Torn and Restored Newspapers don’t work well for kids
only because they find newspapers uninteresting. Tear a comic
book, however, and you get the attention of the teens and under
who are into comic books. You can see that at once from the photo
below. The kids are attracted to the colors and the cartoon
images of familiar superheroes.
For the younger audience, a coloring book can have the same
effect, and yes, it is possible to combine this effect with my standard coloring book effect (#4 ). If you want to combine this
effect with a commercial coloring book trick, you have to be
willing to bear the additional expense of buying duplicates, but
with my version, which uses Dollar Store coloring books, the
expense is minimal.
Wiz kid Qua-Fiki demonstrates the effect on video, and
includes a subtlety that he invented which has been added to the
e-Book.
Comic Book Effect:
A small stack of comics is shown and a spectator picks one. The
spectator chooses a page from the comic book and his chosen page
is pulled from the comic book. You hand the page to the spectator
who chose it, and ask him to “autograph the page” for
you, because he is about to become as famous as the comic artists
who drew it. You ask him also to sign near the corner of the
page, and then tear off the corner so that half his signature is
on the torn piece and the rest on the larger piece.
Then you begin to tear the comic book page into two pieces, four
pieces, eight pieces, etc. As a math “lesson” have the
kids call out how many pieces (or fractions) you have, each time
you fold and tear the page.
When the page has been torn up so that all the pieces are about
the size of the torn corner the spectator is still holding, tell
the audience you were only kidding… that you would never
tear up a comic book, especially one as valuable as this one has
become signed by the famous (name of spectator). As you say this,
you are opening the torn pieces back up and showing that the
comic book page is now completely restored, including the (now)
famous signature. The spectator verifies his signature and shows
that the torn corner he is still holding fits exactly into the
larger piece. You’d restore that corner for him too, but
since it was torn by the famous (name of spectator), it is far
more valuable if he just takes the comic page home as it is and
frames it for all to see.
Coloring Book Effect:
I usually do this before doing the usual coloring book trick
where the colors are magically added. You are naturally free to
make your own choices in this matter as to when to do this
effect, but if you have ever been plagued by children in the
audience who take one look at the coloring book and begin saying
“I know that trick! I got one in my cereal box!” this
new effect will stop them in their tracks.
I show the coloring book, uncolored, and have a child choose a
page by sticking his hand (or arm) into the book as I flip the
pages. I then tear out the page he has chosen and ask the boys
and girls to name and remember some of the characters they see on
the page. I hand the child helper a crayon and ask him if he can
write his name, and if he can, to do so on the page he chose. I
don’t bother with the corner tear with this age of children,
but that could also be done if desired.
Then I tear the pages into two, four, eight, sixteen pieces and
then I usually stop the counting “lesson” and just
finish tearing the page into “itsy bitsy” pieces.
I have the child helper take the torn pieces and wave the crayon
which he is still holding over the pieces, and the page begins to
magically come back together again as he and I open it up
together and show that even my helper’s name has been
restored.
Now that you have done the torn and restored coloring book page
trick, you can, if you wish, go back to the original book and
fill it up with colors, etc.
Included as an extra bonus is my Gift
Wrap paper tear, which makes a nice stand-alone effect for use
with a child who is having a birthday.
#6. Torn &
Restored Comic / Coloring Book Pages-$7.00
