ESTUDIO TÉCNICO

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--- Again Sam Haine refused a snifter of the ruby brandy. Lately, his travels found him frequently a jester in the courts of the rich. The evening had worn the party to the final resolute few. At these charity events there are always a number who stay in hope of witnessing a true miracle.

Sam believed these wealthy few had too much - too much sensation, too much protection, too much noise in their lives. Out of touch with the mysterious reality of life, they were drawn by hope to the possibility of real magic like moths to a flame, all too eager to burn. Obligingly Sam Haine removed a photo from his frock coat and handed it to Doctor Laertes beginning,

"Please look twice. It may not seem so at first, but this is the face of evil."

As the others surrounded the timid Doctor to glimpse the photo, Sam Haine asked, "Some say the good we do perishes with us, but the evil lives on. Hear the tale of a man most evil - a murderous fiend now in hell. His name was Deren Legaul, the Rhyming Ripper. Throughout 1951, he terrorized many small New England towns, preying on young red headed women."

Sam Haine's eyes meaningfully regarded Susan Lavey's fiery locks which she fingered nervously. "At midnight, he called his victim's home repeatedly. If only his red-haired victim-to-be answered, on the last call he chanted a child's nursery rhyme. He slipped silently into the girl's home knowing she was alone. Whispering his ancient rhymes all the while, he put his victim to sleep."

Sam Haine paused then said, "Of course, it sounds like fiction - a ghost story to scare children. And it might well be, unless... are you willing to try an experiment?" Susan nodded eagerly to the apparent dismay of Doctor Laertes. "Very well. Open up your senses.

We do not know what form the contact will take. It may be a tingling on the skin, a strange smell, a whisper. Focus on the photo. Imagine his voice, in the dark, whispering these words to you:

'Inx, minx, the old witch winks, The fat begins to fry.

No ones at home,

Stick, stock, stone cold, Even blind men can see, Every knave must have a slave, You or I must be he.'

Silently the mage looks in the eye of each member of the circle. The silence is suddenly broken when the phone rings. Doctor Laertes yelped like a frightened chimp.

"No one move! It might be him!" But the phone did not ring again.

"A sign! An odd sign, but a sign nonetheless. Do you have caller ID? You do? Then you now have the number to hell!"

The guests rushed into the study where the phone sat on the great mahogany desk. Susan Lavey says, "The caller id says the number is unavailable!" Sam Haine suggested,

"We are not beaten yet - star-six-nine will connect us to the beast! You sir - give hell a ring back." Poor Dr. Laertes, already a nervous wreck, gingerly lifted the receiver from its cradle. Barely holding it to his ear, a look of further horror spilled over the pale face of the

Doctor. The Doctor snatched the phone from the desk revealing the amazing truth - "It's disconnected from the wall. It's completely dead!"

Sam Haine nodded with a grim grin, "I suggest no one answer this phone for the rest of the night."

Arcanum:

The idea of a phone ringing as a spirit contact is initially described by Hereward Carrington in "The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, Fraudulent and Genuine" and later revived by Docc Hilford in his routine "Yours Truly Jack the Ripper."

As a performance, it should play like a campfire ghost story.

To perform this routine, your performing venue must have a phone with caller ID. You will need a hummingbird reel or similar, and a cell phone.

First find the phone and dial *65 followed by the number into your cell phone. The *67 turns off caller ID. Hang up before the phone starts ringing. Next, find the wall jack connecting the phone. This works best with a jack near the floor as compared to one on a counter. Wrap the kevlar thread of a hummingbird reel around the plug and the nubbin that holds it in place. Test the tension so that a tug on the thread will clamp down the nubbin and pull the plug from the wall. Carefully run the thread to the next room and leave the reel under the chair where you will sit.

When performing time comes, have your cell phone in your breast pocket. Know where your dial and end buttons are. Be seated in near the reel or have it in your pocket. At the appropriate moment, press the dial button. After one ring, press the end button. Freeze during the silence. When you speak the lines about reading the caller ID, pull the cord. Don't use the reel motor because you want the full tension to pull the plug out of the wall. Once it is pulled free, reel in the thread. Since the thread is only wrapped around the phone jack, it will come free easily.

HOMECOMING

James

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Here is a synopsis of a routine . I will briefly describe it

I tell a story of myself and a lifelong friend that I have known since childhood in Hong Kong. We go to school together, we played together and even go to college in America together. I chose computer science as a major, he choses

anthropology. We graduate and go our separate ways, returning to Hong Kong often for holidays And joyful reunions. As time passes we both have good success in our fields, He is offered a chance to study a recently discovered group of people in the Andes

Mountains. This will insure his PHD thesis and a Professors title with tenure will soon follow. I stay in H.K. working for the computer gaming industry.

My friend and I have had a little joke we always say to each other based on an old Chinese saying, after speaking of our lives and what has currently happened we always say to each other "Yes, Yes, my friend, but when will you come home?”

Then we laugh and laugh. Life is good!

My friend has reached the Andes and has been accepted by the people. He sends me Strange artifacts from the region and the tribe, telling me often of their customs.

(I go through a bag and bring out different items, woven alpaca bags, arrow heads. engraved bones, cast bells with strange symbols.) And I always return to the tagline..

“Yes, Yes, my friend, but when will you return home?”

I then change my mood to a darker tone. My friend tells me things are changing in the village. Something is going on. He finds different tribesmen searching his belongings and things turn up missing. His address book is one of those things missing. The tribe seems quite interested in his life away from the Andes.

[I then state that all communication has been lost with my friend, I bring out the last package sent to me from the region. An old piece of parchment with strange symbols and hand drawn pictures. It appears to be a map of some kind. I can’t tell if this was sent by my friend or not, but I fear it is not his hand that posted this item] I ask everyone to feel the parchment, it is a strange paper old and soft. I fold the paper up and put it away in its envelope. I then think of something and remove it again. I state that I think the paper feels familiar and say, “I realize now that my friend had finally come home.” I turn over the paper and it is seen to be a man’s face with eyes nose and even small bits of hair.

It’s mainly story of course. I believe you need a tag line that was presented earlier in the story to tie it all up in the end.

The face paper is made by taking a piece of paper and placing it on a face form of a zombie mask. I have a “Living faces” zombie mask that came with a clear Plastic form. It’s very detailed and rigid. I crunch the paper on the form and then use golden oak stain to wet the paper. After it has dried I use shoe polish to give it a darker color. When the shoe polish has dried, I use the cheapest grade car wax and saturate the paper. Let dry, then buff. You will need to wax and buff many times. When you have a good color and feel, crumple the paper and open lots and lots of times. I then put the paper back on the form and cut eye, nose and mouth holes. I have toyed with the idea of sewing the holes shut. For the final touch, I use liquid latex and glue crepe hair on the eyebrows and beard and mustache.

You need to glue very small patches of hair at a time to look real. I then shave the beard with an electric razor to give a stubble appearance.

So the spectators don’t find the face to soon, I use the Buddha papers (Thanks Bro Shadow) to switch the face in at the last moment.

Beast wishes, James