I am posting this in the grand illusion section, but I thought my fellow gospel magi would get a kick out of this.

I recently got a hold of a set of victory cubes after winning a mail-in drawing from Creative Magic. I am using them as a prop ditching station/stage decoration.

LAst night I did a Mother/Daughter banquet at the church where a friend of mine is pastor. I asked her if she wanted to appear magically. This was desired. We ran through the very simple victory cartons floor level presentation earlier in the day, and it was going to be fine.

Only one problem: the "stage" area was at one end of a church basement, right next to where we had the banquet. There was no curtain, and no side door to the area. Anyone walking up on the stage would be seen easily.

I decided to make a go of the boldest, possibly, dumbest form of misdirection. "Hey look over here!" And you won't believe me, but it worked!

I set this up during dinner. I was the only man in the room, and everyone knew I was the guest entertainment. It was a potluck. I set us up at the other side of the room, by the food. I set up my camcorder there, so this all seemed normal. During the meal, I announced to the ladies that there was a cake on the dessert table no one was cutting, because it was so amazingly gorgeous. I cut the cake so no one else would feel bad, then they could eat it. This got a laugh.

Then, at the end of dinner when it was time to actually introduce me, I again went to the dessert table, and asked for their keen attention. I was going to make the calories disappear! Oh no ladies, you got half of this done already! Big laugh this time, and I then introduced my wife and toddler-daughter.

My voice is loud and commanding, and my daughter is cute as a bug's ear. So every eye in the room was on us, exactly 180degrees away from the stage, where the pastor got into place easily unnoticed. Why not? The show hadn't started yet.

When she popped out of the cubes, there was definitely a solid reaction. Sure, thinking backward everyone knows she had to be hiding somewhere at some point, but the element of surprise was retained.

Someone seated at the same table told her after the show "I didn't even notice you were gone!"

That was the idea.

You sly devi...uh, I mean, you clever Mage! Nicely done

Thank you for reminding us of the raw power of boldness and misdirection! Good job!

Thanks Rev. I feel inspired to do the outrageous now

Way to overcome the obstacles! Thanks for sharing.