I think using ninja techniques would be a cool stage show. It would be cool to mix the illusions of a ninja wtih the illusions of a magician.

Also the kasarigama is cool to watch in action.

What do you all think?


Wikiro

Without knowing what illusions of the ninja you're talking about I'm not sure. Kusarigama is indeed pretty cool although I'm not sure who could teach your other than stephan hayes. Maybe it's because I live in the desert.

I can't imagine that ninjas did much more than magicians do ie. disappearing in a poof of smoke etc. still it would be a pretty cool presentation for magic. Jeff McBride has made martial arts work, I think ninjutsu would be a good one.

-Dan

Haha the ninja in a snap can change his cloths, disappear, and wip out and change weapons so fast that the defender hasnt got a chance. Also it would be like a theater thing. I would have a story to the magic of the ninja. Like in the book The Ninja. I suggest no one ever read this book though.


Wikiro

Yea, I have to wonder what “tricks” you are thinking of? The Ninja were said to be able to change into Monkeys – because they carried Monkeys in their Gi (a monkey wearing tiny clothes) and used to drop them off during their escape.

Ninjas were said to breathe under water – through reeds…
Ninjas could climb walls – using metal claws on their feet and hands…
Ninjas could disappear – using smoke bombs to cover their escape…

It would be an interesting transition…

Hi,

You wrote:

"Also the kasarigama is cool to watch in action."

I think there are more flashy moves with Nunchakus and escrima (especially when you have one weapon in each hand)than with the Japanese chain sometimes called manrikikussari.

I have seen an act competing at FISM that was a combination of magic with Japanese weapons including Yari.

Yours faithfully

Dan Kirsch

oh-gama is beter than them all in the right way the oh-gama can be used as a rope dart or kyoketsu shoge, a scyth, a yari, and a nawa. The only problem is that its heavy and slow.

Ive been thinking about it and it sounds dumb to make a ninja magic show. The magic would be cool looking but extremely corney at the end. A little ninja magic in the middle might be neat, but also the whole show whould need a japenese theme. Which might be hard to do.

Wikiro

I had an idea though on stabbing your assistants. Instead of using fake blood I would use red silks. It would make an appearing silk effect and also make the sword look cool when you pull it out of the assistant. Also shap-shifting would make a few tricks like what you mentioned about the monkeys (they also did it to slow the men chasing them the monkeys were really violant). Also I would walk threw walls, jump impossible hieghts, glide around the stage and shoot a spectator across the stage (chi). Then I would multiply my self and do a weapons juggling act. Then become one and do multiple weapons perfomances (weapons changing in the middle of their demonstration). These are a few ideas I had.

Wikiro