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 While
the children waited for the program to begin, Landry told them he
brought some cool stuff. He asked the children to raise their hands
if they like magic, like to read, like going to the library and just
like raising their hands. He then told them to raise their hands if
they were here and if they were not here. There was a big show of
hands each time even when he said raise your hands if you are not
here.
Reading books is one way Landry said he learned to do magic when he
was younger.
To make magic happen, Landry asked the children to shout, “read more
books” when he counted to three. He also taught them to wave their
fingers in the air to do a “finger dance” as they shouted.
Next, Landry brought out a clapometer to register how well everyone
clapped. Landry asked everyone to clap quietly and then a little
louder to make the clap good.
For the last round of applause, Landry asked the audience to clap as
loudly as they could for the librarians who are at the library all
year long making sure we get enough books to read. Librarians know
the more we read, the smarter we get. Landry said they would go back
to school being smarter after reading so much. As everyone clapped
loudly, the clapometer’s red mark moved up to the top noting the
clapping was great.
A stack of books Landry brought showed what he is
reading this summer. One was a book of magic tricks.
For Landry’s first trick, he pulled out his book of tricks and read
aloud the instructions for the mystery of the cleaning
handkerchiefs. The first instruction was to choose two helpers
sitting quietly to help with the trick. Once Landry had chosen a boy
and a girl, he gave the girl three dirty stinky handkerchiefs and
the boy a small clothesline and three clothespins.
Landry had the young girl wad up the handkerchiefs into a tight ball
and place it in his magic bag, but the balled-up handkerchiefs fell
out because there was a hole in the bottom of the bag.
Once Landry got the balled-up handkerchiefs to stay in the bag, the
young boy placed the clothesline and clothespins in the bag.
The girl was given five wands including two Landry placed in her
armpits. He asked her to wave all five wands at once, which was
challenging with the ones under her arms. She was asked to wave one
wand three times, but it appeared to break. The boy was then given
the wand, but it kept breaking for him too.
To see what needed to be done differently, Landry
read more of the instructions, but there was a page missing. He
reminded everyone to take good care of books.
By using his imagination, Landry decided how to finish the trick. He
pulled out two new magic wands. These wands were flexible, and the
two helpers kept stretching them out. Finally, the helpers waved the
wands by the bag as the audience shouted, “read more books.”
The handkerchiefs came out of the bag completely
clean and attached to the clothesline.
Before his next trick, Landry went to grab a bottle of water to
quench his thirst, but the children pointed out that he had pulled
out a bottle of ketchup. Landry screamed and made faces as he
wondered where his water went.
Going over to a box with pictures of books on it, Landry looked for
a rabbit. He used a squeaky handkerchief and pretended to cry when
he could not find a rabbit.
Pulling out the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Landry said he
likes the book. He loves cookies and has a cookie jar shaped like a
white rabbit.
Since the cookie jar is empty every time Landry goes to grab a
cookie, he created a cookie vault. He took a cookie and asked the
children to guess which hand his cookie was in.
When Landry buys cookies, he puts one in the vault and the rest in
the jar. That way, he always has cookies. Landry put a cookie in one
side of the vault and opened the vault, but it was not there. Landry
did that with both sides of the vault.
Next, Landry turned the vault towards him and opened
the doors on it, he could still not see the cookie. The children
told him to turn the vault’s doors toward the audience so they could
see.
Eventually, Landry gave up on trying to find the cookie. He turned
his back to the audience, and the cookie was on the back of his
shirt. Landry acted shocked that it was there.
Pulling out a cookie box, Landry chose a helper and gave the helper
an Oreo hat to wear. Landry placed a small white ball in the
helper’s hand, which represented the icy white filling, which is
Landry’s favorite part of the Oreo.
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The helper closed his hand around the ball and when
he opened his hand, there were two balls. Landry said the cookie
would now be double stuffed. There were two balls in his hand on the
next try too. After that, one of the balls in the helper’s hand
turned brown like a chocolate stuffed Oreo center.
After another wave of the wand, several balls popped
out of the helper’s hand. Landry put these balls in a bag that
looked like a cow’s udder since milk goes with cookies. The helper
tapped the magic bag and pulled out a bag of Oreo cookies, which the
boy was able to keep.
As Landry talked about various books, he read part of a counting
book about Oreos doing magic tricks. He had the audience guess how
many Oreos would be on each page.
In a book called How Are You Peeling, Landry showed everyone fruit
and vegetables with different facial expressions drawn on them.
Many of the books Landry said he likes to read are silly and weird.
One example is It’s Disgusting and We Ate It with true food facts
from around the world throughout history. Landry showed everyone
pages with odd recipes like earthworm soup, a traditional fever
“medicine” in China. Another was rat stew, which Landry said is part
of international dining.
For the next trick, Landry chose a young boy to wear
a magic hat with a mystic eye on it, magic sunglasses, and a magic
cape. Landry then found an egg behind the boy’s ear.
The boy was given a tiny wand to help with the trick, but the
children said the wand was too tiny. The children said the next wand
was way too big.
Going over to a box, Landry looked for the rabbit he
had tried to find earlier with no luck. This time when Landry turned
the box around, Snowball the rabbit was in it. He told everyone to
be quiet as he brought Snowball out.
Snowball and the boy then posed for a photo wearing fake mustaches.
Landry told everyone about Snowball’s favorite food and drink. He
pretended Snowball had something to tell him and leaned in to hear.
Landry said I am not going to tell the audience about the Snowball
Landry Fan Club on Facebook.
Because Landry could not perform for a year and a half due to the
pandemic, he said he decided to build Snowball a beauty nap chamber.
Landry said it took months to build the beauty nap chamber because
he wanted it to look like a pet carrier. The children told Landry it
was a cage.
When Landry tried to put Snowball in the carrier, Snowball flopped
her legs around and acted as if she might hop out of his hand.
Finally, Landry got Snowball in the carrier and had
her peek out to say goodbye to the audience. The children were asked
to say, “Bye Snowball, I love you.”
As Landry finished the show, he reminded the adults to read to their
children. When Landry’s boys were young, he read to them every day
and they spent a lot of time in the library. Landry the adults, “the
more you read the smarter they will get, and you will have lots of
good memories.”
Next Thursday, the Mason County Conservation District will provide a
Birds of a Feather program.
[Angela Reiners] |
