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Monday, October 24, 2011

Halloween Magic at Boney Island



You may recall my post about the return of Boney Island, one of the most beloved home haunts of all time. Friday night saw the debut of Boney Island's new theme of skeleton magicians performing tricks. The show was a great success with a large turnout, including the press. You would never guess that the plan to put on a new show was hatched only this summer, and that many of the items to build this show were obtained in only the past month or two.

Here's creator Rick Polizzi:

 He made posters to highlight each magic act being performed. This poster is for the main event, a water show:
The 10 magic cauldrons shot green glowing water 12 feet into the air, eliciting applause:



The popular fortune teller answered questions and amused the crowd:


Neighbor David, on the right, is the secret voice of the fortune teller


The crowd usually gets deep for the fortune teller
A magician passed a hoop around a levitating skeleton:

Another skeleton levitated a bit too much and other skeletons climbed into a tree to chase him down:

One skeleton held a flashlight while another talented skeleton made shadow puppets with his boney hands, including a bird, a witch, a castle- even the Boney Island skull logo!:

A team of blind-folded knife-throwers aimed at a target:


Of course, to make things more difficult for the knife-throwers, the target had a skeleton in front of it:

Another favorite effect that returned was the spinning web gobo:


Like Houdini, The Man In The Can was a skeleton bound in a strait jacket, and wiggled to escape it while under water in this creepy confine:

Another skeleton magician sawed other skeletons in half...but he made a few errors:


In a window, one skeleton lures a skeleton rabbit out of a top hat by waving his magic wand, and another skeleton assists by bribing with carrots:
The collection of super-sized jack o' lanterns is stunning in itself, but these pumpkins sing to the music by flashing the lights inside them:

Oh yes, the pumpkins are in that crazy 3-story tall treehouse.


That's some - but certainly not all- of Boney Island. The crew did a fantastic job with the new display, and though the carnival theme is gone, I'm glad to report the old Boney Island magic is back.

7 comments:

  1. OH HOW MARVELOUS!!!! I love that (a) Boney Island has returned and (b) that there are scuh creative people in the world like this sharing their talents and delighting others and (c) that you let people like me virtually experience this fun home haunt via your blog. THANK YOU for posting all these amazing pictures!

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  2. It was a delightful experience - so glad to see this back! I'm sure I'll go again before the season is over.

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  3. How fun! I bet that is a riot to see in real life!

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  4. WOW... unreal!!! I think Polizzi IS a magician! Who else could pull this off? It's incredibly heartening to see Boney Island back on the map in it's new, and equally amazing incarnation. Thanks a million for posting this, you thoroughly made my day! :D

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  5. Thanks all, for sharing in my happiness! Stayed tuned, because I hope to get some video of Boney Island posted soon. I have a brand new canera and have to figure out the settings first.

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  6. Yowza! Now THAT'S what Halloween is all about!

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  7. I saw the display this year and it's awesome! I'm SOOOO happy that Rick's haunt is once again active in our neighborhood.

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