The Student Program Council held their “SPC’s Children’s Hour: Magical Fun,” in the Hoosier Room on Sunday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m.
The free event showcased magician Rusty Ammerman and offered pizza, juice and water to all in attendance. .
Before the show started, the audience was treated to pizza and juice prepared by the IUS catering service.
The audience was made up mostly of parents and grandparents with their children or grandchildren. There were approximately 40 people at the event.
Nine-year-old Christian Harp, a third grader at Silver Street Elementary said he had never been to a magic show before and couldn’t wait for the show to get started.
Andrew Hockman, 8, of Floyds Knobs, attended the event with his younger siblings, Jacob, 5, and Audrey, 3, and their grandparents, Bill and Janet Hockman. The Hockmans heard of the event through a mailing they received from the SPC.
Michelle Harris, chair of Children’s Hour, said she talked with Ammerman’s agent, G.G. Gregg, at the Herps Alive event recently and decided a magic show would be a good event for children and adults alike.
“We hadn’t had a magician in a while,” Harris said. “We are thinking of having Rusty back annually.”
“I really love family shows where you can pick on the adults, too,” Ammerman said. “You can see it’s not just a show for the children.”
Ammerman’s encouraged audience participation, making the crowd feel as though they are just as important to the trick as he was.
Every trick required either an audience member to assist or just feedback, making the entire show completely interactive.
Hockman was chosen by Ammerman to help with a magic trick involving two large decks of cards, one of which was “invisible.”
Ammerman threw the invisible deck to Hockman, told him to pick any card and show it to the rest of the audience. Hockman drew his imaginary card, showed it to the audience and placed it back in the deck.
Hockman threw the deck back to Ammerman, and Ammerman asked him what his card was, but Hockman wasn’t fooled.
“It wasn’t real,” Hockman said, but after some prodding by the magician, decided it was the two of spades. With the “visible” deck, Ammerman showed that all of the cards in the deck faced the same way, except for the two of spades.
The show lasted for one hour, and then Ammerman offered inexpensive tricks the children could buy and he taught them how to do them.
The SPC will also host “Movie Madness” on March 20 a showing of “The Princess and the Frog.”
The SPC will also be putting on the “Spring in the Spring” event on April 10.
The event will offer arts, crafts and other activities for children and their guardians.
By DERRICK HOLDRIDGE
Staff Writer
dvholdri@umail.iu.edu