The Billet Article - The David Ginn Lecture

This article is taken from The Billet Issue - 396 - Dec 2004, Authored by Keith Pickles

The David Ginn Lecture

A large turnout of some 40 members and guests came to watch and learn from the king of childrens entertainers, David Ginn, on Friday 15 October. It was good to see so many there, even those who would not consider themselves to be childrens magicians.

David provided an evening of laughter and entertainment, as he showed several effects which he uses or has used in his childrens shows. At the end of the evening he did a roaring trade selling many of these items as the prices were, compared to many lecturers who have been in the past, ridiculously cheap.

He started by taking a small scarf and stretching it until it was extremely long – long enough to wrap several times around his neck, which he explained, but bearing in mind he was selling the item for £10, only meant that people would buy it from him as it would cost more to make.

The Vanishing Litre Coke Bottle was just what it said. Covering a coke bottle part way with a tube, the bottle vanished.

David says that he starts his show by telling the children that if they see something they like, they should clap (he gets them all to clap). If they see something funny, they should laugh (he gets them all to laugh). Then he has a watch with a tape measure in for ‘measuring the time’, which gets plenty of groans and is good for the adults there. So his opening is SURPRISE, EXAGGERATION AND GROANERS. Something he believes is the essence of childrens magic. Other tips included purposely getting into trouble and making mistakes.

He demonstrated this with Future Fungus with red flowers below yellow flowers on a stem. A turn round trick had the red flowers on top, until eventually they ended up alternately along the stem. A sucker trick which David likes.

A quick sponge ball routine involved David obviously not placing a sponge ball into his hand so that when he opened the hand, it was empty. The children knew this and let David know they knew it. When he opened up his other hand there was a large sponge ball hand in it – getting him a ‘big hand’!

Middle Diddle Silk was another sucker trick, which David commented sounded like something Edwin Hooper would have invented. A wand with a red end had a hankie through it. Placing it behind his back, David then showed the hankie was through the other end of the wand, which was yellow. Eventually the hankie jumped to the middle of the wand. David said that this was a good example of a repetition trick, and children like repetition, even if their parents think they should see something different every time.

Showing his wallet empty, David closed it and then opened it again, tipping out 2 flowers. He repeated this 6 times with the same wallet. This merely involved a Himber type wallet and spring flowers.

David stressed that he liked running gags, where he keeps trying to do an effect, but fails. The one he demonstrated was throwing a streamer into the air and saying that it would vanish and change into a fish or parrot, etc. Each time he said a different object. Every time he failed he said, ‘ You know what, it never was a very good trick’. After he has said this 2/3 times, the children all join in. Eventually he says that he will try again, and throwing the streamer into the air, it changes into a wand. This is a different streamer than the one he uses throughout the rest of the show, merely being tied to an appearing wand.

David likes to involve his audiences in the magic. Kids love things that are not just right (incongruity). They love big objects and the magician mis-hearing things.

David closed the first half with a routine of his that I have used for many years – Snake Can Routine. Basically this involves a girl and a boy. The girl looks inside a jelly bean can and finds it is empty. She prepares herself for the stage with a giant comb, giant toothbrush and giant sunglasses, and holds the jelly bean can. The boy puts a silk inside a change bag and makes the silk vanish to reappear inside the jelly bean can held by the girl – attached to spring snakes for a bigger laugh. Angela and Franco made excellent children for this effect!

The second half started with a little novelty that David demonstrated called Glow Loops. He blew through a straw and some string blew in the air. He passed a bracelet through the string. I noticed that at £5 for the equipment – 2 of each – these were selling like hot cakes.

David then showed how he uses music in his act to get the children clapping along whilst he performs a few silent items – Stretching a Rainbow; Cheat Blendo; and Delite Thumbtips. The latter involved David making the lights appear and disappear and even go into the audience to take the lights from childrens hair, etc.

The final effect involved Ross being taught how to pull a rabbit from a hat. A large hat was placed on Ross’ head, which came right down to his shoulders. He was also given a cape to wear. The magic wand kept changing from black to red whenever David looked away (cue for shouting, of course). He took the big hat off Ross and gave him a smaller one. He went behind him to put this on, and turned it inside out to reveal a large rabbit there. This was placed on Ross’ head without him seeing it. David pulled out streamers from the big hat, then a small rabbit. In a live show David would then make a rabbit appear from a production box, but tonight he pulled out an enormous rabbit silk (he sells this as a 6 foot rabbit in silk hat, and it definitely was 6 foot). Several comments are made about Ross getting a rabbit out of his head until he was eventually shown the hat. This would make a real routine for the childrens entertainer and be suitable for all ages of children from the very young to the not so very young.

For those of you who were not there and would like to look at the merchandise on sale by David Ginn, or would just like to read the newsletters he publishes on his web site, then go to: www.ginnmagic.com where you will see plenty to interest you.

If you send David your e-mail address, he will keep you up to date with all his developments through the power of the web.

David finished by receiving a long and enthusiastic round of applause.

Thanks to David, and to Tony Griffiths for organising the tour.

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