe place, and this is the source of food.
08:15 This is the only source of food.
08:16 It's really sounding kind of cruel, but like I said, we're not starving them.
08:23 This is in no way any type of cruel behavior.
08:28 This is just you're establishing a feeding schedule.
08:31 And it's imagine if you skip the meal, and then you wait later.
08:38 That's really kind of what it is.
08:41 I'm not telling you to starve your birds or do any sort of harm to them like that.
08:45 So within a couple days, you should be able to be tossing them, having them turn around and come back.
08:52 And slowly, you'll start to develop the ability to toss them out farther and farther,
08:57 and have them turn around and come back.
08:59 Now, the training environment that I'm going to show you is backstage at the World's Greatest Magic Show.
09:03 I've been training birds back there, and there's all sorts of distractions.
09:07 And that's kind of how I wanted to train them,
09:10 because you never know what your performing situation is going to be.
09:13 So this way, they always will see you, like I said, as the safe place.
09:17 It always comes back to the safe place, and this then comes back to you establishing, again, that connection with the bird.
09:24 You can literally get to be able to toss them in pretty much any condition,
09:29 given everything works out and the bird decides that's what he wants to do.
09:34 I really feel that in no way if you toss a bird and it doesn't come back,
09:38 I don't think that reflects on the magician as the magician being unprofessional.
09:41 I think that just reflects that that's a live animal and he's going to do what he wants, whenever he wants.
09:46 I say that all the time, and in no way is it a reflection of the magician and his commitment to his art.
09:53 So what you'll see next in the next section of the DVD is me, over the course of time,
09:59 training the birds on a daily basis and getting them to the point of where they're going to actually be performing
10:06 in my act in the World's Greatest Magic Show one night when I feel that they've reached a level of consistency.
10:13 Now what do you mean, you're probably asking, "What do I mean by level of consistency?"
10:17 I'm saying that when you're tossing them out, you know, five, six, eight maybe feet that you're tossing them,
10:22 they're coming back and they're looking right at you. That's what's important.
10:25 You want the birds to, when they come back, be focused on your hand or on wherever you want them to land once you've tossed them out.
10:34 A lot of times some birds will turn and they'll be looking around and it'll take them a little bit to focus on your hand.
10:41 You want to see them turn and focus right on your hand and that's when you start to know that they know what they're doing.
10:46 Now doves will only stay trained based on repetition. You need to keep repeating this on a daily basis.
10:52 Once the food training is done, you can then go back to feeding them with the rest of the doves.
10:57 However, it is important that you still work with the birds every single day, tossing them and having them return to you.
11:03 Otherwise they will forget.
11:05 Another thing I should mention really quick is you're going to want to mark the birds because you can easily get them mixed up with the other ones
11:11 and you don't want to be tossing an untrained bird.
11:14 I train my bird, I train, excuse me, I mark my trained birds with leg bands.
11:19 And they're just little plastic bands that go around their wrists. It's almost like a little toy slap bracelet.
11:24 You just kind of fold it and it just gets coiled around and it's really no big deal.
11:29 They don't even notice it's there. It's lightweight, it doesn't harm them and they just go on with their whatever it is doves do.
11:37 So I did mention about the seed. So I'm going to go and grab some seed real quick, show you how I set up the seed and we'll be right back.
11:46 Hey mommy, you sexy. Hey mommy, you sexy. Hey mommy, you sexy. Hey mommy, you beautiful.
11:53 Hey mommy, you sexy. Hey mommy, you sexy. Hey mommy, you sexy. Hey, can I get that number?
12:00 Alright, we're back and I'm just going to talk really quick about the seed that I use and a couple of other things.
12:06 One thing I should point out real quick that's important to get is vitamins.
12:09 I use Blair's Super Cream for my vitamins for my birds and this is important because since you aren't going to be training them,
12:16 it's just like working out like an athlete. You're going to want to be able to give your birds vitamins.
12:20 You should be giving your birds vitamins anyways.
12:22 But this is just a little powder form that I sprinkle on top of the food and it's served me really well.
12:27 It's called Blair's Super Cream. You can find it online. You can find it at the local pet store probably.
12:32 Or maybe your veterinarian can order it for you. But this stuff is great. I highly recommend that.
12:37 Now the seed that I get is basically it's Dove Mix. It's a KT brand Dove Mix that you can get from any local pet store.
12:45 It's usually in the wild bird seed section of the store.
12:49 And what I do is I get it and I put it in a large container just like this.
12:54 As you can see, I probably need to go shopping and get some more.
12:57 But I stick it in a large container like this because this keeps it fresh.
13:00 There's a little scoop in there and everything. That's just the Dove Seed that I get.
13:04 A lot of times guys will tell you that you've got to get a special mix and everything like that.
13:07 I used to do that but this has just become more convenient and this is what I wean my birds onto.
13:12 And I honestly have not seen any difference than the old stuff that I used to get mixed compared to this.
13:18 This is what I use to train them to return and come back because this is what they're used to eating.
13:23 One thing that I will change sometimes is to kind of instill, again, not just jealousy,
13:28 but just instill something a little extra, I guess, for lack of a better term.
13:35 I'll mix in some parakeet or cockatiel seed because it's a fruitier seed.
13:41 It's got a scent to it.
13:43 Those of you who have parakeets or cockatiels, you know that the little seed mix actually has a fruity smell to it.
13:49 And I want to use that to kind of attract the Dove's attention because those of you who have Doves know they get easily distracted.
13:57 So that's the Dove seed that you're going to want to use right now.
14:00 We're going to move right along into the training process.
14:03 As you can tell, I'm moving real quick in this DVD.
14:06 This is mainly a DVD for those of you that already have Doves, already familiar with Doves.
14:11 If you're not, if you're just a beginner, this might not be the DVD for you.
14:14 Sorry to tell you that now that you bought it.
14:16 But hang on to it because it might be a good reference later on.
14:20 But please don't just make this be the last DVD that you buy.
14:24 This is not the final answer. This is not in any way the only right way to train your birds.
14:29 Be sure to check out every other DVD, book, manuscript, lecture notes, anything like that that you can find.
14:36 Dove magic is an important, just like all aspects of magic, but Dove magic is really important that you really research in every way, shape, and form that you can.
14:47 Because there's a lot of information out there. There's a lot of great Dove magicians out there.
14:50 Even guys who don't do Dovex anymore, who have gone on to do other bigger, better things,
14:55 they might even have some knowledge for you if you ever run into them at a convention or anything like that.
15:00 So please, by all means, don't just stop here.
15:02 Continue to research return techniques as well as other Dove effects in general.
15:07 So real quick, I just want to say thanks for buying this DVD.
15:11 I really do appreciate it. I hope you like it. I hope you have fun with it.
15:15 And let's rock and roll.
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32:02 Alright, so here's how you do the Dove and Balloon.
32:04 You need a couple things.
32:06 You're gonna need
32:08 your jacket, number one,
32:10 to be altered
32:12 in the sleeve.
32:14 What happens is, in order to fit the bird
32:16 in your sleeve, first of all, you need to have your sleeves
32:18 made bigger. Go to a tailor, a seamstress,
32:20 someone who's worked with that
32:22 kind of thing before, altering jackets, that type of
32:24 thing. What you're gonna want is you're gonna need
32:26 to have a piece of material
32:28 that's shaped like a V added to
32:30 your sleeve. So what they're gonna do is
32:32 they're gonna cut a slit in your sleeve
32:34 and extend it, like so.
32:36 So there's gonna be a piece of material that runs
32:38 in this V shape all the way
32:40 back to your elbow. This allows
32:42 a kind of tapered,
32:44 cone-esque shape to be made out of
32:46 your sleeve in order for the bird to fit inside.
32:48 Don't make it too drastic. It'll be kind of
32:50 obvious that you have these huge
32:52 sleeves. So what you're gonna want
32:54 is to have the material made out of
32:56 the same material of
32:58 your jacket. That way it'll also be
33:00 camouflaged better. And you want it
33:02 on the inside, not on the outside, because then it
33:04 looks like you've got this weird patch going on
33:06 on your sleeve. The
33:08 circumference of the opening of the sleeve,
33:10 depending on your bird
33:12 and the size of your bird's mind, is
33:14 about 14 1/2 - 15 inches
33:16 all the way around. And
33:18 the piece of material, I'm looking
33:20 at it right now, is about
33:22 2 inches. And
33:24 of course this slowly tapers to a point
33:26 at my elbow, which is about right here.
33:28 Okay. So now that
33:30 you have the seamstress or the tailor
33:32 alter your sleeve and make it bigger,
33:34 this allows the bird to easily slide
33:36 out with as little and minimal
33:38 effort as possible when you make the
33:40 tossing motion. So the inertia will carry
33:42 the bird out of your sleeve.
33:44 The next step that's very important, that's my
33:46 little secret, my little touch on this, is to
33:48 actually have the lining that's inside
33:50 the sleeve cinched up at the elbow.
33:52 So
33:54 this way, because with a lot of sleeves,
33:56 there's just kind of loose fabric on the inside.
33:58 You don't want this because
34:00 that can get in the way of the bird coming out. Their
34:02 toenails can sometimes get caught in it if they're
34:04 not manicured or filed down enough.
34:06 So what you're going to want to do is add
34:08 that little touch as well.
34:10 Have them cinch it up at the elbow
34:12 as they're adding this material in.
34:14 Have the slick lining
34:16 on the inside, which is usually like a satiny type
34:18 material. You're going to want that cinched up
34:20 and pulled tight so your sleeve
34:22 essentially becomes just a tight
34:24 tube. And
34:26 that way there's less resistance, less
34:28 fabric for the bird to get caught up in
34:30 when it's coming out. This will benefit
34:32 you when you're making any
34:34 type of tossing motion so the bird doesn't
34:36 get caught up in this fabric
34:38 as it's trying to make its way
34:40 out of the sleeve. Lastly,
34:42 you may want to have either snaps or
34:44 Velcro put in the opening.
34:46 I have a little, little tiny snap
34:48 that I can snap shut
34:50 just like this
34:52 if I need to. This way
34:54 you really should have a shirt sleeve or something like
34:56 that to hide the bird. As you saw in the examples,
34:58 I wasn't wearing my ruffled shirt like
35:00 I'm wearing right now, just a t-shirt.
35:02 But usually your sleeve will help
35:04 hide that. Sometimes folks will put
35:06 a little ruffle that matches your shirt
35:08 on the inside to
35:10 stay ruffled in front and help
35:12 hide the bird as well. This is totally up to you.
35:14 Just make sure that the ruffle in your sleeve is the same
35:16 color as the shirt you're wearing. Otherwise
35:18 it looks kind of odd.
35:20 That's just my opinion.
35:22 Basically all it is
35:24 is it's a ruffle kind of
35:26 I don't want to call it a doily, but it's
35:28 kind of a ruffly garter belt
35:30 almost looking material that you can get at
35:32 any fabric store. It comes in the roll.
35:34 You just have the seamstress or tailor again
35:36 line that around the opening of your sleeve
35:38 and that will just kind of ruffle in front
35:40 and help hide the bird as well.
35:42 The snap or the Velcro, totally up to you.
35:44 I actually happen to have Velcro on this side
35:46 right here and I have
35:48 a snap on this side. It's depending on
35:50 what your needs are.
35:52 Whatever works for you. This sleeve
35:54 I actually load at the very last minute
35:56 so I just have Velcro on it so I don't
35:58 even have to really search for it. Like this
36:00 I kind of have to search to find the snap and
36:02 match it up to get it to snap shut with the Velcro.
36:04 All I have to do is just do that
36:06 and we're good to go.
36:08 That's totally up to you. As far as the Velcro goes
36:10 it's just the two little squares
36:12 I have two little squares cut and sewn
36:14 to the inside so I just have to pinch
36:16 and that's it.
36:18 The snap is just the tiny little baby snaps that you can buy
36:20 I think you get a pack of ten of them
36:22 maybe even twenty for like a dollar or something
36:24 like that that's just sewn on the inside
36:26 just like that.
36:28 All it takes is just a little swipe
36:30 and it pops open. So that's what you need
36:32 to do to alter the jacket.
36:34 Now for the accessories that you need
36:36 to start off with a Duffman balloon
36:38 you're going to need some balloons
36:40 these are 9 inch
36:42 helium quality balloons. You can go with 12 inch
36:44 it doesn't really matter. It's whatever you want.
36:46 So you get your balloons
36:48 preferably the balloon to be the same
36:50 color as the bird. Since I had a
36:52 yellowish bird
36:54 I need a dye on it.
36:56 I used a yellow balloon.
36:58 You need that. You will need
37:00 a silk
37:02 24 inch silk, handkerchief
37:04 whatever color you like
37:06 and a safety pin.
37:08 I've
37:10 altered the safety pin a little bit because I'm going to show
37:12 you exactly what you need to do to the handkerchief
37:14 because you're going to need to gimmick up your handkerchief
37:16 a little bit to help pop the balloon.
37:18 So I'm going to show you that right now.
37:20 Okay we're going to gimmick up the handkerchief right now.
37:22 What I've done is this is a
37:24 24 inch handkerchief. One end I've taken
37:26 some gaff tape as you can see
37:28 and gaff taped it around the end. This gives me
37:30 a nice little tab to hold onto.
37:32 Simple enough. On the opposite
37:34 corner I've tied a knot as
37:36 you can see.
37:38 I then took a jumbo safety
37:40 pin, removed one of the little tips
37:42 and I'm left with something
37:44 like this.
37:46 So this basically becomes my
37:48 point that I'm going to use
37:50 to pop the balloon
37:52 when I snap the silk.
37:54 So
37:56 next step
37:58 is to take your knotted end
38:00 and
38:02 it works better if you have a
38:04 newer silk.
38:06 You're going to take this
38:08 and thread it through
38:10 like so.
38:12 Now
38:14 these two ends, obviously this is a sharper end
38:16 and this is the duller end
38:18 from underneath the little hook
38:20 or clasp, whatever you want to call it, head of the safety pin.
38:22 It doesn't matter, it can still pop
38:24 the balloon. So now you have
38:26 this crazy medieval looking
38:28 thing at the end of
38:30 your silk. Let me just straighten this
38:32 out a little bit more.
38:34 Okay.
38:36 You want this to kind of rotate
38:38 to the outside
38:40 like
38:42 that. So that's
38:44 your end of the silk that you're going to use to snap
38:46 and pop the balloon
38:48 as it's up in the air.
38:50 And that's really all the
38:52 preset you need for this.
38:54 You have this on one end and
38:56 your little gaff tape on the other. It doesn't have to be gaff tape,
38:58 it can be black electrical tape, but you know,
39:00 whatever you want. So that's what you need.
39:02 Okay, so now that you have
39:04 your silk gimmicked with the little pin on the
39:06 end, you're ready to start practicing
39:08 popping the balloon. Now this, as you can see
39:10 in the video with the outtakes,
39:12 you can see that this is going to take some practice.
39:14 It's going to take you some time
39:16 getting the knack of it down and actually popping the balloon.
39:18 You're going to want to
39:20 take your balloon and blow it up
39:22 as tight as it will go. The reason I'm
39:24 using 9 inch balloons is because they're smaller,
39:26 less time needed to
39:28 actually blow it up. If you have a 12 inch balloon, you're
39:30 sitting there, you're blowing, you're blowing, you're blowing, you look kind of stupid,
39:32 you're just blowing up a balloon. I kind of like
39:34 the idea of let's get on with it, let's make this happen.
39:36 So you have the balloon in
39:38 whatever, wherever you
39:40 want it. You produce your silk
39:42 your favorite method. I'm just going to first
39:44 show you this without the bird in my sleeve because
39:46 I don't want to exhaust my bird
39:48 showing you this and
39:50 you already know where he's coming from so what's
39:52 the big deal.
39:54 I will show it to you again later though so
39:56 relax.
39:58 Produce the silk your favorite method.
40:00 Drape it over your shoulder
40:02 and get out your balloon.
40:04 You blow it up.
40:06 Perfect.
40:08 Pretty much as high as it will go
40:10 so that way even the slightest
40:12 graze of the needle will cause the balloon to pop.
40:14 So you have the balloon
40:16 blown up as high as it will go.
40:18 You remove your handkerchief
40:20 and all you do is you toss the balloon in the air.
40:22 When the balloon gets
40:24 just about at chest level is when you want to
40:26 pop it. This will hide the bird
40:28 coming out of your sleeve a little bit better and
40:30 will really visually
40:32 pop it.
40:34 It will really visually
40:36 make it look like the bird came out of the balloon.
40:38 Especially to the audience
40:40 right in front of you. When it's in front of you like this
40:42 and all of a sudden this bird is flying out at him.
40:44 They have no idea as far as distance where it's
40:46 coming from and it looks really killer.
40:48 So you toss the balloon up in the air
40:50 wait for it to come down
40:52 and you pop it.
40:54 That's it.
40:56 Now like I said it's going to take you some practice
40:58 to try and get this down so just sit around
41:00 and you're living with popping balloons.
41:02 Practice, practice, practice, practice.
41:04 It is going to be
41:06 slightly different once you actually
41:08 stuff the bird in your sleeve.
41:10 It has a different feel to it.
41:12 Everything is different once the bird is involved.
41:14 So what you might want to do is actually
41:16 take some tube socks like gym socks
41:18 roll it into a cylinder
41:20 shape about the size of the dove
41:22 and stuff it with some change, some batteries
41:24 to give it some weight and actually use that
41:26 as the dummy bird that you're going to be tossing.
41:28 Stuff your sleeve with the sock
41:30 and just practice this side arm motion.
41:32 Because that's what
41:34 causes the bird to actually come out of your sleeve
41:36 is this inertia of
41:38 your arm coming across.
41:40 So the bird is inside and the inertia is going to carry the bird
41:42 out and in front of you.
41:44 You don't want to come all the way around or your bird is going to end up
41:46 way over there. You want to come out
41:48 in front and stop. Almost like
41:50 if you're familiar with
41:52 karate or anything like that you're going to want to come
41:54 and stop but allow the silk to
41:56 snap like a whip.
41:58 So you don't necessarily have to twirl it
42:00 but it's just like snapping a towel
42:02 snapping somebody with a towel in the locker room.
42:04 You just come out and
42:06 aim for the balloon as best you can.
42:08 So this inertia is going to carry the bird
42:10 out of your sleeve and to the audience it
42:12 looks like it comes right out of the balloon.
42:14 A couple quick things. This idea
42:16 actually came from Andy Amix
42:18 had originally come up with the
42:20 duffin balloon idea like this except that
42:22 he did it with a thumb tip with a thumb
42:24 tap on it. I tried it
42:26 in the outtakes as you can see.
42:28 I just found it a little hard to try and tie the balloon
42:30 with it on. Even trying to steal it
42:32 from somewhere. I just prefer
42:34 this. It's just a little bit cleaner.
42:36 As you saw in the video Jason Bainey
42:38 helped me kind of come up with a couple different ways
42:40 of setting up the pin. I had
42:42 originally just a tiny little pin sticking
42:44 out of here but we added
42:46 this medieval
42:48 looking contraption to
42:50 give you more of a
42:52 puncturable
42:54 measuring device.
42:56 Whatever you want to call it.
42:58 To help pop the balloon a little bit better.
43:00 So quick thank yous and credits to those guys
43:02 for helping me out with this.
43:04 The one thing about this though
43:06 is having
43:08 this gimmick. It's kind of hard
43:10 to, especially as you saw with me with all this
43:12 junk hanging off my jacket, it's kind of hard to
43:14 produce it from somewhere without it getting caught
43:16 on things.
43:18 Right, as now it won't get caught.
43:20 So it's kind of hard to manipulate.
43:22 It's up to you. Try it with both.
43:24 Popping it with the thumb tip or with
43:26 the pin on the end of the silk.
43:28 Give it a try, it's up to you.
43:30 But just sit around your living room and just practice
43:32 popping balloons. Just get a bag of
43:34 25 at the dollar store.
43:36 And just practice popping balloons, walking around.
43:38 And when you're ready, go ahead and start
43:40 practicing with the bird. You also
43:42 may want to have your bird out and
43:44 around while you're practicing
43:46 this popping motion so that the bird gets used
43:48 to hearing the balloon popping.
43:50 It's not going to be startling to the poor animal
43:52 if it's not used to it. You're just cold turkeys
43:54 sticking it in your sleeve and practicing.
43:56 You don't want to do that.
43:58 So I just have the bird sitting out, practicing
44:00 popping some balloons.
44:02 And that's the dove in balloon
44:04 effect.
44:06 So you have your 24 inch silk,
44:08 your bag of balloons, the same
44:10 color as the bird, preferably.
44:12 You've got your pin gimmick on the end,
44:14 your sleeves widened.
44:16 And right now I'm going to show you
44:18 how to load the bird in your sleeve.
44:20 Because a lot of people
44:22 ask me about that.
44:24 And there's different ways of doing it.
44:26 I'm going to show you how I load mine.
44:28 We're going to go ahead and practice just one little
44:30 quick toss one. So we'll be right back.
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45:06 Alright, so here we have one of my
45:08 return birds that I just trained back here
45:10 backstage at the World's Greatest Magic Show.
45:12 And what I have also is a
45:14 loader device. This is something
45:16 that was originally put up by HandyMX.
45:18 I kind of adapted it and designed my own.
45:20 And this is what I use.
45:22 And basically it's a stiff, hard,
45:24 slick, plastic material.
45:26 A lot of guys use
45:28 postcards, things like that.
45:30 This is something that you can actually buy off my site.
45:32 It's creased in a specific manner
45:34 to help make it more comfortable
45:36 for the dove. And it's cut
45:38 at a certain angle, a certain shape
45:40 to also go with the contour of the dove rather than
45:42 just a straight rectangle. And what this does
45:44 is this allows you to easily and
45:46 swiftly, smoothly load the bird
45:48 into your pocket for invisible harnesses
45:50 and your sleeve for sleeve tossing
45:52 without ruffling the bird's feathers.
45:54 A lot of guys will just kind of grab the bird and
45:56 shove it up in their sleeve and that can mess up
45:58 the bird, make it uncomfortable. This is much
46:00 easier and much slicker if you're backstage
46:02 and ready to go. All you do is you take your bird
46:04 like this, you place it
46:06 inside the loader
46:08 and you wrap it around.
46:10 So now it's become almost like this little sleeping bag
46:12 for him. And
46:14 it's especially easier using a loading device
46:16 if you have your shirt, sleeve, or your ruffles
46:18 in the way. All you do is you just
46:20 slide it in like this.
46:22 You let the loader device open in your
46:24 sleeve. And you just slide it out.
46:26 Just adjust him a little bit and he's good to go.
46:28 That's it. It takes that long.
46:30 Instantaneous, he's comfortable, he's in there
46:32 comfortably. The feathers are not ruffled
46:34 or anything like that and he's ready to
46:36 be produced. Now
46:38 the lighting here is really bad and there's
46:40 plenty of junk in the way so
46:42 I'm going to try just a little sample toss
46:44 just to give you guys an idea. I'll begin with
46:46 the balloon
46:48 snapping motion. Toss your balloon
46:50 in the air, you wind up your silk and you just toss
46:52 him like that. Hey buddy.
46:54 There he is. That was a gentle toss because I didn't
46:56 want him to hit anything. But you can
46:58 really, once you get your dog used to it, you can really
47:00 wind up and see how far he'll go.
47:02 Sometimes the birds will get a little
47:04 confused trying to come back, especially if they can't
47:06 see you. Or if you've thrown them out too
47:08 far, they might think you're too far
47:10 away, they can't make it. You never
47:12 know the idiosyncrasies of these guys.
47:14 But really practice
47:16 just launching that sucker out there
47:18 because it looks even better to have that bird
47:20 come right at him and have him come
47:22 back to you. It can really be
47:24 a stunning production.
47:26 If I didn't have all my
47:28 if I wasn't loaded with 10 birds
47:30 I would definitely add the balloon
47:32 to my act. So please
47:34 use it, check it out. Again, thanks to Andy Yavicks
47:36 and Jason Bainey for their little
47:38 input on that.
47:40 Hope you guys enjoy.
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49:32 Okay, here's how to do the dove from Dove Silk effect.
49:36 This is something I just threw on there just to show you that you don't always have to use an actual sleeve toss with the bird coming out of your sleeve.
49:42 You can actually, like I said in the beginning, just use him as a little flourish bird to kind of go out and come back,
49:48 depending on what kind of production you're using.
49:50 Even as you saw with the first tosses, I never, as far as the first toss of using the bird in the show, I never threw him out of my sleeve.
49:56 It was always after you appeared on the fan, I would take him and just kind of toss him out and let him come back as a flourish.
50:02 So this little dove from Dove Silk thing is something I came up with just to put on here, just to illustrate that point.
50:07 So feel free to use it. It's kind of neat.
50:11 What you need is a silk with a dove on it.
50:14 I got this from Dwayne and Mary Laughlin a long time ago. I'm not even sure if they make them anymore.
50:19 But a silk with a picture of a dove on it, you can always get a silk and take it to an airbrusher and have them airbrush a dove on there or something like that.
50:27 Or you might want to try P&A Silks. They might have a dove silk that you can get.
50:33 So one with a dove on it. You need one without a dove on it.
50:38 And you also need a dove holder.
50:41 This is the Andiamix Ultra Quick Release Dove Holder.
50:44 This is, in my opinion, the best holder on the market because there's no Velcro, no snaps.
50:48 It falls right open as soon as you hit the release. It falls completely open and it can allow you to toss the bird out like I did for this little diddy.
50:56 One thing that I've changed is I taped a battery to the bottom of it right under the belly of the bird.
51:02 I'll explain why that's necessary in a minute.
51:04 And as far as the loop, all it is is a little, little, little, little tiny, about that big.
51:10 As if you're going to make the "OK" sign. That's as big as it is.
51:13 A little loop on the end of it. A little wire loop.
51:16 And that's it. That's all it is.
51:19 An advantage for this is that I have tails. I have tail pockets in my tails for dumping.
51:24 I also have in my tails a dump... a silk clip. A silk clip that I can use for the blank silk.
51:33 This one. For the blank silk.
51:35 So what I'm going to do first is fold this up just kind of loosely because I want this to look like this when I come back out.
51:44 So this is just going to be loosely folded and clipped in my silk clip. Pardon me.
51:50 If you don't have a tail coat or anything like this, you can kind of hug your table a little bit if you have a dumping table.
51:59 And stand in front of it. Get in there.
52:04 Sometimes this is easier if your jacket is hanging up. OK, there we go.
52:08 Now the dove. I'm going to load in the holder here and place him in the pocket.
52:13 Come here, Junior. There you go.
52:18 Run in just like that.
52:26 Let him get comfortable.
52:29 So now I'll take the little loop and have that just sticking out.
52:32 No real necessity for any kind of loop holding device because this loop is so tiny.
52:37 Don't even need to worry about anything like that. It just sits there.
52:41 So this is the motion. The reason I want such a tiny loop is because I'm going to let my thumb go inside.
52:47 OK, right here. And when I come over, that's all I want. It's just that. That's the motion that we're going for.
52:53 So stick the bird in the pocket that's sewn in your jacket.
52:58 And the dove silk can come from anywhere.
53:01 I'm just going to pull it out like this. And you display. Ooh, dove silk.
53:05 When I turn and look at it, that's when my thumb goes in like this.
53:10 This is a semi-exposed view, obviously. Thumb goes in the loop.
53:14 I look at it and I kind of do this. This is really stupid.
53:18 Just to kind of make it look like, oh, the bird's flapping.
53:21 I don't know if you picked up on that or not. I know, like I said, it's stupid.
53:24 So you show, hand goes under, flappy, flappy, flappy.
53:28 And when I come over to roll my sleeves up, I just pull the dove and grab.
53:34 So when this comes over, boop, dove's already right here inside.
53:38 This is where the battery is important because I'm not grabbing the belly of the bird because I need to toss the bird out.
53:43 I'm actually, through the silk, grabbing the battery.
53:46 So that gives me something solid to grab onto.
53:49 So he comes out, roll up the sleeve. I can hit the release through the silk.
53:54 I'm not going to because I need to illustrate this again.
53:56 Hit the release and that, toss the bird out that way.
54:00 And under the misdirection of the bird flying, immediately go south here, dump everything in your tails, and come out with the blank silk.
54:09 Okay, so that's what you're going for in a nutshell.
54:14 So let's start again from the top.
54:19 Dove in the pocket.
54:25 First I'll do it without producing the dove or even making the steel.
54:29 I'll just illustrate in my pantomime.
54:32 Silk comes out, show the dove, look at it, thumb goes in the loop.
54:38 Do your little flappy, flap, flap, and come over.
54:42 As you come over, dove gets pulled out of the jacket, you grab it, pull your sleeve back, release, and toss.
54:49 When you toss, immediately turn.
54:51 This goes in my tail pocket and I come out with this, the blank one.
54:56 So the dove has returned, you bring this back out again, open it.
55:00 Oh, no dove, he must have come out of the silk.
55:04 And there you have it.
55:06 So that's essentially the little magic trick with the dove silk.
55:11 I'll show you the move one more time and then I'll let you see the clip again.
55:16 Pull out the silk, show the silk, look at it.
55:19 When you look, the thumb goes in the loop right here, like that.
55:22 Thumb goes in the loop, oh, there's a picture of a dove on the silk.
55:26 Toss it up, hand goes underneath, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, flap, come over.
55:30 That's the secret move right there.
55:32 Pull your sleeve back, whatever, and now I've released the bird by hitting the flap.
55:37 And now I can toss the bird out of the silk.
55:43 When he's tossed out of the silk--I actually grabbed him with the wrong hand that time--
55:47 when he's tossed out of the silk, you turn and catch him with your empty hand,
55:51 using that as misdirection to dump the silk and the dove holder,
55:56 at the same time coming back out with the blank dove silk.
56:01 And that's the little dove from dove silk toss return effect of death.
56:11 Lame.
56:14 Do that to me one more time
56:17 Once is never enough
56:20 With a man like you
56:24 Do that to me one more time
56:28 I can never get enough of a man like you
56:36 Kiss me like you just did
56:45 Oh, baby
56:49 Do that to me once again
57:00 [music]
57:30 This town is coming like a ghost town
57:37 All the clubs have been closed down
57:43 This place is coming like a ghost town
57:50 ♪ The bands won't play no more ♪