|
 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.
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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] |
