Magic for the Deaf

[Zenn_Darkfire]

Hey everyone I'm new here but I wanted to share this with you.

Last week I did a gig in NY where I had the opportunity to do some magic for a deaf woman. I was hired by the Long Island American Disabilities Association and has a little fair/field day type of thing. I was supposed to do 2 10-15 min shows and some walk-around magic. I took ASL (American Sign Language) in High School and I noticed a woman signing while I was doing the walk-around portion. I walked up to her and asked her in sign language if she wanted to see some magic. I did about 10 min of magic completely in sign language. I later came back and did some more which is what you'll see in the video. I had the womans interpreter help me out with this one because it required too much use of my hands for me to sign and magish at the same time lol. It was really loud so you couldn't hear me on the video. I added music in the background so you'd have something to listen too lol. I also included subtitles so you could understand what was being said (and signed)

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULecrv6UoOU

 

[Justin.Morris]

Thant's unreal. I was just doing magic for a deaf person a few weeks ago. I don't know much ASL at all, but his fiance' was able to interpret for me. He really enjoyed it, but I found the biggest challenge was timing. Though there was all the misdirection in the world because he was constantly looking at the interpreter.

After he left I realized that magic without words is a bit more difficult that we would imagine. Effects need to be very direct, and clear. I see this guy every week, so I'm combing through my repertoire to find things I can do without an interpreter present.

Thanks so much for sharing this.

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm actually considering on brushing up some more on my ASL and contacting some of the local deaf communities near me to see if they'd like to hire me for an event

 

[SKSleighofHand]

First of all, I enjoyed the video! By the way, I love how you add the sponge ball routine to the video because I never seen a person with a sponge ball in the magic video for awhile. Props to you for performing and keep it up!

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

Thank you very much. Sponge magic is perhaps one of my favorite types. Feel free to check out any of my other videos!

 

[D ICE R]

Nice performance I have done many performances in other languages but never for anyone who is deaf.

Very well done though.

 

[cbmagician]

Really neat video! I did magic for a few deaf people at a gig before. Really new experience. They had an interperter but I had to slow and simplify my presentation down. But very well done.

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

Nice performance I have done many performances in other languages but never for anyone who is deaf.

Very well done though.

Thank you very much! I really enjoyed doing it

Really neat video! I did magic for a few deaf people at a gig before. Really new experience. They had an interperter but I had to slow and simplify my presentation down. But very well done.

Thanks! Yeah having some prior knowledge of sign language really helped out a lot.

 

[joshrobarts]

yeah ive been taking ASL for 4 years and go to many socials in the area and perform often. They are always a great crowd and fun to talk to. i have a thread somewhere about a performance story i did. search for sign language, that cant crop up that often on this forum. Haha, if you get a chance show them some flourishing, you'd be surprised the reactions you get. Its like visual poetry to them. Keep up the good work

 

[Zenn_Darkfire]

yeah ive been taking ASL for 4 years and go to many socials in the area and perform often. They are always a great crowd and fun to talk to. i have a thread somewhere about a performance story i did. search for sign language, that cant crop up that often on this forum. Haha, if you get a chance show them some flourishing, you'd be surprised the reactions you get. Its like visual poetry to them. Keep up the good work

Thanks... I'll def look up your story.

I also wanted to add on to what I posted earlier.

The most exciting thing that probably happened was at the end of my act, when I asked her name in ASL and then if she had a name sign. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the deaf culture, a name sign is a visual representation of your name in sign language based off personality traits, physical traits, or talents. For example if you were an artist named Eric, your name sign might be the sign for "Art" but with the letter 'E'. The thing with name signs is that you can't just make one up, you have to be given one by a deaf person. All through HS I wanted one really bad, but I was never given one. Only two people in my entire class had one. Well when I asked her if she had a name sign she replied no (I believe she recently became deaf only because she was able to voice fairly well and had her interpreter spell certain words instead of signing them). Her interpreter then asked me what my name was and if I had a name sign. When I told them no she and the women decided that mine should be something like "Magician" but with a 'J'. (My name is Josh)

It is deff something I will never forget