Breakaway wand – clown prop
The breakaway wand is a simple magic prop. It’s a wand that, held properly, looks normal. But when handed to a spectator, seems to fall apart. Remember that, for a clown, the clown should be the one with egg on his face, and not the volunteer.
One very good use of this, similar to the magic flower, is the clown in trouble syndrome, an idea I take from David Ginn’s excellent book, Clown Magic. In short, hold the wand up, turn your head away from it as you address the children, and let the wand fall apart. As the audience tells you to look at it, you restore the tension so that the wand reverts to normal before you look. “No, there’s nothing wrong with my magic wand”. Turn your head, and let it collapse again. Repeat this for a total of 3 times (the rule of three is in full effect here). And finally, catch the “broken” wand – do a take to react, and move on to the next part of your performance.
Product description for the breakaway wand
Show a wand to the audience and invite a volunteer to help with a trick. Hand the wand to a volunteer and it completely falls apart. Take it back and it is fixed. Hand it to the volunteer and it falls apart again.