This Foamboard/ Basswood project can be used to
perform a mental act for kids... or adults. Dapper Dan is a
foamboard or basswood doll, the kind that needs to be dressed up
with attachment clothing.
At the beginning of the effect, Dapper Dan is
wearing only white boxer shorts. You get tired of dressing him
with the audience's choices of clothing, so you decide to speed
things up with magic. Four (or more... this is flexible based on
the way you make it!) helpers choose and draw items of clothing
on Dollar Store Message Boards with colored marking pens. Once it
has been decided on how Dapper Dan will be dressed, the helpers
wave their message boards at Dapper Dan, who has been covered
with a silk handkerchief for the occasion. They just THINK of the
items of clothing and before you can say "Whiz Bam!"
the drawings disappear from the message boards and appear all at
once on Dapper Dan. There is an optional ending where Dan's
clothes disappear again and he ends up wearing polka dot
underwear.
While some magicians avoid performing mental
effects for children, this particular effect works on two levels.
For very young children who are not impressed by the fact that
you seemed to know in advance which choices of apparel and color
they would make, the fact that things disappear from their hands
and reappear on Dapper Dan is very magical. The older ones will
wonder how you could possibly know which items they would choose.
Dapper Dan can also be made up as a Boy or Girl
Scout effect, making the appropriate scout uniform appear
hap-hazardly at first, and then all straightened out by magic.
Since you make this yourself, the character can be changed as
well; a clown, a cowboy, a pirate, a princess, a superhero, a
cartoon character, etc. The techniques that work for Dapper Dan
will work for almost any character you can dream up or locate. It
can even be done using a photograph of a live person or
celebrity.
If you want to use a licensed character, it is
simply a matter of buying a licensed drawing of the character in
coloring book, poster or large story-book form, cutting it out,
and applying it as instructed in the e-Book.
