gospel magic – MagicShow.Tips

The Good News Magic Show

Last week I had an ad pop up on my social media for The Good News Magic Show. While there’s no mention of religion in the ad, I did have a feeling that this was going to be a “gospel” magic show.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a gospel magic show, I’ve read about them and maybe seen a magic lecture that had a gospel element to a trick or two, but I’ve never seen a full show out there in its element.

When I arrived it was at a church, so that confirmed what I thought I was going to see. The show was a family show (not strictly a kid show). The format was interesting. The show’s first maybe 15-20 minutes was just magic, then there was a quick bible message. After that each trick had a talking point that carried into the bible message that followed after the trick and tied the two together. For example one of the tricks themes was that a mess was made, then the message was “if your life is a mess, Jesus can help clean it up“. It’s a format that’s similar to what I use in a themed school assembly, except I do the content first, then the trick, so they can see the content in action.

From a show perspective, it was a pretty standard magic show. It was fine, but I’m not the target audience for this show and the audience seemed to like it and ultimately that’s what matters.

After the show we (Luke hammer and me) chatted with Greg for a bit.

The other performer (Tony) in the show mentioned to us he’s more of a “balloon guy” and does magic for the show.

Here’s what I liked and what magicians can learn from shows like this. When Tony and Greg were doing the message part of the show they told personal stories and those were things the audience could connect to. In my opinion that’s what’s missing from most magic shows.

-Louie

Tiny Bible Magic Trick…

Yesterday I posted a dollar bill trick where the dollar was used to produce a tiny bible. The “bible” was one I made was just some paper that was stapled together, covered with duct tape and wrote on it in white pen (These pens are also handy for marking cards!).

The homemade bible is fine for a test run, but the first thing the people I’ve shown this to did was flip through it. That tells me it needs to be a real bible or at least pass the flip test. There are certain things where having the object people want to touch be real and not something that pretends to be real makes the trick stronger. There’s a sense of disappointment if someone realizes that the oranges you use in cups and balls aren’t real. It doesn’t make the trick any less amazing, but it takes them out of the magic headspace there were in. With that in mind I went out and hunted down a tiny bible!

Sometimes it’s the little things that add a lot to the trick. Having it be a real bible makes it more than a sight gag…not much more, but it does elevate the trick!

-Louie

Mixed Feelings…

Sometimes I see a magic trick and I don’t know how I feel about it. The routine below is one of them, I’ll let you watch it first:

First of all, let me say that I am not the demographic he’s going for, so factor that into my opinion of it.

Here’s what it has going for it, it’s 100% on message. All of the props are themed and it doesn’t veer away from the message. If I was booking for a large religious event, I would definitely consider this. It’s big and fills the stage.

What I personally don’t like is his almost animatronic performance of it. The clip may be taken out of context, so there may be a reason why he’s doing it like that. In my opinion there’s nothing real happening, he’s not trying to connect with me. It could be a movie on a screen, not a live performance. Once again, it’s out of context and maybe that’s what it’s for.

I love seeing things that make me think about what I like or don’t like in a performance. It makes me look at my show with a more critical eye.