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CommunityIt’s a kind of magic
Rose teaches tots with insect tricks
Friday, Aug. 8, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by DARWIN WEIGEL
Haileigh Fiske, 9, of Lusby helps Mike Rose with a magic trick Wednesday at Patuxent Elementary School for the Calvert Library Southern Branch’s summer program.
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Rose of Hartford County, a professional full time magician for the last 20 years, performs his educational magic show 300 days a year. He was invited to perform for Calvert Library Southern Branch’s summer program.
‘‘Mike Rose is our last program for the summer,” said Robert Gatton of Lusby, the children’s librarian at the branch. ‘‘He has been doing library themed shows for the last 10 years. Magicians draw people in and kids love them.”
Rose goes to about 100 libraries throughout Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania, performing for kids.
During the show, he performed magic tricks geared specifically for the theme of the summer reading program, ‘‘Catch the Reading Bug.”
With every trick, Rose explained a little bit about bugs — including how a spider has seven parts on each leg — and brought up a child to help participate in the trick.
In addition to the props used, Rose also pulled out books to tell the kids where he got his inspiration.
‘‘I spend the winter figuring out what the show is going to be,” Rose said. ‘‘I always make a point of presenting books in the show.”
The four books include ‘‘Charlotte’s Web,” ‘‘1,000 Facts on Bugs,” ‘‘Wiggling Worms at Work” and ‘‘Caterpillars to Butterflies.”
For one of his tricks, he did mind-reading with Haileigh Fiske, 9, of Lubsy. Rose discussed the body parts of an ant — head, thorax and abdomen — and told Fiske to pick one of those words in her head. He told her he would be able to tell her what it was and he correctly picked thorax.
‘‘I got my mind read and I had to pick the part of the body from the sign,” Fiske said. ‘‘I think it was a cool trick and I’m glad I was in it.”
While the kids were entertained, a lot of them liked two of Rose’s tricks the best. A few of them said they even learned something about insects during the show. ‘‘I liked when the spider jumped out of the box,” said Myron Young, 9, of Lusby. ‘‘I was hoping it would be a real spider.”
The trick involved picking a number from one to seven on a card and when Rose opened the box, the spider made the number out of silk on a web.
‘‘I helped with the card trick,” said Kelsey Duprey, 9, of Lusby. ‘‘I thought it was cool when the card I picked out popped out of the flea’s box.”
The parents learned about bugs and insects along with their children. In his act, Rose directed some of his comedy at the parents, including calling one of his props ‘‘Uncle Ant.”
‘‘I have parents coming up and telling me that they probably have more fun than the kids,” Rose said. ‘‘I throw in little asides for the parents so they know I’m paying attention to them.”
‘‘It was a great activity for the summer to bring my daughters to,” said Ive Lamonda of Lusby. ‘‘It was a very kid friendly show.”
Lamonda’s daughter, Brook, 8, helped perform one of the tricks in the show.
‘‘My grandkids love the magic show,” said Virginia Joy of Lusby. ‘‘All the programs the library puts out for the summer are very educational.”
Rose said of all the tricks in his act, the flea finding a playing card that a child picked out is his favorite.
Since he travels to libraries and schools, he is updating his act with new material to fit each theme.
‘‘In the schools I have themes including nutrition and geography,” Rose said. ‘‘I’m going to adapt this insect show to be more curriculum-based for the schools.”
Rose will be performing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crofton over the summer. His show is geared for children of all ages and he can also be seen performing for adults at corporate events.
‘‘Most people think that the magic is the best part of the secret — it’s [actually] the second part of it,” Rose said. ‘‘The first part is the kids as part of the trick; I design all the magic to be interactive.”
