Jillian was invited to the birthday party of a friend from her pre-school in December (the night before we left to go to TX) . When we received the invitation it said "The Great Zucchini" would be appearing for a magic show. I was not acquainted with who the Great Zucchini was and did a google search and discovered the following article: The Peekaboo Paradox (it is a fascinating article). To read a follow-up discussion to the Washington Post article about the secrets of the Great Zucchini read here.
In my quick research (I know, I am a nerd) I discovered that he is the #1 child entertainer in the Washington D.C. metroplex having entertained the president's children and vice-president's grand-children. For two hours of entertainment, he charges $300! That's a little crazy if you ask me! But you might be thinking, well, he must pull out some "bells and whistles" for his show if he is being paid so well for his services. Quite the contrary, the Zucchini act includes very few props and the biggest kicker for the children was when he put a "dirty diaper" on his head! The kids think he is absolutely hilarious and especially like when he acts like a complete "idiot" (I don't like that word but am quoting the article).
After the magic show, which Jillian got to participate in, we had pizza, fruit salad, veggies, and cake and ice-cream. The Great Zucchini stayed for the fun and was talking to some of the parents in the kitchen. It was really interesting listening to him. All the parents were especially enamored when he told the story of meeting Obama's daughter and her being on stage doing his "great disappearing act". :-)
He seemed to genuinely care about the kids and enjoy his job. At one point, Jillian was uncharacteristically upset because I unwisely told her that we were not going to AWANA's after all (our original plan had been to leave a little early so we could go to church but the pizza was delivered later than anticipated). The Zucchini saw her distress and did a fun little trick of pulling a quarter from her head to cheer her up. He then told her if she put it under her pillow that night that there was a good possibility that a dollar would replace it (and he winked at me). When we got home, we told daddy the exciting "quarter news", but Jillian immediately decided she wanted to keep it instead. She wistfully said, "I want to keep it FOREVER."
In my quick research (I know, I am a nerd) I discovered that he is the #1 child entertainer in the Washington D.C. metroplex having entertained the president's children and vice-president's grand-children. For two hours of entertainment, he charges $300! That's a little crazy if you ask me! But you might be thinking, well, he must pull out some "bells and whistles" for his show if he is being paid so well for his services. Quite the contrary, the Zucchini act includes very few props and the biggest kicker for the children was when he put a "dirty diaper" on his head! The kids think he is absolutely hilarious and especially like when he acts like a complete "idiot" (I don't like that word but am quoting the article).
After the magic show, which Jillian got to participate in, we had pizza, fruit salad, veggies, and cake and ice-cream. The Great Zucchini stayed for the fun and was talking to some of the parents in the kitchen. It was really interesting listening to him. All the parents were especially enamored when he told the story of meeting Obama's daughter and her being on stage doing his "great disappearing act". :-)
He seemed to genuinely care about the kids and enjoy his job. At one point, Jillian was uncharacteristically upset because I unwisely told her that we were not going to AWANA's after all (our original plan had been to leave a little early so we could go to church but the pizza was delivered later than anticipated). The Zucchini saw her distress and did a fun little trick of pulling a quarter from her head to cheer her up. He then told her if she put it under her pillow that night that there was a good possibility that a dollar would replace it (and he winked at me). When we got home, we told daddy the exciting "quarter news", but Jillian immediately decided she wanted to keep it instead. She wistfully said, "I want to keep it FOREVER."
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