There are all sorts of examples of this. I remember seeing a gag in a panto when I was a kid where the bad guy was doing a two person mentalism act where the medium was able to guess people's phone numbers or something. On the third attempt she failed, popped out from behind the curtain holding a phone book, and said, "I can't find it that page is torn out!"

There are probably tons of examples of similar gags, especially during the vaudeville era, but what's the first one in print? This kind of gag must go waaaaay back.

Travis

Would the Slydini paper balls with a volunteer qualifiy?

The Lemon Game: