For the past 15+ years I've been presenting a Dr. Seuss Magic Show at daycares, libraries, and elementary schools. It is the single most popular educational show I have. The story about it's origins is one I've told friends before, but I'll briefly share it with you.
I received a call one day from a daycare asking if I did any Dr. Seuss magic tricks. I told them that I did not, but I could put something together if they wanted to book a show. I told them I'd include one trick related to Dr. Seuss. The trick I came up with was simple and based on a classic kidshow magic trick. I think the original went by PetShop Pranks, or Barnyard Follies or something like that. It was a Supreme Magic item. I simply used Dr. Seuss images in place of the animals. Easy as 1-2-3.
What I didn't expect was when I arrived and everyone, kids, teachers, and parents were all dolled up in Cat in the Hat Hats and various other costumes related to Dr. Seuss. Most were home made items, but many of the hats looked store bought. It was then that I found out how popular the Doctor still was and that his birthday was actually 'Read Across America Day'.
The following year, I added more material to the show until I came up with an entire show of Dr. Seuss routines. But again, they were more just magic tricks with a Dr. Seuss covering. It wasn't until I brought the show to elementary schools that all that changed. I began to delve deeper into the stories. I researched how the stories came about, the origins, the stories related to other stories and so forth. It was then that the show really became an educational show. And it was then that I really learned how to make a really strong themed show with a great message.
Prior to the elementary school version, I was merely taking standard magic tricks and repackaging them with Dr. Seuss pictures and so forth. But now, I was using magic to tell many of the stories. Not every story is easy to illustrate with magic. And some took many years before I hit on the right formula. An example was last years The Sneetches routine. I worked on getting that book into my show for more than 5 years but I just never had the right routine. Finally, last year I stumbled upon a brilliant concept for the routine which perfectly illustrated what was happening in the story. It was a hit.
The show today is a mixture of story based routines and some of the older magic with a Seuss theme. The difference between now and then, even the older routines are educational because I share many of the important aspects of the stories and characters while I do the magic.
The photo at the top of the page is a routine called 'Gustav The Goldfish' which can be found in the book, The Bippilo Seed and Other Lost Stories of Dr. Seuss. In my routine the entire story is acted out in a similar way as it appears in the story. When the routine is over, I share how this story never made it into print while Dr. Seuss was alive. The reason was because Dr. Seuss's wife Helen Palmer asked him if she could have the story for her own, and she changed it a bit, added different illustrations and renamed the book 'A Fish Out Of Water'. Many people were familiar with that story and not Gustav, but now they learned where it came from.
Dr. Seuss took simple and sometimes silly stories and rhyming words to convey often complex subjects. But no matter the message, his stories were always fun to read which in turn helped young readers to build up their reading skills and helped them to find joy in reading.
And because of his example I've really learned how to take any magic trick and turn it into a themed presentation and not simply for kids. Messages such as motivation, success, time management, and so forth can be taught by using magic as the vehicle to get the message across. One of my Seuss programs even has a lesson in perseverance and this directly relates to Theo Geisel's own life.
Thank you so much Mr. Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss)!
