Related
Magic Nook Magic 
Flight
of the Phoenix

Bye, Bye
Bunny!

Fish or
Cut Bait

Chimney
Screen

Tear-Apart/Take-Apart
Dove Boxes
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Where
Do The Duckies Go?
by Jim Gerrish

The Duck Production Tub
and the Duck Vanish were invented by Servais LeRoy about
1909. William J. Doc Nixon attempted to claim
the trick in 1919 but while he attached the name
Where Do the Ducks Go? to it, and it spread
rapidly among other stage magicians, like Theo and David
Bamberg (who made improvements), and Harry Blackstone
Sr., among others, the trick remained essentially the
same until along came a young whippersnapper by the name
of Jim Gerrish who reinvented the whole thing for a
childrens effect using rubber duckies about the
year 1970. These 2017 improvements just make it even
better. Now it can be performed solo (with some young
helpers from the audience) and everyone has fun quacking
like ducks as the little yellow critters appear and
disappear and no one knows from whence they come or
whence they go!
Effect: Begin by selecting several young helpers to
help you fill a translucent punch bowl with buckets of
water. The Duckies appear one by one in the center of the
water-filled punch bowl and are given to a helper along
with a quacking noise-maker so the helper can
"speak" for his Duckie. Then a small (4
1/2") cubical Gift Box is put together, piece by
piece, in the hands of one of the helpers. Each Duckie
Guardian deposits his or her Duckie into the box, with
much quacking from the Duck Chorus. Suddenly all quacking
stops. The Box is taken apart piece by piece and it is
empty. Something yellow flashes beneath the magician's
table, but it turns out to be a yellow feather duster as
the table is taken apart. Finally, a beautiful screen
covered with pleasant paintings of ducks, is shown on all
sides, folded into a tube and the quacking begins again
as many more ducks than you imagined could possibly fit
into the tube emerge and go swimming and overflowing the
punch bowl.
Servais LeRoy may be
rolling over in his grave at the reinventing of his magic
trick, but we are having fun! Quackers, anyone?
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