Breaking the Magician's Code - Hare from empty hat (Rabbit) - YouTube Breaking the Magician's Code - Hare from empty hat (Rabbit) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Aug 3, 2009 The masked magician reveals how pull a rabit/hare from an empty hat. He shows the hat is empty then pulls a rabit out of it! Then after he shows it, he reaveals it! Category meaning - What does the expression “rabbit-out-of-a-hat” mean? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange marked as duplicate by choster , Matt E. Эллен ♦, Rory Alsop , TrevorD , p.s.w.g Aug 31 '13 at 22:04 This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question . 2 Magicians pulls rabbits out of hats.

In this case I'm assuming that the proof was arrived at my guesswork/intuition/magic -- which is actually quite common in math. – dcaswell Aug 29 '13 at 23:25 2 It is an idiom that can mean to solve a problem in an unexpected way or simply to produce something from nothing, as if by magic. See english.stackexchange.com/questions/26879/… . – choster Aug 29 '13 at 23:28 1 Probably the opposite. The proof required something magical or out of the ordinary, to be completed. – dcaswell Aug 29 '13 at 23:31 1 It is this . – terdon Aug 30 '13 at 0:55 3 @bib Perhaps, but not half so much as it is like a lepus ex petaso. :) – tchrist♦ Aug 30 '13 at 2:06 Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat - TV Tropes Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat You need to login to do this.

Get Known if you don't have an account Share Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat × Bullwinkle: Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Rocky: Again? Bullwinkle: (tears off a shirt sleeve) Nothing up my sleeve. Presto! (reaches hand into hat and pulls out the head of a lion) Bullwinkle: No doubt about it, I gotta get another hat. — Rocky and Bullwinkle One of the stock stage magic tricks, along with Saw a Woman in Half . The essence is very simple: the magician takes off his hat, shows it to be empty, reaches in, and pulls out a rabbit. Ta-da! The trick can also be done to pull out something other than a rabbit, but a White Bunny is the iconic thing. A common way for the trick to go wrong is for the magician to make a mistake and pull out something other than what he intended . Another common twist is for the rabbit to be discovered sitting on the magician's head when he takes his hat off.

In animation, the hat is often depicted as having some kind of Hammerspace portal in it, allowing the magician to stick his arm in up to the shoulder, and can contain much larger and stranger things than a mere rabbit. Rabbits are popular for this trick over other small animals (like, say, a cat) because they're better at sitting still for long periods of time. However, it should be noted that despite how it's commonly depicted, lifting a rabbit by its ears is very painful and could permanently injure them. It's also likely to ruin the act if they freak out. Normally they put the hand under the rabbit's belly. open/close all folders Advertising A commercial for Magic Gushers had a pretty disturbing version of it by having a kid's head transform into a top hat. One pull inside the hat and out pops the head of a rabbit! Anime & Manga In Ranma ï¿½ , Ranma uses magic tricks to insult Mousse's fighting style . Ranma pulls many things like bunnies and doves from "her" sleeves and later has a bunny come out of a top hat.

Comedy In The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien , Elrond tries to give Aragorn the sword Andúril, and winds up pulling out two white rabbits and a dove. Aragorn is bemused; Elrond is rather sheepish. Comic Books The Post-Crisis version of Hoppy The Marvel Bunny came from a dimension of Funny Animals linked to The DCU via a magician's top hat. The magician would then pull terrified bunny citizens out of their world by their ears. Hoppy gained his powers when a suspicious Billy Batson investigated the hat, and said his magic word just as the magician pushed him in. In a 1990s Dork Age version of Challengers of the Unknown , this was the first thing Ace attempted when he was reinvented as a mystic. Since one of his teammates was actually named Rocky, he even used the Bullwinkle quote. Played with in a Cattivik story: two rabbits (a male one and a female one) jumps out of a magician top hat, and proceed to make out. Cattivik looks inside the hat and after getting out three panels later he find out that the rabbit had a lot of babies meanwhile.

One Monica's Gang story involving Monica getting a giant bunny (actually Jimmy Five and Smudge in disguise) for her birthday had her father attempt this with her plush bunny Samson. In one Doctor Strange story, his lover/disciple Clea pulled a rabbit out of a hat (while making it sound like she was about to perform some impressive feat of sorcery) to get him to smile. . Try to focus on the rabbit . Fan Works In Night Of Rime , the main character uses this trope to solve the problem of an old nemesis and a Phyrexian infestation simultaneously by intentionally pulling something less pleasant than a rabbit. He plunged his arm into the accessory up to his elbow, and with a furrowing of his eyebrows, wrenched forth a fist full of tentacles. The ancient horror birthed its way into the realm through the tightly stretched brim. In Turnabout Storm , when Trixie pulls the obligatory Ace Attorney prosecutor breakdown , she headdesks and her wizard hat falls off her head. Cue a rabbit coming out of her hat on its own before jumping its way offscreen. In Busting Boasts , Trixie turns this trick Up to Eleven .

First she considers pulling a rabbit out of a hat, then a dragon out of her hat. She settles on pulling a rabbit out of a dragon. Films — Animated This is part of Tatischeff's stage act in The Illusionist . In Hoodwinked , when Wolf and Twitchy are trying to figure out how to get to Granny's house to intercept Red Puckett, Boingo shows up, asking if they are going there to throw a surprise birthday party for Red because he's great at parties. He says, "Watch me pull myself out of a hat!" and forcefully scratches his right ear against his head with a very pained look on his face. In The Secret Life of Pets , Snowball's backstory is that he was a magician's rabbit who was abandoned when the rabbit-in-the-hat trick grew stale and unpopular. Films — Live-Action In Night of the Demon , an investigating psychologist visits devil-cult leader Karswell at his palatial estate, and finds him playing a magician to a party of children, pulling puppies out of his top hat. How could he possibly be evil? In Twilight Zone: The Movie , Reality Warper Anthony forces one of his "family" members to do this trick.

To everyone's obvious surprise and relief, the resulting rabbit seems normal enough... at first . Literature In G. K. Chesterton 's Father Brown story "The Absence of Mr Glass", when explaining Mr. Todhunter, Father Brown observes that a hat which does not fit him is none the less his hat — because he is a Stage Magician . "What could Todhunter get out of this one old hat?" "Rabbits," replied Father Brown promptly. "What?" cried Dr Hood. "Rabbits, ribbons, sweetmeats, goldfish, rolls of coloured paper," The Pilo Family Circus naturally has a magician perform this trick on show day. Unfortunately, Mugabo is a real magician with real magical powers, and feels more than a little degraded by having to perform it. Naturally, he lets the audience know this by detonating the rabbit all over them. Harry Potter : In the first book, when Harry sees the Sorting Hat for the first time he wonders if they're supposed to get a rabbit out of it.

In the third book, Harry visits a magical pet store, where "a fat white rabbit kept changing into a silk top hat and back again with a loud popping noise." Pottermore reveals that the Fat Friar was executed by senior churchmen for two major slip-ups - curing the pox by poking people with his wand, and pulling rabbits out of the communion cup. The children's book Pretty Good Magic is about a magician named Presto who has this as part of his act, but he only gets called "pretty good" because while his tricks do work, they're not overly impressive or he fumbles some part of it. He gets upset about this and tries out a bigger magic spell that ends up producing dozens of rabbits from his hat. Unfortunately, there's no reverse spell to make all the rabbits go back into the hat. Hilarity Ensues . Inverted as a gag in the Nightside series, where one of the bar patrons at Strangefellows had evidently pissed off the rabbit he'd used in this act. His top hat now sits atop the bar, from which a human hand occasionally extends to receive a consoling drink.

While visiting Egypt in the Doctor Who New Adventures novel All-Consuming Fire, the Doctor is buttonholed by a conjurer who does a series of tricks with baby chickens, including making them appear and disappear. When he pauses in expectation of payment, the Doctor pulls a rabbit out of his own hat and hands it to him. (How he manages this when he presumably had no idea in advance that a rabbit would be called for is never explained.) Live Action TV On the Doug Henning episode of The Muppet Show , Fozzie Bear attempts to perform his own magic by pulling the old rabbit hat trick. However, being Fozzie, he has some trouble with it; he pulls out a rabbi, followed by a robot. Fozzie then hits the hat too hard, and suddenly dozens of rabbits come bouncing out of the hat. In a Muppet sketch on Sesame Street , Grover watches as the Amazing Mumford tries to produce a rabbit from his hat. Neither of them is aware that Grover is gradually taking on the features of a rabbit. In a more recent episode, Professor D. Rabbit agrees to be pulled out of Mumford's hat if Mumford allows the roles to be reversed afterward.

An unfortunate rabbit who had faithfully served for years being pulled out of a hat didn't survive in the "Oh Oh It's Magic" episode of Pushing Daisies . Dr. Cox in Scrubs actually reveals this trick to Turk and a bunch of children to "rob their innocence." Hilda teaches Sabrina a version of this with real magic in Sabrina the Teenage Witch . Zelda is not impressed: That's the oldest trick in the book. That's so old, mortals are doing it! The Wild Wild West : A gypsy magician is shown struggling with this trick at the end of "The Night of the Gypsy Peril". Artie steps in to show him how it's done. The Vanity Plate for the production company Hat Trick depicts a rabbit pulling a man out of a hat. The Artistic Title sequence for The Frank Sinatra Show (ABC), designed by Saul Bass , is based around different symbols coming out of a hat. Inevitably, a rabbit appears at one point. Music A rabbit from my hat Wait, that's not a rabbit Oooh!

Don't touch that The cover of Helloween 's album Rabbit Don't Come Easy depicts a magician trying to do this trick, but the rabbit is fighting back. Newspaper Comics In one Mandrake the Magician story, Mandrake did a magic show for a group of school children in which he appeared to pull an elephant out of his hat (it started out tiny, grew to normal size, and then shrank again as he put it back). When the school bully suggested that he'd merely used an elephant-shaped balloon, Mandrake stuck him into the hat, and invited the rest of the children to look into the hat and watch him being chased around by the tiny elephant. A What's New? with Phil and Dixie strip about live action role-playing talked about how magicians get the short end of the stick. The strip showed a stage magician telling one of his teammates how his 'useless' magic tricks had just saved their lives. The teammate then asked what he was going to do when he ran out of rabbits and pulled back to show the magician pulling rabbits out of his hat to feed to the monster that was attacking them.

Pinball The "Hat Magic" illusion in Theatre of Magic , where the magician produces a rabbit, doves, and a telephone(!). Inverted in Capcom 's Pinball Magic ; the Skill Shot requires the player to shoot the pinball into the hat. In The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends , Bullwinkle tries to do this trick on the backglass. He ends up producing either a rhino, a lion, or Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Role-Playing Games Dungeons & Dragons has the bag of tricks, from which you can pull all manner of fauna (roll percentile dice). Apparently, they come out as little furballs that expand to full size. Of course, one could always put the bag in a hat. Red Dragon Inn has Pooky, the psychotic rabbit familiar of Zot the Wizard, whose 'impress the others' move is " Pooky pulls Zot out of a hat! " Video Games The picture on this page is from the Avernum series. While pulling rabbits out of hats was never done in-game, assuming that magic in game is only stated for combat/support uses, it could be done in universe. Mortal Kombat II : This is Kung Lao's friendship move.

It's later done in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks as two of Kung Lao's fatalities, the rabbit horribly mauling the opponent in one of them, while the other one just involves him beating them to death with the said rabbit . In the Sega Genesis version of Ghostbusters (1990) , you encounter the Silk Hatton (?), who can pull a deranged, chihuahua-looking ghost rabbit out of his hat. Referenced in Majesty , by one of the Easter Egg voice clips that can be heard by selecting a unit or buyilding and pressing Shift + 2. (In other words, the quotation mark key.) Try it on the Wizards Guild building: "Hey, Randolph! Watch me pull a rock golem outta my hat!" Don't Starve : The Prestihatitator, a machine that is basically a magic top hat, has a chance of spawning a rabbit each time it is used. Web Comics Dave: Watch me pull a rabbit out of this bag full of rabbits. Web Original One Cyanide & Happiness video had a magician offer to pull out whatever a group of children wanted from his hat. He hands out a balloon and a toy race car.

Then a kid asks for a little brother, and he pulls out a foetus much to everybody's (including his) horror. Western Animation A famous Running Gag on Rocky and Bullwinkle had Bullwinkle try to do this trick for Rocky, but instead, ends up pulling out either a bear, a lion, a rhinoceros, a tiger and finally (after the camera went into a dramatic close-up on the hat) Rocky himself! Montana Max: AND NOTHING IN YOUR HEAD! An episode of the Garfield cartoon had Jon attempting to perform this trick, with Garfield (in a rabbit suit) as the rabbit. The real rabbit had ditched Jon because he couldn't stand being pulled by the ears. In another episode, Jon and Garfield visit a magic shop. The owner said that he knew every trick except pulling a top hat out of a rabbit. When Jon mentions it's the other way around, the owner cries "That's why that trick never worked!". The Bump in the Night episode "Hocus Dopus" involved Bumpy trying to perform this trick in order to cheer up a sick Squishy. Zatanna plays with this in an episode of Justice League Unlimited during her show.

She reaches into the hat, wondering aloud where " Bugs " is, then suddenly, a giant hand descends from the ceiling and grabs a member of the audience. Zatanna pulls the man (now tiny, of course) out of her hat, then turns him back to normal. In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Show Stoppers," Snips and Snails perform a variation on this trick by placing the hat on top of the rabbit and having it be replaced by a bunch of carrots. However, when the time comes, the carrots fail to appear, due to Snails getting the munchies. In the season 6 finale "To Where and Back Again Part 2", Discord mocks Trixie by using his powers to pull another Trixie out of her magician hat. The Rankin Bass version of Frosty the Snowman had the evil magician trying to pull Hocus Pocus the rabbit out of his hat. At first, he isn't there, then he jumps off and runs off with the hat, leading to it being found and put on Frosty. The rest of the show is the magician trying to chase down Frosty, the kids and Hocus to get his hat back.

In one episode of CatDog , it's inverted (and lampshaded) when Rancid Rabbit pulls a magician out of a hat. Timon & Pumbaa : Timon teams up with a large fat rabbit, and they both become ridiculously famous with this trick. However the rabbit tries to get rid of Pumba from Timon. In the Superfriends episode "Superfriends Rest In Peace", The Riddler pauses in the middle of a battle to pull a rabbit out of a hat. When Batman asks what the point of that was, the rabbit turns monstrous and grabs him . Batman quickly steals Riddler's magic wand, dispels the rabbit, and traps Riddler in the hat. This was the source of many headaches for Tracy the Gorilla on Filmation's Ghostbusters . He would reach in, intending to grab a rabbit, but would get a babbling ghost instead, which he would then irritably shove back into the hat. The Fairly OddParents : Timmy's Dad is such a horrible magician that he can't even get this trick right until Timmy wishes for his father to be a true magician. His acts then become bigger and fancier incarnations of pulling rabbits out of hats.

In one episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh , Piglet is trying to become a magician with little success, especially with this trick. At the end of the episode, he believes he has gotten the trick down, and much to his surprise, he pulls out...a clone of himself! The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy : The episode "Tween Wolf" opens with a parody of the Rocky and Bullwinkle gag in which Grim tries to pull a werewolf out of a hat, and instead producing...a rabbit. Annoyed, Mandy throws the hat outside, at which the werewolf does come out and attacks Irwin, kicking off the episode's plot. Grim: I guess I should have waited for a full moon. Real Life Harry Blackstone Sr. is credited to be the first magician to pull a rabbit out of a hat. On a sidenote: One way to perform the trick is by hiding the rabbit under a false lining, so that you can show the audience there's nothing in the hat before pulling the rabbit out. Why rabbits? Because they sit still enough to keep the lining from shifting and giving it away.

One book of simple magic tricks advised the budding magician to carry chocolate raisins at all times. When asked to pull a rabbit out of a hat, you palm the raisins, drop them in the hat, then dump them out and say "Well, there was a rabbit in there..." :: Indexes :: Episode 421: Doug Henning | Muppet Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Episode 421: Doug Henning UK: March 14, 1980 US: May 1, 1980 While practicing for a magic act sketch, Fozzie pulls out a bunch of rabbits from a hat who adopt him as their "daddy" while constantly ruining his own attempts at magic. Contents Fozzie's Monologues : "Fozzie's Magic Act" Doug performs a trick with Doglion and the Bird Dancers Episode Picture Description Cold Open : Doug is rehearsing a magic act in his dressing room and invites Scooter to watch. He performs a trick with four seashells and his bare hands.

Scooter says, "Your magic feats are amazing!" To which Doug replies, "Well, I thank you, and my magic feets thank you" revealing a pair of Muppet sneakers on his feet. " The Muppet Show Theme ": Gonzo blows his trumpet and his body begins to fade away. Upon this realizes, he wishes the audience goodbye, and disappears in a blink. From Kermit 's introduction written by her, Miss Piggy sings " It's Magic " while Kermit appears and disappears. Backstage , dressed in full magician's attire, Fozzie Bear attempts to pull a rabbit out of a hat for Robin the Frog . His first two attempts produce a rabbi and a robot . Frustrated, he shouts down into the hat asking where the rabbit is. "He's asleep," a voice shouts back. Tapping his wand on the hat brim, a rabbit comes shooting out, nearly hitting the ceiling. He's followed by a seemingly endless stream of rabbits that continue to fly out of the hat. Panicked, Fozzie runs off to find Kermit. The rabbits chase after him, now referring to him as "Daddy". Accompanied by two Mutations , Doug recruits an assistant for his magic act.

The assistant is placed inside a box constructed of four pieces, into which metal sheets are inserted. Doug and the Mutations pull the pieces apart, dance around with them a bit, and then put them back together. As they open the doors to reveal the assistant, his head and waist have swapped places. Doug and the Mutations take a bow, but the assistant is furious and chases the magician off stage. Backstage, Fozzie takes another turn at entertaining Robin with magic. Using a gold handkerchief, Fozzie makes an egg disappear. Robin is impressed at what he calls real magic, but one of the bunnies reveals that the egg is just under Fozzie's hat. Defeated, Fozzie removes his hat to reveal the egg, disappointing Robin to learn it was only a trick. Robin goes to the dressing room to find Doug. The room is empty, prompting Robin to wonder if he made himself invisible. In wonder of all the magic props, Robin sings " Leave Me Some Magic ". In Veterinarian's Hospital , bunnies keep coming out of the operating table, echoing Fozzie's magic trick gone wrong.

UK Spot : Fozzie, still being followed around by the rabbits, tells a farmer he can have them, until the farmer starts shooting them with a shotgun. Singing " Run Rabbit Run ", the farmer chases the rabbits around backstage while Fozzie tries to protect them. The farmer ultimately declares that he may just settle for roast bear. Doug returns to his dressing room and almost sits on Robin, still there from before. Robin is still upset about not having found any real magic, but Doug tries to convince him that all he has to do is believe in his own magic and nothing will be impossible. To demonstrate, he makes some tissue dance around in a bottle. The Switcheroos sing " There'll Be Some Changes Made ". Their act consists of dancing around in front of a tree while they instantly transform their costumes in a blink. The transformations eventually lead to changing their heads into babies and old ladies . Fozzie's Comedy Act : Fozzie attempts the "Famous Indian Rope" trick. As he plays his pungi, the rabbits watch the rising rope closely (which is very obviously attached to a string). Looking above them to the fly system grid, they spot Scooter , and shout to him to be careful.

Fozzie gets upset, knocking his hat off and revealing a hatched chick where the egg used to be. Ending his act, Fozzie picks up his props which pulls Scooter down from the grid, landing on Fozzie and making him go cross-eyed . Kermit introduces Doug's "most famous illusion" for which Doug says he needs a volunteer to examine the trunk on stage. Doglion joins him and the Bird Dancers , demonstrating the sturdiness of the trunk. Doug invites a female Bird Dancer to submit to hand shackles, being tied up in a cloth bag, and locked inside the trunk. Doug stands on the trunk which has been hidden behind a curtain, and performs what he calls "metamorphosis". He ducks down behind the curtain while the Bird Dancer pops up and drops the curtain revealing the locked trunk. Doglion and the Dancers unlock the trunk to reveal Doug in the same hand shakles, having changed his costume. Closing out the show, Doug calls out Fozzie as an incredible magician. The rabbits follow him, for which he apologizes. "Oh, that's okay. I love rabbits, too" Doug replies.

Misunderstanding him, one of the rabbits exclaims in fear, "You love rabbit stew?!" After the credits, a rabbit joins Statler and Waldorf in their box and parodies Porky Pig's "That's all folks" from the end of many Looney Tunes cartoons. Waldorf hits him over the head with a gavel. Cast Muppets: Magician Hat | eBay Vintage Magic Tricks About Magician Hats When you picture a magician, you likely imagine a man pulling a rabbit out of a top hat. Magician hats play an integral part of these enchanted routines. Whether you are putting together a magician costume for a party or if you want to put on a show of your own, the hat is a key element. Fortunately, you can find a very wide variety of magician hats on eBay. These iconic top hats are available in new or gently used condition by reliable sellers. These hats allow you to become any character you desire. If you want to be a sinister magician, for example, you may choose a dark magician hat in black satin with black or red trim. If you are interested in playing the part of Houdini at a costume party, a vintage magician hat might serve you well.

There are hats available that do more than make a fashion statement. You can find collapsible hats, hats that come with plush rabbits, as well as hats that are part of elaborate magic kits. Everything you need to create the perfect illusion is represented. Watch him pull a USDA-mandated rabbit disaster plan out of his hat - The Washington Post Watch him pull a USDA-mandated rabbit disaster plan out of his hat The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! Meet Marty the Magician: View Photos His rabbit already has to have a license. Now he has to have a written strategy for any bunny peril. Caption For Marty the Magician, Washington’s reach extends all the way to the rabbit he pulls out of his hat. He is required to have a license and a disaster plan for the animal. July 12, 2013 Marty Hahne, a magician from Ozark, Mo., has a rabbit that he pulls out of his hat during his magic acts.

The Agriculture Department requires him to have a license for that rabbit as well as a written disaster plan. Julie Denesha/For The Washington Post This summer, Marty the Magician got a letter from the U.S. government . It began with six ominous words: “Dear Members of Our Regulated Community . . .” Washington had questions about his rabbit. Again. Marty Hahne , 54, does magic shows for kids in southern Missouri. For his big finale, he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. Or out of a picnic basket. Or out of a tiny library, if he’s doing his routine about reading being magical. To do that, Hahne has an official U.S. government license. Not for the magic. For the rabbit. The Agriculture Department requires it, citing a decades-old law that was intended to regulate zoos and circuses. Today, the USDA also uses it to regulate much smaller “animal exhibitors,” even the humble one-bunny magician. Watch Marty the Magician pull a white rabbit out of the “elusive bunny box.” (The Washington Post) That was what the letter was about. The government had a new rule .

To keep his rabbit license, Hahne needed to write a rabbit disaster plan . “Fire. Flood. Tornado. Air conditioning going out. Ice storm. Power failures,” Hahne said, listing a few of the calamities for which he needed a plan to save the rabbit. Or maybe not. Late Tuesday, after a Washington Post article on Hahne was posted online, the Agriculture Department announced that the disaster-plan rule would be reexamined. “ Secretary [Tom] Vilsack asked that this be reviewed immediately and common sense be applied,” department spokeswoman Courtney Rowe said in an e-mail message. Rowe said that Vilsack had ordered the review “earlier this week.” But it was not announced until 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Just hours before — at 5:50 p.m. — the department had been vigorously defending the rule, with another spokeswoman praising its “flexibility,” saying it was designed to accommodate even a small-time operation such as a magician and a rabbit.

For Hahne, the saga has provided a lesson in one of Washington’s bad old habits — the tendency to pile new rules on top of old ones, with officials using good intentions and vague laws to expand the reach of the federal bureaucracy. In this case, Washington’s reach extended into a place that — as far as the audience knows — does not exist. That would be the hidden “load chamber” inside Marty the Magician’s hat. Where Casey the licensed rabbit waits for his cue. “Our country’s broke,” Hahne said. “And yet they have money and time to harass somebody about a rabbit.” Hahne is a slight man with the stage persona of an exuberant doofus — he seems continually surprised by his own tricks. He has been doing magic shows full time for 27 years, on cruise ships and on land. That means he has experienced most of the troubles a magician can expect: overexcited kids who wet themselves after he brought them onstage. A shipboard drunk who threw up on his props. A rabbit so mean it growled. But he did not expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “She said, ‘Show me your license.’ And I said, ‘License for . .

.?’ ” Hahne recounted. This was after a 2005 show at a library in Monett, Mo. Among the crowd of parents and kids, there was a woman with a badge. A USDA inspector. “She said, ‘For your rabbit.’ ” Hahne was busted. He had to get a license or lose the rabbit. He got the license. (The inspector did not respond to a request to tell her side of the story­.) In the past decade, the same thing has happened to other children’s magicians across the country, according to Mark Daniel, president of the trade association KIDabra . (“That’s a play on the word ‘ abracadabra ,’ ” Daniel said.) He has heard from 10. They checked and were surprised. It was the law. “It was on the books 40 years,” Daniel said. “And nobody knew anything.” The story behind it illustrates the reality of how American laws get made. First Congress passes a bill, laying out the broad strokes. Then bureaucrats write regulations to execute those intentions. And then, often, they keep on writing them. And writing them.

In this case, the long road to regulated rabbits began in 1965 — when Capitol Hill was captivated with the story of a dognapped Dalmatian named Pepper. The dog had been stolen from its family, used in medical research and killed. After an outcry, Congress passed a law that required licenses for laboratories that use dogs and cats in research. In 1970, Congress passed an amendment that extended the law’s reach. It now covered a variety of other animals. And it covered animal “exhibitors,” in addition to labs. At the time, legislators seemed focused on large facilities with lots of animals: “circuses, zoos, carnivals, roadshows and wholesale pet dealers,” said then-Rep. Tom Foley (D-Wash.) , a major backer and later speaker of the House. But the letter of the law was broad. In theory, it could apply to someone who “exhibited” any animals as part of a show. Apparently, it does. Hahne has an official USDA license, No. 43-C-0269, for Casey — a three-pound Netherland dwarf rabbit with a look of near-fatal boredom.

The rules require Hahne to pay $40 a year, take Casey to the vet and submit to surprise inspections of his home. Also, if Hahne plans to take the rabbit out of town for an extended period, he must submit an itinerary to the USDA. The 1966 law that started all of this was four pages long . Now, the USDA has 14 pages of regulations just for rabbits. But not all rabbits. Animals raised for meat are exempt from these rules. “You’re telling me I can kill the rabbit right in front of you,” Hahne says he asked an inspector, “but I can’t take it across the street to the birthday party” without a license? Also, the law applies only to warmblooded animals. If Hahne were pulling an iguana out of his hat — no license required. Now, he needs both a license and a disaster plan. This new rule was first proposed by the USDA in 2006 under President George W. Bush. Its inspiration was Hurricane Katrina, in which animals from pet dogs to cattle to lab mice were abandoned in the chaos. Now, all licensed exhibitors would need to have a written plan to save their animals.

The government asked for public comments in 2008. It got 997. Just 50 commenters were in favor of the rule as written. But that, apparently, was enough. After a years-long process, the rule took effect Jan. 30. So who, exactly, made the decision to implement the rule? An Agriculture Department spokeswoman declined to give a name. “There was no one person who proposed the regulation or who determined it should be a regulation instead of non-binding guidance,” spokeswoman Tanya Espinosa said by e-mail. She said the agency sought to address commenters’ concerns. “Regulations are issued and enforced by the Agency.” But then, late Tuesday, the USDA announced that it will reexamine this rule that it had spent so many years crafting. “As soon as this issue was brought to Secretary Vilsack’s attention, he asked for it to be reviewed,” said Rowe, the other department spokeswoman. The department said its review will focus on the way the disaster-plan rule is being applied to small operations such as Hahne’s. But officials could not provide details about what the review will involve. Or how long it will take.

For now, the law still says plans are supposed to be done by July 29. Even before the USDA announced its review, not every magician seemed to be taking the job seriously. “I’ll take a piece of paper and put down, ‘Note: Take rabbit with you when you leave,’ ” said Gary Maurer , a magician with a licensed rabbit in South Carolina. “That’s my plan.” But Hahne has obtained professional help. Kim Morgan , who has written disaster plans for entire federal agencies, heard about his case and volunteered to help write the rabbit’s plan for free. So far, the plan she has written is 28 pages . “That’s pretty short,” given what the USDA asked for, Morgan said. She covered many of the suggested calamities: chemical leaks, floods, tornadoes, heat waves. But she was able to skip over some concerns that might apply to larger animals. If the rabbit escapes, “it’s not going to bite people,” Morgan said. There was probably no need to describe how to subdue Casey with tranquilizer darts or coax her off the highway.

“It’s not going to stop traffic and cause car accidents.” When Hahne’s plan is finally ready, it will go into the envelope where he keeps his rabbit license. On one recent day, that envelope was on the dashboard, as Hahne drove to a gig at Little Angels Learning Academy in Battlefield, Mo. Casey was in the back, inside a travel cage. On the side were ­USDA-mandated stickers, to show which direction was up. “Do you want to see a magical place right now?” Hahne later asked the preschoolers, building up to his big finish. “It says, ‘Library.’ Everybody say, ‘Library!’ ” Hahne had already done his warm-up tricks: The wand that magically falls apart. The wristbands that link themselves together. The picture that turns from black-and-white to color. It was time for the finale. He had brought out a box labeled “Library,” one of the 14 tricks that he uses to make a rabbit appear. The box appeared empty. Of course. Then Hahne opened a hidden compartment. And there — magically — was Casey. “Bunny!” The children squealed and pointed. The rabbit hopped, looking slightly less bored than usual.

After the show, Hahne put Casey back in her case and drove home. His wife, Brenda, asked how it went. He told her there’d been no disasters. “The show went well,” he said. “Nobody peed onstage.” politics 'Magician' pulls rabbit out of Dr. Seuss hat in Syracuse courtroom | syracuse.com 'Magician' pulls rabbit out of Dr. Seuss hat in Syracuse courtroom comments Syracuse, NY -- A man pulled a rabbit out of a Dr. Seuss hat Tuesday afternoon during Syracuse City Court. Upon inspection by court security, it turned out to be stuffed. But it caused a disruption nevertheless, especially when the man started dancing it on a railing, said Sean Egan, chief of court security for the Fifth Judicial District. A rumor going around the courthouse said the animal was real, but Egan said that was not true. "A gentleman did actually pull a bunny out of a hat," Egan said. "It was a stuffed animal. He's kind of a character." Aside from his Dr. Seuss hat, the man also wore several dead roses, Egan said. Security ushered the man outside the courtroom, where they found out that he had missed an appearance Monday.

The self-styled magician said that he would pull evidence out of his hat, like the bunny, Egan said. After a conversation, the man left the courthouse with the promise that he'd be back. The entire episode took place without the judge's knowledge. There are chairs and tables with lawyers separating the gallery from the judge's bench. Contacted today, City Court Judge Venessa Bogan said she didn't see any of what happened. Egan did not know the man's identity and the judge's staff did not have his information because he wasn't expected to be in court that day. Syracuse City Court handles everything from misdemeanors and traffic violations to minor civil cases. Egan said odd cases are bound to happen because security screens a quarter-million people a year entering Onondaga County courthouses. *MAGIC* I can't pull a rabbit out of a hat, but... - YouTube *MAGIC* I can't pull a rabbit out of a hat, but... Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Aug 4, 2016 I'll make a [BLANK] out of you! Category

Question: Traditionally, a magician pulls what out of a hat?
Answer: Rabbit