Where The Impossible is PossibleInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Ed Majian

Recently, I had the opportunity to conduct an enrichment program for the Bradford Academy in Montclair, New Jersey. The program was sponsored by the local PTA as an after-school bonus for the attending students.

I was contacted, through a family member, by the school and asked to design a course, which would be comprehensive, fun and yet educational for students in the third to fifth grades. This was the first time I?ve ever taken part in such a program but because of my love for youthful minds, I immediately felt it to be a great opportunity. My initial feelings proved more than correct. The Bradford Academy didn?t provide too many guidelines. As a result, I was given a lot of leniency.

However, since I?ve never even written a lesson plan, set up a course or even settled on a course objective, it required a great deal of thought. Eventually, I decided that my objective would be to teach and/or reinforce the values of practice, determination, and confidence.

Ed Teaches Confidence and Joy

As a magician, I also felt the responsibility of addressing ?impossibility? and taking this chance to reaffirm that not even the sky is the limit. After all, in the clear eyes of my students, aged from eight to ten, this is a world of endless possibility. Going into this class, it was my hope that the students would realize some of the lessons touched upon later in their lives ? as they mature and develop their own ambitions ? when they?re faced with obstacles and limitations.

These students are a part of our future and their limitations may very well be ours. With these thoughts in mind, I designed a course, in which I would teach three different performance trades. These trades would function as a vehicle into the above concepts. I taught a combination of two very simple magic-tricks, juggling and balloon sculpture.

Each time we met, I?d cover a different topic. The students would have the following week to practice and think of anything to ask me. Not all students were required to learn everything we covered. Naturally each student took a liking to a certain aspect of the course. One week isn?t quite enough practice to exactly master anything so when their performances were judged, they were judged on overall knowledge and understanding not on simply their performance value.

The following week, the students performed whatever they worked on during their week away. If performed well, they?d receive a metallic-star sticker on their magic wand (magic pencil). The beginning of each class, starting with the second class, was a short Q&A session regarding the previous week, progress reports from all the students about their week and the aforementioned short performance by each of the students.

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Ed Majian

Ed Teaches Confidence and Joy

Ed and Some Happy Students

The rest of class was spent learning something new while at the end of every session each student was rewarded for their work. On the first day of class, I spent some time showing the students some of my Majik to build a rapport, gain respect and get their attention. Once we all knew each other, the course went as follows:

Weeks 2 & 3: Since I did show the class some Majik, I decided that it would be a good idea to teach them two magic tricks. It would give them a chance to emulate what they saw in their own way and I also believe that learning and performing a magic trick can greatly aid in one?s self-esteem and confidence.

Weeks 4 & 5: These two weeks were devoted to juggling. The students and I used rice and balloons to make our own juggling balls. As the rest of the class was still making their balls, I taught groups of three. Once everyone had some personal instruction, I had the students form a straight line and practice together. I believe juggling really enhances hand eye coordination as well as proving, once again, that with practice even the most complex things are possible.

Weeks 5 & 6: The last two content weeks of the course were spent making balloon animals. I found this to be extremely effective in building even more rapport and since making a little dog or bunny out of a balloon isn?t TOO brain racking, it provided a perfect example of how certain things appear to be much more complex than they really are. With just a little bit of knowledge and a lot of practice, the children were able to do something, which seemed terribly complex at one point.

Initially, I used some of my actual Majik and a short introduction to establish a rapport, gain their respect and attention. I knew off-hand that I didn?t want students leaving class with a feeling of being lectured or even taught. I?d rather they learn through interaction and discussion? All the while having fun.

During the time I spent with them, certain children stood out more than others in certain assignments. Some perfected their magic tricks, others showed very good hand?eye coordination with the ability to juggle and most, if not all, quickly mastered the art of making balloon animals.

The setting was very intimate?no more than fourteen students per class. Everyone became very friendly and we were able to immerse ourselves in topics from magic to future dreams to role models and people the students looked up to.

All the while, the students were reminded that people like Michael Jordan, Bill Cosby, Dave Mira (BMX Rider) and various other people would not be where they are today if it weren?t for self-confidence, determination, practice and belief.

These stars would have never succeeded if they allowed other people to set in stone what is and isn?t impossible for them. In conclusion, I view this program to have been a personal success for me as well as the children who attended. I measured success by the amount of students who left this class telling me that nothing is impossible?

Hopefully, that will stay with them as they grow and are faced with life?s (society?s) obstacles. I, personally, was also reminded of an interesting realization. Younger minds view magic in a completely different way than most adults do. I can?t tell you how simply pure it was to do magic for a child and have that child look at me with a blank face as if to say ?Okay? So??

Many young children do not even acknowledge impossibility. It is only natural that to them, magic is not as impossible. – Therefore, not as amusing. This realization only reaffirms my idea of impossibility being non-existent. Impossibility is something, which we are taught to acknowledge.

Thus, impossibility is only a relative concept to one?s perspective ? never constant. We are taught to realize impossibility only as we grow up in society. As a result, we naturally love magic because it is one of the few things, which challenge that taught notion of impossibility.

In a sense magic or, in my case, Majik is an escape. It is my way of vacating from this man-made reality in which we exist. Further, applying the philosophy behind Majik to anything we do makes everything much more possible.

The thought process I go through as I create Majik is very similar, I’d imagine, to the way the Wright Brothers must have been thinking right before the first airplane took off or even the state of mind the paralyzed among us are in right before they take their first steps. Interestingly enough, it’s also the same state of mind children are in when they ask, “Okay… You made that disappear. So?”

It is my hope that this thought may propel us all beyond our own reality-limited expectations of ourselves. Ideally, I’d love for us, collectively, to unlearn impossibility and see the world, as it is, through the eyes of innocent minds – unlimited and never lacking in potential.