Reading is Magic

I've been looking for ways to share my talents to improve the world in little ways. After a lot of thought, I decided to branch into educational magic shows, where I can use humor and magic to teach a positive message. 

Last month I spent a lot of time writing an educational magic show for schools and libraries that would encourage kids to read more. Here's the official description of my show from the library entertainer's directory: 

Sunny Blossom's high-energy silly magic show is full of physical comedy, crazy costuming, and large doses of audience participation. She has entertained at corporate events, schools, and private parties. Her educational magic shows cover topics such as reading and anti-bullying. Her "Reading is Magic" show encourages children to read while taking them on silly adventures through several books in all the genres of a library, teaches students how to take care of library books, and encourages them to broaden their literary horizons.

My first public performance of the "Reading is Magic" show went really well. The audience was marvelous and participated very well. 

It was hosted outdoors on a hot day, so I wasn't able to wear my hat and wig....I need to find something more lightweight to wear on my head on situations like this. Ah well- I'll fix that soon.

Check out some glimpses of the show in action:

I use a trick with beensy scarves to lay out the rules for behavior in a silly, engaging way. It involved a game, lots of laughter, and a surprise trick ending. 

We explored several types of books, with magic tricks to accompany each one. We went through fiction, nonfiction, fairy tales, chapter books, reference books, poetry, biographies, and recreational books. 

The audience really loved the magic coloring book, and it's such a funny act to perform. It's full of audience participation and giggles. I'm surprised how long we can stretch this trick out. The kids just LOVE erasing the colors over and over again, then helping me magically color the pages back in. 

Of course I use lots of gag wands that all do something silly. Here is a glimpse of the 'broken wand' during our Fractured Fairy Tales part of the show. Every time I hand it to my helper, it breaks and the audience laughs. I 'fix' it and hand it back over and over again, then it refuses to work for me at all. 

I dress up my helpers with costumes whenever possible, which is loads of fun for the kids. Here is a shot of my helper dressed as Prince Charming to help Cinderella get to the royal ball. 

This is a glimpse of my Vanishing Milk trick. It's really funny, and the kids LOVE the costuming for this one. 

Pictures just don't convey much. You can't see how funny it is, so I'm sharing a video clip of the act performed by a different magician, the famous Silly Billy.You can see the act here:

The show lasted one hour, and I had a fantastic time performing it. It's so fun to be silly onstage and make kids laugh. Once they start laughing, it's really easy to make them laugh again. The energy from the audience is really invigorating and it takes me back to my high school years when I performed in plays and in Competitive Drama. This is WAY more fun than competition drama since the judges are easy to please and are eager to adore you. 

Even the big kids were laughing and enjoying themselves. I even had a couple big teenage boys eagerly volunteering to help in the show, so they came up together for a silly act where we pump water out of a boy's elbow. 

The worst part was choosing a helper from the audience for each trick. I wish I could include everyone onstage, and feel so bad for the kids who don't get picked. This is part of the reason why I include large amounts of audience participation where the entire audience gets involved. They all throw pixie dust at me, or wave their fingers to help with the magic, or yell out answers when I'm bumbling onstage and messing up a story. 

For example, during the Cinderella story, I mess up details in the story and they correct me. I say things like, "And who came to save the day? The Easter Bunny appeared in the garden with his magic wand and waved it in the air-" The kids interrupt with giggles and yell out, "Noooo! It was the Fairy Godmother!!!" I smack my forehead and agree with them, then say, "That's right! The Fairy Godmother appeared, waved her wand, and said: Scooby-scooby-doo!" The kids shriek in laughter and yell out, "Bippidy-boppidy-boo!". 

The entire show is full of fun script like that where the kids are participating. It's really fun and they love it. 

Any time I do a public appearance, I bring lots of simple prizes to pass out to the audience if they can tell me the magic words from my facebook page.  I always post a magic phrase on the site for audiences to find. It's a fun way of advertising my party services and the families love getting a prize to keep as a memento of the show. 

After the show I had a huge line of kids eager to whisper the magic words to me. Several families asked to take pictures with me and many kids waited in line just to give me a hug and say "Thanks for the magic show! I loved it so much!"

I had been so stressed about this show, even though I've performed for several large groups. This was the first time doing my "Reading is Magic" show and a couple of the tricks arrived so late in the mail that I didn't have time to practice with them in private before going onstage. That could have been a humiliating disaster. Whew! There was no colossal failures and all went well.

The librarians were very generous with their praise and compliments after the show, and encouraged me to pursue this branch of my business more aggressively. They claimed I was more polished and more funny than any other magician they've hired- that is SO encouraging!

They are putting my info onto a state-wide directory of performers for all librarians to access. They are also including a great review of the show. I'm so thankful it went well and I'm even more thankful for their help in spreading my name around to other libraries.

Really though, all the credit goes to the Lord. I'm trying really hard to not let the praise go to my head and inflate my ego, and I'm trying to find ways to serve the community through these performances.

Anyway, it was a great day, and I was SO relieved that the show was well-received.

Last Days of DI Summer Camp

Yikees, these are long overdue! 

Here are the glimpses of our last two days of Summer Camp.

The girls finally had their turn with the power tools. They did such a great job building their projects.

The boys and girls both spent another day finishing their candy dispensers after taking home the pieces and sanding them thoroughly. 

The tire swing was always a big hit during the lunch break, and the kids begged Nathan to push them really high each day. 

The kids enjoyed painting their finished candy dispensers. There were lots of creative ideas happening here. 

Each team made stick puppets for homework, then wrote a story to incorporate all the characters. They enjoyed presenting their puppet shows to each other.  

We played lots of outdoor games, including this fun one. It's called, "Giants, Wizards and Elves" and is basically a fun twist on the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" game. 

After rescuing the imprisoned bears from the evil dragon the first day of camp, the kids took the bears home to dress up however they wished. The creative costumes that came back were delightful! There was a suit and top hat made entirely of paper, dresses sewn with care, a king with a beensy toothpick sword, a tribesman with marker war paint and a spear made from a skewer, and lots of duct tape clothing of various sorts. It was SO neat to see what the kids created. 

We played fun group games like "Bang!" during recess time. 

There was also a fun challenge where teams tried to throw Cheetos onto a team member's head, which was covered in shaving cream. They thought this was super fun.

Next we had shaving games. The kids smeared shaving cream on their faces and 'shaved' it off with a wooden popsicle stick. This was super fun, and of course ended up as a a big shaving cream war. 

We played lots of parachute games in our meadow.  

Teams worked together to design and build a statue out of cardboard boxes and other materials.

The boys decided to build a Creeper from the Minecraft game, then they added elements to turn it into a Creeper of Liberty.

 

 One of the team races was a water-balloon challenge. Students had to move the water balloon to the finish line without touching it with their hands. These are some of the ways they solved that problem:

For the next race they had to move it with two people touching it, but neither one of them could use their hands. 

We learned lots of neat things this week and had a good time making new friendships. We met really amazing kids, and are really excited to spend the upcoming year working with these kids on our competitive DI team! 

Swamped Thing

I've been swamped with commitments lately, and now we've reached the light at the end of the tunnel. The past couple of weeks have been a marathon whirl-wind of activity, but things are starting to slow down. No worries, I'll catch up on here soon. I know you're just dying to read what we've been up to, right?

Last night was a nice break. Matthew and Daniel had saved up enough "Bee" cards to go out on a date with me. (Bee cards are rewarded when children have their chores finished for the day and they do service for a family member.) We went to the movie theater and watched "Monsters University" in 3D. It was such a fun outing with my boys! We had a wonderful time eating popcorn and sharing Reeses Pieces candies.

Matthew brought his wallet and generously purchased treats for his brother. After the show we couldn't find his wallet. We looked under rows of seats and back-tracked everywhere he had been. His hard-earned money from working 12 hours during the sweltering July Fourth festival was in there. No one turned it into the Lost and Found, so we were very sad. It's a very tough lesson to learn for a kid.