Today's young magicians perform in venues where suits,
tuxedos and other dressy clothes are out of place. I have a
triple problem of being an independent magician, a member of the
Wiz Kids Troupe, and a Wizard. My Wizard robes are even more out
of place in certain venues than my tuxedo would be.
As a Wiz Kid, our troupe performs together, so we must all
look pretty much alike. The Wiz Kids traditionally (going all the
way back to 1980!) wore sweat shirts or T-shirts with the Wiz Kid
logo on it, and that is probably more suitable as a performing
costume for young magicians. The problem with the sweat shirt and
the T-shirt is that you don't have the wonderful pockets and
sleeves of the Wizard Robe and Tuxedo. The challenge was to
re-think the T-shirt as a performer's tool for magic.
The following just represents one possible routine for some
(not all) of the effects possible with my T-Shirt improvements.
Although the following description is for a silk routine, the
article describes the use of the T-Shirt for producing live
doves, for coin, card magic effects and rope effects as well.
Also, please don't think you are limited to the one design
pictured above. The sayings on the T-shirt as well as the designs
are limited only by your imagination.
One possible set of Effects used for teaching purposes in the
article:
A single silk appears in the air and you snatch it out of the
air. Suddenly two more silks join it. Tuck the three silks into
your T-shirt neck (like a bib). A fourth silk makes its
appearance from your hand. Hold out that silk at the corners and
produce two more silks beside it. Grab the ends of those three,
pull out the silks being held in your neck band behind the six
silks and end with a flash Blendo/confetti transformation. Toss
the Blendo into a basket or other container and you are left
clean. The explanations given for this routine will start you
realizing what a powerful magical gimmick your T-Shirt can be.
