This is my first video posted on youtube as Gishamer the Magician my alter ego please check it out.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O91Ic9tXGV8&list=HL1328219214&feature=mh_lolz

Loved your skit Homerdaclown. Do you mind if I bororrow it.

whats a warsh board? j/k lol

Thanks for posting your video clip Homer. I don’t know if the following words will help you or not (I hope so), but you do need help from somewhere. Quite frankly, from start to finish, I thought every part of your show stank. It really needs to be picked apart and re-worked from the ground up. I don’t particularly like the idea of my talent and creativity being employed to spread the gospel but nor do I like mediocre clowns tarnishing the reputation of an art that I care so much about. So lets work together and get our creative juices flowing a bit and see if we can not help you create a show that both wows and entertains the kids, while also teaching them about your religion.

It was overly long, ponderous, short on comedy, devoid of any excitement and originality. The result was a room of bored and distracted looking kids. You projected absolutely no stage presence. There was no eagerness in the audience, no sense of mounting excitement and anticipation to see what you would do next and you made absolutely no attempt to build their excitement. Your jokes and lines were few and far between. The ones you did manage were lame and failed to get laughs. I don’t have any desire to sit through it again to analyse whether this was because the jokes were plain bad (probably) or just pitched at a level that went over those poor kids heads.

If you really want to be a children’s entertaining, clowny magician, you are going to have to practice and start thinking a great deal more about the comedy and what is funny and exciting. Because all I saw there, was a preacher trying to perform a magic trick but somehow, completely missing the entire point of what magic is all about. Where was the awe, the wonder, the surprise and the mystery? The magic when it did finally come, lacked any oomph and pazzazz. Please do not mistake or confuse popping a paper bag as being “Pazzazz”, because it isn’t and you can be sure, no child in that audience thought so either. There were no hushed oohs and arghs, no wonderment and astonishment from any of them. In fact, it was so lacking in so many areas, I don’t believe many of those kids even noticed or recognised it as even being a magic trick!

You took all the magic out and inserted the gospel and in this case, it does not work at all. The shame is, it is a perfectly good trick, when performed well and the message is an easy and simple one to get across. There is absolutely no reason at all, why it should not create feelings of wonder and astonishment and provoke thoughts about the glories of your god. But to give it the wow factor and make peoples eyes pop out, it needs to be performed much quicker.

The props themselves, were uninspiring, a little shabby and a lot of it, completely unnecessary. The wash tub and board and the three soap boxes added nothing to the story. Nor the brief history of domestic drudery and chores. The props you did have, you did not utilize very well. If you have to have your dirty socks in it, DO IT! Kids understand smelly socks. Pulling disgusted faces, holding them by the tips of your fingers and hamming up the awful stench, I guarantee would have had them laughing. If you need the wash board, USE IT. Get a noise out of it. Knock out a little rhythm and pique their interest. The same with the tub. It would have been like a bass drum and a snare. Add the line, "What did my boots say when I put them in the washing machine? BA DUM BA DUM BA DUM". You would have had a whole ochestral rythm section in an instant (Now that would have been pazzazz). It was almost a one man band but all you did was ask, "Do you know what this is?". If the soap boxes only function was to provide you with a crib for quoting lines from the Bible, you would do much better to learn the individual lines. Three or four lines to learn, is nothing. I can quote quite a lot from the bible, giving chapter and verse and I don’t even like the thing. While I am thinking about chapter and verse, why are you quoting them? In this instance, quoting chapter and verse does nothing to further their understanding. Consider carefully, do children of that age need to know in specific, it’s John, chapter 1, verse 9, line 6, paragraphs 4 and 5 oblique slash 7? Because I don’t think that kind of information is at all useful to any of them. Keep it simple, ditch all that complicates and confuses the message. The only things you should be adding are things that either provoke thought or laughter. If you feel you cant dispence with the three boxes, learn a couple of cigar box moves.

You talked about lies, anger, envy and gave a short word on each one asking, "Did you ever hear somebody say …...?" At this point, it is in my mind almost unforgivable of you, that you did not think use funny voices. You just created the logic in the patter to put on for example, a high pitched woman’s voice or a very deep gravely voice or a silly foreign accent. It also provided you with the logic within the routine, to act out exaggerated and heightened emotions and you squandered both these opportunities. You really do need to work at your story telling and give some depth and character to your narrative.

If you want to develop the theme of washing away your sins, perhaps you might consider investing in a decent prop. Here is a wonderful piece of kids magic with a very funny routine that creates lots of laughter. The kids get to do all the work, put in the items, turn a very noisy ratchet handle and open it up to find something has gone wrong. It comes with socks and patter lines but there is no reason why you do not make your own garments to wash. and create your own gospel inspired lines. "When I am angry it turns my pants red when I’m envious it turns my shirts green, when I pray to Jesus they come out pure and clean". etc. Here are a couple of slightly differing versions that may interest you.

http://www.magicboxcapers.com/johnbreedsmagic/wacky-washing-machine.htm (http://www.magicboxcapers.com/johnbreedsmagic/wacky-washing-machine.htm)

http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=2520 (http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=2520)

There are a great many other wonderful magic tricks where the effect is an astonishing transformation. There are plenty that you could utilize, adapt and employ to spread your message. If you’re employing some magical stunt or other to invoke or demonstrate the unearthly and divine power of your gods, make sure it is magical. Show the bag empty at the start, show the bag empty at the end. If those kids were inspired to ponder what happened there (sadly, I am pretty sure they were not), even their young minds could have fathomed out what happened. If you can make it magical, perhaps you could fool them into thinking your god had a hand in it and therefore, really must exist.

I have further thoughts and lines to contribute to this thread but would like first to see what if anything, others can come up with.

Barry is right. I'd encourage you to take up some of his ideas and play with them to see where it might lead and what you could do to punch up the act.

And, while I won't throw stones at your efforts (I actually appreciated the general gist of where you were going with things) this also illustrates why I generally am not a huge fan of using magic for a message (of any sort.) Because what ends up happening is that there is a lot of message and not much magic. And by magic, I don't just mean trodding through a trick, but truly making a ACT out of things with showmanship. What you're offering is fairly standard fare among performers who go gospel magic and such. Walk through a trick, tell the kids that the red represents blood and our sins, etc, etc..... On the plus side, I saw some creativity (the boxes with their words, the socks and washboard - given, I'd be entertained by a washboard any day just because you so rarely see the things anymore - the attempt at offering a storyline and a theme for the tricks and props.) That was a good start. You've obviously done some work with this, and I appreciate that. But it could be so much more!

The main thing to always remember is that our work ought to be ENTERTAINMENT! And FUN! When we can accomplish this in connecting with an audience, then people will pay better attention and make connections with the message (if there is one) - because what you have done has made an IMPACT upon them, already.

Personally I believe that religion ought to be kept separate from clowning. Clowning to me is a form of escapism for the audience from the daily stresses and woes, and is of high healing value in itself without the need to subject one to any other thoughts, unless of course if one is channeling the sacred fool.

http://www.clown-forum.com/picture.php?albumid=504&pictureid=6182

I was once known as a metaphysical magician, a role I portrayed on stage for 2 years and found it to be draining from the entertaining I was sharing. People started to come to my show in hopes of learning some form of mysticism witticism....and by that point I realized I had classified myself into a hole and needed to change it quickly before I buried myself in it.

Barry is right. I'd encourage you to take up some of his ideas and play with them to see where it might lead and what you could do to punch up the act.

And, while I won't throw stones at your efforts (I actually appreciated the general gist of where you were going with things) this also illustrates why I generally am not a huge fan of using magic for a message (of any sort.) Because what ends up happening is that there is a lot of message and not much magic. And by magic, I don't just mean trodding through a trick, but truly making a ACT out of things with showmanship. What you're offering is fairly standard fare among performers who go gospel magic and such. Walk through a trick, tell the kids that the red represents blood and our sins, etc, etc..... On the plus side, I saw some creativity (the boxes with their words, the socks and washboard - given, I'd be entertained by a washboard any day just because you so rarely see the things anymore - the attempt at offering a storyline and a theme for the tricks and props.) That was a good start. You've obviously done some work with this, and I appreciate that. But it could be so much more!

The main thing to always remember is that our work ought to be ENTERTAINMENT! And FUN! When we can accomplish this in connecting with an audience, then people will pay better attention and make connections with the message (if there is one) - because what you have done has made an IMPACT upon them, already.

While I am thinking about chapter and verse, why are you quoting them? In this instance, quoting chapter and verse does nothing to further their understanding. Consider carefully, do children of that age need to know in specific, it’s John, chapter 1, verse 9, line 6, paragraphs 4 and 5 oblique slash 7? Because I don’t think that kind of information is at all useful to any of them. Keep it simple, ditch all that complicates and confuses the message. The only things you should be adding are things that either provoke thought or laughter.

Again, I agree.

However (by way of explanation for Barry, more than anything) I do understand that in certain strains of American Christianity this is just how things are taught, especially to children. There are numerous "memory verses" which people are expected to learn and be able to cite... literally by saying, "John 3:16 says....."

Not everyone does it that way. For instance, I am Catholic. I can talk an awful lot about Scripture, quote important passages, and paraphrase popular stories. But, most often, if you asked me where, exactly, that is, I'd stumble: "Well, um, somewhere in the Gospel of Luke, I want to say." Because the whole citing chapter and verse thing is just not the way I learned it. The Word is offered at Liturgy and will be proclaimed by starting out, "A reading from St. Paul's letter to the Thesolonians." But no one says, "Now open your Bibles to Job Chapter 5, verse 7." Unless it is in some sort of Bible study class. And, even then, it is just being employed as a reference point to find the verse, itself, which is what is important. Yes, those who have made more serious academic study of these things are often able to go right to certain passages or discuss the focus of the gospels and how basically the same stories compare and contrast somewhat.

But even most average church-goers from those communities which have learned their chapter and verse well often are limited to a certain subset of Scripture (say as many as 60 or 75 verses out of the entire Bible) which they just cite repeatedly, making it seem like they are almost experts because they can go "right to it." Get them outside of those passages and they're often as lost as anyone else - if not downright unfamiliar with what someone else is pointing out.

I guess what I am saying, then, is that I do respect if, for the environment, it is important to also note chapter and verse. But don't let it get in the way of the act. There is a way to do it, perhaps by mentioning it just at the beginning and the end. Cite it up front (as you do introduce it as today's lesson.) And, then, maybe again on the back end (after the act is actually finished) as a way of reinforcement. "And where can we find that in the Bible, kids?" (Everyone shouts out together the chapter and verse.) "That's right, great job. Praise God!"

Thanks for posting your video clip Homer. I don’t know if the following words will help you or not (I hope so), but you do need help from somewhere. Quite frankly, from start to finish, I thought every part of your show stank. It really needs to be picked apart and re-worked from the ground up. I don’t particularly like the idea of my talent and creativity being employed to spread the gospel but nor do I like mediocre clowns tarnishing the reputation of an art that I care so much about. So lets work together and get our creative juices flowing a bit and see if we can not help you create a show that both wows and entertains the kids, while also teaching them about your religion.

It was overly long, ponderous, short on comedy, devoid of any excitement and originality. The result was a room of bored and distracted looking kids. You projected absolutely no stage presence. There was no eagerness in the audience, no sense of mounting excitement and anticipation to see what you would do next and you made absolutely no attempt to build their excitement. Your jokes and lines were few and far between. The ones you did manage were lame and failed to get laughs. I don’t have any desire to sit through it again to analyse whether this was because the jokes were plain bad (probably) or just pitched at a level that went over those poor kids heads.

If you really want to be a children’s entertaining, clowny magician, you are going to have to practice and start thinking a great deal more about the comedy and what is funny and exciting. Because all I saw there, was a preacher trying to perform a magic trick but somehow, completely missing the entire point of what magic is all about. Where was the awe, the wonder, the surprise and the mystery? The magic when it did finally come, lacked any oomph and pazzazz. Please do not mistake or confuse popping a paper bag as being “Pazzazz”, because it isn’t and you can be sure, no child in that audience thought so either. There were no hushed oohs and arghs, no wonderment and astonishment from any of them. In fact, it was so lacking in so many areas, I don’t believe many of those kids even noticed or recognised it as even being a magic trick!

You took all the magic out and inserted the gospel and in this case, it does not work at all. The shame is, it is a perfectly good trick, when performed well and the message is an easy and simple one to get across. There is absolutely no reason at all, why it should not create feelings of wonder and astonishment and provoke thoughts about the glories of your god. But to give it the wow factor and make peoples eyes pop out, it needs to be performed much quicker.

The props themselves, were uninspiring, a little shabby and a lot of it, completely unnecessary. The wash tub and board and the three soap boxes added nothing to the story. Nor the brief history of domestic drudery and chores. The props you did have, you did not utilize very well. If you have to have your dirty socks in it, DO IT! Kids understand smelly socks. Pulling disgusted faces, holding them by the tips of your fingers and hamming up the awful stench, I guarantee would have had them laughing. If you need the wash board, USE IT. Get a noise out of it. Knock out a little rhythm and pique their interest. The same with the tub. It would have been like a bass drum and a snare. Add the line, "What did my boots say when I put them in the washing machine? BA DUM BA DUM BA DUM". You would have had a whole ochestral rythm section in an instant (Now that would have been pazzazz). It was almost a one man band but all you did was ask, "Do you know what this is?". If the soap boxes only function was to provide you with a crib for quoting lines from the Bible, you would do much better to learn the individual lines. Three or four lines to learn, is nothing. I can quote quite a lot from the bible, giving chapter and verse and I don’t even like the thing. While I am thinking about chapter and verse, why are you quoting them? In this instance, quoting chapter and verse does nothing to further their understanding. Consider carefully, do children of that age need to know in specific, it’s John, chapter 1, verse 9, line 6, paragraphs 4 and 5 oblique slash 7? Because I don’t think that kind of information is at all useful to any of them. Keep it simple, ditch all that complicates and confuses the message. The only things you should be adding are things that either provoke thought or laughter. If you feel you cant dispence with the three boxes, learn a couple of cigar box moves.

You talked about lies, anger, envy and gave a short word on each one asking, "Did you ever hear somebody say …...?" At this point, it is in my mind almost unforgivable of you, that you did not think use funny voices. You just created the logic in the patter to put on for example, a high pitched woman’s voice or a very deep gravely voice or a silly foreign accent. It also provided you with the logic within the routine, to act out exaggerated and heightened emotions and you squandered both these opportunities. You really do need to work at your story telling and give some depth and character to your narrative.

If you want to develop the theme of washing away your sins, perhaps you might consider investing in a decent prop. Here is a wonderful piece of kids magic with a very funny routine that creates lots of laughter. The kids get to do all the work, put in the items, turn a very noisy ratchet handle and open it up to find something has gone wrong. It comes with socks and patter lines but there is no reason why you do not make your own garments to wash. and create your own gospel inspired lines. "When I am angry it turns my pants red when I’m envious it turns my shirts green, when I pray to Jesus they come out pure and clean". etc. Here are a couple of slightly differing versions that may interest you.

http://www.magicboxcapers.com/johnbreedsmagic/wacky-washing-machine.htm (http://www.magicboxcapers.com/johnbreedsmagic/wacky-washing-machine.htm)

http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=2520 (http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.php?productid=2520)

There are a great many other wonderful magic tricks where the effect is an astonishing transformation. There are plenty that you could utilize, adapt and employ to spread your message. If you’re employing some magical stunt or other to invoke or demonstrate the unearthly and divine power of your gods, make sure it is magical. Show the bag empty at the start, show the bag empty at the end. If those kids were inspired to ponder what happened there (sadly, I am pretty sure they were not), even their young minds could have fathomed out what happened. If you can make it magical, perhaps you could fool them into thinking your god had a hand in it and therefore, really must exist.

I have further thoughts and lines to contribute to this thread but would like first to see what if anything, others can come up with.
First of all Barry while yes my routine needs some help or i wouldn,t have posted it , I don't think it stanked because normally the kids are so loud with laughter that i have to quiten them down so it won't bother the ones in the main part of the church, I think they where just alittle camera shy. Besides are you a mind reader in saying that no child in that audience thought so either refering to the pazzazz of the trick and how could you see that the kids were bored and distracted when most of the had their backs to the camera? as far as the lesson on having your sins wash away I thought it was good and sorry you don't like using magic and clowning to spread God's word but even Jesus used object lessons to convey his message, but over all you did have some good points that I will consider in improving my performance in the future. Now thanks to Jodie no I don't mind if you borrow it because I was inspired by Duane Laflin who did something similar. and to the real twinkle toes my son also pointed out my saying warsh instead of wash my just country and I like that way lol. and thanks to all the other post.