Tuesday, November 27, 2007

when Gospel Magic goes wrong

Working as a Gospel magician in the Middle East can have its challenges. One is the heat of the savage summers can really mess up your props. Glues melt, plastic warps and before you know it you are ambushed in the middle of a magic show or presentation by faulty props.

My most memorable faux pas occurred in Egypt when I was performing a Drink in News routine where you pour water into a folded newspaper and then turn the newspaper upside down over a volunteer's head. The trick is that the water has disappeared completely and does not come out of the paper (thanks to a special plastic bag which is glued inside the paper). On this occasion though, the sun had melted the glue that held the bag and before my eyes and the entire audience of an Egyptian church the bag slid out on top of my volunteer and burst - drenching her and ruining her dress with a sticky mixture of glue and water!

Another time I was using one of the Axtell drawing boards and the heat had warped the mechanism which allowed a drawn face to become animated. I had to improvise and do something completely non magical.

What are your stories of Gospel Magic going wrong?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I had purchased a rope called the Stiff Rope and ended up breaking it when I rolled it and put it in my pocket and then sat down. I've created an illustration using this which will be featured on:
http://www.squidoo.com/gospelmagic/