Bladder cannon unveiled!

Despite planning all year for this, it was still a rush at the end. I'd been thinking of building props for this year's Parker Doodlebug Show at Calaway Park, on the outskirts of Calgary. I'd been writing routines, practicing a few new magic tricks and making all the odds and sods that would make this show better than last year's.

Anyway, Parker Doodlebug's Patented Aether Flatulator was going well right up until a couple of days before the show. The problem was trying to get a good resonant fart sound out of the thing. My air tank (not the compressor, mind you) has no limiter so the air was coming out full-force and, well, whoopee cushions are not designed to withstand the rigors of building-site compressed air.

Boom.

Or more 'pop', actually.


I glued, cut, siliconed and strapped things into place again but the bottom line is that when you want a good rude noise it's surprisingly difficult to manufacture at will.

Anyone have any ideas of a solution? Must be air-powered. I was thinking of making my own large-scale whoopee cushion but can't work out what to use for it.

So on Wednesday I took a car full of ridiculous gadgets to Calaway and unveiled it all, including the bladder cannon.



And what fun that was. The bladder cannon was even more successful than I'd hoped for. The balloon kept growing and growing far beyond what I'd anticipated, and when it blew...whew! Shards of latex at my feet. Boom. Not pop.

So it's back to the drawing board for the flatulator, but the bladder cannon is working fine.

Parker Doodlebug's Patented Aether Flatulator - Mark I

So last night I put the finishing touches on a prop for Parker Doodlebug's upcoming stage shows. Please put your hands together for...Parker Doodlebug's Patented Aether Flatulator. This is Mark I and a second (larger) version is half finished. Air-powered (hooks up to a compressed air tank. Sorry - 'aether tank'), you point it at a suitable target, pull the trigger and...it farts. That's about it.

Of course during the show it will not 'fart'. That would be unrefined. Instead it will emit staccato bursts of globulated aether or something like that, the point being that it renders objects invisible or, after a particularly fruity burst, disintegrates them.

Frankly it doesn't have to make sense. It's a comedy show.

With today's shows at Calaway Park rained out, I'll be spending a little time trying to get Mark II up and running - a bigger, badder version that will blow up a balloon instead.