Oh my! A fight nearly broke out a birthday party I was performing at this weekend. The would be combatants were face to face, getting hotter and threatening blows. I was both horrified and transfixed as I watched. It was all unfolding in front of me as they were about 20 feet behind where the kids were sitting.
Now, since this was a two year old’s birthday party and the children watching were mostly three and four year olds you might think two of kids were going to fight over where t...
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Had some fun at one of my favorite libraries yesterday, the Quartz Hill Library. I did two shows for them as they are such a popular library. The kid count was 134. More with the parents in the crowd. This library even requires sign ups or you can’t get in! Very different than the library I used to take my kids to.
Anyway, the reason I am so proud, proud like a grandparent, is a boy came up after one of the shows and said he knew some magic. He had taken a magic class at his school and wante...
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Twelve year olds are a tough crowd. Especially twelve year old boys. They know magic is not real, they go on U-Tube and see how just about any trick is done and are not about to be entertained by a magician’s lame jokes. So when I got a call from a dad who wanted a birthday party magic show for his twelve year old son’s party I told him the best way to go was a magic show tied in to a workshop. Having taught After School Enrichment classes for over 15 years I have a collection of tricks a...
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These days I always ask how many children will be at the party for the magic show. If I am doing balloon animals I need to make sure I have a balloon for the last child at the last party of the day.
It also helps me know what kind of crowd to expect. Will it be a packed house or just a handful of kids. I like a large group of kids. Much more energy comes at me and I bounce it back. It changes the show. I suppose if my show was one where the kids sit and watch it like a TV show it would not ma...
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One of my shows this weekend was at Edwards Air Force Base. Very cool visiting the place where air speed records were broken time after time and Chuck Yeager was the first to break the sound barrier. Edwards is also the western landing area of the Space Shuttle. So while I didn’t see any strange shapes in the sky, I did see cool planes on the ground and just visiting the base was cool. My dad was in the Navy and I have been to the Long Beach Navel Base many times seeing the awesome ships of...
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No, I am not talking about Harry Potter style magic. I am talking about the feeling of magic we experience. Of wonder. Something inside, a surprised feeling. I tell my magic class students the problem with learning how a trick works is that the the magic disappears for you. When you see a great magic trick you experience the sense of wonder. When you show someone a great trick they experience it and you have to get the enjoyment through them.
So it is rare these days I experience that feeling ...
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Every year I perform a magic show at the same country club for Easter. It is fun to see the children growing up. Some people ask me if the kids are spoiled or bratty since they are at a country club. They are not. They have manners and their actions are watched by their parents very close. If you are a Simpson's fan, you may remember an episode where Marge gets invited to the local country club and takes her family. The country club kids are portrayed as very snotty to the help. "I said an ab...
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I like to use video clips of parents talking about my shows so other moms and dads can feel confident hiring me. Today I mentioned this after one of my birthday party magic shows but the mom and dad begged off going on camera citing they worked for the government and didn't want their likeness on the internet! So instead they gave me verbal recommendations. Cool.

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I have had some funny happenings at my shows. Here you can read about some of those that might bring you a chuckle! I'll try to update these pages as they come up. Doug

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