CONTACT: Brad Brown
EMAIL: brad@bradbrownmagic.com
PHONE: (859) 428-8085

Live Family Entertainment Comes to Northern Kentucky as the Lockdown Eases

The Barnwood Bravo Theater, Dry Ridge, Kentucky presents a new, live entertainment option for families

DRY RIDGE, KENTUCKY – May 24, 2021 – For local families looking for a post-pandemic evening out Barnwood Bravo Theater is hosting Brad Brown’s Live Comedy Magic Show. Brown will begin performing his show weekly beginning June 15.

Brad’s show combines his quirky yet clean comedy and amazing magic to produce a fun family-friendly evening out. From appearing bowling balls, to floating objects, unusual escapes, skilled sleight of hand and a sassy mind-reading robot, the program is designed for the whole family. It’s an evening of clean, wholesome, fun family entertainment.

Event: Brad Brown’s Live Comedy Magic Show
Dates: Tuesdays beginning June 15th
Time: 5:30 to 8:00 PM
Venue:

Barnwood Bravo Theater
1107 Fashion Ridge Road
Dry Ridge, KY 41035

After the extended pandemic lockdown, Brad saw a genuine need for local families to have the opportunity to get out of the house and laugh again. “I love when audiences tell me, ‘Thanks for making us laugh. We needed that,’” Brown said.

Barnwood Bravo Theater, located in Dry Ridge, Kentucky, is an intimate venue where every seat gets a great view of the show. Located just five miles north of the Ark Encounter, the theater is convenient for both local families and tourists visiting the region. Barnwood Bravo opened in April, and serves the Grant County area. More information about the event is available at www.KentuckyMagicShow.com

Brad Brown is a full-time professional magician who for decades performed for audiences around the world and across the United States. He blends his unique comedy and magic into an exciting, fun family event. For more information contact Brad.

EMAIL: brad@bradbrownmagic.com
WEBSITE: www.KentuckyMagicShow.com
PHONE: (859) 428-8085

Updated information about issues with Kellie’s Homestead Restaurant.

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In today’s world, we resemble Doug, the dog from the movie Up. We’re in the middle of a train of thought when suddenly, SQUIRREL! Something else pops up, commanding our attention.

Those of us in ministry also want people’s attention. But instead of looking for a click or a dollar, we want to share the greatest possible message in the world. But given all the competition, how do we grab people’s attention?

One important tool to grab attention is called a “pattern interrupt.” Our brains naturally tend to filter out the normal and ordinary and focus on the unusual. So, to capture attention we need to present something that’s different–something that breaks the normal, expected pattern.

As a simple example, suppose you’re a children’s pastor. Every week, you walk on stage and try to get the kids’ attention. What if you did something different one week? What if you walked on stage backwards? Or roller skated in? Or came in with a potted plant balanced on your head? Or danced onto the stage in a tutu?

The kids would naturally notice and, at least momentarily give you their attention. And it doesn’t have to be something big. Anything sufficiently out of the ordinary can work–silence when talking is expected, an interesting question when a statement is expected, a whisper when people expect a loud voice…

Pattern interrupts like this work because they’re unusual and unexpected. That means you can’t use the same interrupt technique too many times. If you skip onto stage while yodeling and wearing a T-Rex suit, you’ll get attention the first few times. But if you did it every week, the skipping, yodeling T-Rex would become the pattern, and people would ignore it.

Of course, just being weird for the sake of grabbing attention isn’t enough. Once we have people’s attention, it’s critical that we keep and direct it. The pattern interrupt ideally should tie in with the message you wish to deliver, so it also serves as a memory aid.

For example, after doing a silly dance onto stage, you could say, “Have you ever been so happy about something that you felt like dancing? Today, we’re going to learn about someone in the Bible who was so happy about what God was doing that he danced, even though other people thought he looked silly doing it.” This pattern interrupt grabs attention, transitions that attention into the Bible story, and serves as a “hook” that makes it more memorable.

That’s one of the things an entertainer like me can do for you. We can be your pattern interrupt. We can be the unusual, out of the ordinary happening that grabs attention, focuses it on what matters, and memorably presents a message. If you’re planning an event, let’s talk. I’d love to use my magic and assorted silliness to capture your group’s attention and share the most important message of all.

As an entertainer, I work a lot with video. I prefer to work with professionals in the field when possible, but I also do a lot of my own video work. I thought I’d share some basic info for those who are just getting started.

Basic Editing in Windows

Windows 10 includes some really basic video tools. If you’re going to be doing much with video, you’ll probably want more powerful tools sooner or later. However, this is a quick and easy way to get stared with what you already have. (Well, unless you’re a Mac person. For Mac, you probably want to look into iMovie, but I can’t really help with that.)

Full-Featured Video Editing Software

Full-featured video editing software is much more powerful, but does have a bit more of a learning curve. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be expensive. A free option is HitFilm Express. (There are paid versions and add-ons, but Hit Film express itself is free.)

This video will show you the minimum you need to know to get started in HitFilm Express.

Improving Your Live Videos

Pretty much every church is now live streaming. This video will show you some things that are possible, to hopefully get your creative juices flowing.

The free software I mention (and use) in the video is Open Broadcaster Software Studio.

I hope things are going as well as possible in this new reality. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know!

Here’s a new magic video, demonstrating my magical superpower, anti-mindreading! A mindreader can tell what other people are thinking. As an anti-mindreader, I can tell what other people aren’t thinking.

I hope you enjoy the video. Also, at the end I do a brief presentation that’s basically a version of the resurrection eggs that uses just one egg. If you need to do a brief, video-friendly Easter presentation, feel free to take the idea and run with it.

It’s easy to think the “why” is obvious, but it rarely is. An event could have any number of purposes. Different churches can do the same type of event of any number of different reasons.

For example, this time of year many churches hold a Trunk or Treat, Fall Festival, or similar Halloween related event. Some are doing it as an evangelistic outreach. Others are doing it to build bridges with community members. Still others want to provide a Christian alternative for their families. Others may have completely different purposes. Although the events may be superficially similar, different choices will be required to accomplish different goals.

As a college professor of mine used to say, “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it.” It’s crucial to know and be able to communicate the desired outcome for your event. If nothing else, taking tome to clarify the purpose in your mind will help you make better decisions.

It’s much easier to recruit and retain volunteers when you communicate why what their participation matters. Volunteers can do a better job when they understand what the desired outcome is. Shared purpose increases commitment and effectiveness.

Clearly defined outcomes allow you to measure the effectiveness of your event. This will enable you to make it better next time, or maybe decide it’s not working and it’s time to try something else.

So, if you’re trying to integrate Facebook login into a PWA running in standalone mode, read on! Everyone else will probably want to turn away now.

Facebook login works great from websites. But try to run a progressive web app in standalone mode, and suddenly, it’s not so simple. The login popup goes blank, and nothing happens. My searching for a solution turned up a few breadcrumbs, but no complete working solution. I did get it working, though.

Apparently there are conversations about changing the way standalone PWA’s work to simplify OATH. But for now, here’s what worked for me.

In short, I set up a custom login flow with Facebook. It created a login popup that opened Facebook’s OATH link which, in turn, forward to a special page I set up. That page in the popup window communicated with the standalone window through Window.postMessage() to pass the token back, so the standalone window could make API calls. The standalone then closed the popup.

Here is the longer version:

My app used Window.open() to create a popup window calling Facebook’s OATH URL. You may have different needs, but my call looks like this (link here has been anonymized and breaks added for readability):

https://www.facebook.com/v3.2/dialog/oauth
?client_id=9999999999
&display=popup
&redirect_uri=https://example.com/login.htm
&state=aaaaaaaaaa
&auth_type=rerequest
&response_type=token
&scope=manage_pages,publish_pages

• client_id is my app id.
• display=popup tells FB to format the login to fit nicely in a popup window.
• redirect_url is my page to accept the login data. Important note: This page must be set up as a “Valid OAuth Redirect URI” under the Facebook Login Settings of your Facebook app.
• state is just a code to prevent cross site request forgery attacks. I generate a random code and verify the same code comes back in the response from Facebook.
• type=rerequest tells FB to reauthorize the permissions, if they aren’t already granted.
• response_type=token tells FB to respond with a token.
• scope is the permissions that should be requested with this login attempt.

See Facebook’s documentation for setting up a custom login flow for more details.

After Facebook completes the login process, it forwards to your “redirect_url” in your popup window. The relevant data, including the token will be in the URL’s fragment (the part following the #). That page will need to pass that information back to your main window. Below is the script I used on that page. It just converts the fragment to JSON and passes it back for processing.

// Remove hash and spit into array
// of "XXX=YYY" values
let fragmentParts =
        window.location.hash.slice(1).split("&");
let myJson = {};

// Convert hash elements to JSON
// E.g. XXX=YYY becomes myJSON.XXX="YYY"
fragmentParts.forEach(function (part) {
    let parts = part.split("=");
    myJson[parts[0]] =
        decodeURIComponent(parts[1]);
});

// Send JSON data to main window
window.opener.postMessage(myJson,
        "https://example.com");

The standalone window has a listener set up. When it gets the message from the login window, it closes the popup.

The standalone page also has a timer that regularly checks if the login page was closed before it sent back a message.

The main window now has the token it needs to make Facebook API calls. The problem is getting the Facebook SDK to use it. Normally, the SDK retrieves the token, stores it in a cookie, and manages it for you. If you don’t use the standard login method from the SDK, this won’t happen.

You’ll need to store the token somewhere and pass the token manually on every API call. For example:

FB.api("/me/accounts",
        {
            access_token: "access token goes here",
            other_fields_as_appropriate: "??????????"
        },
        function (response) {
    //process the return from the api call
});

As I didn’t use the FB.login, I couldn’t use FB.logout. So, to log out I just deleted the copy of the token, effectively ending the session.

I don’t know if this is the best solution, but it worked for me. Hopefully it will help someone else.

The short answer is that it is more accurate to refer to me as a magician. The longer answer is a bit more complicated.

What is “Magic”?

Like most English words, “magic” has many definitions. As used in this context, magic is defined as “the art and skill of performing mysterious tricks to entertain people.”

As a quick aside, there is nothing in this usage of the term that implies any supernatural involvement. Theatrical magic uses perfectly natural means to produce entertaining results.

There are many types of magic, including illusion, sleight of hand, mental magic, escape magic, street magic, stage magic, bizarre magic, and so forth. Magic is a general term that includes all these and more.

Of course, there are people who abuse the principles of magic to take advantage of people rather than entertain, such as con artists, pickpockets, and fake mediums and psychics. However, these people aren’t considered magicians. In fact, the magic community has a long history of opposing this misuse of magical techniques. For example, Harry Houdini famously worked to expose bogus spiritualists.

What is “Illusion”?

Again, this is a word with many English meanings. In magic, “illusion” specifically refers to large stage effects, generally involving a person, large animal or large object. In magic, an example of an illusion would be something like levitating a person, sawing someone in half, or making an elephant disappear.

As the terms are used in the magic community, illusion is a sub-genera of magic. So, all illusionists are magicians, but not all magicians are illusionists.

However, the general public tends to use the word “illusion” differently. An illusion is simply something that is not as it appears. In this sense, since all magicians do things that are not what they appear, some people use the term “illusionist” more or less synonymously  with “magician.”

To further complicate matters, some magicians who don’t perform large stage illusions still like to call themselves “illusionists.” They think it sounds fancier or more impressive, and believe it is a useful marketing term.

So, if you call someone an “illusionist,” some people would think you are referring to a magician in general. Others, particularly those most interested or involved in magic, would think of a specific type of stage performance.

So, what about a “Christian Illusionist” or “Christian Magician”?

Obviously, any Christian working as an illusionist would be a “Christian Illusionist.” However, that phrase would usually only be used by someone who explicitly includes a Christian message in their programs. “Gospel magic” is the term generally used to apply to any form of magic used to present a Christian message. There’s even an international organization dedicated to this type of magic, the Fellowship of Christian Magicians.

Some Christians do have concerns about the terms “magic” and “magician.” As one of the definitions of the word “magic” refers to the occult, they prefer not to use the term at all and are more comfortable with the term “illusion.” (Interestingly, occult practitioners are also annoyed by this quirk of the English language. So, they often use the archaic spelling “magick” to avoid being confused with theatrical performers.)

In reality, it is very unlikely that someone will confuse these different connotations of the term. The English language is full of words with many unrelated meanings, and it rarely leads to misunderstanding. "Bank,"for example,  can refer to many things, including a financial institution or the side of a river. The context almost always makes the meaning the speaker intended clear and unambiguous. The same is true for the word “magic.”

So, am I a “Christian Magician” or a “Christian Illusionist”?

It should be obvious that it’s accurate to call me a Christian magician. But am I also a Christian illusionist?

I do many kinds of magic, including sleight of hand, escapes, mental magic, and some things that could be considered stage illusions. However, doing a few illusions at some events is not the same thing as being an illusionist.

People who are familiar with magic would reasonably expect me to precisely use magic terminology. So, referring to myself as an illusionist would basically be making a false assertion about the nature of my program to these people. For this reason, I never call myself an illusionist.

So, if you’re promoting an event with me, I recommend using terminology like “magician” or “magical entertainer.” However, as stated earlier, many people do use the terms “illusionist” and “magician” interchangeably.

So, if you’re in a situation where using a word like “magic” is problematic,  go ahead and call me a “Christian Illusionist.” Just be sure you promote the event is such a way that people are clear about what they will see.

Being fooled in the sense of not knowing how the magician made some wondrous or mysterious thing happen can be fun. Being fooled into having false expectations about an event is not so fun. Hopefully by the time the event is over they’d have such a good time that they wouldn’t care that the event was different than expected. However, it’s much better to avoid giving people false impressions about the event to begin with.

I hope you’ll find it useful.

Start from the Purpose

This should be true of any ministry, but be clear on the purpose of the event. This should be the starting point of your planning. “We’ve always done it” is not a purpose. Know what you want to accomplish, and plan everything in light of that goal. Also, consider how you will be able to measure the success of the event. How will you know if you achieved your goal? Be sure the vision is clearly shared with your workers.

There are a number of reasons to hold an event like this. Here are just a few examples:

• Provide an alternative for believers who have concerns about participating in Halloween celebrations.
• Creating a fun, community-building event for church members.
• Build relationships with people in the community.
• Evangelistic outreach

Each of these would lead to drastically different decisions during the planning phase. Don’t just do what your “supposed to do” for a Halloween event. Do only what helps you achieve your specific goals.

Choosing a Day

When will you have your event? Depending on your purpose and the community where you are located, it may or may not be a good idea to compete with trick-or-treating. For example, if you’re trying to bring in people from your community, and trick-or treating is popular in your area, it would probably be a bad idea to make people choose between taking their kids trick-or-treating and attending your event. However, in other areas, parent’s may welcome a safe alternative activity for their kids. If you are providing an alternative to trick-or-treating, don’t skimp on the candy! You don’t want kids to regret coming to your church’s event.

I’ve seen events work well both ways. It all depends on your specific situation.

Scheduling

Many events include a big program at the end. (Like, just to pick a random example, a magic show! :) ) This is often where the main message content is presented. The end of the event is not always the best time to schedule this program. If you have a longer event, say several hours, where people come and go, many who come at the beginning will leave before the final program begins. If you do choose to have a single main program, it may be best to schedule it in the middle of the event. People who come early can stick around, and those who come later won’t miss it.

Another option is to have multiple programs. For example, there could be an opening and a closing program. Or there could be multiple programs going on throughout the event. For example, I’ve done events where I do a 15 to 20 minute program every half hour throughout the event. That way, people can see the program no matter when they come to the event.

“I believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal return in power and glory.”

There’s a lot in that single run-on sentence, so I won’t be able to go through it point-by-point in this post. I have already covered my belief in the deity of Christ in my previous post on the trinity, so I won’t rehash that here.

Jesus virgin birth is important, for a couple of reasons. The first is simply because the Bible says it’s true. To deny it is to deny the plain teaching of Scripture. Second, it points us toward an important truth about the incarnation. This event is radically different from the previous times when God took on human appearance. There are many instances in the Old Testament when God appeared in human form. (For examples, see Genesis 17:1, Genesis 32:24-30, Joshua 5:13, and   Daniel 3:22-25.) In the incarnation, Jesus did not merely take on human appearance, he actually became human.

For the sake of space, I am going to gloss over the next few points, and simply say I believe Jesus did what the Bible says he did. This includes his miracles, his sinless life, and his death which paid the price for our sin. (I’ll be discussing the implications of this in my next post in this series.)

It is worth saying a few words about his resurrection. Jesus literally, physically rose from the dead. This was not some sort of allegory. It was not merely a spiritual resurrection. Jesus’ dead body actually returned to life. After spending time with the disciples and many other witnesses, he ascended to heaven. (Acts 1:3)

The final point is that Jesus is coming back. There is a lot of debate among believers as to exactly what this will look like and in what the order these future events will occur. What seems to me to be beyond debate for anyone who takes the Bible seriously is that Jesus is, in fact, returning. Acts 1:11 makes it clear that he will return the same way he left. He literally, physically ascended into heaven, so we can be confident that he will literally, physically return some day.