Magical Sunday School teacher!

Here's an email I received from a creative Sunday School teacher who is not a magician but wanted to recreate the magic of Mose's travels through the desert. With no training in magical knowledge she did a great job in imagineering how to bring about some special effects.

Hi Andrew

You inspired me for life!

For kid's klub we did the travel through the desert this afternoon.

To split the sea doesn't require so much skill...next bitter water was fun...(I did a false ceiling (cling wrap) in a rubbermaid plastic jug...filled it with bicarbonade of soda water that I served all the kids ...since we had to add a stick - I added a chop stick that poked a whole & whalla FRESH water!!!)

For manna I did some wafers on a ceiling fan...they even tasted like honey...after I scrapped of the icing... I had someone to switch the plug on...

I hid the hose pipe with an special nozzle in the garden. When I hit it with a stick my helper turned the tap full force - it squirted like 4- 6 m far. I had such a surprised crowd...one was even in tears...the other complained about getting wet - it was so much fun.

All this in order to say to the children that we have an awesome, great, mighty, powerful majestic GOD!!!

PS. Did you ever try cling wrap over an toilet?

A while ago I received comments that there was nothing in my ebook for pre school children. The truth is I wonder how much Gospel Magic can be used with kids younger than 4 years old. I am determined though to offer some rersources for those who do work with this age group.

Please click below to learn how you can move beyond a glorified baby sitting service to pre-school kids into ministry. All good stuff. it's not magic - it's ministry!


Click Here!

Blessings

Roman Catholic Magic

Did you know that the label of Gospel Magic and Gospel Magician was first coined back a Roman Catholic priest back in the nineteenth century. St Don Bosco was a Salesian minister who noticed that the Church could not compete with fairs and enterainments. So he pioneered the use of preaching the Christian message using the techniques of fairgound performers. Today he is remembered as the patron saint of Catholic Gospel magicians.

I also discovered that there is an alternative society to the Fellowship of Christian Magicians called the Catholic Magicians Guild. Some had tried to join the FCM but found the theology of FCM too Calvinist!!! Some famous Catholic magicians include Mark Wilson and an American Catholic bishop.

I am learning a lot from the above book. Some of the stuff is very good Biblical teaching and others tend to foucs on stuff more distinctively Catholic. (For example he uses a Card Castle to illustrate the heirarchy of the church with the Pope at the top, though he is careful to top the Pope with the cross to show that Christ is the head of the church).

In short there is little which would be different from what Protestant Gospel magicians would share. Scripture abounds and the whole focus on the book is teaching people the Christian faith.

As an evangelical protestant I am tempted to focus on the things that divide - like the infallibility of the pope (I have yet to meet a Catholic who really belives that), the focus on Mary, the sale of indulgences, the role of the saints and birth control!

This book reminds me of how much there is in common. The focus is on a Trinity who revealed grace and mercy through the cross of Jesus. The structure of the book is on the Catechism of the Catholic church - but a lot of useful tricks and messages that will work in any denomination. I found a generous ecumenical spirit in the book which was gracious and Christlike and I appreciated that very much.

As it is the very first book on Gospel Magic for Catholics it is extremely well done. The description of each trick is clear, illustrations are aplenty, and the message is backed up by Scripture. It is a product to be proud of. I am glad to have it in my library and look forward to using the ideas in it as part of my ministry.

I only wonder which aspect of Calvinism he found in the FCM?

Steve Fearson

I don't know about you but I am very impatient when it comes to buying things. When I have an idea in my head I want to go and learn about it right away. The internet is a boon in this regard. When it comes to learning about magic and illusion the possibilities are endless.

One of my favourite sites is Download Magic. The reasons why I like this site is that the material is original, simple and applicable to my work as a minister. Steve Fearson is a great teacher and is very funny. I have bought his instant levitation illusion for instance, in which people see you step inside a box and see your feet rise off the ground with no apparent means of support. He tells you how to make his props and his products always leave a smile on my face.

In his writings he mentions his thankfulness to God and his involvement with his church. He comes across as a confident and successful man. He is certainly very creative.

So if you want instant access to novel magic his website is as below:

Click Here!

Some of the best known magicians in the business use his material. All his products are instantly downloadable. Another reason why I enjoy investing in magic from him. No waiting . . . aaaah!

Predicting the future

Derren Brown has caught the public imagination with his stunt of prediciting the national Lottery numbers in live time. The internet is buzzing with questions on how he did it with several answers being provided.

It begs the question though - Should Gospel magicians or preachers use prediction type tricks to share the Christian message. Some Christians feel that mind reading and the like is beyond the pale and should not be used at all. I disagree.

I use mentalism and prediction tricks all the time. My message at then is usually a confession that I really can't predict the future . . . but I do know someone who has the future in his hands - Jesus Christ. Sometimes that leads to a Biblical message about the amazing fulfillment of prohecies in the Bible.

So where can we go to learn some of these tricks? Of course you can find one or two Gospel magic mind reading tricks at http://www.gospelemagic.com/ but if you really want to get into Mentalism magic at a deeper level then checkout the following website on How to be a Master Mentalist:

Click Here!


Have fun

Learning magic the easy way

:ots of people usually ask me for a good reference book which they can use on line or simply to download instantly new ideas for tricks. There is just so much good stuff out there to help you get going in magic as a hobby.

Below is a website that will give you a good start. Check it out.


Click Here!


Have fun. As the Fellowship of Christian Magicians would say "Keep the secret - Share the Word"

Gospel Magic in India

India is an amazing country. Have just spent all of August there and although I did not see any magicians I must have passed literally hundreds of churches as we drove around Kerala. Christians of every denomination rub shoulders along with Muslims and Hindus in one of the visibly religious countries I have ever been in.

St Thomas bought Christianity to Kerala and consequently India can boast to be home to one of the most ancient churches in the world. Awesome!

St Thomas went onto preach throughout the region eventually experiencing martyrdom in Tamil Nadu. It is still tough for Indian Christians today. I met a pastor who reported how his colleague was brutally beaten in front of his family. This happened last month. Yet the Gospel continues to be lived and shared in this most challeging of environments.

To the Indian pastors and ministers out there. God Bless you. Keep preaching and sharing the Living Word . . . Jesus Christ.

Indian Magic

Off to India next week for a month. On one of my earlier visits I watched an amazing magician on the streets. He did the best cups and balls routine I ever saw. He used a finely turned wand to push the cups over to reveal the balls and his misdirection was sooooo slick and professional. Ireckened this professional magician must have been about seven or eight years old. He had the lisp and the gap between his front teeth. Later I watched this urchin boy ply his trade of magic on others in a park. If he does this for eight hours a day . . . no wonder he's so good.

Magic is very popular in India and goes down a treat in the churches there too. I remember standing on a village wall doing a Rocky Raccoon routine and the whole village came to watch. Have magic wand will travel sounds like a nice motto to me!

M Joan Willis Gospel Visual Aids for Pre-Schoolers

From time to time I get feedback on the Gospel e Magic Book and sometimes it is not always praise. This is good. I welcome input from those who are thoughtful and want to input ideas that will help others. The main criticism from M Joan is that my book had nothing for children of pre-school age. I must confess I have very little experience of communicating or teaching with this age group. I invited M Joan to make a contribution to the blog and here it is.

M Joan Willis writes the following:

With regards to some of the applications for your trick, the one that comes to mind is the one using the Professor's Nightmare (3 ropes of 3 different sizes). You call it the 3-rope gospel trick. What I do is talk about the love of God and how he loves us all the same and then make the ropes all even. This is quite effective.Think your book has excellent graphics and is extremely well-done. Congratulations.


One 'trick' I particularly like is using three ropes of different colours- about 12" in size each. One end of each rope is a different colour. i.e. green with yellow tip, red with green tip, yellow with red tip. You hold this three ropes in your hand so that for all intensive purposes you have three ropes of three colours. You get the children to form a circle. Talk about God's love. Does he love all the children the same. What about children from Africa? China? Native children, etc. Then you tie the ropes together - using the yellow tip to join with the yellow end, the green tip with the green end and the red tip with the red end. You now have 3 circles which look to the audience that you have a circle of green, red and yellow. You can get the children to choose which circle they want for the children say of other countries. When you have finished chatting with the children you suddenly toss the three circle up in the air and lo and behold you have one big circle (if you do it right!) and you tell them that God loves all the children of the world regardless of where they come from or what colour they are. - this is just a hasty description that I have originated from the set of ropes which are easily obtainable at the magic store, very reasonable and it's very effective.Another thing that I like to do - although not really magic - is to chat with the children and ask them if they have ever made a snowflake (I am sure you did when you were a kid). You show them a square of paper and then fold it to make your snow flake. I fold my paper in half and then in quarters and then once again to form a triangle. At the very centre of the triangel I cut a little hole. If you were to unfold the paper you would see 8 small holes near the very centre. On the fold which is a triangle, I draw an anchor and then cut round it. (I have this done before the presentation but don't show the drawing). When it's unfolded it becomes a lovely snowflake - but don't stop here. You cut out each section of the snowfalke and you have an anchor. On the anchor I print the word 'Jesus' on the stem and at the bottom "God" and give each child one to take home. Explaining that Jesus/God is the anchor for life. This is a very hurried description. Usually I chat about anchors - relating to ships. Actually I probably will use this story tomorrow because being summer we see more boats and often they get anchored for fishing.

Thank you for sharing this M Joan and I wish God's Blessing on your ministry to the children.

tarbell's magic course and gospel magic

The absolute 'Bible' for magicians is the 8 volume set of the Tarbell Course. While it is dated (especially in the suggested patter), the truth is that there is nothing out there to compare with the comprehensive overview of virtually the entire field of magic and performing. It covers everything from the classics such as the Linking Rings or Egg Bag, through to Children's routines, through to tricks with cards, rope, coins and mentalism - not to mention large scale illusions.

It follows then that if many magicians have cut their teeth on learning the Tarbell course then a Gospel magic book using the same tricks is in order. This has in fact happened (and some time ago). So far the authors have produced a Volume one and two. Come on guys - not far to go now - only six more volumes.

The Spiritual Applications do not give you the secrets of the tricks (you need to have the original Tarbell books for that) - but they do creatively suggest messages which lend themselves to the tricks. Or is that the other way round - tricks that lend themselves to the message? Either way, these contributions to Gospel Magic should be on the shelf of anyone who is really into sharing their faith through illusion.

As the Fellowship of Christian Magicians would say - "Share the Faith! - Keep the Secret!"

Roman Catholics get into Gospel Magic

I guess you can't keep a good idea to yourself. The latest Gospel Magic book hot off the press is for priests and ministers in the Roman Catholic church. Designed to help young people learn the catechism, there are eighty visual lessons using Gospel magic tricks.

Rather cheekily it claims to be the first Gospel Magic book in print. This is blatantly not true. The works of Duane Laflin, David Ginn, Henry Smith, Keith Wills and one Andrew Thompson all preceded this work. What I am willing to concede is that this is probably a first for the Roman Catholic Church. I have ordered a copy and will write a review when I complete reading it.

In the meantime keep sharing and keep entertaining. I send greetings to the Magician's Apprentice who is currently visiting Cambodia. Hope the kids there get the message and the magic!

Theology and the Gospel Magician

Theology matters. Good Biblical teaching should be at the core of every Gospel magic performance and this can be easily overlooked by the novelty of medium.

So where do we begin? The Gospel magician should at the very least begin with their own Biblical knowledge. Do you read scripture regularly for yourself? To help you do this there are literally thousands of Bible Reading aids out there ranging from 'Read through the Bible in one year Bible Editions', through to devotional guides such as 'Every Day with Jesus'. Then there are those things specific to our own denomination. I am an Anglican so I use the daily lectionary as my starting point for reading scripture regulalrly and I preach from it every week. Whatever we use - the point is to read scripture regulalrly.

Secondly there are thousands of Christian books which offer commentaries on scripture or highlight themes in scripture. Some of my favourite authors include Philip Yancey, John Stott, John Ortberg, William Barclay, and Rowan Williams.

Thirdly, read Christian journals and magazines for Biblical teaching, knowledge and insight into Christian issues which will relate to your Gospel magic. Christianity Today is a fantastic online resource with many articles which engage with theological issues. Others I read include http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/ which is the Church of England newspaper, and newfrontiers magazine. Again the point is that there are zillions of resources out there to give us a better informed faith. The Gospel Magician should be growing by reading, reading and reading.

A real challenge would be to do some proper study, either through an online course or through a seminary or Bible school. As Gospel magicians we should do everything to make sure that we are informed and accurates in our presentation of the Christian message.

Finally there is the in house publication of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians which include 'Voila' (FCM Europe) and the 'Christian Conjurer' which include well thought our presentations combining Bible teachings and Gospel Magic illusions.

Go for it and get reading.

Teach about the Trinity -- amazing rope trick

We have just celebrated Trinity Sunday. For all you pastors, priests, ministers and Sunday School teachers out there - the Gospel magician has a definite advantage to teaching about the subject of Trinity in an easy and visual way : )

If you can't beat 'em - join em!

CANDLE TO SILK GOSPEL MAGIC TRICK LESSON

Nice!!! Simple and Visual magic.

Finding your Voice

There are a lot of parallels between preaching and performing. We all know instinctively who we listen to with great interest and those who will bore us to death within seconds. I have news for you. . . . it has nothing to do with what you do or say but has everything to do with how you do and communicate. In other words it's your personality that makes the difference.

The biggest killer is that people try to imitate their favourite preacher or magicians and it simply falls flat. God made you you! And that is worth celebrating. You are unique, there is no one else like you and when you stand up and communicate with a crowd people are gonna' connect with you as a person first and foremost. Your magic might be world class but if you are trying to be a cheap copy (or even expensive copy) of someone else then quite simply you are not being you and people will know. I have seen some technically brilliant people both in the magic world and in the pulpit who have all the right moves and the right spiel but they fall flat. Why? Because they don't sound authentic. They are not being true to themselves and believe me we can tell.

One of the most important lessons I ever learned in preaching and in ministry is that God speaks through our personality. The quote I remember is truth through personality. Of course your doctrine and message matters but that easily be squandered by being fake. If you are a serious, straight kind of person - then be serious and straight in your public communication (look at Obama - he is who he is).

If you are funny and quirky - be funny and quirky. It simply does not work for a serious guy(or gal) to be funny when they are not. It's not how God uses us.

In short you need to know yourself and find your voice (as Geoffrey Durham puts it).

Happy preaching and magicing!!

Picto Transpo

This is a fantastic trick and routine devised by Gene Anderson. Check out his website at www.geneanderson.com. For me the key theme of this trick is substitution or a transposition which is of course one of the main themes of the cross of Christ.

Check it out. Although it is expensive you can get it made if you follow the directions from his excellent Semi Pro lecture notes.

Picto Transpo

EFFECT: The performer draws a humorous caricature of a spectator and the spectator draws one of the performer. Each signs his/her name on the back of the picture frames and they are openly placed into envelopes held by the artists. To make it clear that nothing has happened (yet), the performer removes his frame from his envelope and shows both his drawing and his signature. He replaces his frame in the envelope, and with a magic word the pictures change places. He immediately withdraws her drawing from his envelope, while she withdraws his from hers. The routine is entertaining throughout and baffling at the finish. Click here for reviews and testimonials.The drawings can be individualized and are easily adapted for holidays or special events. I find it's a particularly nice effect for a male performer to use involving a female spectator: it's novel, non-threatening, funny and ends with strong magic. In my show it is always in second position and the first time I involve somebody from the audience. The reason is it establishes how I treat guests on stage: with dignity and respect. That doesn't mean we don't have fun together, but not at their expense. The routine is both fun and a fooler, and it subtly establishes the norms of conduct for both my audience assistants and me.THE PROPS look like normal articles - not special magic apparatus - and something you could probably buy at any office supply store. In reality this is an updated slate effect, and my original version used posterboard in picture frames. I performed the posterboard version for almost 30 years. Many magicians who saw me lecture or perform inquired about using dry erase whiteboards, but dry erase materials have technical and performance limitations. with white board cleaner. The result is a much superior product.