My Newsletter and Contest

Every month I send out my free e-newsletter to clients and prospects who I've done business with in the past or who have signed up for the newsletter on my website. Last month, I announced that I was going to have a contest. Basically a Children's Book Give-Away. The original concept was easy, anyone who was in my online database or who signed up for my newsletter, would get a chance at winning the books. Then I would draw a name from a hat and the winner would get all the books. BUT then I found out that someone on my list sent in a 'spam' complaint on me. Unfortunately, I don't know who it is. As I mentioned, everyone on my list was either an existing client OR someone who signed up on my site. I don't send newsletters to folks I never worked with unless they've signed up on their own. And I never share my list with ANYONE, EVER!

Let me try and explain something. I am a 1-man operation. I spent around $3000+ getting this computerized email system developed for my business so I could stay competitive in the 21st Century. A single complaint has the potential to shut me down totally. The company I work with can cancel my account and I'm out all that money. I just deleted every name on the list that I have not done business with in the last year. IF you find that you are not getting the newsletter or notifications from me, then it's because you got removed and you'll need to sign back up. I totally apologize if you were removed and you wanted to stay on.

So, I'm now going to alter the Contest a little bit. You will need to sign-up or re-sign-up for my newsletter via my website (DeanAlanMagic.com) and then you'll be in the running for the books. I will draw a name out of a hat before Summer and the winner gets the books. Below is a photo of the books. Just so you know, I've found a few more, so there are even more books than those listed. It's up to about $150 in brand new books that you can get for FREE just by signing up for my newsletter.

To sign-up Go to my website and scroll down the page to the Opt-In Box and Sign-Up. It's FREE

A New Friend Is Joining the Magic Show

Here he is! Oh well, only a glimpse of him right now. His name is Marco the monkey. He will be doing a guest spot in the Summer 2015 show. I have the distinct feeling that Marco will steal the show.

I first saw Marco (actually Marco's uncle) in a different show. It was the wonderful Le Grand David Magic Show in Beverly Mass. The magician's name in that show was Marco (which I named my little friend after). Marco the magician's use of the monkey was hysterical. It truly brought the house down. In many ways, I'm almost glad that I don't remember what he did. I just remember how funny it was. But my friend Marco, whose real name was Cesareo Pelaez, passed away in 2012. Last year, in 2014, the rest of the company/cast members sold off all the props from the show and later in the year the theatre that they had used for over 30 years was sold as well.

So I decided I would add a Monkey routine to my show and I named him Marco after my friend. He will be making small appearances in shows prior to summer. But with any luck, I'll have a full fleshed out routine ready to go by the first Summer shows. Marco will be appearing in the Ultra-Magic Show. If you'd like to see a picture of Marco the Monkey's Uncle, yes, he was a Monkey's Uncle, look below.

By the way, Marco the Monkey is only going to the Summer 2015 shows. IF his run is successful, and I expect it to be, he is getting a promotion and moving on to a different magic show.

The Seuss Tour Continues

When my tour of Seuss programs begins in February, I visit mainly elementary schools. But as the month progresses and we move into March and April, I also go to daycares and eventually libraries. There are some subtle differences in the way the show is presented in these different venues. At elementary schools, there is a larger emphasis put into the educational content. The daycare version the emphasis is on fun. The library edition is a blend of both education and fun.

Some of the books are covered in detail. For example, during the Bippilo Seed routine, I find a metal box, just like the duck from the story finds. The box has gold writing on it, just like in the story. And inside the box is a Bippilo Seed. So I am basically acting out the entire first page of the book during the routine. And it continues from there.

Sometimes books and characters are mentioned but they don't get the same degree of detail. For example, I mentioned Fox In Sox and Yertle the Turtle, but they don't have their own separate routines like The Bippilo Seed, Gustav The Goldfish, The Sneetches and others have.

The photos on this page are from a daycare and the ages in the audience were from 3 to school age, and the show was enjoyed by all (teachers included).

More Seuss Adventures

Last Monday, March 2, was Dr. Seuss's birthday and Read Across America Day. An elementary school in Ashburn VA had booked me almost a year in advance for that date. As fate would have it, it snowed the day before and school was cancelled for March 2nd.

Thankfully, we rescheduled for Monday March 9th.  I was able to present three assemblies at the school all on the books and stories of Dr. Seuss. The photo at the top of the page gives you an idea of what my stage set-up looks like. My two tables are draped with custom made Dr. Seuss covers. This is actually the set-up from a couple years ago. I still use the custom draped table covers, but there are more props involved in the show.

New this year has been the story, Horton and the Kwuggerbug. Everyone loves Horton, but until
recently, I only thought there were two Horton stories, Horton Hatches the Egg and Horton Hears a Who. Turns out, that in between those two books was Horton and the Kwuggerbug, but it never got published into bookform. So a few months ago, this story and a few other 'lost' Seuss stories made their way into a book by the same title.

The image to the right is a painting of a Beezlenut Tree, the tree which is the focus of the story about Horton and this shifty Kwuggerbug. This is actually the conclusion of the routine. It starts with the image of only the tree and then the bug and Horton's trunk appear on the picture. I really like sharing new stories with audiences who think they know everything there is to know about Dr. Seuss. I always have people (students, teachers, and other adults) come up to me and tell me they learned something new about Dr. Seuss in the course of my show.

Horton and the Kwuggerbug Book also contains a number of 'Lost Stories'. One is about the boy Marco, who often appears in Dr. Seuss stories. AND this book has the very first GRINCH story, except, this original Grinch is far far different from the one who appeared in How The Grinch Stole Christmas. 

Last year, I featured The Sneetches story along with other stories in my show. The Sneetches is a great story but I found it to be rather difficult to effectively illustrate with magic. I like to tell the stories from the books using magic. I had created several different Sneetch routines over the years, but none made it into my show because I didn't feel it was quite right. Then suddenly, I stumbled upon the solution. It was so great because the idea allowed me to share the basic story with the kids and have fun with the magic at the same time. I was quite proud of the outcome.

I have been asked if I will do another new Reading Assembly with a Seuss theme next year? I can't answer the question at the moment. I had originally planned on stopping with 2015. But I've since found a couple more stories that I know will translate wonderfully into magic routines and allow me to share with kids and teachers. For me the real reason behind this is to encourage kids to read. By sharing the stories of Dr. Seuss and other fun facts about the stories it helps to peak the interests of the kids and they then want to find the books and read them for themselves. The key to reading when you're young is to be interested in the material. IF you are not interested, no amount of forcing will turn a kid into a reader. Trust me, I know, I was one of those kids with terrible reading comprehension. I could read the same paragraph a dozen times and not recall what I read. Then one day I found magic and reading about magicians changed the way I thought about reading. Now I love to read books of all kinds. And because I missed so many of the great Dr. Seuss stories as a kid, I can now enjoy them fully and help others to find enjoyment in them as well.

The Easter Magic Show

It's been a long time since I offered this show. My Easter Magic Show was something I offered a long time ago to groups and churches that were having Easter Egg Hunts and needed some entertainment in between the various 'hunts'.  Naturally I'll do a routine or two with eggs, I also have a fun flower routine and something with a rabbit, though I do not use a real rabbit. I stopped using live rabbits a number of years ago as I would encounter kids who allergies to rabbits. So instead I found great rabbit tricks that used images of rabbits but not the real thing.

I generally think of the Easter Magic Show as a show for younger children, because they are the ones who usually attend the egg hunts. But if you're in the Northern VA area and are interested in having a magician as part of your Easter activities, check me out on the web at www.DeanAlanMagic.com

What I Learned From Dr. Seuss

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)!

Virginia Summer Camp Magician Commercial

Short commercial for my upcoming Summer 2015 Tour