This is a picture of the Amazing Jensen doing her very first trick. She puts a small item--for example a Hot Wheels car--on the stool, places a kitchen towel over it, and rubs the towel with both hands around and around on the stool, until the car falls onto the floor. Then she picks up the towel, waits for the appropriate reaction, then announces that the car disppeared onto the floor. Everyone gasps and stares in amazement and tries not to laugh.That trick evolved into one of her current favorites in which she covers the item with the towel, rubs her hands together, then quickly picks up towel and the item at once, waits for the appropriate reaction, then announces that it disappeared into her hand.
If you're really lucky, Her Amazingness might select you to be an assistant. This is a special privilege that garners you with the great responsibility of holding the towel up in front of the item, then keeping watch over the rest of the audience to make sure they close their eyes tightly and don't peek while she makes the item disappear into the sofa cushions. Of course then the audience has the equally weighty responsibility of making believe they don't hear her footsteps going to or from the sofa, or the change of volume in her voice while she travels about the room.
It's all very entertaining and she rarely tires of performing, and I can only hope our guests don't tire of indulging her.
Along with this I must include an anecdote about the time last winter when Jensen attended a birthday party for a boy at Pre-Kindergarten. A local magician attended, who has apparently been a well-known Birthday Party Magician in this area for some time now. The kids gathered around, and Jensen, who had been doing her own "magic" for a couple of years by then, sat wide-eyed in the front row. She was aghast with her mouth open for most of the show, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
At one point this old and seasoned magician included an actual dove in his performance. I wasn't sure if Jensen, being such an animal lover, was more impressed with the magician or the dove. But after the intial excitement of seeing a real, live dove in the house, she watched attentively as the magician continued. He had a stand on which sat a box big enough for the dove, and then some. In front of the box hung a little curtain, and when he lifted it we got our first glance of the dove inside the entirely black box. He removed the dove, spoke to him a bit, showed him off to everyone, the kids oohed and aahed, and he placed the dove back into the box lowering the curtain. Then, while holding onto the back of the box with one hand, he raised the curtain with the other and the dove was gone! The children were amazed and burst into applause. Jensen was clapping along with the rest, and was so excited she couldn't control her laughter.
Then she turned to me with utter astonishment and exclaimed, "Mom! Did you see that?! You couldn't even tell how he got the dove to disappear behind the black wall!" Note that she had to say this quite loudly so as to be heard over the applause. She was not finished her exclamation, however, until the applause had subsided. An short but awkward silence followed, joined by looks from Birthday Boy's parents, and a chuckle from the magician who said, "I see we have another magician in the crowd." Jensen yelled proudly, "Me!" as she raised her hand. I just blushed and gritted my teeth praying that he'd move on. He did. I'm wondering if she'll be invited back this year.
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