I watched the bottle trick over and over, baffled every time, and finally I noticed Caesar was clinking his drinking glass against the bottle cap to make the sound, but never the bottle. So I think the bottle itself is rubber or something else squishable, but with a real bottle cap that's solid enough to "clink" with the drinking glass, and the sound is a misdirection/trick to make us think it's a glass bottle. And then of course Carl Reiner has two real open bottles in his pockets the whole time. Sorry if this was obvious to everyone but me, but it was a very effective little trick, and hilarious the way Reiner makes the bottle disappear while casually talking. The disappearing finger trick is hilarious, and one I've done myself, since seeing these two reenact it on the Caesar's Writers special... but I still don't know how it's done! ;)
I think you're absolutely right! There were a number of "Professor on Magic" sketches on YSOS (that's where this date came from), but, given the sign, this is from Caesar's Hour. Unfortunately, I don't know the date, but will try to find out. Glad you're enjoying the sketches! --kjh
Is the actor who plays the son here Hamilton Camp? He would've been about 22 in 1956. The voice we hear here sounds remarkably like the one Camp used as the German mad scientist Professor Chromedome in the cartoon The Tick forty years after this.
![SID CAESAR: Break Your Brains [SPOOF] (CAESAR'S HOUR, Apr 16 1957)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XpoR9dblJvs/mqdefault.jpg)
I watched the bottle trick over and over, baffled every time, and finally I noticed Caesar was clinking his drinking glass against the bottle cap to make the sound, but never the bottle. So I think the bottle itself is rubber or something else squishable, but with a real bottle cap that's solid enough to "clink" with the drinking glass, and the sound is a misdirection/trick to make us think it's a glass bottle. And then of course Carl Reiner has two real open bottles in his pockets the whole time. Sorry if this was obvious to everyone but me, but it was a very effective little trick, and hilarious the way Reiner makes the bottle disappear while casually talking.
The disappearing finger trick is hilarious, and one I've done myself, since seeing these two reenact it on the Caesar's Writers special... but I still don't know how it's done!
;)
Great clip! But I think you might be wrong about the airdate, since the sign behind them says 1956.
I think you're absolutely right! There were a number of "Professor on Magic" sketches on YSOS (that's where this date came from), but, given the sign, this is from Caesar's Hour. Unfortunately, I don't know the date, but will try to find out. Glad you're enjoying the sketches! --kjh
Is the actor who plays the son here Hamilton Camp? He would've been about 22 in 1956. The voice we hear here sounds remarkably like the one Camp used as the German mad scientist Professor Chromedome in the cartoon The Tick forty years after this.
I’m guessing it was Howard Morris.
@@ogtme Ah, okay, thanks!