Who Are We Performing For?

Several days ago I volunteered to perform for a group of children for their Tiger Cub, Cub Scout Meeting. It was a woman from our church that asked me to do this. I felt a little weird about it. No money was talked about. It wasn't even brought up. I kind of felt like it was expected of me. Why? Because she knows me? Because we attend church together. I hardly know this woman. Sure, she is the assistant pastors wife... but..
I spoke about this with a magic friend and he compared it to someone asking their surgeon to come and talk to their group free gratis... A surgeon is a professional and somewhat rare. A magician, hmm, are we the same? A professional, and somewhat rare?
Actually a talented, professional magician is rarer than a surgeon, in my opinion...

So I decided I would go ahead and do the "gig... I recently purchased some new clothes. I was excited to "dress up" and go to the school to see these young people. My wife asked how com I put on some of my new clothes, In other words, "why are you getting all dressed up for this?"
I thought of Criss Angel, and the IMAGE he projects. I am working on projecting my particular image.
I AM SO GLAD I DID!
There is just something different about the way people look at you when you carry yourself well. They simply treat you differently.
I arrived and found the room. It was about ten minutes before I was introduced. It was fun sitting there knowing everyone was wondering, "what is this guy here for?"!!!
Like I said earlier, I was kind of out of sorts doing a free gig. But when I got rolling, it turned out that I think I was blessed more than I blessed them.
I started with a magic trick called Acrobatic Knot. This was just to let my audience know that I am a capable magician.
Funny but as soon as I showed the white rope, a child yells out, "Oh, I know this one..."
That is so typical. I am glad I read Silly Billy's book where he talks about this happening. They don't really know, but have seen something similar, and it empowers them to acknowledge that they do.
Then I performed Needle thru balloon, and while I did not show them how my needle thru balloon works, we did put some cellophane tape on theirs so they could do the effect.

Jumping Rubber bands were next. We all had a great time as you can see.
But again, the serendipity of it is that I was really blessed by taking time from my own life to share my love of magic with others!