This is dedicated to Allen Hanuska, who
requested that I write down my memories of the routine for The
Wizards’ Journal. Allen was looking for an “Instant
Magician” trick, the one where you put your arms through the
arms of a magic suit a child is wearing and make it appear that
your hands are his hands. I told Allen that my Instant Wizard
routine did not involve coming in physical contact with the
child, which is becoming a “no-no” in today’s
world. So here it is at his request.
Effect: The Wizard has a talking
hat, much like the “Sorting Hat” seen in the Harry
Potter movies. The Wizard uses it to locate a helper who has some
“wizard powers” and brings the child up to the stage
(or the front). The Wizard congratulates the child on being a
Wizard and tells him he is now in charge of finishing the rest of
the magic show. With that, the Wizard puts the talking hat on a
stool, goes into the audience and sits down to watch his new
apprentice perform.
Most of the rest of the routine is done with you, the Wizard,
sitting in the audience and the child following your spoken
directions on the stage, so in this way, it is completely
different from the “Instant Magician.”
Following your directions, the child wizard produces a magic robe
to wear, a pair of glasses and a scar if you’re trying to
achieve the “Harry Potter look,” and a magic wand.
At this point, I will suggest some other magical effects using
props you may already have or which you can purchase, that are
completely self-working so the child can do them just by
following your directions.
Then I will give you information on building the following
effects that I have used with success, which can all be made
inexpensively and rather easily:
The Floating Feather. The Wizard
child finds it inside the hat and places it on your table in a
special “feather holder.” He recites the spell
(Wingardium Leviosa, if you wish) and nothing happens until he is
not looking at the feather. As soon as he takes his eyes off the
feather, the feather begins to fly around, stopping just before
he notices it. Naturally, the kids in the audience can all see
it. It is all under your control, of course (don’t you love
the idea of being your own stooge?).
Sit on It. The Wizard child finds an
envelope on the stool, beneath the Talking Hat. Inside the
envelope are six special cards. Since you make these cards
yourself, they can be decorated any way you wish. My routine
suggests using characters from the Harry Potter stories, but they
could also be regular playing cards or Tarot cards, or cartoon
characters, etc. The Wizard child finds a young lady from the
audience to be his assistant. He invites her up to help and the
cards are passed out into the audience for a good mixing. To make
a long story short, although you want to “milk” this
interaction between the two kids for all that its worth, one of
the six cards is chosen and then the cards are all sealed back
inside the envelope. The young lady sits on the stool and holds
the sealed envelope. The young Wizard has the young lady make the
chosen card vanish from the envelope. When she is asked to open
the envelope and remove the cards, she finds that the chosen card
is indeed gone. You, the Grand Wizard, give her permission to
tell everyone what she did with the card. Of course she
doesn’t know what happened to it, nor does the young Wizard.
Finally, you prompt the girl to say, “I’m sitting on
it.” When she gets off the stool and searches around, she
discovers the missing card underneath the stool.