A teacher friend of mine has asked me to present a thirty-minute program of magic in her fourth grade classroom. Her class is studying the Olweus Anti-Bullying program, and she'd like at least one of the tricks to relate to the program. The core of the program is these four rules:

1. We will not bully others.
2. We will help students who are bullied.
3. We will include students who are left out.
4. If we know that somebody is being bullied, we will tell an adult at school and an adult at home.

I'm doing some online research, and going through my library and repertoire now to see what I might adapt for this task. I would nonetheless appreciate any ideas anyone might offer.

Thanks...

The man you need to talk to is Tommy James (he's on this forum) themed school shows are his forte.

I came up with the following two ideas recently while helping someone work on their bully show.

First, I thought the phrase, "Every word you use is a magic word," nicely gets across the idea that the words you use can hurt or help people. Here's a very rough sketch of the possible dialogue.

"Every word you say is a magic word. I'll say that again: EVERY WORD YOU SAY IS A MAGIC WORD. Because your words can effect the way others think and feel about themselves. When you tell your parents you love them, do you think it makes them feel good? Yes. Those are magic words. But there are bad magic words also. If you told somebody at school today that they are ugly, do you think they might feel ugly today? Yeah. If you called somebody weird, do you think they might feel weird today? Yes. That's why every word you say is a magic word. So it's important to always choose positive magic words. In fact let's practice choosing positive magic words with this piece of rope..."

Second, to help illustrate the point about how the words we use can effect the people around us, I came up with this idea for a routine with the Acrobatic Rope trick. If you don't know it, here's the basic effect/routine.

You tie a knot in the end of a white rope, then hold the rope vertically, one end in each hand. The knot is at the bottom end of the rope. Claim you'll make the knot jump to the top on the count of three, and on three quickly spin around while switching the position of both hands. The knot will now be near the top of the rope. The children will then complain that they know how you do it. Repeat again, causing the knot to "jump" back down to the bottom of the rope. Again, the kids will argue that they know you just turned it around.

(again, very rough dialogue:)

"See, here's an opportunity for us to practice choosing positive magic words. Right now, you might want to say things like, "I know how you did that" or "that wasn't a good trick" or "you're the world's worst magician." And frankly you might be right on some of those points. But let's see what magic we can make happen when we choose positive magic words instead."

Then bring out the second rope (the red rope) and twirl the white and red rope together.

"Everyone say, "You can do it!" (The audience repeats, then pull the ropes apart to show the white knot has jumped onto the red rope). "See what happens when we say positive magic words? Let's try it again, every say, "I believe in you!"" (They do, and you pull the knot off the rope) "Now say, "You're a great magician." (They do, and you toss the knot back on the rope). "One more time, everyone say the best magic words of all, "I like you."" (They do, and you slowly untie the white knot and show that it is actually a white section on the red rope). "I want everyone to take a good look at this red rope with that white section in it. And I want you to think about it any time you're about to say something mean, negative, offensive .... any bad magic words. Think about this rope and remember that the words you use can actually become a part of someone. They stick with them, much like that white section in this red rope. That's why it's so important to always choose nice, friendly, positive magic words."

That's it. Sorry about any grammar/punctuation issues. Anyway, I think it's a pretty simple routine that makes a good point with a fairly impressive piece of magic. Hope you find it useful.

--Christopher T. Magician

Thanks for the ideas, folks. I appreciate the assistance.

JGB

Ewbny,

Wow, great idea! Thanks for sharing!

Chris I am forever thankful to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dazzling Magic sell Greg Britts DVDs on the subject.

It ain't about the tricks. It's about the REAL message. I know you've heard that before but this is serious. A program should be developed first WITHOUT TRICKS IN MIND. Make your points and create the best scripting foundation to get the points across. Then look for the ways to illustrate the points.

I spent $3500 for both the teacher materials and the school system materials. I took the program twice with two different school systems. I spent five years working on my program with extensive interviews with school counselors, principals, and superintendents of schools using OBPP. There are some serious social and psychological foundational aspects to the program.

You may be able to quickly come up with something to satisfy one fourth-grade teacher, but if you plan to make a long-term and USEFUL program, there are no shortcuts.

Spend the money and the time. Interview MANY school personnel and create a GOOD and VALID program. If you don't you will ruin it for the schools, the students, yourself, and those of us who care to do it right.

I do wish you well on it. There's a real need for good anti-bullying programs. Olweus is the best and the best one to base your program on. With all due respect, you will not come up with a good program for the current school year if you are only starting on it now.

- B.H.

I do believe that Bill Hilly just made one of the most intelligent posts that I have seen on this forum in a very long time! The sad reality is that many folks look for a quick way to make a buck, and take the shortest route to get there. School Assemblies have become a major target market for this type of person.

Like Bill, we have spent thousands of dollars and several years interviewing school personnel, as well as several mental health and intervention agencies on the topic. We diligently research and follow the most current guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of education regarding anti bullying education, and of course our foundation for everything we do in our program is based on Olweus.

We do have the credentials to show the schools that we are indeed an authority regarding the subject of Anti Bullying.

It is sad to hear our customers come to us after our presentation and tell us they wish they had known about us and hired us in the first place because they mistakenly hired an entertainer who had no idea what they were talking about, and totally lacked professionalism. One Principal this past spring said " I had to hire you no matter what it cost, to make up to my kids for the REALLY BAD magic and message I made them sit through earlier this year!"

Bill is so right, as just tacking a half a***d message onto some magic tricks only hurts the schools, kids, and the industry as a whole!

On behalf of the OP, it looks like the teacher simply wants him to do magic for her students and include a brief message regarding bullying with one of the acts. Since he is not asking about creating an entire Anti Bullying program on the fly, he should be able to find a golden nugget of info on the topic either here or elsewhere on the internet to fulfill the request made of him adequately.

~Nanci

Thanks to Bill Hilly and The Great Nancini for their words of advice. GN is correct -- I am not attempting to develop a full program, but merely doing a one-off visit to the classroom as a favor to a friend. Were I to be trying to develop a full show, I would surely immerse myself in several months of study before daring to take the stage.

STOP and THINK!!!!!1

Why do so many magicians accept shows that they cannot perform? If you know that you are not fully equipped to perform the show do not perform the show. Hand it over to someone who has experience in these areas. There are quite a few magicians that put out a Magic in a Box Program that is pure garbage just to mkae a buck. These programs are not what a Professional Magician would perform. I have been performing speciality magic shows for schools for years. I have for the last 3-year been developing my own show for the schools and I still am not ready to perform this as I feel it still lacks something. It might be next year before I start to promote this show. A Show that is Serious such as Bullying must be taught with due diligence and has to come accross to the students as something that will stick with them. This is just not a show to make a buck off of it is a show that can SAVE LIVES. Please take the time to do your research and again if you do not have the skills to perform the requested show then do not perform it as it makes all of us look bad.

Rodney

Thank you for your advice, Rodney. When and if I decide to develop a full show addressing an anti-bullying theme, I will certainly take all the time needed to research and develop the show. As I clearly stated above, I am doing just a few minutes of magic as a favor for a friend. This is not something I took on to "just make a buck off of", as I am not being paid at all.

And if I thought I was going to deliver "pure garbage", I would not have accepted my friend's invitation in the first place.

Nanci,
Thank you for the compliment. I know how hard you and Matthew work on your programs and I appreciate the words of agreement from such a professional.

Rodney,
You are spot on about the importance of such a topic and why we must approach our programs in such a high-quality way. I commend you for knowing when the time is right to present your program. That's the mark of a true pro as well.

Christopher,
I like that concept: "Every word you use is a magic word." I haven't given thought to the rope routine, but that whole thing about how words effect people would make a pretty good introduction to an assembly I think. Thanks for sharing.

And JGB,
Your expanded thoughts and explanation of your intentions shows true grit also. With that attitude, I think you'd probably come up with a great addition to that particular arena if you decided to take it farther than a one-time presentation. All the best to you.

Thank you all for your dedication,
- B.H.

Thanks for the confidence, but I myself do not perform a bullying show. If I did, I too would have to start from scratch and do a lot of research as advised in the above posts. Great thread!

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