I was invited to entertain the 9th Watford Rainbows this evening. They meet in Whippendale Road. They had asked for a puppet show. Archie the Bear came along with Dougal the dog. They were joined by a spider a snake and a chicken. Lots of fun fitted into an hour.
Happy New Year
The snow has fallen and melted. The sun is shining and we are ready for a new year. Auntie Julie had a great Christmas. She had her usual visits to Harlyn School in Northwood, Oaklee Montessori in Pinner, Woodlodge Montessori in Northwood and many more. The further ones were Ryepark Infants in Hoddesdon and Smiles Montessori in Harlow. This year I was given a Christmas card, made by reception 1 and I promised I would post it here
The Christmas season was finished off with my annual visit to HSBC in Canary Wharf. I’ve been here for a few years now at a ‘Bring your child to work day’ It’s always good fun, with a team of fellow entertainers. Father Christmas was very generous with his sack of chocolate which kept my spirits up all morning. It is the one time of year I can travel on public transport, where noone bats an eyelid with what I’m wearing, or the rattle of sleigh bells as I move along.
Auntie Julie has had a busy Autumn. The term started off with an unusual amount of back to school shows. A couple of nurseries had anniversaries of opening and another was a welcome to new students. All of these was a good way to start September off.
Northwick Park hosptial has been very busy. Lots of coughs and colds around this time of year. A visit from POD Charity always brightens the day. Next month will have Christmas shows for everyone.
I belong to a group of about 200 entertainers who meet up every year for a convention. It’s a lot of fun with shows, lectures and stuff to buy. It means that we all know pretty much how each of us run our parties. That doesn’t mean that we are all the same. What works for one magician, may not for another. This is particularly helpful when passing work amongst ourselves. Sometimes an enquiry comes in and I am fully booked, or the job is too far away. Rather than leave the client scrolling through dozens of options I do my best to find them a similar, suitable entertainer. In return, when I have a gap, I can often fill someone elses enquiry.
Why am I telling you this? This week I came across an entertainer who wasn’t part of my group. It was refreshing to see a completley different ‘take’ on the party. Firstly it was a male entertainer, with 3 year old party children. Mostly male entertainers prefer to entertain older children. He ran a session of singing and actions for 45 minutes. Every song had a new puppet or prop. All his tracks were backing tracks with live singing. I applaud his singing ( much better than mine). What I did notice was that he wasn’t phased by the children that didn’t join in . The children were very young so didnt have a huge attention span, and a few were allowed to wander and run around. Nobody should copy an act ( because it’s his intellectual property) but it did give me some worthwhile inspiration.
My act followed food. I settled everyone into place after they’d had their birthday tea and ran my show, missing out the songs they’d already sung. The birthday girls dad complimented me, and said he didn’t think I had a chance of getting everyone sat down. Infact, I had more children at the end of my show, than I’d started with.
One of my favourite hospitals to visit is Northwick Park. The children's unit is called Jack's Place. I'm not sure who Jack was but he has certainly made a difference, just like our POD shows do. I visit here twice a month. I know that the charity Spread a Smile also come along. As well as the magic show the balloons are always a hit with the staff as well as the children. I don't mind spending a little extra time making sure the staff have something to take for their children at the end of the day
Auntie Julie had lots of fun today with her magic friends in Abbots Langley. Every year we put on a show to celebrate our talents. I used the opportunity to have my act filmed. My act had bananas and carrots, farm animals and jokes. Mostly it had a lovely lady called Lily who came on stage and acted like a pro.
Noone likes to spend Christmas in Hospital. But, if you do need to spend time there, there is no better time that the week or so before. This is where the wards are decorated, the craft tables are full of decorations to make and festivities begin.
This year I have been able to cover most of my hospital in early December. I started with a trip to The Whittington. I performed my magic show to a couple of older boys who were on the ward for transfusions. To be fair to them, they put down their phones pretty quickly and along with the staff and their parents had a thoroughly good time. It just made the whole visit that bit better.
Gosh was my next visit. I cover three wards and Falcon Outpatients. Despite Great Ormond Street being a massive hospital with hundreds of inpatients, in reality on my visits I see very few individuals. Long gone are the days when everyone packed themselves into the playrooms to watch a show together. I tend to spend time with just 2 or 3 children per session. One of my visits was to a boy who had his mum and Auntie with him. I dont know if I will every get to see the video, but my whole show was recorded, I expect to play back again when I had gone.
Moorfields went well with a full magic show in the outpatients area. It was the first run through of my Christmas magic show. There were one or two mistakes which actually added to the fun of the whole show. I was also dancing pretty much by myself at one point ad slowly my audience members were called in to see the doctors.
My last visit that week was to my lovely Northwick Park. Always ready with a camera, Gail took this wonderful shot of myself with a young Santa
I've been performing at Northwick Park Hospital for over ten years. Every visit is made even more special when a certain member of the housekeeping team are on shift. Her name is Sweetie. It really is and she really is. She keeps the ward looking Spick and Span. Well apparently tomorrow is her last day. She is moving to a hospital nearer to where she lives. She will be missed by everyone. I have made her a balloon as my contribution to her farewell. I wont be at her party but I do wish her well
Sometimes I entertain adults rather than children. I have a vintage magic stage act. Its based around the life and times of world war 2 . My family all enjoy living history and that is where this act started. I have stories of what we know as ‘The Bridge over the River Kwai’ and stories about rationing and petrol coupons.
There are two versions of the act – One is one hour and suitable for U3A groups, WI, or care homes and the other is a 12 minute stage act.
What’s more I’ve just had it rerecorded
So with the sun shining and the corn growing higher than my Shelties heads why am I talking about Christmas?
This week I was asked if I had any more recent video footage of my show. I was embarassed to say that I hadn’t. I didn’t even have any particularly recent photos.
Why?
There is so much bad coverage given to social media it is becoming impossibly hard to get to use the images of happy smiling children any more. I end up taking pictures of balloons that I have made that have no more than a childs unidentifyable hand in view. Either that, or I have to sticker out the very happy faces I wanted to show. I am reliant on the good will and generosity of parents who are happy for me to use their photos. Some even ask me to use them which is lovely.
So this is why I am posting a photos from Christmas. This was the Watford Association of Magic’s Christmas Show and Competition. I came a respectable 3rd, after Magic Dave and good friend Captain Calamity. Im pictured here dancing to the Wiggle Wiggle song. I was the first performer on stage and needed to warm the audience up. Im wearing my Christmas outfit. My lovely purple suit with flower trim is due for retirement . The next suit will be red with blue stars, just for a change.
Oh my goodness. I have never seen such a party as I saw on Tuesday. The person who booked me warned me that the roads may be a little busy. I was told that it may be a little crazy. That was the most beautiful understatement I have ever heard. The booking was for a private party in a house where I dutifully arrived over an hour early. At first I thought that all the drivers in the area were in a terrible hurry as there was a cacophony of bibbing car horns...... Little did I know of what was to come. There were cars everywhere but I manage to get parked on a grass verge that I'm sure on any other night might have sent a traffic warden twitching for his ticket machine.
The children I was expecting dutifully arrived, all in fancy dress. We had clowns, old men and air stewardesses. After a supper of sausages and chips, they were keen for the magic show to get started. We were part way through the show when I could hear music outside the house. We all went to investigate. This quiet cul-de-sac had turned into Ibiza. There was a flat back truck loaded with lights and speakers with dancers jumping up and down on the back to some traditional pop music. Those not on the truck were following behind, jumping singing and dancing.
We finished the magic show and went on to making balloons. Something was now kicking off inside the house. We had new visitors. First was a group of children dressed as clowns. They treated us to a song, then in came a dance troup to add to the entertainment. Money was being collected for, I believe for a local school.
The purpose of this blog entry is to talk about the amazing atmosphere created by this celebration. It was a mix of a Christian Christmas and the Treat and Treat of Halloween, along with the partying of New Years Eve. Every thing was good natured, very little alcohol was being drunk, and everyone was having a good time.
The best thing for the children was to have the next day off school to recover.
