Thursday, September 24, 2015

The magic of Superman and Batman

In 2013, an ultra-nice guy named Joe Romano contacted me to ask if he could use Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman and Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman in his school visit program. He’s a “motivational performer”/magician who presents at many schools a year.

Sounded good to me. Joe swung by so I could sign copies for his nephews.

I have not seen Joe’s show yet, but he kindly described how he incorporated my books into his act.

He starts with a synopsis of each story. Then:

Superman segment:

He shows a Superman poster (see photo) and tells the audience it hung in his room from grade 3 to age 33. He folds the poster in half, reaches into the folds, and pulls out a red cape. He unfolds the poster to reveal that the cape is now missing! He folds the poster in half again, reaches in again, and this time pulls out a black wig. When he opens the poster again, Superman is now bald! Finally, he refolds the poster and pulls out a belt. When he shows the poster again, Superman’s pants have fallen, revealing that he is wearing Batman boxer shorts.



Batman segment:

He tells the audience that he’s been practicing drawing Batman and asks if they would like to see his progress. He draws Batman on a dry erase board. When he looks away, Batman’s eyes move. The kids go nuts! He looks back and Batman’s eyes stop moving. Whenever he looks away, the eyes move again. He always misses what the kids see. Then the mouth moves and Batman speaks to the kids more about Bill the Boy Wonder.



Thank you, Joe, for exposing my work to more kids, and for using nonfiction in general in an act like yours. Hope to catch it one day!

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