A Letter to Santa is a niche product designed for a child audience for Christmas season performances. It is a comedy piece that, in the right hands, can generate laughs and pandemonium for your young audience.
So here is the routine: The performer explains that the child spectator will send Santa a letter with a request for a gift. The performer shows 5 letter/cards, each with a picture of a different gift; a ball, a bicycle, a teddy bear, a kid’s magic set and a Play Station console. The child picks one. The card is placed back into the stack of cards and the performer tells the children that the letter (with the picture of the gift) has magically transported to the North Pole to Santa. In disbelief, the child checks the stack of cards and her card is gone. At that point, the performer brings out a poster that is folded in half. It is opened and there is a picture of Santa holding a card that looks exactly like the one that just disappeared. A red-nosed reindeer is standing next to him and it is a very nice snowy scene. The child tries to remove the card from the poster and cannot so the magician closes the poster and tells the child to reach into the folder picture and try and remove the letter again. He comes out with a red clown nose. The poster is opened and the reindeer is missing his nose. The performer closes the poster again and tells the child to reach in and get the card again. This time she comes out with Santa’s red hat and when the poster is open, Santa is bare headed – the hat is gone! Now the performer, gives the child one more chance (Iglesias’s version has the performer do this) and out comes the letter with the gift that the child chose and Santa’s belt. The performer refused to open the poster and when it accidentally falls open, Santa’s pants are at his ankles, he is embarrassed and the reindeer is laughing.
This trick is the latest iteration of Iglesias’s prior trick “A Trip to Cancun” which is an adult version – in which the picture is of a bikini clad young woman and every time the spectator reaches into the poster, another piece of clothing comes out.
When I watched the performance, the method of this trick was clear as day, but the truth is that kids just can’t see what is obvious to adults (or maybe magician’s). Although I just received this product from Murphy’s Magic to review, and the Holiday season has passed, I performed it in person to young family members (at a covid19 safe distance) and the reactions were really great. I was surprised. And, I note that I did not have a group of children whose hysteria fuels other kids for even better reactions. I also performed this trick over Zoom and it worked, but I would not feel comfortable trying to do the trick to several children over Zoom because the medium is not great for very young kids (in my opinion).
With the $85 purchase, you get a 20 minute downloadable video which explains the very easy to do trick. The video is not a top notch production, but that doesn’t really matter. This won’t require any practice whatsoever. I thought the video was lacking because it did not have any live performances. Because this is routine has the potential for lots of laughs, you need to be up to the task to play it up. I think that the wrong delivery could potentially fall flat. I also think that the price is way too high for what you are getting. The quality of the poster is excellent, but its just too pricey. I would expect that this product would retail for about $55.
The ad copy states:
“A LETTER TO SANTA by George Iglesias and Twister Magic
After six years of releasing with great success “A Trip to Cancun” and “A Trip to Circus”, now George brings us the new holiday version of this trick “A Letter to Santa“!
Perfect for either Virtual Zoom Shows and live performances too!
Effect:
The magician show some letters to Santa already made, with different gifts, the kid get to choose in between a beach ball, a teddy bear, a PlayStation, a magic box, a monopoly or a bicycle!
Then the letter is mixed with the others. The magician makes the letter vanish from the pack and travel to North Pole! Now he shows a big poster, when he open it we can see Santa Claus holding a letter and Rudolph and his red nose by his side.
Now the kid will get the chance to travel to the North Pole with his imagination. The Magician folds the poster and the kid put his hand inside to bring his letter back, but by mistake he then takes instead Rudolph’s nose out! The magician opens the poster… And guess what? Rudolph’s nose is missing on the drawing.
The Magician folds the poster again, once more the kid put his hand inside, but this time by mistake the takes Santa’s Hat! The magician opens the poster and Santa is missing his hat on the drawing.
Finally the magician himself put his hand inside and takes the letter out, but before doing that he get trapped with something, he pulls hard and Santa’s belt comes out! All kids start to laugh now, but the magician does not pay attention to them and shows the letter selected by the kid to be exactly the same selected before.
The kids now start to ask and beg the magician to open the poster and show them what’s inside, the magician denies to do it, but by mistake the poster unfolds to show Santa with his pants down!!!
A very funny and interactive routine, very easy to do.
Excellent quality. Very well-made props, poster plastified, it will last a lifetime of performances. All props made with high detail too.
Includes:
1 Special poster
12 Special Letters to Santa (2 Sets of 6 plastified cards each)
1 Santa’s belt
1 Santa’s hat
1 Clown’s nose (Goshman)
1 Instructional online video”
This routine could take anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes. The reset is quick and easy (you only have to load the items) and you are ready to go again, but you will not likely perform this more than once. The poster cannot be inspected or held by anyone but the performer as well.
I think this is a new sort of effect for children’s shows and kids really love it. It is too bad that it is a Christmas theme because I think that limits the magician’s ability to use it. I expect to have another children’s themed poster from Twister Magic soon. All in all, this will get the kids going.
A letter to Santa is available from any Murphy’s Magic supplier online anywhere – Big Thanks to Murphy’s for asking me to review this product so my viewers can make an informed purchasing decision.
