|
|
by Andrea Lange
Your kids may love Harry Potter, but making their
nasty cousin sprout a pig’s tail is probably out of
their reach. Nonetheless, there are plenty of simple
tricks young magicians can learn to impress their
family and friends. And magic is more than just fun
– performing magic tricks can help boost a child’s
confidence. Magic also teaches kids perseverance and
dedication – it can take lots of practice to learn
to perform a trick well. So hand them a wand and see
what they conjure up.
Tips for Working Your
Own Magic Practice both
the patter (what you say when performing) as well as
the trick itself. Magician Greg McMahan practices in
front of a mirror to see what the audience will see
and to catch any mistakes. Magician King Chapman
adds that practicing your routine is just as
important because the patter distracts from the
sleight of hand.
 Although you might
be tempted or pressured to tell, never reveal how a
trick is done. It ruins the fun for everyone.
You amazed and impressed your audience with your
magic trick, and now they want to see it again.
That’s good – right? Not necessarily. McMahan says
when an audience member requests you repeat a trick,
it’s to look for how the trick was done. So a good
rule is “never repeat.” If you’re
having fun performing, then your audience will have
fun watching. Chapman says that magic isn’t about
fooling or tricking your audience; it’s more like an
entertaining journey together. Share your audience’s
delight when your tricks work.
Honing the Craft Eddie’s
Trick Shop, with locations in Duluth, Kennesaw and
Lilburn, has everything a magician needs – except
rabbits! Stop by the Kennesaw Magic
Shop on special Saturdays to check out their magic
shows, featuring a rotating cast of professional
magicians. Shows at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for
children and $10 for adults. Tickets sold at the
door. For more information, call 770-426-0012.
Circus Camp offers year-round magic classes. For
more information call 404-370-0001.
It’s Not Just
Hocus Pocus Libraries are
filled with books covering all facets of magic, and
more come out every year. But our experts suggest
that budding magicians stick with these classics.
Mark Wilson’s Complete Course in Magic
by Mark Wilson
This book, for the younger magician, has
step-by-step instructions and illustrations for more
than 300 tricks, including card and coin tricks,
rope tricks, cup and ball tricks, illusions and
make-at-home magic. Best of all, it also includes
tips on patter and showmanship, making it great for
beginners.
The Klutz Book of Magic
by John Cassidy and Michael Stroud
This spiral bound book has foolproof instructions
for some astonishing magic tricks. Best of all – the
props you need for the tricks are included!
Magic for Dummies by David Pogue
More than 90 of the essential (and easy-to-perform!)
deceptions, illusions and sleights of hand are
featured in this book. Learn to bend a spoon, make a
saltshaker disappear, and “read” someone’s mind.
There’s also a section on what to say and do when
your tricks go wrong!
|
Fish Tales |
| The
Trick: Cut out the
fish pictures at this link - they are
your props. (You can laminate them if you
wish to make them last longer.) Show them to
your audience, holding one in each hand with
them side by side. Now tell them that they
can help you make them grow and shrink by
blowing on them.
Hold out the red fish have someone blow on
it. Then hold it directly below the blue
fish. The red fish will look bigger! Next
have them blow on the blue fish and then
move it below the red fish. Now the blue
fish looks bigger! Then have them blow on
both fish at once. Show them the fish side
by side again - they are back to the same
size.
How it works: This
trick is an example of an optical illusion.
Both fish are actually the same size. The
fish on the bottom will always seem bigger
then the one on the top, even though they
never change size. Tip: practice displaying
the fish so that your audience can clearly
see the size changes. And don’t let them
hold your props, or they’ll discover how the
trick works!
- Courtesy of King Chapman,
www.kingofmagic.com |
| |
|
Read with Your Fingers |
The
Trick: Have a girl and two boys write
their names on a piece of paper. Tear the
paper into three pieces and drop them into a
box or hat. With a blindfold on, reach your
hand in and pull out the girl’s name.
How it works: Have one girl and two
boys (or one adult and two children, one
teacher and two students, etc.) write their
names on a piece of paper. The trick is to
make sure the girl’s name in on the middle
sheet of the paper. Then fold the paper and
tear into three pieces and put in your box.
When you reach in your hand, the girl’s name
will be the only piece of paper with two
torn edges. Pretend you’re thinking hard,
and the audience will think you can read
with your fingers!
– Courtesy of Greg McMahan, The Wizard of
Odd |
| |
|
Mind Reading Crayons |
The
Trick: Magician shows four crayons of
different colors. He ask someone to pick one
crayon while his back is turned and place in
his hand. With both hand behind his back the
magician turns back around facing the
audience. Then suddenly point his hand at
the helper and reveal what color crayon is
in his hand.
How it works: Simply take the crayon
handed to you, and mark your right
thumbnail. A quick glance at your nail, will
tell it all! |
| |
|
Hotels |
| The
Trick: Set aside the two of spades and
all of the aces, kings, queens and jacks
from a regular deck of cards.
Place the two on a table.
Tell your audience that he is “Mr. Two” and
owns a hotel with four rooms. Explain that
one night, the “Ace family” came to his
hotel and asked for rooms, so he put one of
them each room. As you say this, place each
of the 4 aces in a circle around “Mr. Two”,
one near each of the cards points. Then say
that the “King family” came to his hotel and
wanted rooms, so he put one of them in each
of his rooms. As you say this, place each of
the 4 king cards on top of the 4 Ace cards.
Repeat this with the “Queen family” and the
“Jack family” until you have 4 stacks around
“Mr. Two,” each with an ace, king, queen and
jack in sequential order.
Then tell your audience that “Mr. Two”
realized he had put total strangers together
in hotel rooms. So he gathered them up in
the hall and asked for your help. As you say
this, carefully pick up each stack of cards
and place them one on top of the other to
make one big stack. Then place the stack
face down on the table and ask an audience
member to cut it any odd number of times.
They can cut the deck 1,3,5,7,9 - even a 103
times if they like. Once they are satisfied,
deal the cards into four piles. The cards
will magically sort themselves by card type
so that each card is now sharing their room
with the rest of their “family”.
How it works: There's no tricky
business to this one ... the secret is math
instead of magic. The sequence of the cards
guarantees success every time! |
| |
|
