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AMAZING MAGICAL LADY

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF CHFUSi IAN MAGICIANS VOLUME 60 NUMBER 6 I NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 207 6

Amazing Magical Lady

2011 was a banner year for Carrie Rostollan. At the FCM national convention she did some magic on the late night show. The audience loved it and one person who saw it went through the channel and invited her to be on the Friday Night Gala evening show. "I was thrilled and a bit nervous. I was invited to share the stage with Del Wilson, Steve Parker on Vent, Duane and Mary Laughlin with their illusions. After the show Duane said, "Great job. If I had a show I'd put you on it."

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That evening Carrie opened with Knots off Silk. She had the opportunity to study with Jeff McBride years before, after which she built the required prop. Next she presented her rope routine with an audience volunteer and many surprises along the way that delighted the audience. She finished with something unique for an F.C.M. convention. A television camera was brought up on stage and this projected on a huge screen her expert sleight of hand as she did an amazing close up card effect - Waving the Aces, by Guy Hollingworth. This is a stunning card routine with a visual twisting the cards where four kings flip over one at a time in her hands and then at end the kings turn into 4 Aces. The audience was thrilled by this sweet lady's magic and charm.

Growing up in northern Wisconsin, Carrie has had a lifelong love of magic, since Doug Henning appeared on The Muppet Show. Upon moving to Michigan in 2005, she started reading books and refining the craft. Since 2004 she has resided in Auburn - not Auburn Hills, but in the area of Bay City, Midland and Saginaw, where she finally started offering her skills for public consumption.

Carrie has had other successes in magic including winning third place two different years at Abbott's challenging Close up Magic Contest and First place at Michigan Magic Day in Flushing 2005. She has entertained at parties for several major companies and at chamber of commerce banquets.

In 2011, Carrie got into balloon art as an add-on to her magic shows, and currently makes some very lovely creations including princess characters, animals, lowers and ray guns. In previous years magic was 60% of her business. But his year it looks like it will be closer to 85%, thanks to a summer of weekly twisting at the local Farmers Market.

"As far as balloons go, the first and biggest influence on me was Gilbert Adams. He taught me the first balloon animals that got me cries of 'oh, how cute!' from the public. Plus, he encouraged me to never become a twisting machine at any event, and to always promote myself as an artist. Today, when people tell me, "I've never seen anybody do balloon animals or other things like you do," I mentally bless all the artists I've learned from such as Holly Hopper, Michael Floyd, and David Brenion. One day I may start creating my own stuff, but for right now, I am still

developing the talent."

Regarding her beloved magic, Carrie's biggest influence is David Copperfield. "I watched his specials almost religiously when they were on, recording later ones on VHS and playing the mess out of 'em. I appreciated his slow, deliberate way of moving and speaking, being sure nobody missed what was taking place. I also watched the way he incorporated music into the pieces, and so I'm always looking to produce that kind of synergy in my show. I run it almost like a radio show, and I don't like farming out my music cues to anyone else or even another sound system. Thanks, Brian Happier

Duane Laflin's lecture on Showmanship and Dynamic Performance was also of great help to Carrie. "I don't think I'm ever going to be as suave as Duane is, but I sure admire him and strive for good flow and presentation."

In her show Carrie strives to build a show with pacing, style and timing (a la David Copperfield). "My favorite tricks are ones that have an easy, clear setup and payoff. The classic Cards Across, Peregrinating Halves from Bobo's 'The New Modern Coin Magic' or George Hample's BeSwitched are perfect at any time. I love performing Timothy Wenk's Insomnia or his other piece that showed up on a Copperfield special, Misled."

"Paul Harris was another of my early influences. When I got his Art of Astonishment series, I started feeling like David Copperfield with the reactions I started getting with card tricks like Osmosis or Immaculate Connection. Tommy Wonder is the close-up magician I like best, and I wish I could find the audiences with whom I could share more of his material, but they are not impromptu routines for

the most part. I close my current show with the Egg Bag, making the audience helper - child or adult - look and feel like a star. Who knows? Maybe one of them will have caught the performing bug because I made them so amazing."

Most of Carrie's presentation takes a narrative form, as in: "Here's the place we are going to go, then we go there," and then, "Wasn't that fun where we went?" The great Eugene Burger has been her biggest influence in this area, beginning with his Growing in the Art of Magic program. Burger encourages performers to write out the verbal portion of the piece completely. Carrie uses a screenwriting template that prints things out like a movie script. The best part of this process is that it creates a home base of sorts, a track for the show to follow. It helps you to give well-deserved thought to where you should smile during the routine, where your pauses should go, and serves as an aid to blocking because, as Burger says, "there are no unimportant moments in the show."

Ballonacy at Dairy Queen

ARTICLE BY Norm Barnhart About the author. Norm is a best-selling Children's book author and magica entertainer.

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children as well as buying real birthday gifts for any young residents who have a birthday during that month. And, as I am available, I come and do 10 to 15 minutes of magic for the families. They are an excellent test audience, if a little unpracticed in the viewing of performance art."

The homeless shelter's Birthday Party for the kids is diverting. "They are so happy to see me, but in some way, I am sad to see them still there and that they still have many problems. I can only show them love and kindness. I try to make them happy in those few minutes we share together. Maybe they will remember the experience in the future and it will bring a smile to them and brighten their day."

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Carrie believes that everything the magician does and says has meaning and purpose. "Having a script is a safe place. It prevents stammering and other speech 'crutch habits.' Can you tell I'm in Toastmasters, too? If you happen to be taken off script, and it turns out to be a good thing, you can write that into the script, causing that moment to happen time and time again, whether it's a funny or serious or something in between. Many magicians even video record every show to view later and actively seek areas of improvement like that, but this is one process I do not currently do. Well, we all have our weak points."

When asked if she had a favorite type of group to perform for, Carrie quipped, "Yes, a paying group."

Breaking in new material is difficult for magicians and Carrie has found a great way to work new tricks in. "I'm a member of the Bay City Noon Optimist Club, and we host a monthly birthday party for children at the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission. A local business donates a cake, and our club makes up goodie bags for all the

etp. i ft Mt efia Carrie's basic show contains a message woman at that. I've been told I'm an of general empowerment and inspiration, so I share with people that if optimism, "I enjoy sharing my life story they have faith and a positive attitude a bit, even combined with a gospel they can accomplish what other people message where it is permitted. This is think is completely impossible." an area where my best friend suggests I could do better, but I think I would need an outside writer to make it the best, because I dislike talking publicly about my deep personal feelings or thoughts about life. Call it a fear of rejection, perhaps. I don't know. Many magicians have found ways to work those things into their show. I haven't, yet, at least, not to a deep level."

"I'm unique because I'm a woman magician, and a physically handicapped

people understand Intelligent Design, the reliability of scripture and ideas like that."

Memory techniques help Carrie in her shows, and she also applies them with the children at her church. "I used a "tree" number list to help the kids in my Awana group remember why God gave us the Bible."

Carrie receives letters from young people sometimes. One 3rd Grader wrote after a school show, "You're the best magician I have ever seen. I wish I was you because I never seen something like that." - Sincerely, Tiana. Carrie also performs for many diverse audiences. One was at the Transitions North Group in Lansing. This is an employment training program for physically and mentally handicapped people. Nathan the director wrote these kind words after the show, "I appreciated how you treated everybody like they were normal." Well, we know that is Carrie's Christian spirit shining through.

This past summer Carrie did an outdoor show for a town festival. "I got to the closing part of the show - my egg bag routine. I invited a young, 6-year- old girl onstage and she was at my right side for the routine as I always do. I got to the point of the routine when it was time to hand the child the bag and make her the star of the show. I said, following my script, 'Please take the bag with your fingers on the inside and your thumbs on the outside.' And she reluctantly looked up at me and softly said, 'I don't have a hand.' I looked down and noticed what I had not noticed before - she had no left hand. I looked into her eyes and said, 'I don't care, I'll help.' And so we finished the routine together with me holding one side of the bag and helping be her other hand."

The young girl got the loudest applause of the program (as planned), and left the stage smiling. "I don't know firsthand, but I hope it made a positive impact on her life," Carrie said. "In that moment I felt that I don't care if you can't do the trick without help - I wanted her to feel respect, kindness and love."

"Christ has taught me to not worry about what I have or don't have. Every day, I try to stay positive, keep the faith and work towards doing the things that seem impossible, even to me. We can always know -- with God - we will be surprised at what is possible." 5?

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"I got saved at vacation Bible school at the age of 4 and was baptized at 15. At that point it was my faith. I owned it, I understood and I knew I was following Christ and wanted to make that public commitment to Him. I was blessed a lot by the writing and teaching of Josh McDowell. If I could create my dream show I would use magic to help unpack the truth of Christian apologetics to my audience. It would be so wonderful to create an inspirational show to help