I thought I would put this up here and see what some of you think, or maybe I will find out that this has already been done. In which case someone can help me out with a source, etc.
I am referring to patter only, not any new kind of method, just a presentation idea.

Ok- The paper is the real estate section with typical classified type paper inserted inside.

Upon pulling out the paper, I grumble and complain about the outrageous increases in housing/real estate cost and begin tearing it up. Mentioning that it would be nice to own an estate, some land or nice new home!!!

-Finished with tearing at this point-

"But you know, you can have your earthly estates... "

-Restoration would happen here-

"I'll take a mansion in heaven any day!!!"

Scripture reference being: John 14:2-3.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. I am planning on presenting it this way at a local mission as part of my routine coming up very soon.

GlenD

GlenD, it sounds like it has potential. Be sure to expand on what you mean by "earthly estates." Don't just leave it at what you have because it might lose some people (like me).

Here's an idea that I've been pondering for a while. It has to do with the newspaper tear:

Read Scripture. "Wow! Isn't that really great news? Speaking of news, how many of you read the newspaper? A few of you; that's good. I have a copy of today's paper with me today and I want to show you something with it."

"There's a whole bunch of different pieces in a newspaper. For example, you've got Sports, Business, and the Comics! Just like the paper, there's a lot of different people, too. Some could be tall, some could be small. Some people might be born in America and some people might be born in other countries. But, like this paper here, if you try to seperate people (tear the paper), it doesn't work. If you ignore people because they're different than you (tear again), it doesn't work. (Continue to tear the paper as your method needs) If you think that different people shouldn't be friends, that's not right.

Would this torn up newspaper be easy to read? Would it be fun to read? No! If you have a newspaper without a Sports section or without a Comics section, do you think all of the readers would be really happy? No! The pieces need to be together. Jesus ate with people that other people hated. Jesus accepted the children when nobody else thought they were worthy. God doesn't want us to seperate ourselves from each other. God wants everybody to live together no matter what their differences are. (Restore the paper)"

A little rough but I'm working on it!

-Andy

Good ideas, Andini. I know my idea is still a bit rough also and I will work on smoothing it out and making the message clear. Maybe along with mentioning earthly estates it might be more clear to add "and all the best the world has to offer"? I just don't want to drag that part of it out too much (although I want it to be clear and understood). I want the emphasis to be on what God has for us per the scripture reference.

Thanks for the suggestion and for sharing yours too.

GlenD

I sometimes use a patter about how our life can get all torn up. With the restoration I tal about mercy and grace, and how God can put life back toghether.

GlenD,
I love it! Very creative. Having been a Realtor (many years ago), I think that I might have an insight. How about making the fact that real estate ads are full of lies and misrepresentations part of your rant? That way you can end up with an emphasis on Jesus’ words “if it were not true” as well as the estate idea.
If you want to go for a comedy aside, here are a couple of real estate jokes. “The ad said “Indoor swimming pool”, I got there and found out that meant three feet of water in the basement!” or “I started walking down the steps to the basement, and noticed six inches of water on the floor, I turned to the Realtor and said “Does the basement leak?” He replied “Of course not! If it did, it wouldn’t be holding all of that water in, now would it?” Or my favorite one (this one’s true) I was showing houses to an old high school buddy of mine, and he asked what the difference was between a real estate salesperson and a Realtor? I said, “A salesperson only has a license to sell from the state, a Realtor also belongs to a trade association, and ascribes to the Realtor code of ethics.” My friend replied, “Code of ethics, huh, is that like “honor among thieves”?
BTW, if I might have your kind permission, I’d like to use this routine.

Tom, thanks for the kind words and for the jokes too!
Of course you can use the ideas I shared, let me know how it turns out when you do, too.
By the way, welcome to the Magic Café and to the "good news" section as well !!
See you around the boards.

GlenD

UPDATE: June 26, 2004

What I finally came up with and tried out at a recent show went more like this (some of the ideas were generated from what Andini posted), thanks Andi...

It was a gospel magic show, done at a mission and my Bible was out on my table the whole time. When I got to the paper tear effect, I pulled the newspaper out. Then mentioned how everybody reads the newspaper, whether Christian or non-Christian. Just like all Christians read the Bible... ok, most Christians read the Bible... some Christians read the Bible.

This said as sort of a jab and a challenge to get everyone thinking a litle.

Then, you know the Bible is full of good news, I know it isn't all good news there is some bad news too. But it offers eternal answers and hope for everyone no matter how bad the situation.

But this, holding the newspaper, is a lot of bad news... Most people start with the front page, BAD NEWS and execute first tear. Then maybe you get to the business section (see which company laid off the most employees this week), more BAD NEWS and tear another strip. Then there's the food section, no comment and another tear. You come to the classifieds and and find there's no news and in this case no news is BAD NEWS and tear the last strip.
Then I just tore up until I was left with a small packet (I use The Baxt version) as I remind them that the newspaper is just a lot of bad news whereas the Bible contains the best news.
Then follow through with the flash type restoration as I mention something about supposed to be doing magic up here and not rambling on about the negatives of a newspaper.
This presentation seemed to work well and I am happy with it for the time being.

Let me know what you guys think.

GlenD

Nice job, GlenD! I'm really happy to hear the routine worked for you. I like how it turned out. I can see the Bible jab working, actually.

In reading the routine, I thought it would be neat to produce a Bible from the restored newspaper. Just an idea.

Anyhoo, I'm glad it worked out for you and I wish you the best of luck in your future performances!

-Andy