School Shows

School assemblies are by far the most difficult shows for us. We enter as their enemy and must subtely pursuade them into changing their opinion of us. Anybody that comes into their public school assembly must be lame. It's a rule. So, basically, we must be cool.

High school is the worst. This morning was a great example. We performed for about 1,000 juniors and seniors. As soon as the announcer introduced Brock as one of the top illusionists, giggles began to break out among the crowd. They pictured an illusionist as a cheesy guy with a top hat and rabbits. So, Brock cooly approached the crowd with his skater pants and long hair. The first thing he said was, "I think that I might mess with your teachers a little bit." I noticed as the crowd began to perk up as some people began pointing at some teachers and laughing. The students enjoy this because most youth really like their teachers, they just don't want to admit it. The teachers usually don't mind because they don't get this kind of attention very often.

For the second trick, Brock brought a few volunteers on the stage. One guy had a white man's frow and was wearing an aqua and pink jogging suit from 1982 with a puffy painted t-shirt. When Brock asked for a volunteer, he shot up out of his seat and began dancing and doing jumping jacks as well as push ups. He was a trip! After Brock asked his name, Duane and I played the theme music for Napoleon Dynamite. The guy began to dance with some of the moves from Napoleon Dynamite. The crowd roared. Brock had everyone give him a hand and called him Napoleon from there on out. That was better than any illusion we could have done for that group, because after that crazy dude and the reference to Napoleon Dynamite, Brock had those high schoolers eating out of the palm of his hand.