Comedy Success

Gigi takes the stage.

Comedian Rory Rennick delivered a hit yesterday at the Funnybone Comedy Club in Dayton, Ohio. His family-friendly comedy magic act delighted everyone from preschoolers to adults. In my opinion, not an easy feat. But he made it appear effortless.

He started his act by showing the audience a ketchup bottle in a brown paper bag. He pulled it out of the top of the bag just enough that we could see it, then let it fall back in. He waved his hand magically over the top and said he could make it disappear. Then he looked down into the bag and said he did it. As I watched my 7-year-old niece's face, I saw her eyes and mouth grow wide. She believed him. But Rory, knowing that not all audience members would be as trusting as Gigi, went on with the act.

"The hard part is bringing it back," he confided. He just needed eveyone to say the magic words, "Poopity-Doopity." He waved his hand over the bag again and then triumphantly pulled the bottle out of the bag just enough that we could see it. My niece was enthralled. She'd just witnessed magic. The rest of us were laughing at the joke. Then Rory rounded it up with a little bit of laughter and crumpled up the bag to the disbelief of us all. He'd made the ketchup bottle disappear.

That was the warm-up. The rest of the show was fantastic. But perhaps the greatest testimonial to his show's success occured in the backseat of our car on the way home.

We'd bought Gigi a souvenir magic wand after the show. We didn't realize that it had Rory Rennick's web address and phone number on it, but Gigi didn't miss a thing. She sat in the backseat making plans to call Rory and using the magic wand as both her make-believe phone and wand.

"Hello, Rory? I'm going to make you disappear. Poopity-doopity!"

And a new comedy-magician was born.