Balloon Trombone
By Ralph Dewey
Back in July, 2001 while I was at the Fellowship of Christian Magicians convention, I
participated in a balloon orchestra as part of the evening show. We made balloon instruments
and pretended to play to a tune. It turned out to be one of the hits of the week. We even got
a standing ovation. One of the instruments that I decided to make was a trombone. One that
actually had a working slide. Here is how I made it. You will need four #260 balloons and one
6″ Geo Blossom balloon to make the trombone. To make the hole in the Geo larger, first place
two fingers inside it and then inflate it fully. Tie off the nozzle.
end of the #260 into the hole. You may have to squeeze the balloon so that the nozzle end inflates
on the other side of the hole. Twist a 1″ bubble so that it will stay in place. You may want to
wrap the knot under the bubble to hide it. Twist off about 30″ and then a 1″ bubble. Ear twist
the 1″ bubble. Tie the knot from the Geo to the ear twist. Twist off a 3″ bubble and a 1″ bubble.
Ear twist the 1″ bubble. Discard any excess balloon.
inch bubble and let out the air. Tie a knot at the twist. Inflate a �” bubble then tie off the
nozzle end. This will be the part that you keep in your mouth. It will help keep your lips
against the trombone as you swing to the music. Twist off a 4″ bubble and twist connect it to the
last 1″ ear twist on the first #260 balloon. Tie a knot at the end of the inflated part of the
second #260 balloon. Trim off the excess balloon.
bubble and a 1″ bubble. Ear twist the 1″ bubble. Repeat until you have four sets. Trim off the
excess balloon. Tie the nozzle to the last 1″ ear twist. This forms a square balloon shape.
shape. Attach one end of it to the square balloon shape and the other end to the opposing corner
of the square balloon shape.
Corny Eyeball Balloon Gags
* You can make some juggling balls from the Qualatex 5″ Eyeball balloons by filling them with water
to only about 2 inches. “Want to see me cross my eyes?” Start juggling the eyeballs using the
cascade pattern. “This is really an eye catching act, isn’t it? Want to be my pupil? If you are
interested, maybe later I can teach you how to juggle these eyeballs. Watch out, because if you
don’t do it just right, you can make a spectacle out of yourself. I learned how to do this from
watching the TV show, 20/20. Hang in there folks because the jokes just keep getting CORNEA and
CORNEA.”
* You can do imitations with the eyeballs. For Ice cream [eye scream], place one on each cheek
then give out a yell. For “Aye, Captain”, salute the eyeballs. For a walk-around gag of the
Eiffel Tower, stuff a clear #350 with several eyeball balloons and hold it up vertically or attach
it to a 6″ Geo Blossom.
your act say, “OOPS, I’m an EYE DROPPER.” Place one of the eyeballs on someone’s hand and say,
“Look, we just made EYE CONTACT.” Mark an eyeball balloon with a single army chevron for a PRIVATE
EYE.
* Have three sizes of eyeballs, small, medium and large. Present them as “baby eye, mamma eye and
POPEYE! To add an extra surprise, you can have “Something” printed on a round balloon inside the
large eyeball. Of course, this has to be done in advance. You can pop the large eye balloon as an
imitation of Popeye, then say, “I knew I had something in my eye!”
hand and an inflated latex glove in the other hand. Wave them both up and down quickly. Then say,
“Alright you decide, which one is quicker?”
* Inflate two 5″ eyeball balloons to about 2 inches and tie their nozzles together. Inflate an 11″
round balloon to about 75% and tie off. Twist off a 2″ bubble next to the knot. Attach the two
eyeballs to the bubble by twist connecting them. Using a black marker, print “JESUS” on the 11″
round balloon. “This reminds me of an important verse from the Bible, Hebrews 12:2 (TLB) which
says, ‘Keep your eyes on Jesus, our leader and instructor. He was willing to die a shameful death
on the cross because of the joy he knew would be His afterwards; and now He sits in the place of
honor by the throne of God.'” Too often we have ‘I’ problems. ‘I’ want to do things my way, or
‘I’ want only what makes me happy. When we turn our lives over to Jesus and keep our eyes on him,
we see how to find true joy and happiness.”
