By Penny Gruetzmacher
Correspondent
“The Moogician,” was featured in the Storywagon Series at Williams Bay’s Barrett Memorial Library, described as “the only magical, juggling, banjo-playing, comedy act that also educates about dairy and cows.”
At the July 19 event, roughly 50 people attended including kids of all ages and parents. The Moogician explained that details and history about everything he knows how to do – banjo playing, magic, juggling, music and sharing information about cows – can be found at public libraries.
Speaking of cows, he said there are 900 breeds and that six breeds are common in Wisconsin with Holstein being the biggest milk producers. He then balanced a chair, juggled and performed some slight of hand tricks by pouring milk from one glass to another. He also performed a series of magic tricks using cylinders producing milk bottles.
One of his favorite acts, judging by the audience’s reaction, involved him balancing horns on his hat – which began as sticks until he transferred them to his hat.
Among the tricks performed, the Moogician asked for volunteers and chose four children to join him. He first “read their minds” with a special metal hat – which brought a lot of laughter to the crowd – and then was able to get milk from a funnel to the last child’s hand into a milk jug.
He wasn’t done involving the kids, however, as he asked for another group of three children and had then place red, white and blue scarves in a special bag, which led to him producing an odd flag followed by a correct flag at which point he showed how it should be properly folded.
The final audience participation featured the Moogician teaching a boy how to hold spinning plates on top of sticks. To close out the show, he played the banjo, ending with a piece that featured stuffed animals spinning around on his hat.
The Moogicain will be performing at the Walworth County Fair at 5 p.m. daily.
