Embrace Your Role as Entertainer

By Care Elise

This summer, my partner Jordan and I taught a magic camp that will always stand out in my memory. By sheer force of coincidence, every child but one had intellectual, learning, or physical disabilities. Between them, these kids had diagnoses for severe behavioural, attention, and motor challenges. Even in a small camp, it was challenging to give every child a taste of success. For us, success was predefined. Each child had to perform independently on stage at the end of the week. Astoundingly, every single child walked out on that stage in front of a crowd of family and friends and performed their magic tricks to successful completion (and enthusiastic applause). As the parents thanked us, the strong connection between magic and education finally clicked.

Here is a “mathemagic” trick that you can adjust for difficulty by telling them to select a number from 1–10, 20, 100 or even 1000! They will need to keep a running total in their head (or write it down):

Step 1: Choose a number, write it down, but don’t show me!

Step 2: Take your number and subtract 1. Step 3: You have a new number? Multiply the total by 3.

These were kids who struggled in the school system with one-on-one support, which we couldn’t provide. Why were they able to follow along with our long-winded explanations of how an effect worked, motivate themselves to practice, and actually fool their family and friends?

It was because we captured that elusive resource, their attention.

Jordan always asks, “You want to see something cool?” And they always do.

Maybe the kids don’t see us as teachers, but they learn anyway. Maybe they view us as entertainers who reward them with “cool tricks” if they follow along with the theory, practice and attempt what we teach. Does it matter? We consistently hear from parents that our students are excited to show

Step 4: Now add 12 to your new total. Step 5: Now divide that by 3. Step 6: Now add 5. Step 7: Finally, subtract the original number. (Don’t remember it? Check the paper in your pocket!) Step 8: Dramatically reveal your prediction for the total: It will be 8.

More “math tricks” can be found online, some easier and others more challenging. off what they’ve learned. Any course can get that “magic” reaction.

I firmly believe what Teller (of Penn and Teller fame) so eloquently proclaims—education is a performance art. Magic in educational contexts is incredibly powerful. In North America, children’s magic developed from an educational tradition. Our first known reference of children’s magic is from 1910, in the form of a book that taught ministers to illustrate moral lessons with magic tricks. Churches understood the excitement and engagement that magic could invoke in linking lessons to memory. Today, schools bring in magicians (like us) to theme performances around topics like bullying, environmental protection, diversity and inclusion, and more. The themes may have changed, but magic was then and still is a compelling teaching tool. It inspires wonder and amazement, and those are not soon forgotten.

Kids can achieve things that we adults believe are far beyond their reach when they are engaged and interested in the material. And if the material is boring (yes, that happens even in magic—let’s face it, they want to know how a trick works, not how to deal cards properly) then the teachers themselves must become the entertainment.

Before I was a magician, I taught writing to everyone from elementary school students to doctoral candidates and business professionals. My pattern was simple and always the same, first engage, then introduce the concepts, and entertain throughout to anchor

the theory in long-term memory and get them excited to see me again.

Consider this, which teacher do you remember the most and why? Was it a teacher you hated—or one you loved? Either way, it’s probably rooted to a strong emotional memory. Are details copied off an overhead a bit hazy? Emotional memories are hard to conjure up without a teacher who captured your attention. One of my favourite teachers in high school had moonlighted as a standup comedian before settling into teaching. Mr. F. fully embraced his role as classroom entertainer. He drew comics and wrote lyrics to help us memorize the vocabulary. It worked. We would walk up and down the hall singing. His classes were not easy. He had high expectations, but he was still a favourite. There are many ways to entertain and engage attention in educational contexts.

Magic is highly interactive and invites inquiry—there is a natural curiosity to examine objects closely, ask questions, and try to figure out how it works! (As magicians, it is our job to be skilled and clever enough to never reveal the secrets and keep the mystery alive).

My question is this—if you start thinking about your class as an audience, what would you change? The argument is consistently made that we are competing for kids’ attention. It can be a great boon for a teacher to

Kids can achieve things that we adults believe are far beyond their reach when they are engaged and interested in the material.

have a few simple tricks up their sleeve (especially ones that can be tied to a specific lesson)! If you seem like a wizard, you’ll capture more attention as the children won’t want to miss something “something cool”.

Many students struggle with math—if you want kids to improve their ability to calculate, fool them with a trick that requires mental calculations! They will be begging you to teach them how you did it. And they will be practicing math for fun. But what makes these tricks, and not puzzles, is the theatricality that YOU bring to the audience. Here are some suggestions.

For any number trick where the end result is predetermined, write a prediction at the start of class, put it in an envelope with a big question mark and hang it on the board. You’ll have their curiosity. Make them wait. Introduce your “prediction”, (or “guess” for younger children), read a child’s mind, and reveal your prediction! Then, teach them the trick and have them practice their calculations themselves using different numbers and let your classroom try to read each other’s minds. TIP: It’s a good idea to get your helper to write their number down and show it to the whole class when you start so that they don’t forget it, and everyone else can follow along and try it with them!

Care Elise is an award-winning magician, educator, and writer living in the Vancouver area. Feel free to reach out to her at care.dyck@gmail.com.

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