Published: July 11, 2008 03:58 pm      

Magician entertains children at library

Ada — A magic show was performed Thursday morning at Ada Public Library as part of the library’s ongoing "Catch the Reading Bug" summer reading program. Magician John Pansze entertained dozens of children and adults alike with skilled feats of prestidigitation.

Children sat cross-legged in a semi-circle around Pansze as he kept them spellbound with an assortment of tricks, several of which reflected the insect-like theme of the summer reading event.

The Yukon magician began his act with magical colored balls placed into a cylinder one at a time in a certain order, only to emerge from the tube in a different sequence. Between his more complex acts, Pansze would go back to his enchanted “World” book, removing postcard-sized pictures of various insects. Coincidentally, flames shot out of the magician’s book every time it was opened, resulting in delighted squeals and shouts from his audience.

With the help of several eager young volunteers, Pansze zapped color into and back out of a magic coloring book, turned three ordinary red, white and blue scarves into an American flag, and made a Chinese dice-bug egg disappear from its incubator and re-appear in a nest located on one lucky assistant’s head.

For the big finale, Pansze put each of the four bug cards into paper sacks and morphed each of them into big plastic toy bugs.

Pansze has been performing magic shows since 1978. He’s performed in a variety of locations around the area.

The magic show was conducted on the second floor of the public library. The next event in the Catch the Reading Bug summer reading program will be a 10:30 a.m. showing of “Meet the Robinsons” next Saturday. For more information on upcoming events in the Catch the Reading Bug program, phone (580) 436-8124.