Mark Leveridge Magic

A Wrinkle On - I'm A Great Magician and First Class Helper Badges

KEITH DOWNS

As soon as the First Class Helper Badges became available Keith saw the potential for using them with I'm A Great Magician. He has found it very useful to give each of the children wearing the comedy badges in the I'm A Great Magician routine a First Class Helper Badge in return for receivng their comedy badge back.

While I have never had a problem in getting the comedy badges off the children, it is particularly relevant and nice to be able to exchange it for a 'better' badge, especially since as Keith has the personalised version of the badges it means more children get to wear his publicity!

Keith also has changed the way the comedy badges are displayed on the children. To avoid them having to clip the badges on themselves, Keith has made some loops of ribbon to which he has attached a pice of Blu Tack. As each badge is chosen, it is then stuck to the Blu Tack and the ribbon hung round the child's neck.

Another way in which Keith has changed it is as follows. He uses the trick as an opener and at the conclusion of the effect leaves the children wearing the comedy badges as they go back to sit down. The birthday child, who has ended up with the I'm A Great Magician badge is promised to be the helper at the end of the show with the world famous Birthday Trick (which is in fact The Present, another Mark Leveridge Magic routine!).

Then, as he progresses through the show and needs someone to help he will say something like:"For this trick I need the help of a chatterbox". The child wearing that badge comes up to help and at the conclusion of that trick returns their comedy badge and receives the 1st Class Helper Badge instead. This is repeated each time an assistant is needed, each time selecting one of the other badge wearers, so in this way by the end of the show all the comedy badges have been returned.