11/28/09

Wiz Kids Qua-Fiki and Ee-Gee-Fiki practice some new stunts on their RipStiks in the parking lot at Cicely Tyson School while between assignments in their other careers. Qua-Fiki is now a photojournalist for the East Orange Interactive Museum, and Ee-Gee-Fiki is a clarinet player in the East Orange Unified Marching Band. Their careers bring them together this weekend, as Qua-Fiki photographs and writes a story about the Band playing at an Alumni basketball game in East Orange. But for the moment, they are two teens, having fun drinking sodas while challenging one another to balancing feats on the RipStiks.

11/08/09

It's a beautiful warm Autumn day in NJ, so the Fiki brothers put in some spare time practicing their new Sub Cube illusion. It's easy to practice a card trick or something that you perform solo, but the Sub Cube requires both of them to work together so they have to find moments like this week-end, when they are both free at the same time. They go to different schools and have different days off, but this week-end every school in NJ is closed for the Teacher's Convention, so they make up for lost time!

10/31/09

Halloween! Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki discovers that his Super Hero costume is not only good for tricks, but also for trick or treat! He performs magic tricks around the village of South Orange and then collects the treats, along with his father (former Wiz Kid Lee) and his little brother (Wiz Kid in Training, Za-Za-Fiki!).

10/25/09

One week before Halloween, and the Wiz Kids take their annual trip to the Pumpkin Farm to get pumpkins for Jack O'Lanterns, pies, pumpkin seeds, and cookies. Wiz Kid Ee-Gee-Fiki has found what appears to him to be a diseased pumpkin, but which is actually considered a decorative variety.

10/23/09

Wiz Kid Ee-Gee-Fiki poses on top of the latest magic trick that he will be performing with his cousin Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki in future stage shows. As you can see, it is a BIG trick, the kind that magicians call an Illusion. It was designed by his Grandpa Spellbinder and built by me (Jim Gerrish) for use in The Magic Nook and in Wiz Kid shows. It is called a Sub Cube and dates back to the days when Harry Houdini used to perform a similar illusion with his brother. One magician (or Wiz Kid) is locked inside the box by the other, and in three seconds, they change places.

9/26/09

Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki performs his Library Magic Show at the East Orange Public Library for an appreciative audience of young readers and magic lovers. In the photo, we see him performing one of his favorite magic tricks with the red balls, the one he first learned back in 2007. By now he is quite an expert at it!

Before his performance at the Library, Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki helped to photograph the Cicely Tyson Marching Band, since digital photography and photojournalism are also skills we teach interested Wiz Kids. He is a busy young man working on his future.

6/26/09

The most important part of being a Wiz Kid is not just the juggling, unicycling, magic and other Circus Arts. All Wiz Kids are required to work just as hard in school as they do after school. Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki proved he could do both, when he graduated from eighth grade this past week. He will spend the summer getting ready for more involvement in Wiz Kid shows as the Assistant Director of the Wiz Kids, working on booking his own shows in libraries, day camps and private birthday parties, and getting ready to enter high school in the fall.

05/02/09

Free Comic Book Day in South Orange Village.

Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki was present when Batman drove up in the 1966 Batmobile. Qua-Fiki presented Batman with a balloon "Key to the City" and Batman presented him with a great pose for his Wiz Kid scrapbook.

5/02/09

Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki was busy all day. blowing up balloon hats and animals for the kids, and putting on little street magic shows for those who had time to stop and watch. On the left you see Qua-Fiki doing his sponge ball magic. The costume he wore was part of his Super Hero Rope Act.

Wiz Kid Eleazar (on the right) joined Qua-Fiki in the afternoon, and the two of them went up and down South Orange Avenue entertaining with magic, ventriloquism and balloon animals.

04/03/09

Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki has performed his second public show successfully; one more to go before he becomes an "official" Wiz Kid and can claim his T-shirt with his Wiz Kid name on it. For those who have been following Qua-Fiki's career, it may seem strange that this is only his second public show; it is not. It is only the second show witnessed by members of The Wiz Kids, Inc. at which he performed the entire show successfully. You can see the video of his performance of The Three Little Pigs (pictures at left) on his page and will see him making a few mistakes. Mistakes do not count against him if he recovers and completes the show. This show consisted of A flower production, The Three Little Pigs, and A Portrait of Grandma performed before a live audience of pre-schoolers. Thanks go out to Qua-Fiki's mom, who made the video for us to see.

L-R: Wiz Kids Qua-Fiki and Rider

03/07/09

The rain held off long enough for Qua-Fiki and Rider to do some unicycling on the various paths and trails at Eagle Rock after juggling practice. In the background is the memorial to the victims of 9/11 and we always spend some time thinking about lost friends and relatives while we are at the site. Then it was off for a long work out around the grounds, in and out of the parking cones, and generally playing Unicycle Tag and having fun.

L-R: Wiz Kids Rider and Qua-Fiki at Eagle Rock

03/07/09

The Wiz Kids have been busy at school, so although they have been working on magic, unicycling and juggling when they can, we rarely have time to consider taking photos for these pages. But today we went to Eagle Rock (in West Orange) and after looking off the cliff and admiring the view of Manhatten, Newark, East Orange and West Orange all in one glance, Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki and Rider got down to some serious practice juggling the bean bags and the rings. The grass is not yet green, but we poked around and saw the first signs of Spring in the onion grass and crocuses starting to peek through.

01/02/09

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki got a Rip-stick (inline skate board) for Christmas. It doesn't work on the soft race track at Watsessing Park because the wheels sink down in, but along the paved path it works just fine. Wiz Kid Rider also got a Rip-Stick for his birthday, but the day we went to the park he didn't bring it with him, so he rode on his unicycle and Qua-Fiki did both.