My friend and I have started a magic club at school, but we have run into the problem of too many people joining. Since most illusions only need 2-3 people, we would need 3-4 illusions to make sure everybody gets a chance to shine. What can we do to get the other kids involved?

GREAT question.
There is so much more to a show than the illusions. how about a stand up set, maybe even a stage manager, a lighting guy ? this way, you could do more than one show and everyone could participate - simply change over rolls.
Where in PA are you located ?

I'm located in Chadds Ford. Do you think that we could use a piano man for our music? (Yes, I am a Bob Dylan fan.)

Jim Gerrish's Wiz Kids group works by making each member in charge of a different type of magic, thus providing a complete show. For example, one Kid is the Mentalist, one is an Escape Artist, one is a Clown Magician, another a Wizard (guess which one?), a Dove Magician, an Illusionist, a Coin Magician, and so on. When each kid is on as the star, the other members of the group act as his or her assistants. A magic Master of Ceremonies ties the whole thing into a unified show. You could do the same.

Their Web site is currently under revision, but here is a start: http://www.wizkidzinc.com/index.html

Of course, you will not want to join their group, but you might contact them for further information on doing so0mething similar in your own local area.

That's a good idea. We were going to do something like that, but we weren't sure if it would work. Seeing the wiz kid group can do this, perhaps we can too.

Another idea is to charge members for lessons at a magic shop near you.

Nobody does magic at my school. There's me, and I think only one other, and he just does simple tricks. Plus, I don't think he does it anymore. So basically, you are much luckier than I am to have other kids doing magic also. I came back from a convention, and I told everyone how I met Bob Sheets, Richard Turner, Chris Capehart, Daniel Garcia, Yigal Mesika, and tons of other famous guys, and everyone was like what? So you can see I have no one at school to talk magic too. Oh well. I always got the Café.

Michael

Put up a sign: Magic Club meeting today at 3:00 PM (or whenever)in Room (wherever you can get space). Bring a magic trick to perform as your audition piece. FREE REFRESHMENTS!

The Free Refreshments gets them to the door. The magic trick they have brought gets them in the room. You introduce yourself and do a brief trick or two to get things started. Then each person who wants to join the magic club you are forming performs his or her magic trick. Finally you teach them a simple magic trick, set the time and date for your next meeting and pass out the free refreshments- a bottle of soda and a box of cookies. It works every time. While they are eating your cookies, and before they leave, perform (but don't explain) the trick you will teach them the next time. Ask them all to bring a magic book (from the library or wherever) and perform one trick they learned to do from the book.

In no time you will have a few kindred spirits and you can talk about arranging your first public performance at your school or perhaps at a lower age level school near-by. Drama teachers make good club moderators for magicians. Just keep calling magic a "Performing Art."

And don't forget to get the Drama teacher to help you arrange a school sponsored "field-trip" for the club to the next magician's convention. Then everyone will know who and what you have been talking about.

Okay, I had the first meeting. 4 people were there, me and my friend who are presidents, a mentalist/card magician and the sister of the mentalist/card magician who actually doesn't do to much magic, but can juggle and ride a unicycle. I, personally, am getting a little discouraged. Do think it is worth doing with only 4 people?

Definitely! Four is better than none and four is also better than fourteen or forty, which would be more than you can handle. Work with the four you have and maybe work on doing a little Caféteria table-hopping as a group, during which time you might be able to recruit one or two more members. We usually have 10-12 Wiz Kids in our group, but when we go on the road, we never take more than 5 at a time to do a show. There's a psychological reason for 5 that has to do with group dynamics and I won't get into it now. Maybe later when you are ready to put on a real show as a group we might discuss it.

Also, since we're not exactly discussing Grand Illusions in this thread, you might want to move it to another part of the forum.