Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Kratish.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Alan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In the early ’60’s there was a TV show called The Magic Land of Allakazam, featuring magician Mark Wilson. I used to wake up early on Saturday mornings to watch it. At that age, I thought the magic was real, so when he would say a magic word and the ball in his hand disappeared, I couldn’t understand why it didn’t work for me!
When I was old enough to read, I checked out all the magic books in the library repeatedly (as every serious magician knows, 793.8 is the Dewey Decimal System designation for magic books,) and eventually found my way to Paul’s Magic & Fun shop, run by Paul Diamond, along US 1, in Ft Lauderdale. This was my “kid in a candy shop” experience. Back then, I-95 was not yet complete, and the trip from Miami Beach to Ft Lauderdale took hours, but I would make the trek there as often as I could talk my parents or grandparents into driving me.
I also joined a club called Miami’s Magical Youths. On Saturday mornings, once a month, parents would drop off a dozen or so like-minded kids at the home of a magician named Bruce Johnson, and we would all perform magic and critique each other. I am still friends with Bruce and a few of the “kids” from that club.
Though still a kid myself, I was already doing magic shows at birthday parties, but my aspiration was always to have my own magic shop.
By the time I was a teen, I was going to magicians’ conventions and won some competitions.
College beckoned and, while attending UM, an older magician friend opened Biscayne Magic Shop in North Miami and offered me an opportunity to become a partner. With the money I’d saved from doing shows and some help from my parents, I jumped at this chance to fulfill my dream!
Though there are very few left today, magic shops were a true gathering place for magicians and an opportunity to learn the craft, since every magic trick sold involved demonstrating it and teaching the method. And there were all those books full of secrets just waiting to be absorbed.
On Saturday mornings, before the shop opened for business, I taught magic classes to the kids that had a serious interest. Once, I even taught magic to Muhammad Ali, who was, according to some, the most famous person on earth! (Google it!)
I left the magic shop in my twenties when life got in the way. Other than a period in the late ‘80’s, when my brother and I owned a restaurant together and I performed for our guests, magic fell on the back burner.
Then, five years ago, I read about Discover Magic, a national educational program designed to teach kids magic, along with critical communication skills and positive character traits. As if struck by lightning, I immediately knew it was something I had to do, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The people I’ve met and the support they’ve given, as well as feedback from parents and kids, has been tremendous, and the work of teaching such worthwhile skills and positive values, is immensely satisfying.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Definitely not a smooth road!
As with any small business, it was a ton of work to get it off the ground… the details were endless. Since we don’t have a physical location, one of the first steps was to find an appropriate venue to hold classes. We located a restaurant with a private room in the back, that was perfect. They didn’t even charge us to use the room, as long as we purchased some food, so our Saturday morning classes there included a free lunch! Fortunately, the food at that restaurant was pretty good.
In the beginning, with a nearly non-existent marketing budget, the biggest challenge was to become known and get across the message that we’re not just teaching a magic class… it’s actually a life skills course cleverly disguised to LOOK like a magic class! Also, parents are accustomed to all kinds of classes for their kids: dance, art, computers, karate, robotics, and more, but magic was something new to them.
Now, five years later, COVID-19 presented us with new challenges. Mid-March was when things started getting serious. A graduation was scheduled and the kids had been practicing and were looking forward to receiving their graduation certificates and magic wands and performing for an audience of family and friends. I had to make the difficult decision of whether to cancel. After monitoring the news all week, on the day before the event, I notified the parents that, although I hated disappointing everyone, I felt it was prudent to cancel. In retrospect, it was clearly the right choice.
Then, after consulting with other Discover Magic presenters around the country, we quickly pivoted to teaching our magic classes online.
After a self-taught crash course in online education and hosting virtual classes, I converted a room in our already cramped condo into a makeshift television studio and jumped in head-first. We’ve since been able to teach the Discover Magic program to dozens of South Florida kids who found themselves quarantined at home with nothing to do!
It’s been going really well, and our virtual classes have been drawing from a wider geographic area than our live classes since there’s no driving involved.
Please tell us about South Florida Magic School.
South Florida Magic School is part of the national (actually international) Discover Magic organization and is the only authorized presenter of its curriculum in South Florida. After extensive training, I’ve earned a Five Star Certification and twice received a Gold Key of Excellence award at the Discover Magic national conference. I’ve also been certified by the Society of Young Magicians (SYM) Youth Protection Training program and have passed so many background checks that my fingers know how to take their own prints!
The Discover Magic program was created by internationally known, award-winning magician and educator Michael Ammar and his creative team, after nearly twenty years of research. It is specially designed to teach key life skills to 7-12-year-old children through the process of learning to perform magic. It has been proven that these essential skills, such as creativity, confidence, and being enthusiastic and prepared, last a lifetime, and that kids who learn magic grow up to be more analytical, more discerning, and develop keen emphatic abilities and social skills.
Each Discover Magic class focuses on one of the Eight Traits of a True Magician. Every child receives custom created props, top secret file folders and even a secret code that the kids can use to unlock special bonus videos after class. The tricks taught are specially designed for small hands and first-time learners that will not only fool adults but will develop exciting possibilities in every child.
You may have noticed that Saturday mornings have been a recurring magical time in my own history, so when deciding when to hold our first classes, it was a no brainer to try to bring that same magical Saturday morning experience to the kids. Some of my Saturday students have now been with me for three years and have taken all of our classes several times. Now they’re continuing with virtual classes and we’ve started an “exclusive” Wizard’s Apprentice Club, following the general class, just for them. Including this additional time, the class winds up lasting over two hours, with no break, and, at the end, they’re still wanting more! Can you imagine kids sitting and paying attention through a normal school class for that long?
In addition to Saturday mornings, we also offer after-school classes and programs for summer camps. An important aspect of our course is its flexibility. We can tailor it to fit into any organization’s existing program. With families quarantining at home, our online virtual classes provide parents a welcome respite to relax or to get some work done. For every hour of class, the kids spend another 3-4 hours reading, watching the videos, practicing their presentation and performing the tricks.
Pricing:
- Pricing for our workshops and classes is available on our website and ranges from about $25 for a one day workshop to approximately $200 for an eight lesson course. For our virtual classes, we send the class materials kit right to your home, by US mail.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://grapewiz.wixsite.com/sfloridamagicschool
- Phone: 954.290.4746
- Email: grapewiz@aol.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SFloridaMagicSchool
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