As Hollywood’s Ring 21 summer kicks off, our club brings the June joy and heat with a fantastic, family-friendly children’s performance night, with our very own members taking up the brave task of being kids’ entertainers!

Lots of kids came to enjoy a fantastically entertaining and phenomenal meeting (including my own son, child prodigy and magician-in-training Joey D’Mago!). I, Manny D’Mago, also had a few spectacular children’s magic-themed raffle prizes lined up, along with lots of new magic that is out and about in the community.

The evening started with Alex Avila presenting a trick with cards to four volunteer kids, having the selected split packets all reveal matching 10s. Some dice were also intertwined into the routine, ending with amazement.

Next was Jay Jackson, using a child to pull names out of a bag of “villains,” including some scary characters, Sonic, and a dinosaur. He cut up a piece of paper to reveal an evil SpongeBob as the selected prediction. (I didn’t even know that was a thing, but apparently the kids did!)

Up next was Wendy Sobel with a story about her grandfather asking out her grandmother, using silks to reference her grandmother’s dresses. She pulled out three different colored boxes and produced a bouquet of flowers from a cylinder, making for a fairy-tale ending worthy of Disney!

Mark Anthony Petrucelli was next to present his magical act, using a red silk and making knots that came right off before transforming it into a red sponge ball. Then, using the same silk, the sponge ball turned into a red clown nose. Two kids volunteered for his next trick, which was more like a public service announcement to keep kids away from gambling. Using three seashells, he had them guess where the little ball was. He then performed a classic cups-and-balls routine to close his amazing act.

Next to present was Joe Selph, who stood out with his outfit, wearing a colorful vest and using big dice and an “X Box” (a box marked with an X, though the kids expected the video game system… silly kids!). He then transported it into another red box with four doors, revealing that the fourth door had nothing in it at all, yet the box somehow was still there. WOW!

Up next was the astonishing dynamic duo of David Martinez and Abel Herrera with a very cool classic: the bullet catch! Using volunteer child Joey D’Mago (who was not in on it, by the way), they first showed a spoon that transformed into a fork. Then David did a test fire, using a marker that popped out of nowhere to sign the Nerf gun “bullet.” After marking the bullet, David busted out an exaggeratedly larger Nerf gun, the Blast Pro 3000, while Abel was blindfolded with duct-taped safety glasses to decrease his chances of visibility. After a few shots and Abel being bombarded with the bullets, one was caught in Abel’s ear—and it was the signed bullet. Crazy!!!

Up next was Brandove Occultist and his children’s mentalism act, using large cards featuring cereal boxes. The children made a selection while he made a prediction. After “mistakenly” showing Frosted Flakes, he revealed the correct prediction from a bandana. Then, after having the kids pour cereal from the boxes into two cups, Brandove grabbed some floss and ate it along with the cereal. As the audience clapped along, he pulled the floss back out, revealing cereal pieces tied onto it. Magically delicious!

Our very own Doctor of Magic, “Doc” John Kowalczyk, began his act using silks on a stick that somehow switched places, along with a ball cylinder. Referencing Angry Birds, he used two sponge balls of different colors, having them transform into an angry bird in a child’s hand. He then moved on to using different colored balls with the wheel cylinder, making them switch places and causing a red ball to disappear from a box only to end up back on the cylinder. Crazy!

Next was our club president, Bob Weiss, who began his act using a small sponge bunny and volunteering a little girl to perform a sponge routine that revealed more and more bunnies each time. Next, he used a cutout bunny and a poster board with doors, switching positions while the kids wildly called out where the bunny was. After opening all the doors at the same time, the bunny had disappeared back into Bob’s pocket. Larry Bugs Bunny was definitely a sneaky little Looney Tune!

The next performer on our list was Ellen Stein, who began her act using a clap sign to help initiate applause. She then used two books featuring different animals, having a couple of volunteers choose two different creatures and revealing the prediction as a hybrid duck unicorn. WHOA! She also brought a friend: a sheepdog puppet in a bag named “Presto” that could do magic!

Using another set of volunteers, she used flash cards featuring a banana, bone, apple, carrot, and egg. She mixed the cards, blindfolded the dog, and revealed that he knew exactly which one was his bone. She concluded her act by creating a balloon animal for one of the kids.

Gerry Schiller was next on our list, and this time he volunteered a couple of grown-ups to begin his performance with the oldest trick in magic: the egg bag routine! He also brought some help—a giant chicken named “JoJo,” who clucked quite enthusiastically. Then, using an impossible tube, he pulled out a bouquet of flowers and large silks before having a spectator name a card and revealing the Queen of Hearts.

Closing our performances was yours truly, Manny D’Mago, who performed a different take on the cups-and-balls routine using Play-Doh cups and a little yellow Play-Doh ball. After some vanishing acts and a bit of smoke, the ball finally traveled all the way into the audience and onto a spectator’s purse. Very clever! After that, he had a couple of volunteers perform the magic for him, wearing top hats, wielding magic wands, and participating in a close-up mentalism act. They selected shapes, and Manny impossibly revealed the volunteers’ choices.

Our members were excited for this month’s meeting because we had a very good time! We closed our meeting with an amazing raffle and announced our next lecturer for July 2026: none other than superstar Rob Zabrecky!

All in all, it was definitely an evening to remember. Stay tuned for our next meeting in July, which promises to be one for the history books here in Hollywood.

As a side note, our August meeting will be delayed until late August because of Magic Live 2026 in Las Vegas, where we will host our third annual Ring 21 “Fool Us” event with Manny D’Mago and Gerry Schiller. We will also be holding a vote for a change of the guard on our club’s board. Things will certainly be very interesting, considering that many members attended the convention in Las Vegas last year and will have lots to report.

Until next month, this is Manny D’Mago reporting live from the magic entertainment capital of the world, Ring 21, signing off!