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