I've been asked to perform a few gospel magic routines in 4 days time (~15-20mins informal presentation to a group of about 40). A last minute request. I'm not used to performing in a gospel magic parlour setting, so I am not very experience with some of these effects. I've a couple of gospel magic DVD and lecture notes as well as a ton of props, but they all seem rather weak in terms of effect compared to other more commercial secular based magic. From my gospel magic list, I've short list my effects down to a few such as One Way, appearing candles, bible bubbles, maybe bible spelling bee, appearing cane(5 colour), Was also thinking of including an effect that included how sin stained us(illustrated by polluting a container of water with some dark chemical), and how Jesus forgives our sins (taking a cross to stir the water and the water goes back to clear), and maybe, just maybe an effect of Jesus on a huge card with a cross disappearing when placed in a folder (instead having another card with the words "he has risen" appear in the same folder. They all seem to be very 'weak effects' and I would gladly scrap any of them if I have better platter and ideas from you people.

I was thinking of incorporating some D'lite effects or common thumb tips effects, but I opted out for those effects as these are not my strengths even though I have doneita couple of times to others before. I will not have much time to practise sleight of hand effectively in these short period of time, so I would prefer more self working effects. My choice of including the colour book bible is not possible as I left that in Singapore during my last holiday.

Can someone provide some ideas that can be done using normal secular effects? It will have to fit with a gospel presentation message. Do not expose the effect. E.g. Just say that such and such a message and patter can be used with ... say... "the name of the trick", to illustrate such and such a principle.

Thank You,
Joel

Maybe "Body Language" by Charles Gauci, with Psalm 139?

joeltay81,

you had all thing except the Holy Spirit leading; and

Josh

what is this "Body Language" by Charles Gauci, with Psalm 139"?

B) my suggestion may you can use the Magic of Love, "Wordless Book(4 Spiritual Laws)"

Magician had 2 sons both learn magic from him, but one of them wanted to faced the world and to be the Top Magician, but he sold his soul to the evil one.

The Magician send his beloved son, also a magician to bring him back home, but the price of it was his life....

With the blood of his, he save his brother from the black power ..

and together they back home to the their Father.

The Test both brother go thur make them the Top Magician.

Thanks for point that out - that's the best piece of advice. I better start praying.

I searched for Charles' body language and this is what I came up with.


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This is Charles' improvement on Max Maven's Kurotsuke. It is one of his favorite effects because you can perform it close-up, table-hopping, cabaret or on the largest stage. It is also a great impromptu effect.
It resets immediately.
Four gold balls and one black ball are placed in a bag. Five spectators in turn reach into the bag and take out one ball each. Nobody knows which colour ball they are holding.
One by one the performer eliminates the gold balls and successfully locates the person who is holding the black ball.
Each spectator holds the bag as they take out a ball. There is no palming. Everything can be examined, balls and bag. The bags are beautifully made from top quality materials and so are the balls. A top professional effect with entertaining patter.
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Doesn't Duane Laflin have something similiar in one of his DVD series? Is that where you got the idea of using psalms 139 from? Doesn't seem very strong... especially , since the theme is on evangelism.

Fire BiBle.

Repent or burn.
OK u gave me that idea.

I do not know anything about Duane Laflin, but I did this in my church, in Mandarin. I feel that it seems to fit in reasonably well. Lots of interaction with the audience, and it can be fun. Good as an ice breaker with some messages in it. But as everyone know, it is the presentation that matters, and if that fits your character, and of course, the whole theme.

Sorry, I am not able to help with the patter in English, as Mandarin is my performing language. :)

I havn't had much experience doing gospel magic and this is a last minute thing. No way to purchase a fire bible(I can think of a number of uses for that), or to bring some of my props over from singapore like the simple colouring book bible, etc. Have to make do with what I have here in my Aussie home.

Josh, thanks for the advice. I'll see if I can work something out with what you have suggested. 3 or 4 new routines in 3 days. *gosh! With uni classes and all that. Lots of work to do.

Have seen a short gospel show when i was young. So i can only rem a few snippets of it.

Fire bible is good, but depends on how you incorporate ur msg into it. if not, its jus another fire producing prop.

Another good one is rice bowls royal. the increment of the rice in the bowls, could show God's provision. While the production of water at the end could most probably portray new life or that God's so much more that we can contain that "our cup runneth over".

Hmm. tts all i cld rem. haha.

Cheers,
Ken

I know about the rice bowl one too, but I do not have time to acquire these props. That is why I am asking more for ideas on using common secular effects with a strong evangelism message.

Actually I think you don't have to limit yourself by the words "gospel magic". Even an ACR can be one if you just give a biblical theme to it.

I have seen Lawrence Khong's Magic of Love and most of the magic don't explicitly mention anything Christian.

Eg:

A simple card-transpo

1. A "Jesus" card and a "Sin of the World" card.
2. Jesus card, apparently torn into 4 (symbolized his suffferings on the cross) and put inside spec's hands.
3. Sin card folded, also into spec's hands.
4. A wave of magic, Jesus is resurrected (card restored) and the Sin card is torn (symbolized sins are destroyed by Jesus' work)

A similar idea is given to me by Aloy, his is a bit more complicated.

Yes, Mr Aloy also give me this idea.

Sounds like a very simple and easy to do effect, with a nice application. Thanks for the idea.

I'm currently toying with the idea of performing a variation of "Entourage" by Gordon Bean using a card with Jesus's drawing on it. First got to find the card and make sure that it is bicycle backed. (I thing the card is hidden in my gospel magic box somewhere)

For those who have performed parlour before, it is alright to perform to a crowd of 50 using normal sized playing cards? Or are the cards too small for such a setting?

joeltay81,

i am not a card person, but i do know we can do so with small props on stage, what we need is big action and the person who help you such as their "VIP" or the use of high-tech zoom in camera. B)

I survived the gospel magic presentation. I thought it was just alright as the effects were pretty ordinary, but the reviews from the people were outstanding, with many commenting on the flow and presentation of the whole gospel routine as well as a good explanation of the gospel message of repentance. One of my props (for my third of four effects) broke towards the end, but I guess no one took much notice of it as the cover-up was rather natural. They were particularly puzzled by effect, "One Way".

Thanks for all the advice.

would you mind share to us your routain?? thanks :P

It was one the spot, so I did not have much time to improvise much from what is commercially solded.

First effect was "Cross Made The Difference". by Ed Jarvis

A glass is shown and filled with water. Iodine, representing sin coming into our life, is poured into the glass. A cross, representing Jesus and His supreme sacrifice for us, is shown and lowered into the glass and gently stirs the water. The water clears showing the reaction Jesus can have on the Sins in our life.

I did this as the opener. I just "dirtied the water with iodine". I did not clear the water but left it there for all to see as I proceed with the message as well as other effects. I completed this act as the final closer at the end to 'seal in' the message about how Christ death paid the penalty for our sins to forgive our sins. This is the prop that gave way towards the end, but I menaged to savage the effect.

My second effect after the opener, where I just dirtied the water, was to perform "One way" by Bob Sparks. This one had nice reviews from the spectators after the whole gospel presentation although it is pretty simple if you know how it is done. Pretty old trick that has been on the market for sometime now. I did this as I remembered watching this very same magic act when I was a kid. It got stucked in my mind all these years and that was why I bought the effect 2 years back when I first picked up magic. I did got to perform this effect to a crowd before though, as I usually perform close-up and especially with mentalism effects, and not parlour styled gospel magic.

This is basically an effect that has arrows on both the front and back of a card board. The magician keeps rotating the cards and the arrows seem to change directions each time.

I changed the platter a little from the original to fit the message.

- Explain how many people chase after different things in their life such as money, career, education, status, power, etc flipping the cardboard each time I say each "money", education", etc. (Showed an arrow point to the right. Keep flipping the card and the arrows on both sides point to the right.)

- I say that some say that relationships are just as important. They want a good marriage, a good family, they want to be popular with friends, etc. They want both career, status, and well as relationships, etc (This time, when I flip the card, the arrow keeps pointing to left and right alternatively)

- But all this is just chasing after the wind. So what if we gain the whole world? We live for 75+ years and then it is all gone."I open the cardboard from the side to show a world map"

- What many of us do not realise is that all of us are on a journey. And this is a journey either to heaven or hell. (When I close the world map, the arrow is pointing up. I flip the cardboard and the arrow alternates between down and upwards.

(I open the cardboard from the side again and this time it has a picture of a bible opened to a page when it says in big red words, " I am the truth and the life, No man comes to the Father except through me.) I explain this verse in a bit of detail.

- (When I close the picture of the bible, the arrow is pointing upwards as usual, but when I flip it continously, it always point upwards) I explain how if we place our trust in Jesus and repent of our sins, God will save us and guide us so that we will find our way to heaven. (Arrow keeps pointing upwards)

- (I open the cardboard from the side again. This time there is a picture of a hand pointing upwards and the words printed in bold, "One Way"). Explained how Jesus is the only way.

For the third effect, I performed He is risen

Three large stage-size jumbo cards are shown. Each have printed crosses on them, but the center card is printed a different color - which depicts 'Christ'. All three cards are placed in a 'Tomb' folder, as the story of the Crucifixion is told. The two thief cards are removed, leaving 'Christ' in the tomb. However, when the 'Christ' card is removed it is seen to be a card with the words 'He Is Not Here'. When the audience thinks that the 'Christ' card is on the reverse, performer flips over card and the words 'He Is Risen' are printed on it.

For the Fourth effect, I performed "Chains of Sin: I blew it and Jesus Bled it" by Barry Mitchell. The one where a blue chain and a red chain are held by the magician. The two chains are looped together with one around the fist and the other hanging below. The bottom blue chain represents man (I blew it. so sinfulman is represented by the blue chain), and the Red chain on top that is place around the fist represents Jesus and his sacrifice. I got a spectator to come up front and to make sure I was not making any complex knots of anything of that sort. Just a simple loop with one around my fist and one hanging below. I held the spectator's hand at all times so that it was visually certain that the chain never left my arm. I pull on the blue rope and showed that no matter how I try to shake free, I cannot be free from my sins. But when Jesus died on the cross and I come before Him in faith and repentance, I am set free. (at this point, I do the magic and in a split second, the chains swap places on our arms. The blue is on my arm and the red is dangling under it.). I went on to give a brief summary of the doctrine of double imputation - which is how Jesus took our sins upon Himself and how He placed his righteousness upon us. This was the simplest trick done.

I ended off witht the gospel message and a summary of the need for repentance and trusting in Christ and finished up the "cross made a differences" effect that I started at the start by stirring the iodine water with the cross and the water became clear.

All very simple and straight forward effects. I wanted to avoid sleights as it was a last minute performance and it was part of a skit in the setting of a "talks how" that I came in. And the script for the drama skit was only decided half an hour before, so I had to replan everything including my platter and gospel message from scratch in that short time.

Thank God I survived!

well done, praise God.