Hello,

I am currently putting together a Halloween Magic show (it's my favorite time of the year)
Has anyone got any hints and tips etc?
Thank you in advance

Here are a few sources for Halloween-themed tricks:

- The Ghost Trap, by Smoky Mountain Magic

- Fraidy (choose Dracula theme), by Smoky Mountain Magic

- StratBlocks (choose Frankie or Skeleton theme), by Smoky Mountain Magic

- Wrist Chopper (choose Frankenstein or Wolf theme), by Smoky Mountain Magic

- The Great Pumpkin, by Fairchild Magic

- Mismade Skeleton, by Fairchild Magic

- Skeleton Table, by Fairchild Magic

- Mummy Dearest, by Fairchild Magic

- Mis-Carved Jack-O-Lantern, by Wonder Imagery

- Gary the Goofy Ghost, by Wonder Imagery

- Abercrombie the Zombie, by Wonder Imagery

- Halloween Safety Magic Show DVD, by Tommy James

- Lopsided Cyclops, by Tommy James

- Comeback Spider, by Tommy James

- Dracaphobia, by Tommy James

- Flash Appearing Halloween Banner, by Tommy James

- Ultimate Homing Card (& Halloween Cards set), by Tommy James (you need to buy both the original Homing Card and the extra card set)

- Halloween Coloring Book, by Jim Kleefeld

- Eldora's Mixed Up Costume, by Jim Kleefeld (scroll down page)

- Trick-Or-Treat Change Bag, by Jim Kleefeld (scroll down page)

- Halloween Magic Book (or Ebook), by Jim Kleefeld (scroll down page)

Also, a couple of retired products you can search for (on the internet) include "Magic and Monsters for Kids I Love" (book by David Ginn), and "PumpkinMaker" (sponge set by Barry Mitchell).

- Donald

Fantastic list Donald, thank you for sharing and taking the time to post everything!

Are you handy? You could make some things yourself.

If you have a monkey bar, attach a big rubber bat to one of the three ropes. Ask the kids if they'd like to see your Halloween friend, then have some fun when he's too shy to come out because they might laugh at him. Get them to promise not to laugh, bring him out, and they'll laugh. Apologize to your bat, then yell when he tries to bite your neck.

Show them his trick, where he "magically" goes from one rope to the other when you pass him behind your back. When they call you out for turning it around, admit you were trying to fool them. Demonstrate one more time, explaining you do turn it around, but time your words so he appears on the middle rope as you're saying he's just a rubber bat and *can't* do any magic. Let them tell you he did.

Then you can have them clap for the rubber bat, lol. Be sure to give the parents an amused look when they do.

In the fall, craft stores sell six-inch coffins, either plastic or wood, that open. If you know how Cubio works, you can put a small hole at each end of the coffin and glue a special something inside to make it work.

Spray paint the whole thing black, then thread a four or five foot piece of string through it. Put a key ring on each end to hold on to. Now you can hold one end under your foot while holding the other high with one hand. Show how the coffin drops when you let go.

Explain that Dracula is under your complete control and you can make his coffin stop anywhere on the string. Use your wand to point out where the middle might be. Tease them by getting it wrong twice.

Drop the coffin and catch it on your wand, in the middle of the string, proclaiming it stopped in the middle. When they protest that you're holding it, pull the wand away to have it fall on your toe. Repeat one time. When you catch it the third time, and they tell you take your wand away, tell them no. Shake your wand at them that you don't want your toe to get hit again, then put it back under the coffin.

Of course, it was floating on the string in the middle and you missed it. Repeat this one time, then notice the wand in your hand and whip your head back to see that it's working.

Bring the coffin back to the top and command it to stay. Release it and it stays. Command it to come down a little bit, then a little bit more. The third time, let it drop and hit your toe again. After the laugh, tell Dracula he's a real pain in the neck.


There are a few other things on my Halloween trick list but this is pretty long already and I don't want to monopolize the thread.

Tommy James has an excellent Halloween DVD that has tons of stuff in it! Highly recommended

Bill Abbott's 'The Thing' .



Or, actually, for Halloween go back to the original Joe Karson 'Zombie' presentation. (everything old is new again!)

Here is the original ad copy for Karson's 'Zombie' -

"The Magician weaves a strange and fantastic story about Zombies. He tells about a mystic silver sphere that these Zombies must have about them day and night—about the ghostly and radiant power that this ball has locked within its self. And that this amazing sphere gives the Zombie another form of life after he or she is dead.
He tells the audience that should this ball come in contact with the performer or any member of the audience while it is radiating this mysterious influence that they too would become Zombies — and thus he will control it with a piece of cloth.

The ball is on his table, a silver ball, like a mirror it reflects the many lights about it. The shadows about the ball reflect like hollow depths.
The cloth is shown on both sides, and the ball is covered. The Magician holds two ends of it.

Slowly and unbelievably the form of the ball rises taking the cloth with it—it rises up— up, until it is clear of the table. Then it floats away from the table, under the cloth, and now it sinks down, out of sight leaving the cloth in the performer’s hands—but wait, it now slowly floats up and into view—toward the performer; he steps back, then toward audience, taking the cloth with it, then again under the cloth and up—up, and still up until the cloth is almost out of the performer’s reach. With his hands high, the performer may turn around showing all sides—and with a lot of apparent concentration he guides the ball down and down, and toward the table, and onto the base, its resting place. The cloth is removed, the ball is now inert."

Click here to view attached image.

Here's another old catalog description that alludes to the original presentation of the Zombie, which seems like it would fit with a "spooky" Halloween-themed show. It's funny, in all my years in magic I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone present it this way (the idea that the soul of a zombie is trapped within the ball and that the cloth is used by the performer to avoid touching the ball, so the performer is not contaminated by the voodoo that animates the ball. A presentation that actually justifies the use of the cloth.)

You need to get John Bundy's book on Halloween shows. Lots of very creative ideas that you can easily adapt or make to existing trick.

On another note, I have made Duke's Dye Version with a Jack-o-Lantern streamer finish and still make 20th Century with Ghost silks.

Check out Skull-o-pini

www.arthurstead.com/Skull-o-pini.htm

I mentioned the Tommy James Halloween Safety Magic Show DVD in my post above (with a link), and Joe also mentioned it.

I recently had a chance to buy a used copy of this DVD, and I watched it last night.

I also highly recommend this DVD. It's got strong theming, good magic, funny bits, etc.

It was also interesting to see an earlier version of Tommy's "Ultimate Homing Card" routine (Halloween version), from 2010. He calls it "Flying Ghost" on the DVD.

(I bought the "Ultimate Homing Card" trick from Tommy a couple of years ago, along with extra theme cards, but haven't put it into my show just yet. If you've seen this 2010 version on the DVD, and the current version on his website, you can see the progression.)

Note - some of the Halloween Magic items that Tommy now sells (links above), aren't in this show / DVD, because they were created later.

- Donald

P.S. In my post above, I forgot to mention some of Mike Bent's Halloween Magic items:

- Snakeless Snake Can

- Sneaky Snakey Wand

- Gary the Goofy Ghost

- Mummy Dearest

- Dracula Bites the Dust

- Forgetful Frankie

Tommy James performs Mike Bent's Forgetful Frankie on his Halloween DVD, which brought Mike Bent to mind.

I also recall that Mike Bent's Snakeless Snake Can routine was published in Silly Billy's MAGIC column, and it was later included in Silly Billy's "Super Sized Silly" book. I also see that there are more Halloween routines / articles in that book, according to the Table of Contents.

Witch, Ghost & Bat from FAB Magic. A very nice routine that's super simple to perform that will get you some laughs.

John Bundy has a great book with a lot of Halloween ideas. John worked Six Flags for years doing a Spookacular show.

Well I hope everyone had a fun and profitable set of Halloween-themed shows this year. Now this thread shifts to planning special Halloween-theme material for NEXT year's shows. (in addition to the ideas already posted above).

I still stand by my belief that presenting Karson's Zombie with the original idea of a tortured soul inhabiting and animating the silver sphere will work great for older kids/teens/family audiences where having "spooky" tricks is appropriate for a Halloween show. However, there was a version of the floating sphere put out years ago by Dirk Losander and Tommy Wonder that I'm surprised didn't catch on in a bigger way: the floating Jack O'Lantern. Admittedly, Losander only made this particular version in limited quantities, but I'm surprised the basic idea of a floating pumpkin/jack o'lantern isn't more commonly used. (maybe it is and I just haven't seen other magicians use it?) If you know the principle used this isn't too difficult to make using one of those great imitation pumpkins that are in plentiful supply at Michael's Crafts and Hobby Lobby every year a month or two before Halloween. (you can order these pumpkins at other times of the year , too, but they might not be in stock at the local craft stores in the off-season months). With one of the smaller round pumpkins you can just rig it up using a traditional zombie gimmick.

(advertisement from 2005) -



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I haven't felt much need to do a Halloween themed show, a magic show automatically fits a Halloween theme and I get enough work anyway. I talk about Halloween a bit, do a little humor with it, etc, but I've only dabbled with specific themed props/tricks, I used to do the Tommy James eyeball zombie thing but didn't get around to doing it this year. Having said that, the theme can be good for marketing and getting some extra shows if you do it right. A guy I know has a really nice set-up and it looks really good for social media etc, and he does Halloween themed safety shows, so that gets him more work.

The Halloween props that I used in my 2023 shows were:

- Flash Appearing Halloween Banner, by Tommy James

- Fraidy Dracula, by Smoky Mountain Magic

- Frankie StratBlocks, by Smoky Mountain Magic

- Mis-Carved Jack-O-Lantern Silk Set, by Wonder Imagery (new to my collection this year)

Donald

Here are a few more Halloween Magic effects that have come onto my radar in the past few months:

- Mismade Bones, by Magic and Trick Defma

- Jack O Candy, by Magic and Trick Defma

- Pumpkin Bandana by Lee Alex

- Halloween Bandana by Lee Alex

- BEKOS 4.0 Ghost Edition, by Jeff McBri...... Ackerly

(BEKOS stands for Best Ever Knots Off Silk.)

Lee Alex's props are available at many magic dealers, and are also available directly from him here.

BEKOS 4.0 Ghost Edition is available at many magic dealers, as well. Phil Ackerly also sells the prop, with additional music, here.

The "Magic and Trick Defma" silk tricks seem to be available at many magic dealers.

- Donald

If you do the Vanishing Bird Cage , I saw someone had a rubber BAT in their cage, instead of the usual rubber canary . I think it could be spooky fun to use a TARANTULA in the bird cage , although you would have to find a rubber tarantula that will compress enough. The legs won't be a problem, but you might have to do some "surgery" to hollow out the interior of the body to make sure it doesn't interfere with the function of the cage. Or make a tarantula from sponge rubber.

I don't currently own a bird cage , but using Photoshop here is how I imagine it could look:




---


By the way, I came across a great idea by Warren Simms for the Vanishing Bird Cage , especially if you are performing it for children.


In 'The Conjuror's Magazine' (Sept. 1946) Warren Simms (a well-known maker of bird cages and a skilled performer by all accounts) published:"Bird Cage Vanish for Children", although I think Simms's idea would work equally well for adults. This one comes under the theory that says a hidden vanish is better than a non-hidden vanish. Obscuring or delaying the moment of the vanish can help to disguise the method. It's the same idea that wrapping a cane in a sheet of newspaper , then letting the newspaper roll open to show the cane has vanished is a stronger vanish than having the cane visually vanish in the hands. One could argue that the visual flash vanish is stronger overall in the case of the bird cage , but Mr. Simms makes a great point about how children tend to react to these types of things.

Paraphrasing Warren Simms:

"To perform the vanishing bird cage in the usual manner at a children's party is to invite disaster -- because the average youngster will tend to shout out -- "it went up your sleeve!" --- and you can't very well reason your way out of that explanation with children."

Simms said he presented the cage as his closing effect for children's shows using a Simms (or Lindhorst) style cage (in other words, not an Abbott/Blackstone-style cage.) You would need to reach down into your case or behind your table , hook-up, and then come out with the bird cage. (If you know , you know.) Simms: "Come forward with the cage held in the right hand and in the left hand have a folded paper sack." (made of brown kraft paper, approx. 14" deep when opened out, with approx. 4" x 7" bottom.) "Have one of the kids open out the bag --- take it back , holding it by the bottom, with the open end pointing towards your right. In a natural, unhurried manner place the cage into the bag and when it is out of sight let it do it's thing. Now pucker up the neck of the bag and inflate it by blowing into it. Then burst the bag, crumple it up, and toss it out into the audience ... " Simms says that the kids will do the rest by tearing it to shreds looking for some trace of the missing cage and at that point you can start to pack up and leave. Simms finishes by writing: "Try it Brother Magician -- it's a trick worthwhile!"


John Carney teaches this vanish from the paper sack in his excellent video on the birdcage (which you can purchase directly from John on his website).

It's the second one demonstrated in this clip:





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I love it!!

Dan.

Barry Mitchell released a nice Halloween routine derived from the silk to egg premise using skulls and silks. It's called GET AHEAD. Very nice but I believe there are only 8 units left.

Https://barrymitchellproducts.com/produc......6a&_ss=r



I received my package and am super happy with everything. For $25.00 this is fantastic! This is a great variation on the color changing silk to egg routine, especially for Halloween!

Last I checked there were only 7 units for sale! Plus it seems Barry usually ships the same day. I received my package in 2 days! In time for Halloween shows.