Going back to the
stage illusionist knife throwing
gag, wherin the thrower makes a big production with arm motions and instead of throwing the knife, he drops it on the floor and makes a big upward flip of the
hand, at the same time a knife handle pops out of the target persons
backdrop. Soooooo, for the tranq
dart gag, there is no
dart in the gun. the "shooter" makes
broad gestures when lifting and aiming the gun, makes some gesture, such as moving one elbow outward, cueing the sound
effect "phfwoot" , meanwhile the "victim" is wearing a shirt with a vertical slit in it and the
dart is attached to a spring behind this slit and held
flat against the body, on
cue the
dart is triggered by the actor (perhaps a
pull string) and the
dart flips up
thru the slit. There, for what it's worth that's what I came up with. Oh, for inspiration, check out any episodes of
Eureka with Matt Frewer, he was always shooting someone, either with a paint pellet gun or a tranq
dart gun.