Santas comeing down the chimney... But someone left the fire on...

Stigmata to go maybe.

I had the fortune to perform in a Christmas Carol production directed by a stage magician who shall remain nameless. Every ghost made a terrific appearance, the "Milk of Human Kindness" never ran out, and Scrooge's tombstone magically changed to show his name. The entire cast made it's appearance out of a "Book of Life."

There is also those wonderful Rankin & Bass Christmas specials (with lots of available characters). You could use the Heatmiser and the Winter Warlock as inspriation.

Or, there is always a Christmas scene at Hogwarts...

There is also Hans Christian Anderson's story The Snow Queen. This is a really strange story with many possibilities. You can read The Snow Queen online.

Yours,

Paul

http://www.surnateum.org/English/surnate......noel.htm
Once again, check the Surnateum's files...

This website is a book by itself sounds like a "capricorniandium legendus sortilegionis"

Yeah, it's amazing, really. There is so much there.

We advice givers need to ask more questions before we start giving out answers. It seems that ptbeast left out some important details about the performance situation. This will be a long line of hundreds of kids waiting to get bicycles for Christmas. Their ages will be from 3 to 8 years old. ptbeast is only one of several other entertainers trying to keep these kids from killing one another or the event's organizers as they try to wait patiently for their free bikes. Food and drinks will also be served to the kids in this line.

OK, now go back and look at the advice you posted for ptbeast. Does it still fit the situation? I know my advice looks pretty stupid, only because ptbeast was not forthcoming with this new information from the start, but I should know better than to start throwing out ideas before asking questions. We all should. None of us asked the questions because we assumed that ptbeast was posing them in the correct forum thread. He should have been asking the clowns and balloon artists for help, not us "sit-down-pay-attention" style magicians.

Instead of ptbeast coming here for help, the event's organizers should have been asking for help, but you know they won't. They will force hundreds of kids to stand in line and wait for their bicycles because that's how they did it last year and the year before that and the year before that. It will not occur to them to have the kids take numbered tickets as they arrive, then sit down to watch a show as the organizers match bikes to kids with matching numbers off on the side or in another room. Then, when the show is over and the refreshments have been served, the kids are called in and are given help finding the bikes that match their numbers and off they go with their stuff. No, that would be too organized and easy.

Dave,

I haven't been able to find the issue of MUM that I was looking for. But, I did find something you might find interesting. If you go to http://www.dragonskull.co.uk and go to the "Secret Passages" section (I'm guessing you'll figure out the password) there is a piece by Peter Marucci entitled "A Dickensian Christmas Carol" that might fit the bill.

Mark

Spellbinder -- with all due respect, you should know from our conversation on your site that it was not a matter of my not being forthcoming, but rather of my being misinformed. Asking questions wouldn't have helped, because I would have given you answers as I understood them, not as they turned out to be.

That said, I don't believe that makes any of the advice above foolish or useless. It helped stimulate thinking, mine and others, and is therefore valuable.

As for the project, I have worked line entertainment for years, albeit in haunted houses, not bike giveaways. I have been able to do a version of bizarre/storytelling magic, though on a very brief type level. In my mind, the much bigger problem came when I found out that the children would be much younger than I expected. As young as three, with the bulk being below eight. This is a big complication for me because I have never really performed for this age group.

All of you who have contributed ideas have my deepest thanks. While I have not figured out exactly what I am going to do yet, ideas from here have planted seeds that I am sure will bear fruit.

Back to the drawing board.

Dave

Well, all this talk wasn't wasted after all. I just got booked to perform an outdoor show welcoming Santa to a small town in Maine. They are going to close the main street to traffic for several blocks, and set up a flatbed truck as a mobile stage at one end. It is likely to be seriously cold.

Still, there has to be a bit of storytelling magic here. I am going to explain how, after Halloween was over, I wanted to ask Santa for a set of Chinese Linking Rings. I know that Santa does a bit of magic himself, flying through the air and sliding down chimneys, so I decided to go to the North Pole to talk to him. I don't fly, so I folded the earth to get there on my own two feet. He was pretty busy when I got there, but he took some time with me because he doesn't get a lot of visitors.

I asked him for the Chinese Linking Rings, and he said that he'd see what he could do. I showed him that I already know how to do it, but since I can't afford the Chinese Linking Rings, I'm using rope. [Here I do the Linking Ropes].

Because Santa was so nice, I wanted to see if I could help him out with anything. Most of you know that he makes a lot of toys, candy, cookies, fruitcakes, and all kinds of other stuff up there. Lately, he has found it easier to get some of the stuff shipped up to the North Pole from factories around the world. Of course, there are often problems with the orders, and he showed me a warehouse full of what was supposed to be boxes of candy, but it turned out, they had shipped him confetti by mistake. It's lots of fun to throw in the air [throwing some], but really, most kids would rather have candy. So I asked Santa why not just turn the confetti into candy? He wanted to know how to do that, so I said, well, you can just throw some in the air, then grab pieces of candy right out of it [does so]. Of course, it's pretty slow doing it one piece at a time, but with a little practice you can get a whole handful [does so]. Finally, we just started scooping confetti up in candy tins and changing a whole bunch of it at a time [does so, throwing a lot of candy to the crowd].

Santa also gets a lot of wishes from children all over the world, and makes big lists of the items wished for. I told him it would be easier to carry all the boxes if he just wrapped up the wishes, instead of the toys. I've got a wish in this box right here. Look at all the wishes on this list [unfurls list, about four feet long, takes pair of scissors]. You out there, tell me where to cut. Higher, lower? Right there? OK [cuts list, hands cut off part to audience member]. What is the wish at the top of the list? Is it a fire engine? I always wanted a fire engine. No? It's a what? A white tiger? Well, let's see if you got your wish. How about that, a white tiger! Here you go [give white tiger to child].

OK, so this isn't Lovecraftian, but there is a story here about my trip to the North Pole. I get to throw confetti, toss candy into the crowd, and give away a toy. The magic isn't going to win me any awards from magic clubs, but I think that this is going to work OK.

Yours,

Paul

Sorry, I panicked! I'm glad you're keeping a cool head and have had some experience to handle this situation. What would you be doing if this were a line to a haunted house attraction? Maybe we can get some ideas to adapt what you've done in the past to this situation and younger age.

I still like the idea of Santa the Elf, but now maybe as a tiny finger puppet hidden in your hands (like Brother Shadow's pixie).

Dave,

I was surfing through some old haunts, and found on Gene Poinc's memorial webpage ( http://thelearnedpig.com.pa/magos/poinc/other01.html ) a whole bunch of stuff you might be able to use. I miss Gene a lot.

Mark

You know the formula: check the files of the Surnateum...
http://www.surnateum.org/English/surnate......noel.htm