An expat describes how he developed his Alice in Wonderland magic show

Author’s note: Lewis Carroll, the creator of Alice in Wonder, was born on January 27, 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire, England.

My Alice in Wonderland show came about during my second seminar with Bob Markwood, a very talented magician who led the first seminar I attended entitled “Growing in the Art of Magic”. It was held in Hollywood, California. 

At this first event we had dinner with Mark Wilson, an immensely successful magician. He was the first magician ever to offer a weekly magic show on television out of Dallas.

I sat at his table right next to him while his wife sat at the other end of the table. He enquired after what audiences I worked for and what magic I included in my shows. His attention to me reminded me of a story I had read about a woman who had dined with two successive Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli.

She commented that Mr. Disraeli spoke to her only of his accomplishments while William Gladstone spent the entire evening asking about her and her interests. That might explain why he spent four terms as Prime Minister while Disraeli only served two.

Bob held a second event in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This seminar was held in an amazing condominium building. Our unit was the one in which we were told that the week before, Tom Cruise and Nicole KIdman had stayed. The unit included a private pool and a maid who prepared all of our meals and kept the unit clean. Due to my snoring, I was the only one with my own room.

Late one night, after everyone else had gone to bed, I approached Bob and discussed my idea of an Alice in Wonderland show. We spent several hours conversing about the show and ended up with much more than I needed for a forty-five-minute program so, as time passed, many ideas were discarded.

Lewis Carroll’s birthday was on January 27 so I had another show I could promote in January. Among the effects I used in the program were the restoration of a broken wooden Humpty Dumpty figure (visible in the picture provided) as well as the production of a pair of 36” silk foulards from a teapot that I then poured a quantity of water from. There was also a Rabbit puppet in an oversized hat

I had a large metal teapot that I used elsewhere for this production but the teapots I used here were of a soft plastic. I continually pulled soaked silk scarves from them. (What, did you think it was magic?)

My magic drawing board produced the Chesire Cat who appeared and disappeared while I played ignorant. Whenever I looked at the drawing there was no cat, no matter how loudly the children insisted there was.

Along the way, for one effect, I had two children dressed in lightweight ponchos depicting the King and Queen of Hearts.
I had three tables on the set, one of which is pictured above. The tables were very unstable. Other than the part facing the audience, there was only a board that swung out and formed a “T”. Props needed to be balanced properly on these tables or they would tip, dumping everything on the floor.

It was my least popular program and, after a while I dropped it from my offerings.
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On his 20th wedding anniversary, during an economic downturn, Rich Westcott found himself unemployed. After early experiences entertaining the very young, he began prospecting preschools and daycare centers in his area. Finding that most of what he did was new to the children resulted in the abundant examples of humour found there.

Starting with the telephone Yellow Pages, he began to call daycare centers and preschools and send his few existing pieces of publicity The reaction from his prospects was that he would frighten the children he wanted to be performing for. There was some income coming in due to his wife Pat’s job. His previous employer brought him back on, as an employee of the corporation he had formed, when they were closing down their firm. All funds received were paid to the corporation and used to get the company on its feet.

By making over 100 phone calls a day, and mailing kits out to them, he began to get opportunities to perform. Using a short format of only 30 minutes per show he impressed the director of one school to promote him among a director’s group she was a part of. When Rich retired in 2010, he was appearing over 700 times a year.