ba ba ba ba-ba roomba
You’re hanging out with a friend at your place when the conversation lulls and you find yourselves spacing out watching the roomba playing bumper cars with the furniture. You suggest maybe going for a walk and close out some rings on your Apple watch. As you get ready to leave, you take out some yellow caution tape and make a square on the floor a few feet from the front door.
Your friend is confused, but you tell her you’ll explain it later. As you’re walking, you ask her if she wants to see a trick you’ve been working on. Answer is yes. So you suggest getting some tea or something.
You guys order and settle down at a tea shop. Then at some point, perform Daniel Madison’s Angle Z. Explain to her that you’ve been working on teleporting objects to very specific locations. Remember the caution tape? The center of that square is my target. You vanish the corner.. That’s where the corner is now. Of course, she doesn’t believe you. You give her the rest of the card for safe keeping.
When you get back, unlock the door but let her open it. Tell her to do it slowly to build some suspense. To your surprise, the corner is not there. What?! Damn… it worked last time… You exercise some acting skills acquired from that screen acting zoom class you took during the pandemic lock down. Then it dawns on you… Oh, wait… I forgot to turn off the roomba!
Have her go and find the roomba and open the dustbin… where she’ll find the teleported corner.
I was considering getting a roomba some time ago and thought this would be a fun idea. It’s nothing ground breaking, but certainly makes a simple classic more interesting in a social setting. I still haven’t gotten a roomba yet, but will definitely be doing this once I do.
You’ll need a roomba + cards + caution tape or yellow masking tape + know-how for Angle Z.
I’d think the only other thing is maybe empty out the roomba dustbin beforehand so it’s not super dirty, since it’ll just keep picking up dust.
You don’t necessarily need a roomba to do this. If you know someone with a roomba, and you’ll be visiting them, just plan out how to secretly do the load if you see their roomba zooming around. And bring the caution tape with you. It’s unnecessarily excessive but I think it’s kinda funny you have it just to do this trick. Yellow masking tape could also work- maybe use a thick sharpie and write CAUTION DO NOT CROSS on it or something. Or if you find a way to print on it.
Angle Z is the simplest and best method for the vanish. But, as an alternative, if you want a visual vanish and don’t mind switching out a gimmick, I thought Nicholas Lawrence’s Bermuda is pretty cool. I like the idea, but didn’t quite like the handlings. I also prefer the corner piece to be face down. He does teach you how to make one in the video instructions though. Anyways, I played around with it a little, and here’s where I am with it:
Heads up that ideally, you’ll want to be in a louder environment. So this would be perfect at a bar or noisy cafe.