Much as I like blogging here, I have decided to get a paid hosting account for my wordpress.

Starting today, I will no longer post regularly here, except to announce updates of my new blog.

Please follow me to Leodini’s All About the Family.

Leodini

www.leodini.com

The Name Game rules are simple. Even small children will have no problem following them. The only requirement is for the players to recognize the values of the cards. In this game, suits don’t count.

To make the game fun, there must be at least four players. Less than four players can in theory play, but the game will not be as much fun, because there will be less opportunities for laughter.

I suggest that you gather at least five or more players to get as much fun out of the game as possible.

The Rules:

First the players must change their names. The most laugh-filled games I’ve experienced are the ones where players switch names with each other.

For example Mommy Julia becomes Little Erick, and Daddy Robert becomes Little Monica. Little Erick, on the other hand, assumes the name Mommy Julia, and Little Monica assumes the name Daddy Robert.

After each games, the players can agree among themselves on a new set of names to use in the next round. If the players, for example, decide to use names of flowers, Daddy Robert may take the name dandalions, Mommy Julia tulips, Little Monica roses, and Little Erick orchids.

Or the players may want to choose titles of songs or movies, names of places, famous persons, tourist destinations, planets in the solar system, etc.

The players have two minutes to memorize their new names. Assuming they agree to switch each other’s names, the game will proceed like this:

The dealer (usually the Daddy) deals each player a card. He deals the cards face up, starting with the player to his left.

The players should watch the last card dealt (the top card) on their respective files. Each time two players have the same top cards (say, queens, seven’s, or three’s [remember suits are ignored]), the players call out each other’s “new” name.

So in our imaginary game above, if a Three of Hearts falls on Erick’s file and the Three of Spades falls on Mommy Monica’s file, Erick calls out Mommy Monica’s new name (in this case Erick), while Mommy Monica calls Erick’s new name (in this case Mommy Monica).

The player who calls the opponent’s name first wins that particular deal. He gets to capture ALL his opponent’s cards.

The dealer will deal the next card to the losing player (the one who lost all his cards), and the deal will proceed clockwise.

The fun begins when three or four duplicate cards turn up one after the other. A lot of confusion ensues. Wrong names, blank stares, shouting and screaming will surely follow to contribute to the fun.

The plaayer who captures the most cards from his opponents wins the game.

Good luck and have a fun weekend.

Leodini

www.leodini.com

Yes, this is a hilarious card game. Not just funny, but hilariously hilarious.

I do not know of any other card game that can make me cry with laughter the way this card game can.

As a Filipino magician, I live through my workaday life with a deck of playing cards as my constant companion. I know several card tricks that I enjoy to perform for paying clients.

Outside of card tricks, though, I’ve never used playing cards for its usual purpose, namely, for gambling. In fact, I’ve never learned to play poker, baccarat, blackjack, lucky nine and a host of other popular card games where bets are accepted. I don’t even play Three-Card Monte, except a bluff three-card monte, which I perform as a magic trick and not as a gambling demonstration.

Now, there’s only one card game I know and enjoy playing. That it’s not gambling is one reason I like playing it.

I learned the game when I was still a child, watching my uncles play it with friends they brought to the house.

It’s a noisy game, with lots of bantering, and laughter. Laughter that brings tears to the eye. Laughter that makes players roll on the floor. And laughter that leaves one gasping for air.

Once I learned the game, I taught it to my brother, sisters and cousins. I remember spending weekend afternoons playing the game with them and enjoying lots of laughter.

When I was in college, I taught the game to my dorm mates. They usually dropped by my room some evenings. We would spend the night playing these hilarious game, keeping everybody in the house awake with our noise and laughter.

When I landed a job in a bank, I also taught this hilarious card game to my officemates. During one company picnic, we played it on the beach. In the very first round of the game, the lady employees were already crying from too much laughing. One even rolled on the sand in a very unlady-like display of a laughing fit.

Naturally, when I later had my own kids, I taught them the game. My entire family sometimes spent evenings without television. We entertained ourselves with this hilarious card game.

So what is this hilarious card game called?

I have read lots of books on cards, conjuring with cards, games with cards, but I have not discovered the name of this game or who invented it.

Just the same, if you are interested, let me teach it to you. You can then teach it to your children and wife. One evening, when you are all together, you can wean the family from television and computer games by playing this hilarious card game.

For lack of a better name, I shall henceforth call it the Name Game.

Learn it and teach it to your family. I guarantee you will have an evening of laughter and fun.

To be continued….

Leodini

www.leodini.com

My show last Sunday could have been one of the unluckiest in my career had serendipity not stepped in and turned it into a fortunate performance.

The bad luck came in torrents. First, the birthday party show, scheduled from 4 to 6 PM, was held outdoor. The guests did not arrive until 5PM.

At 5.30 PM it rained, driving the guests to a small kiosk in the garden, where they huddled like wet chicks.

Second, the party moved to a guests’ room right beside the swimming pool. The kids promptly jumped into the water at 6:30 PM, while we dragged our props and re-set everything inside the room.

At 7 PM, the party host (in clown costume) tried to coax the children out of the pool with plaintive pleas. The children, all dripping wet, grudgingly left the water and took their seats in the improvised show room.

Two clowns entertain the wet guests inside an open garden gazebo while waiting for the rain to stop.

The clown party host entertained them with magic. I couldn’t believe my eyes-he performed magic when I was the magician who’s supposed to do it.

After boring the kids, the usurper of duties finally gave up and introduced me to the still wet kids.

My magic show started at around 7:30 PM. It was supposed to last for one hour. I got good reaction for the first 30 minutes, but when the kids became fidgety and kept looking at the pool past the half-hour mark, I fast-forwarded my show and ended it in just 45 minutes.

The kids were relieved. They stampeded back to the swimming pool. I was crestfallen.

We packed our things up, but the birthday boy’s mommy came over to me and whispered, “Can you show my Dad the trick you showed me before where you floated a P20 bill?”

I said, “Sure.” The adults were trapped inside the room, as it was still raining outside. So I had a captive audience, so to speak.

I hastily cobbled a parlor type magic for adults, using cards, coins and floating objects. Their roaring response soothed my earlier bruised ego.

Then one mommy, who received a business card from me, noticed that I billed myself as a psychic entertainer. Can I read somebody’s mind, she wanted to know.

Again, I said, “Sure, let me show you.”

All the while, I just intended to do the number gag. You know, writing a prediction, asking an audience member to think of a three-digit number, and then making a wrong guess. When the audience member said “No,” I’d show my prediction, which was also “No.” Hopefully, with a good delivery, the gag would elicit laughter.

I chose the prettiest mommy in the crowd for aesthetic purpose. I told her, “I’m writing a prediction on this pad of paper…Think of a three-digit number…You have one?…You’re thinking of 598…” I got ready to flip the pad over to show her the “No” I’d written as soon as she’d said no. But she just stared at me, mouth agape. Silence.

Oh-oh, I told myself, she didn’t get my instructions. Another case of a beautiful but dumb girl.

“You’re thinking of the number 598, yes or no?” I said, baiting her to say “no” to make the gag work.

She turned pale. Her eyes widened. I became scared.

Finally she managed to answer, “Yes, I’m thinking of 598. I was originally thinking of another number, but I changed my mind. I chose 598! You did read my mind!”

That brought down the house. Audience erupted into screams and wild applause.

I bowed and received my undeserved acclaim.

Thereupon, the audience wanted me to start a religion.

I may consider that, if I can read minds like that 10 times in a row.

Leodini

www.leodini.com

The experts think they know the causes of heart disease. A Frenchman says the experts are wrong.

He claims that the usual culprits and/or mitigating factors that experts blame or name have nothing to do with coronary diseases, especially in the U.S. Not fatty food, wine or sex causes or lessens the incidence of heart attacks.

The Frenchman cites data from all over the world—the food in Japan, the wine in Spain and the sex activities in Brazil. He builds his case in beautiful French and concise English sub-title.

Even a Filipino magician like me with not a single French word in my vocabulary understands the video presentation of his breakthrough discovery

Here’s the video that identifies the leading cause of heart attacks in the U.S. For your enlightenment.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

I’m baffled.

I’m stumped.

Or maybe I just don’t get it.

I invite you to look at this picture. Reflect on it the way you normally do when you pray the Stations of the Cross. You will understand why I’m confused.

The photo is popular Filipino actress-model Alicia Mayer’s. It shows her posing for a campaign advertisement for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). If you haven’t noticed it yet, she is clad only in fresh lettuce to promote vegetarianism.

Developing in our children the love for eating vegetables used to be an uncomplicated and family-friendly exercise.

Today it looks like it’s becoming an exciting, PG 13 family project. Exciting because it titillates the imagination. PG 13 because the titillation requires adult discernment.

I needed to read the caption of Alicia Mayer’s photo several times to try to understand why that photo would mean, “Eat vegetables!” If there’s something being offered to be eaten here, my befuddled mind can’t think of vegetables, or grains, or fruits, or nuts, or seeds, which are the usual vegetarian’s diet. My mind is thinking of something else the way your mind is thinking of something else.

The message of Alicia Mayer’s photo is lost in the medium probably because the messenger chose to emphasize the medium rather than the message. Whatever that means.

My psychic powers as a Filipino magician foresee an exciting future for vegetarianism. Upping its hype meter via back-to-nature outfit will push it toward an R-rating. The carnivorous males will continue eating meat and find pictures of PETA models worthy of a moment’s drooling.

I’m waiting excitedly for the male model counterpart to romp around town scantily clad in eggplants. That will suggest altogether another image but definitely will also fail to convince people to eat vegetable. Or to show kindness to animals.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

In case you didn’t notice it already, one of life’s greatest joys is the human mind’s ability to conjure mental images that trigger other mental images.

I can speak only for humans. I don’t know if chimpanzees have the same ability. I’ve never tried being a chimpanzee. All I can do is assume that, with their type of brain, chimpanzees don’t have the ability.

Notice that I used the word conjure. The word is a jargon of the magic profession. Magicians usually use it to sound important and erudite. As a Filipino magician performing for family audiences, I use the word quite often. The reason? I have this frequent urge to sound important and erudite. It’s an urge I can’t resist.

What has all this to do with mental images?

Plenty. Imagine “hair and scissors.” What mental image do you see? A picture of two compatible things. Nothing jars the senses, unless the images of bald Britney Spears intrude.

Imagine something else, say, “scissors and tongue.” Now incomprehension paralyzes your brain. The image you see jolts you, and for good reason. “Scissors and tongue” is as incompatible as French kiss and Japanese sashimi.

Well, maybe “scissors and tongue” is an Italian’s statement of dissatisfaction with French kissing. You see, according to a Reuters report, a Milan teacher cut an unruly 7-year-old pupil’s tongue with scissors to silence him. No, there’s no mention of French kissing before the incident, so please don’t get ahead of the story.

The child needed five stitches, while the police needed to review their investigative techniques. As of the filing of the report, they were still trying to find out whether the tongue-cutting was intentional or a bad joke.

They should have consulted a Filipino magician like me. I would have told them in .00023455 milliseconds that five stitches are a bad joke. And my expert answer would have enlightened them promptly.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

____________________________________________________

“French kiss.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2007. Answers.com 02 Mar. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/french-kiss-4

“sashimi.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 02 Mar. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/sashimi

]]> http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/03/scissors-as-anti-classroom-speech-device/feed/ 0 leodini http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/hiccups-symphony-in-e-minor/ http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/hiccups-symphony-in-e-minor/#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:52:21 +0000 leodini http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/hiccups-symphony-in-e-minor/ ]]>

Florida teenager Jennifer Mee finally cured her endless hiccups after five weeks of suffering.

With what she cured it is not clear. Had she paid attention to the medicines and nostrums she had taken over the last several weeks, she could have identified the remedy and be easily on her merry way to wealth.

One of the great mysteries of the ages, the hiccups have big potentials as a moneymaker. They have baffled both the medical and quack doctors since Adam and Eve brought forth to this world their first baby. The hiccups’ cure is as baffling as their cause. Nobody knows exactly what these are.

That being the case, hundreds of hiccups-afflicted people from all over the world would have formed a beeline for the home of 15-year-old Jennifer Mee. Each one of them has only one urgent purpose in mind, namely, to extract from her the mysterious cure.

The line would stretch for several blocks and attract the attention of TV stations and music studios. It would be a multi-media event, as a gaggle of hiccups sufferers are known to play the Symphony of Hiccups in E minor. It would surely be a visual and aural treat never before beamed on households or captured on MP3.

That Jennifer Mee endured five weeks of hiccups attack does not testify to her (or her parents’) level of resourcefulness. Her mother appeared on NBC’s Today show seeking help from viewers.

On her part, Jennifer tried all sorts of cures. According to the report, “She sipped pickle juice, held her breath, breathed into a bag.” She even reportedly saw an “infectious disease specialist, a neurologist, a chiropractor, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist. She tried a patented device that is designed to stop hiccups, plus all the old remedies.”

Her big mistake? She failed to consult me.

As a Filipino magician, I know more than a dozen remedies for the hiccups. I even wrote a blog about it titled 14 Ways to Cure the Hiccups.

For hiccups sufferer who have long been looking for cures, I revealed several known and unknown remedies here.

Some of these cures work like magic. Some have doubtful efficacy. And the rest are so outlandish you’ll laugh out so loud and gasp for air.

Gasping for air sometimes cures the hiccups, so laughable remedies can be helpful also…

Try these cures at your own risk. And remember, I’m a Filipino magician, not a miracle worker.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

________________________________________________________________

“hiccup.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 02 Mar. 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/hiccup

]]> http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/hiccups-symphony-in-e-minor/feed/ 0 leodini http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/how-to-throw-a-birthday-party-and-keep-your-sanity/ http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/how-to-throw-a-birthday-party-and-keep-your-sanity/#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:20:08 +0000 leodini http://leodini.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/how-to-throw-a-birthday-party-and-keep-your-sanity/ ]]>

How to organize an unforgettable party for their little ones always confounds mothers. It started on the day one social-animal Neanderthal first invented birthday celebrations. Today, one find the question asked frequently on online forums where mothers populate.

I have been meaning to write a short “how to” guide on this topic. I’m sure hundreds of mommies will find it useful. I’ll publish the guide on this blog, provide a link to it side by side with my Birthday Party Planner, and everybody will be happy.

As a Filipino magician providing magic entertainment to families in Metro Manila and suburbs, I figured I have the right credentials, and knowledge, to write about the unnerving task of organizing birthday parties.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I discovered a mommy had already done that for me. She wrote and published on her blog a party-organizing guideline the way I would have written it myself.

Coincidence? Divine intervention? Fortuitous event?

No, hardly. It’s more like “my butt stuck on the sofa while watching the Oscar coverage on TV.”

Titled A Memorable Kiddie Party – On A Budget, the article brims with practical party ideas and tips on how to organize a birthday bash without putting a huge hole in the pocket. It even actually shows an ideal budget, helping readers decide how lavish or modest the party they intend to throw.

The article was written by Melissa Menes who, together with husband Justin, owns and manages Partytime Philippines.

I have worked several times with this young, hardworking couple. They have the experience and expertise to discuss the topic. The pointers they give to parents are spot on. To be sure, Melissa knows whereof she speaks when she wrote the article.

Go to her Usapang Babae blog now and soak up the knowledge she shares.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com

As a Filipino magician providing family type entertainment and birthday party magic shows in Metro Manila, I belong to several online e-groups and forums. I consider the parent members of these groups my prospective clients. Discussing with them the difficult buy enjoyable task of raising a family keeps me attuned to their needs. It allows me also to offer better services.

A couple of days ago, in one of those e-groups, somebody brought up an article written by Manila Times columnist Bob Garon.

In his column, Bob Garon writes, “The preschooler was very agitated. He wanted a toy on the shelf of the department store and was very insistent in his demands. When the mother chose to ignore him and continued to walk away, he ran up behind her and with his little fist hit her leg. Of course, he did not hurt her, but what was surprising was the mother’s reaction. She did nothing. She did not turn and reprimand him. She just ignored his outburst and kept that she missed an opportunity to teach her child to respect his elders, his parents. I could not help thinking ahead and wondering what would become of this child when he grows up. If he isn’t corrected, it does not take a genius to conclude that he will have a troubled future.”

If Bob Garon were a magician, he would have not used the word genius. Instead he would have used the word psychic.

There lies the difference between Bob Garon and me. I’m a magician and mentalist. (I read people’s mind and “future” for entertainment). This time, though, I will use neither my magic nor psychic powers. I’ll just use the expert knowledge I achieved through the Zen enlightenment of raising five children.

So let me take a shot at this topic sans my powers…

I think the mother who failed to reprimand his preschooler after he hit her must be an advocate of a newfangled parenting principle that proposes something like this: Fuss over the child’s good deed but ignore his bad behavior. Over the long run, the child, through some mystical means, will become a well-adjusted, God-fearing, law-abiding citizen.

A child psychologist with an unhappy childhood as one of his credentials must have invented this child-rearing principle. It’s so alien to me it makes me feel like wanting to dance the fandango each time I hear parents bandy it about.

According to my maven-level child-rearing knowledge, preschoolers who grow in no-discipline homes will one day form a party list. They will field their own candidates. When they win a seat in Congress, they will file a bill outlawing parental reprimand. Once the bill takes effect, Mommies caught telling Junior, “Don’t talk while your mouth is full!” will be hauled to jail. Not a pretty sight but immensely delightful to psychologists with oven-fresh child-rearing theories.

I don’t know if similar laws have been passed in other countries. If they have, I can’t imagine the havoc the law has wreaked on the social fabric of those countries. My mind is too boggled from reading the news of children bringing guns to school and shooting their classmates and teachers by the dozens. They usually do it during class hours.

Stay magical,

Leodini

www.leodini.com