Elliott the Entertainer gets lots of assistance from children at the LPL Summer Reading Program

 

[July 12, 2024] 

On Thursday. July 11, at Lincoln Public Library, Elliot the Entertainer from Circus Kaput amused both children and their families with his magic tricks and juggling.

As the show began, Elliot the Entertainer thanked everyone for joining him. Elliot said he would need some helpers throughout the show, so he asked the kids if they were good at following directions. The kids responded by yelling out, “yes!”

For the kids to demonstrate they were good at following directions, Elliot asked them to first touch their ears, then their elbows and their nose. He then said, “if you are good at following directions, put your hands out in front and wiggle your fingers. Now, thumbs pointed down, take one hand and place it over the other one and make a big fist.” Elliot made sure one of the adults was doing the actions, too, and gave her to the count of three.

Elliot said he needed to finish getting in costume, so he twirled around several times to pull his suspenders up. He put his suitcoat on, but forgot it was still on the hanger. Elliot said he had to “loop, swoop and give it a pull” to tie his necktie. He threw his hat up in the air a few times before the hat finally landed on his head though he pretended he did not know where the hat was.

Next, Elliot chose a child and asked her to throw the hat onto his head. When she was unable to get the hat to land on his head by tossing it, Elliot leaned down and had her place the hat on his head. The girl then walked behind Elliot around the front of the room, but he kept “losing track” of where she was. Elliot would let out a little scream of surprise when she suddenly appeared in front of him.

When Elliot held one finger in the air, he had the girl hold one finger up too. Taking the hat, Elliot placed it in on the girl’s finger, where the hat spun.

For the next trick, Elliot took out a yellow bandana and said he would make it into a bandana mouse. He asked the kids to name the mouse, tell him whether it was a boy or girl plus say its favorite color and favorite food. One kid named the mouse Jerry. Another said Jerry was a girl. Others decided blue was Jerry’s favorite color and cheese was her favorite food. Since Elliot is from St. Louis, he said it needed to be Provel cheese.

Going around the room with the mouse, Elliot let the kids “pet” Jerry, but Jerry kept “jumping” out of his hand and landing a few feet away. That brought giggles and screams from the kids.

Elliot then chose a girl named Sage to sit in a chair across from him. He told Sage she had to maintain eye contact and keep a straight face. No smiling allowed. Elliot told Sage to put her hands up, stand up and clap, then sit.

Because Elliot said he was parched from talking, he chose a boy named Carter to sit in the chair across from Sage. He told Carter and Sage to put out their hands, stand up and clap. The third time the two kids stood up, Elliot put a whoopie cushion on Carter’s chair.

The trick Elliot had Carter and Sage help him with was a 100 year old magic trick created by escape artist Harry Houdini. Elliot learned this trick from reading a book and said there are more books published on magic than on any other topic. Elliot encouraged kids to check out books about magic if they wanted to learn magic.

For this trick, Elliot had the kids tie a rope around his legs, arms and hands to see if he could escape. The kids held a suit jacket in front of Elliot’s arms after Sage made sure there was nothing hiding in the jacket that he could use to escape. Carter also had to make sure the rope was not a “trick rope” before he tightly tied Elliot’s legs, hands and arms together. Elliot had Sage put her finger in the knot to help make sure it was tight.

Even after Elliot’s hands were tied, one kid in the audience said he saw one of his hands come out from behind the jacket. However, when Sage and Carter moved the jacket, Elliot’s legs, hands and arms were still tied together. That happened more than once. When they pulled the jacket away a final time, the rope was no longer tied around Elliot’s hands, arms and legs.

A boy named Bentley was chosen to do magic for the next trick. Elliot gave Bentley a “magic” chicken to use as a wand and had him hold a red pail.

Meanwhile, the kids told Elliot his hat was behind him. When Elliot put the hat on, it was upside down, which the kids kept telling him. He eventually put it on correctly.

Bentley wore a magic hat. After Elliot waved the magic chicken wand and Bentley shook the pail, the pail made a clinking noise. There was a fifty cent piece in the pail. As Elliot moved the pail around and Bentley moved various body parts, more fifty cent pieces kept appearing in the pail until there were four fifty cent pieces in it. Elliot said it was his retirement plan.

The trick Elliot had done reminded him of his daughter’s book “Giraffes Can’t Dance” because the trick was different and not what they would expect. In the book, Gerald the Giraffe gets made fun of and laughed at for being different. As the story goes on, Gerald learns it is okay to be different and we should be ourselves and do things our own way.

“Skissors” and another piece of rope were used for the next trick. Elliot said he cannot say scissors, so he calls them skissors (even though he said scissors a few times). He had someone make sure the rope had two ends and one middle. Elliot cut the two ends off the rope, so the rope had no ends. He brought the rope’s middle up to the top and cut the middle, too, so Elliot said there should be no more rope.

The kids said there was still a rope. Elliot then cut little pieces off the rope’s end and made the rope into two pieces. He brought the ends back together as the kids said “abracadabra” (which he kept saying as “have a banana”). Finally, the rope was one regular piece again.

To make water disappear, Elliot chose a new assistant named Delaney Since rain sometimes produces rainbows, Elliot and Delaney both put on rainbow tutus. He next poured water into cups to represent rain clouds. Elliot then taught Delaney a “water be gone” dance with leg kicks and booty shaking.

While dancing, both Elliot and Delaney held cups of water on their heads. However, Elliot drank his water while Delaney was not looking. When Elliot had Delaney turn her cup upside down, her cup was empty.

Originally, Elliot said he planned to do a circus show, but he forgot the case he needed for the circus tricks. Fortunately, Elliot found a few items he could juggle while he rode a unicycle. As with his other tricks, Elliot learned how to juggle more than one object by reading a book.

When Elliot started juggling, he stood on top of the unicycle then turned the unicycle upside down. He also balanced the unicycle on his nose. The kids told Elliot he was doing it wrong.

Finally, Elliot hopped onto the unicycle the right way and had someone hand him two items to juggle. Elliot asked, Andy, who was the helper, to throw him a ball to juggle with the other items. As Elliot juggled the items, it took a few tries for him to catch the ball Andy threw. Eventually, Elliot caught the ball and juggled all three items while riding the unicycle.

Elliot ended the show by reminding everyone to check out books on their favorite subjects because reading is wonderful. He thanked everyone for coming and told them to have a wonderful summer.

Next Thursday is the final program. The ever popular Silly Safari will be returning with several unique animals.

[Angela Reiners]