Glamorous Adult Magic Party

Who says Magician's are only for children's birthday parties?  Here's an inspiration board for a beautiful glamorous adult magic party that's perfect for celebrating a milestone birthday, bridal shower, bachelorette party or any other reason for adults to get together.

The Setting

Outdoors is great as it gives us the vintage traveling circus feel.  Plan to start the party right before dusk so that you will be eating by candle light.

Place tables and chairs around the grass amongst the tress if you have any.  These can be lit up with twinkle lights and lighted balls and will cast a perfect ambiance for some magical happenings.

Make sure to have restrooms available and additional lighting if needed. You may want to set up some music.  Make sure you have enough extension cord and check the sound levels to make sure music will be heard over the talking.

The Table

I love this elegant table setting.  You can order kaleidoscopes, non-expensive white gloves, and jumbo playing cards on Oriental Trading.  Use real dishes and glasses and a cloth table cloth in white or any color.  Print table place cards (a roll of tape might be needed for windy days to keep it in place).  Lay a magic wand next to the silverware.  You can buy these or simply roll up a sheet of white paper topped with a slightly smaller piece of black paper.  Tiny hair rubber bands wound a few times will keep the wand rolled up nicely.  For added fun, print jokes, thank you's, fortunes, or magic trick instructions on the wands before rolling them up.




Martha Stewart's line of bunny serveware at Macy's are perfect for this elegant table and will look great at Easter as well.  Any bunny accessories like this wine stopper and the magician's assistant pick holder above.

The Entertainment

Choose a magician with a vintage feel.  Ask them to where their most elegant magician's outfit (top hat and tails are a must!)  The magician should perform pocket magic (small tricks and bits of business from his pockets) at the tables as the guests arrive, are seated and are mingling for cocktails.  Then directly following the meal service, the magician should perform a stage act (a performance meant for all to see at the same time, usually a ways back from the audience).  Using several small table as opposed to a long one will help for all to see.  Make sure to set up extra lighting for the show.  Some magician's will bring their own back-drop and lights.  Make sure to ask about that before the show.  Generally, most magician's will bring their supplies and a small table to perform off of.  If you want audience participation, make sure to say so!  

Some magician's have other talents.  Fire effects are a great finale to the show.  Ask if your magician juggles fire, does fire poi, eats fire or has a flash pan (a magic trick that lets you light a fire in a pan and cover it producing something else.)

This would lead nicely into dessert around the fit pit or an outdoor movie.

I suggest Girl on the Bridge (a French film starring Vanessa Paradis filmed in Black and White about a washed up knife thrower who finds a young lady about to throw herself from a bridge.  They team up to make a sensual and popular knife throwing act...but at what cost?

Another frighteningly appealing magic film is The Prestige, a dark story about how two rival magician's will stop at nothing to outdo each other, even if it means to the death.

Another one to try is The Illusionist

The Favors

Package up some of these custom cookies with silver shred for a magical thank you.

Most Creative 1 Balloon Sculptures

Sometimes when doing line balloon work, I come across someone who thinks they're too cool for balloons...I mean come on...there's no age limit on balloon enjoyment!...so whenever I hear  a "No thanks"  or see a hesitating teenager or adult, I like to say "Are you sure?  I can make _______..."

Here's the list of awesome 1 balloon 'blanks' I like to throw at them.  You just can't say no when someone offers you:

Love Birds on a Heart



















A Guitar



















A T-Rex



















A Ray Gun/ A Hairdryer

A "Why Not?" (Y Knot) (uses pop technique)

Other Awesome 1 balloon Sculptures:

A Mouse on a Unicycle

A Unicorn

A Bicycle (uses pop technique)

Most of these you can figure out yourself but if your interested in instructions, just msg me and I'll try to locate the link of where I found these or similar.  (Some were learned in books)  Or I will explain it for you.  They're not hard, the goal is 1 balloon sculptures that you can do during line work with little fuss at a good speed.

Have fun!

Gangster Murder Mystery Party

As a fundraiser for Two Time Theatre Company's production of 'Sleepin' with the Jesus Fishies', I hosted a Gangster Murder Mystery Party. I thought the theme was appropriate seeing as our show is in a couple of weeks! I was hoping for a big turn out so buying a dinner party murder mystery game was out. Instead, I put together a murder plot based on four suspects (played by our cast members Chris, Mikel, Jenni, Alisha and Koreen). This was easier because guests could arrive whenever they wanted and still have equal chances of solving the crime. When people arrived, they received their keg cup filled with bribe money, an answer slip, a notebook for jotting down tips, a rules sheet and a favor. We had toy guns, beads, fedoras, and sequined feather headbands.

Here's how to play:

Gangster Murder Mystery How To

The body of Lefty Hooligan has just been found floating in the Mississippi River. 

Welcome to our speakeasy where Lefty Hooligan had been seen earlier that night. 

The local authorities have narrowed it down to four suspects: Doris the speakeasy’s 

owner, Frankie the bass player in the jazz band,Betty the cloakroom girl and Bugsy

 the local high roller who often frequents the speakeasy. All four suspects had a motive and were seen hanging around a suspicious location with a possible murder weapon. But only one of them did it. The four suspects are recognizable by their nametags. Your job is to question the suspects and determine who murdered Lefty, with what weapon (one of them was a tommy gun), what their motive was (one motive was that Lefty had insulted them), and where the murder took place. (hint: lovers of logic puzzles will do well.

Rules:

1. You have 6 play money bills. Each bill (regardless of denomination) 

can be used as a bribe to get one response.

2. You can get responses from the suspects or from other players.

3. All suspects are telling the truth, except for one, who is lying. 

The opposite of their statements are true.

4. Suspects will be vague with their answers unless questioned directly, 

in which case they will have to answer you.

5. Each suspect has three tips of vital information. 

You will need all 12 tips to solve the puzzle.

6. When you think you have the answer, write it down on the answer slip 

and give it to the Host who will time stamp it.

7. The answer will be announced at the end of the evening.

8. A cash prize will be awarded to the Super Sleuth who was the first to 

solve the crime and other prizes will be awarded to the Best Performer who 

was the suspect most in character,Wealthiest Player for the one who uses cunning

 and bribery to collect the most money, Best Costume for the one who 

showed up to the party in their best Gangster or Flapper attire, and 

Honorary Detectives for anyone else who solves the puzzle on their own

 after the Super Sleuth and before the solution is announced.

The beer mugs (full of pretzels, dice, cards, beads, and tylenol) and ring pops were

 the prizes. We set out a mason jar of freshly sharpened pencils and the labels were 

used to mark our snacks. I served retro bar and cocktail snacks on mismatched serving containers and china. We had sourdough pretzels, popcorn, beer nuts, ginger snaps, 

almond windmill cookies, apple pie fries (call me for the super easy recipe!), 

veggies with hummus, and banana chips.

9. If you have any questions on how to play the game, please ask your host.

Hints:

1. Start by deciding who is lying

2. Keep track of your answers and who told you them

3. Make sure to write the suspects tips word for word

4. Ask clear questions like “Who do you think did it?”, “What do you know about 

the murder weapon?” and “Do you know anything about the location?”

5. Caution: ease dropping and spying are not against the rules

6. You must give your responses to others to earn more bribe money but be careful, 

the first one to solve the puzzle is the Super Sleuth and wins the prize money.

I think everyone had a good time! It was so much fun watching people try to figure it out. 

Players and suspects were very creative: I heard a suspect giving tips with out 

having to ask the right question for double the bribe, players teamed up to share answers, 

some players profited from bribe money left unattended on the table, others took wild 

guesses and focused on gathering up the most money.

Several people helped sell shots for a dollar. Since we were pretending this was a speakeasy, we served gatorade and vodka in sugar rimmed tea cups. I bought a fish ice cube tray from IKEA that I thought was cute for the shots and made them 'Sleepin' with the Jesus Fishies' shots, but the ice cubes melted almost immediately.

We set up a photo booth in the guest room where you could get you mug shot taken or

 get your photo snapped in your get-away car. We charged $1 for prints and I printed

 them out right there with the help of a color printer and my Mac.

Thanks everyone for your support!

We raised $200 for Two Time Theatre Company!

Most Popular 1-Balloon Sculptures of 2012

Most of my balloon work features one balloon creations or animals, toys and things that can be made with just one balloon.  Here's a photo list of the top 10 balloon requests I get at company picnics, restaurants, festivals and and other events, in no particular order:

Hooray for Hospital Clowns!

Clowns are amazing people!  Red this great article about a group of hosputal clowns and how important they are to the children and adults in the hospital's care:

Check out the full article here

And let's not forget our clown friends in Disaster Relief: A Soft Approach.  The Red Nose Response, arrives at disaster scenes after the Red Cross and emergency support teams have helped those in crisis.  Their goal is to brighten spirits of those who may have lost much or gone through traumatic experiences.

Clowns, check out their routine called "Don't Clown Around with Disaster Preparedness".   Complete with photos and how to incorporate your clown props.

I am also a card carrying member of the Red Nose Response.  Contact me if you want to volunteer with me or need this kind of soft relief.

International Hotdog and Beer Party

The international hotdog party was something I had found online and was dying to try. Mikel added beer to it and thus was born the International Hotdog and Beer Party. The concept is that certain areas of the world eat hotdogs in very particular ways. The French slip them in hallowed out baguettes, parts of Mexico coat the dogs in sugar before laying them in the buns, etc. We wanted to taste them all (in mini 1/3 dog portions) with beers from that region. Let the fun begin!

The passports featured mock Woody Allen identity pages and were full of blank pages where we stuck, at random, round stickers representing each beer and hot dog we ate. There were 1o hot dog and beer combos to taste and you had to finnish the sample before getting the sticker in your passport. To make it legit, we each took the roles of passport officers from a country or area and verified the sticker placements after the samples were finished. Some of us made notes in the passport next to the stickers of the beers and hotdog ingredients and what we thought of them.

The cue cards help us know which toppings to put on for each country or area of the world. The related beers are nearby for tasting. Thanks for your beer hunting skills Mikel!

Nick jumps right in.

Surprisingly yummy: The sugar coated hotdog. Really! Try it!

Kate was a pro! She did the whole world with hardly a flinch. Clean Plate Club! I think I was the only one who couldn't finnish!

The brain says "just one more" but the stomach says "get that thing away from me!"

One of the Olympic Hotdog Eating Winners. What's an Olympic Hotdog? All the toppings available on a single hotdog! (And he still has room for dessert!)

Aga and Jason brought awesome mini brownies!

Satisfied or slightly sick? Hard to tell.

Bonus Picture: Uh...no, we didn't plan that awesome shirt savvy.