Close-up workers can make the leap to children’s magic with the KIDS KOMMANDO ACT

Jeff McBride released his Commando Act on video a number of years ago. It was a brilliant idea. It was an entire act that he could carry as hand-luggage on a flight. The biggest prop was his linking rings. If his luggage got lost Jeff could still perform.

Around that time I was beginning to pare back on my children’s act. This was purely pragmatic. If I am going out to do a show, I like to do a second or even a third while I am at it. The most I have ever done was seven during a communion Saturday. To take on that amount of parties in succession you need an act that breaks down quickly, and that involves little set-up. Ideally you need an act you can carry in one trip from the car.

Adding to my problems was that air travel changed completely after the 9/11 attacks. The good old days of flying with a seventy kilo flight case are long gone. I perform each December in Lapland, and take every other opportunity to travel at other people’s expense. But now I had to cram two forty five minute acts into one suit case and one piece of hand-luggage. In fact both shows had to fit into the hand-luggage, with room for a few books.

Could it be done?

From that problem arose my Kids Kommando Act.

Here are the rules:

1. The act has to use ordinary props that every magician would have anyway.
2. There can be no special kids props, or dealer routines.
3. The act must fit into a toilet bag for easy travelling.
4. The act must be capable of being loaded into the pockets of a regular costume.

The act that resulted is suitable for small to medium sized rooms. It is ideal for birthday parties, and groups of up to sixty or seventy kids. It is not suitable for large rooms or big stages. It is also an ideal starting point for close-up workers who want to make the jump into children’s magic (where the money is). It uses the skills any good close-up worker will have anyway.

Needed: Two sponge bananas. One sponge carrot. Three regular sponge balls. A few modelling balloons. Eighteen playing cards. One ribbon. One thumb-tip. Set of ropes. Mouth coil.

Set-up: The sponge bananas and carrot go into my left-hand trousers pocket. So do the 18 cards, and the mouth coil. In my right-hand trousers pocket I put the thumb tip and ribbon, as well as one of the modelling balloons, ready for the balloon-eating effect. Two sponge balls go into my right-hand jacket pocket. The other goes into my left-hand jacket pocket, along with a handful of modelling balloons. The ropes go into my right-hand trousers pocket.

The Routine.

I open by explaining that I became a magician recently but went into the wrong shop for my wand. I ended up with a banana instead. Now I do the repeating banana effect. Every time I put the banana back into my pocket another one appears at my fingertips. Eventually I get fed up and accuse the kids of slipping me bananas. I get them to promise not to give me any more bananas, then put the final one away. A carrot appears at my finger tips.

I then blame hunger for my problems, and tell the kids I must stop to eat a sausage. I produce the doctored balloon and go into a routine loaded with gags, which culminates with me eating a fully inflated balloon, the producing a mouth coil.

Now I explain to the kids that the venue was built over a graveyard, and a ghost is annoying me. He is sitting on the head of one of the kids. I tell the kids that ghosts are afraid of Barbie Dolls, and I have Barbie’s hair ribbon. So I produce the ribbon, and do a one-handed knot to catch the ghost. Then I vanish the ribbon with the thumb tip, then produce it from the stomach of a kid.

After this I explain that I did not always work as a magician. I used to be in charge of quality control in the spaghetti section of an Italian restaurant. This is my cue to do the Professor’s Nightmare. But any rope trick would do. I like the Professor’s Nightmare because it does not involve cutting any ropes. So the one set of ropes will last me forever.

I now stop for a public safety announcement. I tell the kids that if they are swimming they have to be careful of jellyfish. They have a habit of laying eggs in girls’ hair. Then I produce a sponge ball from the hair of one of the girls, and go into a simple sponge ball routine.

Now I take nothing from my pocket and tell the kids that what they are looking at is a new deck of cards from Japan, that are so miniaturised that they can only be seen if we moisturise them. I place the nothing on my tongue, then produce the eighteen cards (cards from mouth as done by Bill Malone). With the eighteen cards I do the six card repeat, throwing cards on the floor as I go.

I pick a boy and a girl, and have them race to pick up as many cards as possible. Then I divide the cards evenly, nine to each child. I then do cards across, pretending to be a pick-pocket. This provides a lively close to my act.

The whole routine takes forty five minutes, and fits into my pockets. It is my act when I travel. I was able to do it at my brother’s wedding with just what I could stuff into my suit pockets. I was able to do it in a Himalayan village 15,000 feet above sea level, in my hiking gear. I did a season in Irish Ferries with it.

It is not the only routine that meets my criteria for a Kids Kommando Act. Quentin Reynolds’s beautiful routine with a pocket hanky would fit in perfectly. A linking rings routine with ninja rings, or a ring on rope routine, or a rigid rope would also work. The possibilities are legion. Misers dream using a borrowed cup would work – and would suit a skilled close-up worker.

What are your ideas for a Kids Kommando Act? Don’t be afraid to comment – all suggestions are welcome.

Tony Black (real name Anthony Galvin) is a hypnotist and mind-reader based in Munster, but who performs throughout the country. His hypnosis show is a good deal wilder, and less structured, than most, with a heavy emphasis on comedy. Often he opens the show with one of his mind-reading routines, such as Russian Roulette with exploding toilets.
Tony has been performing magic for twenty five years, and hypnosis for fifteen. His show has brought him all over Ireland, as well as three tours of the middle-east, and a summer as the only hypnotist on the Greek isle of Kos.
As a magician he has spent twelve winter seasons in Lapland, three summers on the high seas, and been arrested twice for driving while blindfolded. His book Teach Yourself Magic has sold extensively in Britain and America. He also briefly held the world record for the longest public lecture (62 hours 15 minutes).