My favorite magician of all times, is my husband, Bobby Warren. He thankfully doesn’t make this his full time job. (Have you any idea how much traveling full time magicians do?) However, because of his continual practice and training of the art, I have had the opportunity to see many magicians perform. Most recently I was able to see Scott Humston perform.
This was on Sunday, March 13, 2016. He was performing at the Church of the Nazarene, in Wooster, OH. Bobby and Scott met at a combined convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians in Louisville, KY in 2008. When Bobby heard Scott was going to be so close, he made sure we could go.
I think Bobby likes to watch other performers to see how the do their different illusions. He can appreciate the artistry of it all. I like to watch magicians to get caught up in the magic. I am not the kind of person who wants to know how “they do that.” I want to be entertained. I want to be fooled. I want to believe, if only for a little while, that magic does exist.
Let me tell you, Scott Humston did not disappoint. He appears to be this quiet, unassuming guy. (We had a chance to talk to him before the show. He has an amazing testimony.) Even though he didn’t dress flamboyantly, he had a definite command of the audience.
He had a great sense of timing, so even the corny magician jokes made us laugh. He was an awesome technician of the art. He had an excellent rhythm in his delivery that kept the audience engaged. But the most popular part of his show, if crowd reactions were an indication, was when he brought out his puppet, Elroy.
Scott was clear from the beginning that he wasn’t a ventriloquist. He was a puppeteer. That let us all off the hook. He didn’t have to try to not move his lips and we didn’t have to watch him to make sure he didn’t. What did happen was we got to enjoy the seemingly real interaction of Elroy and the audience.
One other thing Scott did that I really appreciated and it is something Bobby does too, he made it clear that he was doing tricks. Because his audience was mostly children, he kept reminding them (and the adults) that “magicians do tricks, but God does miracles.” So even though he amazed us with his tricks, they were still only tricks. And we were all OK with that.
Bobby will always be my favorite magician, but Scott Humston is right up there with him. His family friendly show with a positive message is one you shouldn’t miss.
