Here's a great opener for banquets, meetings. etc. And all you'll
need is a paper bag and a bottle of beer or other beverage.

Bold Bottle Production

The effect
You walk out in front of the audience holding a small, folded paper lunch bag (sack). After rapping it on your fingers a few times, you deftly open it up. Following some jokes and audience interaction, you proceed to produce a full bottle of beer from inside the bag.

Background
Anyone who ever saw Bob Read produce a bottle of wine, knows the incredible audience impact of producing a real bottle seemingly from nowhere during your performance. For the magician who does not work with doves or other livestock; a bottle is the kind of item you can produce that is above suspicion, since the audience recognizes that it doesn't fold, collapse, compress down, etc.

The method that follows does not use a "body load" and requires just a paper lunch bag, adapted to suit our needs of course, and a bottle of beer or any other bottled beverage that is the right size (a couple of inches shorter than the bag) and shape. Oh yes, you'll also need a table or other flat surface to conceal the bottle prior to the steal. The bottle is placed to the back of the table with a few taller props in front. You must have enough space between the bottle and the props to comfortably set down the bag in front of the bottle. If you're right handed, the bottle should be toward the left edge with you standing on the left side of the table. Watch your angles. While the handling isn't difficult, it does take practice to do smoothly. What's more, the timing and misdirection are critical to the success of this effect. More on that in a moment.

Preparation
Cut a circular shape - about 3" in diameter (about 1/2" larger than the bottle) - from the back of the bag. The "back" being the side of the bag that the bottom does not fold in front of. The cut-out should be centered as much as possible and be about 4" from the bottom, as shown in Photo 1.

Handling
We'll assume the bottle is set-up on your table, as already discussed. Fold the prepared bag in half, cut-out covered by the fold. To perform, walk out holding the bag or pick it up at some point in your performance. Rap the folded bag against the fingers a few times to reinforce that it's just an ordinary paper bag and it's clearly empty without saying so. Grasp the top of the bag and allow it to unfold downward. Then, reach inside the bag with your right hand and open the bag out. Once that's done, transfer the grip to your right hand - fingers go inside the bag with the thumb on the outside. Take care, of course, to keep the bag level with the front to the audience (cut-out facing you). If you go in for tongue-in-cheek comedy, you can mention that since you're using a paper bag for this trick, "no expense has been spared" to entertain the audience this evening.

You're now ready for the steal; which must be done smoothly, without looking, and with strong misdirection (in the form of a diversion). We'll leave that up to you. You can ask a spectator in the audience a question, request something, etc. Make sure to look directly at the spectator and establish eye contact. The audience's eyes will follow yours. Also, remember to keep any request logical and consistent with your presentation. Any other stratagem that will divert the audience's attention for a few seconds will also work.

Here are the mechanics of the steal. With the right hand, place the bag over the bottle - so the neck goes into the hole. Photo 2 shows your view with the right hand removed for clarity. Next, push down with the right thumb and then grip the bottle - pressing it with the right fingers against the interior of the bag. See Photo 3. This action with the right thumb assures that the bottom of the bottle will not show from underneath - by raising up the point at which the bottle is held. As mentioned earlier, keep the front of the bag to the audience. Photo 4 shows the audience's view following the steal. The angles aren't bad, but you must be mindful not to turn your wrist to the side and flash the bottle.

After the steal, step away from your table and create some time misdirection between the steal and the production with patter, audience interaction, etc. In other words, don't be in a hurry to produce the bottle. The more time you take, the more amazed your audience will be.

To produce the bottle, your left hand grips the bag from the left side, and your right fingers pull the bottle upward. As soon as your right thumb clears the back of the bag, it too helps grip the bottle as it is pulled the rest of the way out of the bag. See Photo 5. One point here, a more natural way to produce the bottle might seem to rest the bottom of the bag and bottle (behind) on the left fingers, as the right hand reaches inside and produces it. However, that action can cause you to flash the bottom of the bottle from under the bag prior to the production.