Axtell Magic Drawing Board

Type: Parlor, Stage

Skill Level:

Retail Price: $99

Effect: On an 14x17 inch drawing board, you draw a cartoon face. Right before audiences eyes the drawing comes to life...the eyes and mouth begin to move. After talking with it, you by visibly erasing it while it's moving.

Performance Time: Variable time depending on routine

Reset Time: resets automatically

Angles:

Quality: The currently marketed "pro" version is well designed and built. It is manufactured by Axtell Expressions, Steve Axtell has been manufacturing all kinds of professional puppets for years. He makes good stuff, for the professional. The controls for the puppets are placed in a logical place, very accessible and easy to conceal even when the back of the board is shown. You'll easily get several years out of this prop.

Dr. Mitch: Now here is an entire routine waiting to happen. For you ventriloquists out there....this is great....for you magicians...this is ALSO great. The mechanisms are easy to use, the movements are fluid. After playing with it for a few moments, my mind was racing on how to work this into my kid show.....after a few more moments, I started thinking of how funny it would be in my "adult" act. The only problem I had, was I need to grow a bushy mustache so no one will see my lips move. HOWEVER, a tape recorded routine will surely eliminate that problem.

Mike Maione: This is a great prop. I can't wait to work mine into my act.

Wait a minute...at the time of this writing I've had mine for more than a month and it's not in my act yet. Why is that? Most kid show props I can incorporate pretty quickly, why not this? Well, this is not one of those out of the box and into the show pieces. You have to work with this one...a lot...prior. Unless of course, you're already a vent, or don't care to do this really fine piece justice.

Now, Steve Axtell, the creator, is not only talented puppeteer, artist and nice guy (you can get a sense of the great work he does by visiting his web site at http://www.axtell.com). He's also a very savvy marketer. I'm sure he realized early on that most of us don't do ventriloquism (too bad...it's not that hard and would certainly differentiate you from the gang of kid's show magicians). So, Steve produced some very good (read funny) tapes to accompany the drawing board. There are three...a general purpose comedy tape, a Happy Birthday tape and a Christmas tape. They cost about $10 each. So, will these get you using this great prop any sooner? Well, not exactly. Did you ever try to lip sync. It's easy when you move YOUR lips and you lip sync a song. Try it with a puppet and when you have dialog not lyrics. Yikes. You need to memorize and time out each line of dialog. I'm too old for that...my memory is shot...come to think about it, I never had a very good memory.

Hmmm. Where was I? Oh yeah, using tapes. Here's what will work for me. I'll make my own tape and I'll lip sync the words to a song. Lyrics I can remember. And, I'm learning ventriloquism for even more versatility. (Read our review of Steve Chaney's tape, Learn Ventriloquism.) It's not difficult at all. But, like everything else...it requires practice.

The Bottom Line: Should you buy this prop? Take this short quiz.

1) Do you like really cool effects that you can use in you kiddie shows and that will entertain adults, too?
2) Do you like props that don't come right out of the box and into every magician's show?
3) Can you prepare a tape, memorize a script, or do ventriloquism?
4) Do you like to practice, practice, practice?

If you answered yes to all four of these questions. Don't wait another moment, order one today.

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