“If you like my magic, my name is Jim Green; if you don’t, my name is David Copperfield.”
That was how the magic show in Frank Hall at the Sapulpa Public Library started, and the jokes and amazing illusions didn’t stop for the next half hour as kids and parents alike were treated to a free show on Thursday, June 17th.
Jim Green is from Oklahoma City and said he’d never even seen a live magic show until the year 2000, when his grandkids took an interest in magic. He enjoyed himself so much that he started doing magic shows himself. Now he does 350 shows a year, all for children. “It’s all for the grandkids. Each one of my tricks is grandkids-approved. Some of the tricks I really want to do I won’t do, because the kids don’t like them as much as their parents do.”
By all accounts, parents enjoyed the show as much as their children, staring in amazement as Green pulled handkerchiefs and terrariums out of what was clearly an empty paper sack, or shoved a sword through the neck of one of the brave souls who dared to offer themselves up as a volunteer (don’t worry, he was fine).
Joining Green and opening the show was another magician named Bill Crawford, from Noble, Oklahoma. Crawford was even more seasoned than Green. “I did my first magic trick in 1984,” he said. His tricks were appealing as well, as a tennis ball in a box with no lid magically traded places with a large red wooden die in a box across the stage. “Twenty minutes of the most amazing entertainment you can cram into an hour!” he said to a chuckling audience.
The climax of the event was when Green reached into an obscure box and plucked a live pigeon into view. “Are you ready to fly?” he asked the little bird. He walked it off the stage to the side, where a large green cannon sat in full view of wide-eyed children. Crawford stepped onto the stage to assist, turning the pigeon’s box to reveal a target, as Green placed the pigeon into the cannon. Apparently, the bird was going to fly, whether it wanted to or not.
“Are you ready, Bill?” Green asked. Crawford nodded. “One, two, three!” Green yanked a chain and in a puff of air and a flurry of feathers, the bird suddenly appeared in the box on the stage. To the hollers and cheers of children, Green opened up the cannon for the audience to inspect—it was, of course, completely empty.
As the show ended and kids filed out of Frank Hall, still wondering how that bird had survived being shot out of the cannon, Green turned and looked to those who remained. “Who’s going to help me pick up these feathers? I have to glue them back to his butt.”
The Sapulpa Library Summer Reading Program is ongoing through the rest of June and into July. Get more details about the program at facebook.com/SapulpaPublicLibrary.
