Drag King Magic

January 18, 2010 3:40 AM

What are some magic tricks that are simple to make/do for an indoor cabaret?

I'm participating in a cabaret burlesque competition and one of my ideas is a drag king magic routine. I used to be super obsessed with magic as a kid, but then I tried performing it live at age 14 and it kinda bombed. I got scared off since, but ever since I got back into performing I would like to incorporate it again.

I'm thinking of simple classic tricks - I found that those often worked well. It'd be to some funky music, so it shouldn't be something that requires patter. I'll be interspersing magic with dance, playing up the drag bit more. It's a small stage, and I don't want to risk crazy fire tricks. Stuff that is inexpensive and that I can make would be best.

I'm thinking things around a magic wand - floating it, making it pop, etc. Cards are ok but I'm fiddly with them, and coins would be too hard to see. Anything involving the stripping of clothes would be funny.

Any ideas? Any search terms I should look up?

posted by divabat to media & arts (2 answers total)

He's not a drag queen, and it may not be to your taste, but I'd recommend at least seeing what Jerry Sadowitz has done. A skilled magician, he's very much from the school of magic as banter, and magic as audience participation.

He's also very, very, crude.

Some links here and here. You can't find him on You Tube because he's pretty hot on getting stuff removed.
posted by MuffinMan at 4:36 AM on January 18, 2010

Magician here. There's a sort of crude classic comedy built called either "Bewildering Boxer Shorts" or "Bewildering Bra", depending on which version you choose. It comes by a couple other names also. Basically, you tie two handkerchiefs together and have a male/female volunteer tuck them into their waist-band or their shirt, respectively. The claim is that you will pass them through the person's body, but when you pull on the ends, a bra or boxer shorts is tied between the silks.

I'm sure you could adapt this for a solo performance, just tucking the tied silks into your pants or shirt for whatever reason you can think of - possibly to free your hands up to do some other action? - then pull them out as the grand finale to your stripping routine.

Here's one place you can buy them:
http://www.tannens.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_list&c=13
posted by RobotNinja at 6:09 AM on January 18, 2010