What do you do when
you did not pack a show?
By Bobby Warren

As I prepared to leave for vacation, traveling from Wooster, Ohio, to Massachusetts and Maine, I thought about packing a small case with a magic show just in case the opportunity arose to perform for family and friends. You know the kind of show: It packs flat but plays big.

However, I opted not to do it. This is the first vacation for my wife and me where airline companies are now charging to check baggage. So, with one carry-on bag and one personal bag allowed per person, we had to make everything fit. We ended up taking less clothes in order to keep things at a minimum, including travel expenses.

So, we departed the Canton-Akron Airport heading for Logan International Airport in East Boston, Mass. My mother picked us up at the airport, and shortly thereafter we were headed for a campground on Long Lake in Naples, Maine.

When we arrived, my brother-in-law asked, "Do you have some magic for the kids? I told them you would do something."

I have gravitated away from "doing tricks." I do not "show" people magic. I perform. When I do, I perform shows of the 45 minute variety. I could have done some card and coin sleights and amused the children for a few minutes, but I thought otherwise.

I told my brother-in-law he could tell the children I would be performing a magic show the following day. The campground, Birch Point, has a lodge and a recreation hall. So, there were a couple of nice venues for a performance. Now all I needed was a show.

I began to brainstorm a show I could put together using ordinary objects found around a typical home and some sleights. I perform nine effects in a show, three clusters of three effects. Dan Harlan refers to this as the "Triple Trilogy."

I knew my middle cluster would be ropes. The first was going to utilize two ropes and have a knot jump from one to the other. It would be followed by the Cut and Restored Rope and the Professor's Nightmare.

My final three effects were going to involve mindreading and mentalism. Leading off this set was going to Max Maven's Mockingbird (with my handling), my presentation of Aldo Colombini's PreDeck Ability, and winding up with Richard Osterlind's Breakthrough Card System. I know a magician should end up alone on stage at the conclusion of a performance, but I felt this would be an OK compromise if I distanced myself from the volunteer.

Now, the only thing left was to figure out what three effects would open the show. I called my mentor, Leland Pennington, and asked him what were some things I could do. He suggested doing a paper tear and a sponge ball routine with wadded up paper balls. The conversation with Leland was what the doctor ordered, and he got me thinking.

My opening effects were a simple coin production (a la Jay Sankey in which you hold out an open hand and ask a spectator who's hand is bigger), followed by a paper napkin fold, and concluding with a basic sponge ball routine using wadded up napkins. I combined the paper balls with a paper ball vanish, this is the one where everyone in the room sees how the ball is vanished while your spectator is amazed.

So, that was the show. Now I just needed the props. My brother-in-law had a deck of cards and napkins. Now, I just needed some rope, a pair of scissors and two more decks of cards. We drove to a Rite Aid and spent $11 on the cards and some very thin clothesline, a poly-cotton braid. Not what I would have preferred, but it did in a pinch, and boy did it.

When showtime arrived at noon Sunday, the recreation hall was packed with children from the park. Their parents came, as did other adults. And, for the next 45 minutes everyone enjoyed the entertainment. This wasn't simply tricks to them; this was a magic show. It packed flat, and it played big. They came. They saw. They laughed. They appreciated it.

I always tell people how I enjoy performing magic with ordinary objects because they make it seem like magic can happen anytime and anywhere. The "impromptu" show reminded me it can and does.

Throughout the day, people told me and my family members how much everyone liked the show. My brother-in-law told me, "It's not really about the magic tricks; it's about the showmanship." Indeed it is. My show involved one quarter, five napkins, 24 feet of rope and three decks of cards.

As I pondered the reaction to the show, recognizing there are many people who have never witnessed magic live, I thought about a quote associated with acting and adapted it to our segment of the arts: There are no small magic shows, only small magicians.