Children’s Entertainment in Primary Schools

I do a lot of magic shows for children. From birthday parties, weddings, vacation camps and schools. Below is a true story. While it wasn’t that much fun, it did amuse me and got me thinking about teachers and how their minds work… different from everyone else! Martin the Magician.

The magic show was over. I quickly packed my accessories ready to make a hurried exit from school. The show went well, about two hundred children captivated by the nonsense, the magic and the juggling.

I did my favorite trick, suspending a full glass of water upside down over a teacher’s head with only a large playing card to keep everything from falling on her. Children have always loved this routine. “Now should I withdraw the card?” After a few jokes they yell “yes” at me I always answer “damn” I do it and the water remains suspended in the glass until it is released, falling and splashing into the plastic bowl. So I tell the kids to go home and try it out with mom and dad, “but don’t blame me if it goes wrong,” I tell them. “Yes, we will,” they all replied.

Well, I had several long trips back to the car, which can take a long time when you have endless doors to go through with coded locks. On my last trip I noticed a very wet teacher in a classroom drenched in what must have been water. Another teacher (the acting magician) alarmingly asked me for more details about the water trick. “I took out the piece of cardboard and the water came out!” He said… I looked at the wet professor who obviously looked very uncomfortable with the whole thing when the acting wizard suggested that it might be because his subject was a bit bald. “Could be” I answered and looking bewildered and without thinking I continued pointing out that the first part of the trick was in fact the scientific part that uses air pressure but the second part of the trick uses magic. Normally I would have phrased this explanation differently from adults who know that magic doesn’t really exist, but given the circumstances I settled on this childish explanation.

This explanation seemed to work, I thought. Then I noticed that the drenched teacher was starting to fill the glass again. (As if I wasn’t wet enough!) I left them and continued out of the building wondering about the elementary teachers. I still wonder!