Magic Opens Kids’ Eyes and Minds to Drug Lesson

Facing a room full of wide-eyed children eagerly awaiting the next wonder he’d pull from his suitcase of tricks, magician Jerry Hart called to his audience: “Are we having fun?”

“Yes!” screamed the students of McDowell Elementary School in Laguna Niguel.

“Some people think we have to take strange things like drugs or drink alcohol or smoke to have fun, but you don’t, do you?”

“No!” they yelled back.

That was exactly the message Hart wanted to get across as he kicked off the school’s Red Ribbon Week awareness campaign against substance abuse.

Nearly 100 students in kindergarten through fifth grade lined the floor of the school’s multipurpose room to watch Hart’s magic act emphasizing how to “say no” to drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

Although elementary school youngsters may not yet face peer pressure or be curious enough to experiment with dangerous substances, Hart and school officials say it is never too early to begin laying a foundation that gives children the confidence to turn down drugs.

“We just want the kids to know that it is OK for them to make the right decision,” Hart said. “The magic show is a fun way to open other doors for the kids. . . . I just hope that with all the different reminders and lessons, they will get the message.”

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Hart begins his “Magical No Show” by telling kids to be themselves and emphasizing that everyone is different. He then employs his tricks and props to provoke giggles and gasps.

He listed the negatives of smoking: the dangers of cancer and accidental fires, and money wasted on a product that makes people sick. To illustrate his point, Hart produced a wallet filled with large dollar bills that quickly burst into flames.

Hart told the children that if they have family members or friends who smoke, the students can suggest that they cut down. And for the students themselves, he said, the best thing is never to begin.

“If you don’t start, you don’t have to worry about all that bad stuff,” Hart said.

To demonstrate the effects of alcohol, Hart brought Philinda Fought, the school’s physical education teacher, to the front of the room to help perform tricks. Then, waving his hands at Fought, Hart declared: “You are now drunk.” Fought could no longer make the tricks work.

After drinking alcohol, Hart told the class, people not only can’t do magic, they can’t drive or even think clearly.

For his final trick, Hart brought a young man named Jordan to the front of the stage. Using a small, triangular hat that barely fit Jordan’s head, Hart explained that drugs and alcohol slowly take over the user, all the while unfolding the hat until it covered Jordan’s head with the face of a green monster.

Asked at the end what they had learned, second-grader Lauren Day got right to the point.

“We all learned not to take drugs,” the 7-year-old said.

Anna Luisa Caffaro, also 7, said the lessons mirrored what she had heard many times from her parents: “Don’t take drugs because you don’t want to be sick or die or have cancer. My mom and dad tell me not to take drugs ‘cause they don’t want me to be in danger.”

The Magical No Show was developed by McLeod Educational Services as part of its program to combine magic, entertainment and education. Hart said the show will be performed at about 20 schools across Southern California.