Do you know who SpongeBob SquarePants is? If you said no, crawl out from under your rock and watch more kids TV shows. SpongeBob SquarePants broke out on to the scene in 1999 and quickly became a favorite with the kids, and it has endured since then growing its audience every year and another crop of young children discover it.

About five years ago Presto’s Super Silly Sponge Ball Routine broke on to the scene and immediately became a part of my repertoire. Mix silliness with a cartoon character the kids love and a few sponge props and you have 5 minutes of
fantastic fun!

You have a choice, you can just buy the DVD for about $20 if you think you have all the props you need, or you can buy the package for about $40 which comes with the DVD and all the sponge props you need. The DVD has a performance and a great explanation of what to do with extra tips and tricks. The sponge props are all readily available, you may already have some, or it’s good to know that you can purchase extras or replacements without having to purchase this entire package again.

You introduce your friend “Spongebob” and then have fun as the name causes you problems and you keep having trouble with the routine you and Spongebob are going to perform, and then he magically disappears. His cousin comes on the scene and changes into a block, his father comes along and …. WAIT, that’s not his father, that’s his little brother! Then his father comes on the scene and magically grows before their eyes.

No difficult moves and the DVD does a great job of explaining everything and supplying patter and ideas for patter that make sense, are easy for the kids to understand, and are hilarious to the kids.

At first I thought this was going to have a shelf life because SpongeBob SquarePants has been on TV for so long, but I’ve found that it continues to be a popular show (and movies) and as a new batch of kids come along they still know who this fun character is.

Sponge props are light, don’t take up much room, and play really big. If you’ve ever hesitated to do a sponge ball routine for kids, I urge you to give this one a try!

I give this:

Gordon - 98%

I bought this year ago on Gordon’s suggestion. I totally agree with his review. Nothing more to say.

I give this:

Norden - 98%

I think it was about four years ago that Christopher T. Magician burst on to the scene, or at least that’s the way I remember it. Like every person who seems to burst on to the scene, it’s taken years of hard work to get there, and really I think he just burst in to my consciousness and maybe everyone else already knew about him. One day I saw a post from him on a popular magic bulletin board in which he shared a link to an online video of him performing and explaining some magic. He followed it with several more videos and I loved them all.

When he announced he was releasing a book I was one of the first ones to purchase a copy of “BEYOND Look, Don’t See”, and it remains in my list of the top 3 books for children’s performers. He followed it with a 3 DVD set called “Live From The Living Room” which I also thought it was great, and he’s followed that up with another book called “Just for FUN”. The amount of material he’s shared with us in a short time is unbelievable, and it’s all great quality material.

“Just for FUN” is no exception, another big collection of material. From the back cover; “Just for Fun is a treasure trove of new plots for children’s magic. What’s unique to this collection is author Christopher T. Magician’s approach; he takes inspiration from classic close-up and parlor magic for grown-up audiences, and then adapts the material for children. The result is over 300 pages of new tricks – and
you can make all the props yourself with no power tools required!”

If you love the idea of making your own props so your props are unique to you, this book is awesome! Maybe you’re thinking that if everybody bought this book and everybody made the props exactly as they’re explained, everything wouldn’t be completely unique to you, but one of the great things about this book is that it gives you the freedom to make it the way you want it so everyone doesn’t make everything the same, plus there’s so many ideas that everyone won’t choose the same ones. If you don’t like the idea of making your own props don’t worry, some of these are so simple that you’re really not doing much more than gluing together a couple of items you’re already sure to use. And if you don’t love the idea of making your own props so much that you don’t even like the idea of gluing a couple of things together, don’t worry, another thing I love about all of Christopher T. Magicians material is that it makes us look at what we have differently and gets the creative juices flowing, even if it’s just to come up with new patter.

I give this:

Gordon - 96%

Ahhhh...a book. On kids magic even. With original content – and you don’t really have to buy anything and can use things you already own, or easily make them. Beautifully laid out and designed. Authored by one of the best children’s entertainers currently performing. And for only $35.

Sound too good to be true? Well – for once – it IS true!

This book by Christopher, and produced by Amaze Kids, it filled with gems that can be used by any performer. Whether you are a novice or a tenured pro – you will find
something useful and things that can go into your show right away.

I love books – have thousands of them. I am always excited when a new one comes out on kids magic. This will take a prominent place on the shelf and will be referenced regularly. Let’s take a quick look at the book and how it’s broken
down.

First section is called ‘Open Says Me’. This includes 5 routines on opening your show. My favorite is the ‘Growing Name Tag’ and currently working on an adaptation to open my show. To me this was worth the book right here, but don’t worry – it gets even better!

From the next section ‘Stung’, Mustard and Ketchup (a take on the PB&J trick) and Rabbi-Duck were stand out to me. Great takes on old classics that would fit with many different styles. In ‘Got Your Back’ Christopher talks about tricks that end on your back and how to make a kits to do this. A man after my own heart as I have been doing the same thing for 15 years! While I wasn’t a huge fan of the routines
in this section, the On Your Back Kit is really something everyone should be doing if you have anything that ends up on your back. Pure gold!

Part 4 – Accessories Make the Outfit – one of the best chapters in the book. Slap Bracelet Wand, Out of Batteries Wand and Boomerangs! were my highlights.

Part 5 – Help. I need Somebody, deals with using volunteers and some great routines that involve them. Christopher is a master when it comes to interaction with the helpers he uses. You will learn a lot of valuable advice from this section.

Part 6 – Quiet, Not Riot – again, this now deals the audience and how to do some routines that can keep the kids calm, yet interested. Your show needs peaks and valleys and while getting the kids into a crazy frenzy is fun, you need some routines that can bring them back down. This chapter does that – and the Great Cheese-Dini is one of the best things in the book!

Part 7 – Help, I need Multiple Bodies – and all I can say is Two Headed Prediction – while a bit of work, will be the trick everyone talks about if you add it to your show.

Part 8 – Not so Tricky Tricks. This would be a great little booklet on its own that I would pay $35 for. I think all seven of these little bits of business, comedy and gags will end up in my show. I might just change my middle name to Taco and be done with it. A great ending to the book.

While I was hoping to do a short review of this book, I see that just doing a few lines would not do this book justice. I am not a arts and craft person and some of these things would require a bit of that. That being said, there are enough routines in here to pick and choose what you feel like doing and what will suit your persona and style.

Not many books can say that. I highly recommend buying this and reading it – and absorb his thought process. You will be glad you did!

Norden - 96%

There are many magic wand props on the market. Pop off, Wobble, break-a-way, etc. This is the one that is in every show I do. It gets loads of laughs and can take 5 minutes just with the prop. The package comes with 2 wands now and a booklet of 100 things you can do with them.

I use both wands with two helpers, and it drives the kids crazy when they keep stretching the wands and I keep taking them back. Back and forth – a good 6 or 7 times. If you don’t know what the wand is – it’s just a stretchy black tube with white ends that looks like a wand. You can stretch it out to almost 2.5 feet and then shrink it back down.

I tell the kids that only I get the big magic wand and they get the little one. They of course stretch their wand and I take it back and shrink it, while the other volunteer is stretching theirs. I give the shrunk wand back to the first helper and take the long wand form the other kid and shrink it – and back and forth we go.

I truly cannot imagine my show without this simple prop. It gets huge laughs and plays a good 5 minutes. Easy to pack and very durable. Do not bother with the dollar store ones – they are cheap and break so easy – Silly Billy’s are super durable and worth the price and looks like a magic wand.

I give this:

Norden - 98%

I bought this on Norden's suggestion. I totally agree with his review. Norhing more to say

I give this:

Gordon - 98%