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Religion, and especially its use of sometimes seemingly un-Christian means for spreading the good word, has always intrigued me, and I'd be very interested to do some work on the premises and perceptions of gospel magic.

Any Google search reveals large numbers of pages with effects, but does anyone here know of essays or books on the subject? Thanks!

The bible?

A lot of the Gosepl magic itens are just variations of 'ordinary' effects with patter rewritten to suit so there's plenty of scope to adopt and adapt to suit a religious theme. Not sure if he can offer anything in particular but John Archer is involved in this sort of activity, check his website http://www.john-archer.com/JohnArcher/HOME.html and scroll down to the end.

http://gospeldan.com/Whatisgospelmagic.html

It's not my field of expertise by any means, but it sounds like he knows what he's talking about. The book he mentions is available from Magic Books by Post (and other places): http://www.magicbooksbypost.co.uk/

Spiritual Applications of Tarbell Vol 1 and 2 are two useful books on the subject. These two volumes take effects from the Tarbell Complete Course in Magic series of books and present them with Christian values/biblical stories.

everything you need to know can be found by exploring the following website: www.fcmuk.org

Excellent! Many thanks, everyone, it's a great help!

Hi Madelon. Dean Dill has a nice sponge ball routine with a gospel theme. At the end the sponge ball turns into a sponge cross.

jim

EDIT sorry, just reread your post and realised its books not individual effects you're looking for

There still exist an organization known as the Christian Magician's Association... you might find members in the Religion section of the Magic Cafe. Too, check with the older magic merchants like Abbott's and Magic Inc here in the states. I know they carried books and sometimes specialty props that dealt which "heavenly subjects"... in fact, one of the best "hot seat" (electric shock chair) routines I've ever seen was part of a teen evangelical program.

I can't recall the man's name, the last name is "White" he was a midget that did a gospel show back in the 50s & 60s... you could likewise touch base directly with Andre Kohl (http://www.andrekole.org/)... he's a super nice guy, not to mention one of the top recognized effect designers of the mid and late 20th century. He did (does) a huge gospel magic stage show, I'm certain he'd have some suggestions for you.

Once again, thanks for the input!

Not sure whether to ask you, or to get in touch with organisations, but... Should I assume a difference between the US and the UK in how gospel magic is performed?

Both sides of the pond have professional organisations, but to what extent is the witnessing more, dare I say, forceful in the US? (given that there are several other, rather strong, evangelical methods employed there that never really made it to Europe)

Madelon Hoedt wrote:Once again, thanks for the input!

Not sure whether to ask you, or to get in touch with organisations, but... Should I assume a difference between the US and the UK in how gospel magic is performed?

Both sides of the pond have professional organisations, but to what extent is the witnessing more, dare I say, forceful in the US?

FCMUK is part of FCM international and thus many of the routines & messages are the same. To some extent it is actually less forceful in the USA as they aren't allowed to evangelise in schools whereas they are in the UK.

The 2 main methods used are 1. teach a christian message from every trick thus using the tricks as visual aids or 2. just do a normal magic show but stick a 'testimony' (how the performer became a christian) on afterwards.

It's also worth taking a look on the Laflin Magic site as they do a lot of gospel stuff including books.

Madelon Hoedt wrote:Once again, thanks for the input!

Not sure whether to ask you, or to get in touch with organisations, but... Should I assume a difference between the US and the UK in how gospel magic is performed?

Both sides of the pond have professional organisations, but to what extent is the witnessing more, dare I say, forceful in the US? (given that there are several other, rather strong, evangelical methods employed there that never really made it to Europe)

I think the "Testifying" depends on you and your environs more than anything. We have Baptist here that would love to choke some of the more "on fire for Jeeeezzzzus" types that want to condemn everyone and everything (but themselves, of course)

Someone else you may want to touch base is Mark Stevens (Stevens Magic Emporium), one of his suppliers for cloth products like egg bags, switching hanks, etc. has gospel stuff in their packaging and that little fishy dude on most of their art work... I can't recall the name of the company however, but Mark might be able to point you in the right direction.

Madelon Hoedt wrote:Religion, and especially its use of sometimes seemingly un-Christian means for spreading the good word, has always intrigued me, and I'd be very interested to do some work on the premises and perceptions of gospel magic.

I appreciate your desire of spreading the good word in a new perspective. However, I believe that the output will be not that effective. People today are more stubborn and hard headed.

rytmagic wrote:

Madelon Hoedt wrote:Religion, and especially its use of sometimes seemingly un-Christian means for spreading the good word, has always intrigued me, and I'd be very interested to do some work on the premises and perceptions of gospel magic.

I appreciate your desire of spreading the good word in a new perspective. However, I believe that the output will be not that effective. People today are more stubborn and hard headed.

I disagree. When doing gospel magic, I would think you'd have to be singing to the the choir. I doubt anyone's been "converted" just because they saw some stupid magic trick with some long cheesy patter about Jesus!

The audience would already be on your side in beliefs so it wouldn't matter that people these days are better educated and critical.