Skulls and Elephants



Hope everyone is having a great, and
magical week!
Here are a couple of recent items from
the news that I had to share for background
inspiration.


Enjoy...

Mummy Skulls


LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian customs agents have seized
four well-preserved pre-Incan mummy skulls, bones and
artifacts that smugglers hoped to ship to Miami, the
government said a few years ago.


The skulls, still with some dark
skin, red-brown hair and teeth, have survived because
the Paracas and Chiribaya cultures, which ruled
much of Peru's southern coast up to 3,800 years ago,
mummified their dead in a ritual intended to protect their
souls. Customs agents made the discovery in a port storage
container near Lima that also housed ancient
bones, ceramic pots and fishing nets.


Smuggling of such objects is rife in Peru, which is rich in
unexplored archeological sites, and many people make a
living as ``treasure-hunters.'' Their finds often end
up abroad in private collections or official
museums, according to the government.


Historically, Peru is best known for its Incan empire, when priests
sacrificed young men and women to their gods
throughout the Andes. Many of these bodies have become naturally
mummified as a result of being trapped in ice on
mountaintops.


The most famous Peruvian mummy is the well-preserved
body and head of a sacrificed Incan girl, nicknamed
``Juanita,'' which has attracted thousands of people to
expositions on tours of the United States and Japan.



Fly Resurrection Magic Trick

Effect: You are walking down the street and casually pick any spectator.
You ask them to come with you to a nearby car or bench, or table and pick a dead fly off the surface. You hold it in your hand do a few passes with the other hand and appear to be really concentrating and the fly slowly comes back to life to the surprise of the spectator.


Preparation: Freeze the fly

Method: You need to catch a fly and freeze it which puts it in a temporary coma, this can be done by swatting the fly hard enough to immobilize it then placing it in a small container in the freezer.


The fly then needs to be quickly taken to a suitable shaded location and placed there.  Mimic the motions of "snatching" it in mid air.
It may be necessary to practice how long it takes for the fly to revive itself.



Runaway Elephant Takes Over Publicity Stunt

MADRID (Reuters) - A publicity stunt by an amusement park company went awry  when a two-ton zoo elephant broke free from
its trainer and rampaged through central Madrid
during the morning rush hour.


The runaway elephant brought cars to a halt, sent pedestrians scattering in panic and knocked down two traffic signals
before being felled by tranquilizer darts at the end of its
500-yard dash down a busy Madrid street.

Clarissa, a 12-year-old elephant, was brought into the city to promote
the stock market debut of Parques Reunidos,
which manages Madrid's zoo plus amusement parks around the
country.


This entertainment should be taken with a grain of salt.




Salty Cards

With nothing more than kicking a deck of cards you can tell which is the chosen card.


How the Trick Works:
A good pinch of salt secretly stored in your pocket.
Have a shuffled deck of cards on the floor. Have a person look through the deck and pick a card. Have him/her place his card on top of the deck. Now have them cut the deck into five piles. (Remember the chosen card is on the top of the first pile.)


Now by pointing to the piles have them put the deck back together in a different order.


The trick is that as you are pointing at the card piles, instructing the audience member to put them back together... you take a pinch of salt and drop it on top of the chosen card as you point to it. (Slick, eh?)


Then lightly kick the deck of cards with your right foot, slide into the cards to make them glide to the left.


Examine the deck; the place in the deck with the most distance between one card and the next is the chosen card.  Reveal the card to the audience in an entertaining way.


Notes: Practice this trick before performing to get a feel for how and how hard to kick the cards, and how to "see" the chosen card.



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