Hi Everyone

It's like 2 years since I stopped doing kids shows but the presentation still exist.

Since I'm a new user so I don't know how much I can tell so if someone want a deeper explanation, e-mail me.

I don't know how you call this legend in English (the little blonde with the 3 bears) but I’m sure you all know it.

I talk on the 3 bears (Daddy bear, Mommy Bear and little bear) representing 3 lengths of ropes.

And when the blonde came to their home she ate the soup and all of the soups became equal.

And one more thing:
When the bears came back and so what happened so the daddy bear said: “Someone touched my soup" and the mommy bears said:"Someone touched my soup" and the little bear said:
"Someone stole my mp3 player."

Have fun
Roi

It's "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and I like the idea of using the story for this trick.

Hi Ro,
I do the Professor's Nightmare for kids and adults using the story
"Jack In The Beanstalk". At the end of the story, the ropes are
all gone, and a golden egg is shown.

PNM is one of my favorite routines for both kids and adults. For adults I have been using a story about basketball (Guard, Forward, Center) and for kids a story about going to the animal shelter to buy a dog. Once I got to the shelter I could not decide between the little dog, medium dog, or large dog. PM me if you are interested in the rest of the story.

Walking Bob in Iowa!!!

The story I tend to use is roughly this.
Baby rope was fed up with being small. He came accross a fairy who granted him a wish. He wanted Daddy, Mummy and Baby to be the same size. When this happened, Daddy and Mummy weren't very pleased and had a chat with the fairy. Next morning, all was back to normal.
This is the bare bones of it but obviously has more to it with other 'business' thrown in.
I hope it gives someone some ideas.

Kids have 3 personalities:

Show short rope - this is the one they have around their parents

Show medium rope - this is the one they have around adults that their parents see a lot.

Show long rope - this is their true personality, it around just their real friends

As a parent, we would like all 3 to be the same and I'm going to do that - I bring up the ends and I have done it all ends are the same, show the ropes hanging down. Everyone says no, no way they are not.

I then pull the ropes out and show them even. I take one out at a time show that they are even.

I tie the 3 ropes together and roll it up and show the knots are close. And sometimes roll up the rope and show the rope and the knots are far apart. Roll it up and show each rope untied, no matter what your parents love you.

For adult show - the ropes are men telling the truth about dates to other men or telling women about their pass.

I hope this helps, the first story works great around parents and kids, just say no program, and churches.

I've recently 're-vamped' my routine and put it into verse form. If anyone would care to give me a critical appraisal, I would be most appreciative. Please get in touch and I'll E-Mail or PM it to you.

I love PNM for preschools, talk to the kids about sharing, "I brought some rope to share, with my 2 helpers, but wait this is not fair the ropes are not the same, and when you share you have to be fair"

There's a "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" presentation of the professor's nightmare in Francis Ireland's "The Happy Birthday Business." I only used it a couple times, but it was a cute idea.

I tell the story along the lines of that I havent always been a magician. Before becoming a magician I used to work in a spaghetti factory, but couldn't make spaghetti the right length (medium), At the weekend I then went home and practiced for so long that I fell asleep and whilst asleep I dreamed that all the spaghetti was the same length.
When I went to work after the weekend I tried again but only managed to produce the short, medium and long spaghetti once again and promptly got fired.....and that's why I am now a magician instead.

I have found that this routine also works well for adults as well as kids especially if done tongue in cheek!

These are such great ideas for Professor's Nightmare! I salute you all.

I use a story for school shows about three grade 5 students all of them difrent and I discribe each child. then I procide to tell everyone that the teacher read them the story the ugly duckling. and I say .. the moral of that story is that on the inside we are all the same and that is what matter ( that is when they are all the same lenght) then I say but really on the outside there was the one boy that.... and the other boy.... and the last boy,,,,,, and they are all diffrent on the outside. and then they are all diffrent sizes again.

I have used a story about three kids at a county fair wanting to ride a ride with a height restriction and a magician that makes them the same height for the night.

Finney has great patter for this trick 2

LOVE the county fair patter great for theme parks too. WOW
Also goldielocks is in Gene Gordons magical legacy from the late great Scotty Mohan nice routine. He used to spin the ropes around at one point in the routine was great stuff as I recall. Joe

When I used to do Prof. Nightmare regularly (I now keep it as an emergency effect), I told the story of three brothers who fought all the time, a younger brother, a middle brother, and the eldest. They would fight constantly because (they thought) they were all different (younger brother angry at eldest's privileges, etc) so they decided that if they were all the same, they wouldn't fight. Not just the same age, but the same color, the same name, the same size.

But they realized that they fought more because they all thought they were right because they figured "If they're all the same, then their opinions must be the right one."

What being "the same" taught them is that they weren't really the same and that no two people are ever alike. And the way to not fight with each other was to embrace their differences. So they went back to the way they used to be and they were all the happier for it.

That's not the actual scripting, but the basic idea. I wrote it back when I was younger and I felt that, being a Bard, occasionally you have to have a story that beat the moral into a kid's brain. I still think that can work in moderation, but please feel free to make use of the idea.

I haven't done this effect in a long time, but I tell of visiting a spiritualist medium and asking why some people are good mediums (media?) and others not. Using ropes, the medium explained that people have closer or more distant connections to the spirit world, and that ideally everyone should be the same. When he made the ropes the same size I said "Well done, rare medium!" This made the medium begin to laugh maniacally. When he came toward me, I struck him. (I was taught to always strike a happy medium).

DanielGreenWolf, I like your story alot. I am also looking for some patter for Professors Nightmare, but my routine is a bit more then just Professors Nightmare. I watched an old Slydini routine from the Dick Cavit show and was able to duplicate most of what he does on the show, he starts with one length of rope and through multiple cut and restores ends with 3 "Equal" lengths of rope (ala Professors Nightmare). I have been doing this trick for awhile now and is one of my favorites. I just don't have the good patter to go with. Slydini in his charming way doesn't really say much either, just kinda what he is doing is all he says. Some friends have suggested going with just music...

I came up with some ideas not long ago, but of course forgot to write them down quick enough and now I have forgotten them. So if anyone has some ideas of stories etc, I would love to hear them.

Thanks,

D. W.

I use the patter of three birds and all three of the birds wanting the longest worm. At the end the three birds fly back to their nest only to find each has a worm of different length. The moral of the story is to keep your promise or you'll end up with the short worm.

I perform PNM as as routine where the assistant keeps changing the three equal ropes to three unequal each time they take them from me. I start with the Slydini cutting of the "equal" ropes, bring the ends up, and hand them to the assistant as I turn away and the ropes fall to different lengths. I change them back and false count them as equal, and then repeat the hand off with the transition back to unequal, taking the ropes back I change them to equal again and this time tie them together into one long rope of three equal segments, I roll the rope up and transform it in the process to the unequal not revealing it and handing it into the assistant's hands. At this point I stop to ask the assistant their name (time misdirection)and then fain amazement announcing them as one of the greatest magicians in the world the famed ----ini adding the ini onto their name, and say I never should have performed the trick in the present in front of so famous a conjurer and taking back the rope by one end and unraveling between me and the assistant I reveal the pieces have again changed to the unequal lengths as I escort the assistant off the stage to applause. I continue to apologize as I pull the knots off the rope and return it to its original condition as one long, seamless rope. The end and bow.