Religious Themed Act

Nov 20, 2007
4,410
6
Sydney, Australia
As far as that old water to wine thing on the first page - you could try getting Water to Beer, a "modern" equivalent - if that's the sort of thing you're going for, replicating the Bible.
 

Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
If you are looking to 'capture' the essence of what Christianity is about, then you should incorporate the gospel message.
Man is rebellious towards God (sin)
Man can not serve the sentence for their rebellion (death)
God showed grace to men by paying the price for them (grace)
Jesus -God's son, was sent to live a perfect life and die for the sins of men (atonement)
Jesus rose from the grave and was resurrected
Now men may accept Jesus' sacrifice for their sin, through faith alone, and ask to be forgiven for their crime of rebellion (justification)

As an example for a way that I put this into a routine see the thread "Bringing People to Jesus through Magic" Last post on page 4 (post 40).

Great idea! Good luck!

Justin
 
Barry and Stuart did a couple of shows "The Magic of Jesus,” and “Tricks from the Bible."

Do a search for a download, torrent or some clips perhaps and check them out.

Though perhaps a little extreme, it goes to show how you could produce something pretty cool.

Did basically did a lot of things Jesus did within the bible to show how it could be done in magic.
 

Justin.Morris

Elite Member
Aug 31, 2007
2,793
888
Canada
www.morrismagic.ca
Barry and Stuart did a couple of shows "The Magic of Jesus,” and “Tricks from the Bible."

Do a search for a download, torrent or some clips perhaps and check them out.

Though perhaps a little extreme, it goes to show how you could produce something pretty cool.

Did basically did a lot of things Jesus did within the bible to show how it could be done in magic.

I believe Brock Gill did something similar with a different angle

http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-34320678578310_2036_4592485
 
I had to do a similar thing, but for little kids, and we didn't know about it until one day they just told us to present the xmas story to these kids.
I got a kid to pick a card and write the name Jesus on it, then I did an ambitious card routine showing how Jesus can rise 'from the dead' or in my case 'from the deck'
 
Sep 1, 2007
281
2
New Zealand
If you're going to do some close up stuff. You should check out Elmsleys presentation of an Ace Assembly called One Poor Lion, would be perfect
 
Sep 26, 2007
591
5
Tokyo, Japan
No offense, but if I was the teacher of this Religion class, I would not give anything higher than a C or maybe a C+ to any of the ideas so far.

The project is not "use magic to show a small demonstration of something small about one specific religion." The project is, "use a medium to express a religion." The teacher is looking to see how his/her students grasped the concepts behind the various religions, and testing to see if the students can express those concepts in a creative way.

The idea behind using magic as this "medium" is good, but it is SECONDARY to what needs to be expressed. Going off and just showing a sponge ball routine to represent "feeding the multitudes," is only grasping one very very small aspect of the project. If anything, the magic trick needs to express a Christian's faith in the miracles of Christ, the resurection of Christ, the Holy Trinity, as those are the defining characteristics of Christianity.

One way around this though, and it will be a lot deeper, is expressing how the general Christian multitude sees magic as the "devil's work." In a sense, you will be expressing your "frustration" with the hypocricy that some Christian's represent. Being able to express present day values of the Christian church should be just as acceptable as expressing traditional beliefs (if the teacher is good that is).

If you wanted to do this, you could created a story like....

"I was at a church picnic one day with my deck of cards, and I was showing some tricks to some friends, when one of the Youth pastors took me aside, and asked me if I believed in the devil and witchcraft, bla bla bla..." and go on to say how he disapproved of your hobby... and how this frustrated you... bla bla bla, then you used that youth pastors logic to start having doubts about the christian faith... (this is where the magic comes in)... Now, you can do something like... "WHen I was young, I believed in magic, until someone showed me how something was done.... for a while, my faith was dead, I was sad and disappointed, but then I started to appreciate the art of deception and sleight of hand..." etc.... go into and even reveal a simple sleight to the class...

at the end, your conclusion can be... "Christianity, to many around the world is an unwavering faith... until the sleights are revealed, after that, to the newly born atheist... it is nothing more than deception and very well performed 'sleights', like the tricks I showed you just now."

The End.

p.s. I am Christian, but his something that was said to me before... and I am a university teacher, so I know what teachers are looking for.

If you have further questions, please PM me.
 
Dec 30, 2008
53
0
very comprehensive reply,

considering he said a kid can play stairway to heaven on ukelele, i think an average trick could cut it.
 
Why not reanact some of the plaques of egypt. You know the ones Moses made. I mean produce some locusts or bugs, change water in "blood", Fire bals from your hands. the whole nine yards.

Or reinact some situations of the bible. Walk on water... change water to wine, etc. There are a wide variety of things to do. Look around and you'll find them.

Dylan P.
 
He wants the final project to be something that expresses ourselves with a religious lesson from Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam.
I'm a Muslim, I've done couple of performances with religious themes, but they don't go above the level of educating about the religion's teachings itself or couple of history lessons ( blank cards with info + monte type, printing, or wild card type effects ). Because in my opinion, even though there are alot of similarities between it and Christianity ( Jesus being the Messiah .. etc ) there isn't much to demonstrate, not to mention that Islam has very strict opinions on witchcraft and fortune telling, which can make a tense atmosphere to the performance. That said, I find comedy plays extremely, extremely well, and gives everything a very relaxed atmosphere.

There is a forum for Gospel Magic at the magic cafe, I think there is also a magic organization for this, but the name escapes me.

Good luck :)
 
Sep 1, 2007
586
0
Cornwall
my last religion project in grade 12 i ended up infront of the school board....apparently my project about religion vs logic, which basically shows all religions as laughable, wasnt acceptable lol.


good luck bro.
 
Sep 1, 2007
3,786
15
apparently my project about religion vs logic, which basically shows all religions as laughable, wasnt acceptable lol.

More proof of my theory that if you are an atheist and your name is not Michael Shermer, you probably shouldn't talk.
 
Dec 30, 2008
53
0
Why not reanact some of the plaques of egypt. You know the ones Moses made. I mean produce some locusts or bugs, change water in "blood", Fire bals from your hands. the whole nine yards.

Or reinact some situations of the bible. Walk on water... change water to wine, etc. There are a wide variety of things to do. Look around and you'll find them.

Dylan P.
WOW that sounds so good.
I already raise cockroaches for my reptiles. i could produce some.

Could anyone link me these effects? i doubt they exist, and the fireballs sounds like i will be poor. lol
 
Hey man, they have those dissapearing platter things. Make a cake or somethin change to roaches. Then Find a cup that allows for visual changes such as color changes to red. Also, fireballs can be produced with some flash paper. It's not that expensive. I reccomend watching Barry and Stuarts things from the bible videos. they really are great and might spark an idea.
 
Dec 30, 2008
53
0
plague of hail and fire, hmmmm,
could tear up flash paper to symbolize hail and ignite it. but how do you light it without them seeing the lighter? sleight of hand?
 
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