Magic is Evil?

Believe it or not, it is possible to be a Christian and do magic. A lot of people take magic out to be as only a bad thing associated with witch craft. We don’t conjure spirits from the dead or cast out spells on people. We know that everything we do isn't real. Would it be cool sometimes if we could really levitate? Heck yeah! But it’s not real. Everything is an illusion.

Unfortunately other Christians don’t always believe that. Brandon and I love performing in churches and that is actually our hardest jobs to book. To try and convince church people that we aren't evil or the devil proves to be quite difficult sometimes.

The big thing that will decide on if magicians get a job in church or not, depends on what you title yourself as. To get more church shows you have to be an illusionist. That means to the booking person that everything you do is an illusion. Which is true of magic completely. But some people do take it too far and try to make audiences believe everything they do really is magic.

Okay this picture is ridiculous, but it made me laugh. I couldn't find a good "Gospel Magic" picture that I liked.

There’s a secret to everything, our goal is to entertain you, not to fool you. If you leave a show and you enjoyed yourself, then we did our job. It’s awesome when we actually do get to do that in a church and help minister to our audience. We never straight up preach to you because well if that’s what Brandon was good at, then he’d be a preacher. We tie in a message with the magic that helps you understand better why we do what we do. And we hope that our actions of keeping a clean family friendly show and keeping my outfits appropriate make a difference. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Brandon and I attend NewSpring Church which is a huge church or I should say church chain in South Carolina. There are several campuses and we of course attend the Myrtle Beach one. Today we got the opportunity to meet our head pastor, Perry Noble. Someone mentioned to Perry that we did magic and he was so excited and asked Brandon to do a card trick for him. That’s the kind of excitement we want to see about magic from the church community! What we do isn't bad regardless of some experiences you may have had previously.

Click on the link below to watch the trick he did for Perry!

Brandon's Card Trick for Perry Noble

Living in the “Bible Belt” definitely sometimes serves as a problem when wanting to do magic in churches but the longer we do this, the more we learn. It is possible to make a living doing magic in this area, regardless of what a lot of magicians think. It's our audiences that keep us going and make it possible for us to keep performing!

A Year Gone By

"Time does not pass, it continues" - Marty Rubin

Okay seriously this is the craziest thing ever. We have lived in Myrtle Beach for exactly a year today! Where has the time gone?

I feel like we just moved in to our little apartment in the extremely hot July sun and had no furniture, with no idea what we were doing. Some days it still feels like that. But honestly to think of how much stuff has happened in a year is just crazy.

To start off we moved because of a theatre gig. We thought we were on top of the world but things didn’t quite turn out as we planned. The run was only from July 21 – October 12. And we didn’t make a lot of money and completely drained our savings, but we made it. Bills were definitely a new and difficult thing for us to deal with. Being a grown up is tougher than it seems.

Then right after the theatre gig ended, a scary thing came along. My grandmother got re-diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a very quickly scheduled surgery which luckily I was able to go home for a week for that.

November was exciting for us, our 3 year anniversary came up and Brandon proposed that day and we decided to get married just 2 months away from that. Which of course brought lots of drama with why we were rushing. Because we can. That’s why we did. We wanted a winter wedding. My parents were okay with it. So what else mattered? Yes I was 18 but I can make my own decisions. And no I wasn’t pregnant. It’s just what we chose. So December was a whirlwind of wedding planning. Then came January which went by even faster.

The wedding and honeymoon came and went with the blink of an eye and pretty soon we will have already been married for 6 months. I still can’t get over that it’s already been half a year.

The next few months were kinda rough with Brandon’s grandmother slowly getting worse and then at the end of April we got a call saying we really needed to come home. We were lucky enough to be able to spend a week with her before she went to be with Jesus. So May ended up being a very tough month.

Then came our birthdays and then summer was here before we knew it and we are doing 4 shows a week. Now it’s staying up late and sleeping late not really actually waking up rested. And working at the magic shop every night we don’t have shows. It’s been pretty hectic to say in the least. But finally our savings is getting replenished. This summer has been awesome for us and next year will be even better.

So as far as I can remember that’s everything important but my goodness it’s been a year. Hopefully by this time next year I can say we are moving again but into a house. That would be a blessing!

As I look back, I see how truly lucky we are to have had such amazing people help us get started. We struggled, we cried, we thought we couldn’t make it. But we did. And we couldn’t have done it alone. Thank you to all the wonderful people who pulled us along and encouraged us to follow our dreams!

Jekyll & Hyde

Hannah Wagster & Hannah Lynne

Jekyll & Hyde: The famous story of a split personality. Who else has one? This girl. If you knew the real me, not just the stage me, you would know I really am too different people.

Most people get to meet Hannah Lynne. And that’s because she will actually introduce herself and talk to people and have normal conversations. Honestly she is the girl I wish I could always be. She is everything I’m not. Confident and ready to conquer every situation no matter what it takes. Truly not afraid of anything; always getting sliced and diced and super excited to jump out of the box to get her well-deserved applause.

But Hannah Wagster, the backstage me, is just the opposite. I am terrified of the dark and heights, I’m claustrophobic and about as shy as it gets. And you’ll never see me make eye contact when talking. I mean honestly how does it even make sense that I could be a magic assistant? I can’t stand for people to look at me. I’m getting embarrassed just thinking about it.

I can’t even begin to tell you what makes me switch personalities. Even when I’m greeting people before the show all dressed up I’m still in normal mode. So it isn't the physical change that affects it.
But the second I walk out on stage, she takes over and it’s all eyes on me and I know how to smile and keep the attention. I strut my stuff and have a blast doing it. I even hold that personality through pictures, autographs, and selling merchandise but then once the people are gone for the night, I’m like Cinderella after the clock struck midnight and the spell is over.

Now I just want to clarify, when I say you can meet either Hannah, I mean as a first impression. Family and friends kind of know a mixture of both. I can be very talkative and say what’s on my mind without caring what you think. But my fears of everything are still there.

I'd have to say the one thing that links us is obviously Brandon. Well and clowns. 

We are both afraid of clowns!