Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

A Return Trip to the Magic Shop
Now that my Information Architecture class has ended, my Saturday mornings are now freed up, and what with me teaching 3 classes this past week (one a make-up class) Saturday was designated a "Dad day", giving Erika a much-needed break. When I suggested to the girls that we go somewhere a bit different, such as the Magic Shop in the Bathurst/Eglinton part of the city, they were both very eager to go.

Vanessa has been there before, but this was the first time for Annie. I can't help but wonder what went through her mind at the idea of a "magic shop". In any event they were not disappointed.

The shop itself is unprepossessing, set into a non-descript little shopping plaza that's easily missed if you don't know where it is. But both girls went goggle-eyed when they got inside. Annie asked about the ventriloquist dummies were, and poured over some of the simple, largely mechanical tricks on a revolving stand. I want to practice more sleight-of-hand tricks over the Xmas break, but the mechanicals are easy and give the quickest bang for the buck.

I was hoping that the girls would get a little show while there, and sure enough, that's what they got. One of the regulars at the store (the one who always does the video demos of tricks and routines on their Web site) offered to help and all it took was Vanessa asking about some of the funny-looking things on the shelf behind the shop-keeper. He then launched into a little routine which dazzled both girls. He has excellent timing and knows how to pitch things to a young audience, and he had then both spell-bound for about 20 minutes or so. Annie in particular couldn't take her eyes of what she saw, eyes bright and mouth agape for the whole performance. Vanessa was all giggly, especially during the rabbit-in-a-hat puppet routine where she did a card trick with the rabbit (a good one too -- I may have to head back for that one). Afterwards Annie kept talking about that routine, especially about how the rabbit pretended to be asleep when it really wasn't, and how it later told the magician that he was sorry.

Because I was interested in a few tricks which I may be able to find future applicability in a classroom setting (still working on the scenarios for that one admittedly) I asked him about a couple of tricks which he promptly did routines with. Again, it went down well with the girls, who lapped it up.

I ended up buying several items: Dee-Light (purely for me, and something that when I opened the box, I laughed at loud realizing how simple the underlying trick is. I think I can work that one into a class setting, maybe :-) plus several mechanicals for the girls, like the Money Machine, a magical light-bulb, a card penetration frame. The girls wanted gags, so I bought a carton of very fresh milk that moos when you tip it over for Vanessa, and the snake-in-a-can gag for Annie. Both of them played those gags on me and their Mother repeatedly when they got home.

I don't know if I'm going to get any budding magicians out of my trips to this store, but beside the pure entertainment value, I hope that they see that a little bit of magic and wonder is not so hard to reach for.