Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Something to Remember when Planning a Birthday Party

Protect your pets! Keep dogs, cats etc. separated from the party area. All it takes is one child to be bitten, knocked over, or scared to ruin the birthday party. These days allergies are also often a concern.

This will make your party great for the kids, and any entertainer you may have booked for your party. Of course this applies whether you are in the Greater Philadelphia area and hiring a magician or anywhere in the world! Remember these tips and have a fantastic and magical birthday party.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Top Tip for Birthday Party Planning in The Philadelphia Area

A Bouquet of Balloons helps people find your party
Attach a bouquet of balloons to your mailbox or your front door. This makes it a breeze for parents trying to find the house. This also helps the entertainer, and anyone else who may be helping out on the child’s special day.

Bonus Tip: Let the birthday child choose the colors for the balloons. Having the child participate in the birthday party planning is awesome for their self-esteem and self-confidence. Besides, kids really do want to help out.

And if it's a magical birthday party, or you will have a magician at your party, look at the balloon store - they usually have balloons shaped like top hats, wizard hats, rabbits, magic wand, and the like. This will make it clear to all your guests that you will be having a magic show at your party, and their excitement will begin to build.

Balloons and Magic themed items are available at party stores throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, such as Party City


Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Considering a Bounce House for a Birthday Party?

Bounce House Considerations


Of course not everybody will want or need a magician at their birthday party. A popular alternative is to rent a bounce house. Here's a list of 10 things to consider before renting a bonce house for your birthday party. Many of these points are overlooked and result in a stressful or even a dangerous day. 
    
Bounce houses actually are fantastic for a children's birthday party.  They usually have a fairly large size and their bright colors add to the festive atmosphere.  The excitement they can add to the party that is hard to match for kids of all ages.  But it's not all as simple as it sounds.

1.  Bounce houses are only for only children ages 3 - 12.Kids need, for safety, to be able to leave the inflatable on their own. Kids under 3 years old will have trouble with that, and so bounce houses are to be avoided for kids under 3. Older children, over the age of 12 are quickly bored by a bounce house (even though it's fun!) and so some sort of interactive entertainment is best for children over 12 years of age. 

2.  Choose the appropriate size bounce house for your party guests.It's important to work with the rental company to find an appropriate size that fits both your budget and your number of guests. If the bounce house is too small, children can not freely and safely bounce inside and one that is too big is simply a waste of money. 

3.  Be sure the rental company has insurance
Ask what type of insurance they carry and be specific with your questions. 
Its important the the children using the bounce house will be covered if anything should malfunction. This is far more than just a money-back guarantee. If a rental company's prices seem "too good" they may be operating without insurance.  

4.  Get a written contract.
As with all party entertainment, it's important that the rental company and you have a clear written agreement including specific dates, pick-up / delivery times and prices - to avoid any surprises.   

5.  Inspect the bounce house upon delivery
If there are any issues, do not sign the paperwork and make sure they find a solution before allowing anyone to use the equipment. 

6.  Have the delivery person wipe down the mat inside.You don't want someone else's germs at your party. 

7.  Supervision is a must at ALL times.
Never leave an inflatable bounce house unattended when children are inside.   Make sure to designate an adult that will stay with the bounce house and watch the kids during the party. Because inflatables seem so safe, this is often overlooked, but it is SO Important! 

8.  Don't overload the equipment by having too many children inside at once.The rental company wil guide you as to how many children may be in the moonbounce at the same time. Accidents can occur when the unit is overloaded.

9.  Group children together by agesKeep age groups together - ages 3 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 12. Children not inside need to be monitored too!

10.  Unplug or power off the unit in high winds or bad weather.
Never allow children inside during these conditions.

These 10 things should keep everyone safe and having fun at the birthday party! But it does take a lot more dillegence from a responsible adult than you might have thought, and that takes away from time that parents can use to prepare the cake & ice cream, set up games, and catch a breath. A bounce house might be fun, but it's surely not easy!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Magnificent Cat Magician

Here's a wonderful cat magician who does his tricks in exchange for treats. He even has an assistant. They aren't necessarily the bets effects ever, but they are quite good for a fairly lazy cat. He's an inspiration!





Thursday, October 29, 2015

I just found some great Christmas & Holiday Themed "Minute to win it" Kids Birthday Party games over at Birthday party Ideas

These are great additions to a Kids birthday party. After a magic show, and some cake, if there's time left in your party schedule - and cake always seems to be eaten faster than planned, these are really easy games that just take a few minutes each and use supplies which are easily found. You probably have them already. Here are some of my favorite Christmas Minute to Win it games:

Jingle all the Way
4 empty 2 liter soda bottles, small bells, tape
Before the game, take four empty liter soda bottles and rinse them out. Put a large amount of jingle bells into two of the liter bottles, then tape the empty bottles on top so that it looks like a giant rattle. You want the openings of the bottles touching so that the bells can pass from one bottle to the other.
The players that are able to shake all of the bells down from the full bottles to the empty bottles in under a minute wins!
Jingle Bells Junk
Empty tissue boxes (large), rope or belts, jingle bells
Attach an empty tissue box to the player’s waist using a rope or a belt. The opening should be facing the back. Fill the tissue boxes with ten jingle bells. The players then must jump, dance, and wiggle around to get all of the bells out of the box in one minute. 
Red Christmas Tree
36 Red Solo type plastic cups One at a time, give a player 36 red solo cups to stack into a pyramid, or Christmas tree, and then take back down again.
Red Light
25 Red Solo style cups, 1 Blue Solo cup
Give each player a stack of red solo cups and one blue solo cup, with the blue cup at the top of the stack. The player must transfer the blue cup to the bottle of the stack by taking red cups from the bottom and moving them to the top. The player to do this in under one minute wins! 

Sunday, June 7, 2015



Had some great shows at the June Lansdale First Friday.


Funny little incident during a break when the police informed me local residents were complaining that the audience was laughing & screaming too loud.


They had a DJ with giant speakers in the same spot before so this is pretty funny.


Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Magic Routines

So, as I continue my never ending process of developing a magic show and routines within the show that have a good start, middle, and end ( a useful narrative technique) I saw this link from Bizarro    to a video  which, says all good stories basically:


  • Tell a story to a certain point, and then need a ...
    • But, then or
    • Therefore ...
  • And also have multiple things going on so that at each crescendo of each story, we can cut back to ... what's happened elsewhere and get that story to it's next (but/therefore)
For magic purposes, if applied to the "snap silks" we have a single sink handkerchief. music playing. But! With a snap there's another. And But! with a snap there's another... and so on for a bit. By the end, there's one last one. THEREFORE, at least as Anastasia performs it, that seems to be it, and all the produced silk hankies are lifted, BUT ... there are many many more all coming out in a flourish!

In the full routine context the first time an additional silk appears is unique, and then serves to lead the audience down a certain path. 

This leads towards the kitten story theory which I will discuss in an upcoming post.