Do it with no clothes on...that would get you some attention...and a jail ministry started too.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Saturday, I also plan on using Bob, my rocky spring puppet. He is a great way to get people to stop, while saving my voice.


Harris deutsch
"fishers of men"

Any thoughts on the color of rope?

white seems more natural, not gimmicked
red: would seem to attract more attention, but may suggest being gimmicked?

The color of the rope can be used in the patter or story.....

Sometimes I use green ropes and Barry Mitchell's Growing Seed..(using the Sower Parable)


Saturday there were interpreters from Spanish to English and English to Spanish.
Wish I would have paid more attention in Spanish Class...

We have Motorcycle race here in Springfield Illinois every Memorial and Labor day weekends. The Christian Motorcyclists Association, of which I am a part, sets up a booth in front of the grandstand every year. I have been open air preaching and doing magic for the past few years there.

I have found that a crowd gathers a crowd. I will start with Prof's Nightmare to illustrate sin, then do a cut and restored to illustrate how Christ can connect us with God. I will also use a Holy Bible Color Book, and now am also using Laflin's Ledger of Life.

I also use the curved pink and blue illusion and the crowd loves it and I then give them out.

One thing I have learned is that not all the magic we do in these situations have to have a message behind them. Some can just be for fun, and to gather an audience that we can later share Christ with. So I do some silk work, I will even take a change bag and do an entire mis-made flags routine, where the final load is a 4 foot silk flag, this gets some attention.

Yfoog:

So what do you do with the curved illusion? As discussed above, I would have thought that this would already be a very familiar optical illusion to teenagers and older.

John

Believe it or not. Most people either don't know this one, or have just forgotten. My unscientific guess would be maybe 1 in 100 will blurt out they are the same size.

Believe it or not I gave one to a member of a local Motorcycle Club, he then proceeded to show it to everyone else in the club and none of them had seen it before.

I also treat this like any other effect. If someone blurts out the method I just go on with the routine, because not all people will believe it. Especially this one as it is an individuals perception thing. Sometimes I will rephrase the question to which one looks bigger.

Most of the time you can do this(curved illusion) on a smaller scale with cup holders given out at Starbucks...(for a while last year they changed the design and it did not work)

I'll take your word for it. I just remember presenting various optical illusions to one of my gradeschool class; so I assumed that most had seen this sort of thing by early teens.

Yet, the fair came and went. My plan was to attract atteiontion with fiber optics. It did not. Plan B, I went up to people and initiated a discussion, or did a rope through neck, and aske if they would like to see something else. I then did a professor's nightmare w/a gospel message.

Certainly, as said above, "a crowd draws a crowd", but how to get that "seed" crowd? Sometimes, using an assistant was sufficient to get things started, but I got up to about 6 people at a time max. It was a learning experience.

I've been looking at this too for future events in my town and surrounding areas. Street performance (busking) is what I've been getting information on. One thing that I've learned from them is that when trying to draw a crowd, don't ask people if they want to see something. Just say "Hey, watch this" or get to talking to them. Another thing that I've learned is to use noise and color to draw attention. Pulling in voluteers is a great way to get a crowd started too...

Though I have shared with groups as large as 1400 it is not the size...As someone said..wherever 2 are gathered ......

Asking for a volunteer, using noise(and music), and puppets works for me.

Prayer and meditation prior to the start and of course asking God to direct my actions helps this nearly normal guy.

Praise God...


Harris

p.s. I joined our Praise and Worship team for the first time yesterday...at Sunday Service..As our team leader reminded us it is about Jesus not about me...

Harris "bringing up a joyous noise...."

I do a mail bag escape with 20 feet of chain 2 sets of hand cuffs and then go through a struggle. Once free then I could explain our struggle with sin. As for performing close up I perform some very strong visual effects. Once done ask them if they were decieved when they inevitably say yes ask what else is there in your life are you decieved about. Are you a good person. Then go from there

Last weekend I went to a street fair to watch a local church that uses magic as the basis of talking to people at the fair. They seemed to get people to stop, watch, listen and talk. I notice a number of things that they did different than what I did with my church.

1. They did not try to stick literature under people's noses as they walked by. Rather, after they talked (that's been my approach, but not my church's).
2. They seemed to target children: they had pre-tied balloons to hand out, and did a simple silk color change to attract attention. The parents would stop if the kids did. (duh, why didn't I think of this)
3. They did seem to use the curved illusion effectively with adults (altough I did't hear how they initiated this, or how they witnessed.
4. All the volunteers were involved in the general use of magic (or balloons) for talking to people, and they had many tracts from Living waters to hand out.

I watched from a distance, so I couldn't hear all of the interactions, but they did get many people to stop (although not too many at one time).

John

I have heard by many people who work the streets that if you can stop a child you can stop the world. It seems to hold true...

Saturday.July 19th..in the afternoon..FOM(Fishers of Men) will be at Abelle Field..near the Leavenworth Fort/Federal Penitentiary....I am blessed to be among them with my harps(not like David..but harmonici..and puppets...)


Peace be with you.

Harris