Did the flower on clown #2.   For the other magicians, I have a wilting flower gag and coin snatch, but how to extend the triggers beyond the gag so the puppeteer can operate them, is stumping me. 

Been a long time since I dabbled in magic so not sure of the mechanics of each trick for sure but any trigger manipulated by the magician in his hand should be able to be extended down the hand rod of the puppet I would think. Actually the ideal would be a set up where you could place different tricks in the magicians hand and attach them to the triggering system down the rod easily.

The coin snatch is a little device like people wear on there office ID cards so they don't have to take it off to scan at doors.  It just has a clear cord and a button to push to coil it back in.  but if you lengthen the string and run it through the puppet so the button can be accessible to the puppeteer, it will likely snag.  I really need a way to mount it in the puppet's arm and still be able to trigger it from below.

The wilting rose is a wire running through the rose to the end of the stem with a loop on the end.  You pull the loop and the rose curls down like its wilting.  Catch here is, its not a light pull.  This might work in a lapel like a boutonniere instead of in the puppet's hand, but the concern there is the audience not even noticing it.

There are some other tricks that would be easier, but I really don't want to pay $30-$50 for a gag that would only add half that value to the puppet (if that). 

Ok I thought that was the tricks you may be talking about.   Actually both should work fine if you work them into the rod not the body of the puppet.   Instead of a solid rod you use a tube rod so you can run both pulls fully up the rod to the hand. Rose would be attached to the rod so you have the stability you need and your trigger for the snatch is down at the bottom of the rod and the line run up through the rod and out the hand. Remember you have the advantage of a cloth hand. Something that may normally have to go up a sleeve can actually go inside the hand.

Okay, here are two of the gags:

Working clown horn. I took 2 horns (dollar store!) and cut a hole in the bulb of one. Ran a clear hose through it and glue to the end of the squeaker. The I ran the tube through the glove, inside the hand, inside and up the arm, inside puppet and down to where the puppeteer can reach. I glued the bulb from the 2nd horn on the end of the tubing. Now, when the puppeteer squeezes the 2nd bulb, the horn honks! Scared my wife, she wasn't expecting it to work! lol



This is the old hankie gag. I cut hole in lapel pocket, shirt and puppet. Glued top halves together and the bottom halves together making a nice opening inside the pocket. Then I made a little pouch and attached it inside the puppet just below the hole. I sewed 6 colorful hankies end to end and poked one through hole sticking out of puppet, then stuffed the rest in the bag. Now when someone pulls the hanky... Well, you get it.  I plan on attaching a pair of kids boxers to the last one...



I am adding legs to the two with the gags.  Hope to have those done in the next couple days. But I am going to a puppet building thing in Minneapolis Saturday.  Woohoo! 

Love the Horn Idea!  Great job.

Are you meeting up with Dr. Megan in Minneapolis?

Nice work on these two!  I know you'll figure out the other two tricks also. As always thanks for sharing with us.

Yep!  My first puppet 'event'.  Should be fun!  And thanks!

Okay, here's the latest.

I normally don't do full-body puppets, but this clown suit had legs so I went ahead.  Couldn't find puppet-size clown shoes, so I made these myself!  He also has a working horn operated externally by the puppeteer and an extra opening in the back of the neck so he could be operated more like a ventriloquist dummy if so desired.



Here's how I made the shoes:


I have one more to finish.  He's actually a 'volunteer form the audience' that will go with a fairly complicated gag, if I can pull it off.  Then my mentor has told me to stop with these until he gets back into town in April.  Sheesh! lol

But don't worry, I have enough fur on my shelves for over a dozen puppets and he didn't say I couldn't do those!!

Great job on the shoes!  Looks like you made a mold so you could make more also. Very smart.   I will say that his face paint has a bit of a scarey look but then you get that quite often with clowns... don't think it is anything you did really.