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.

Gargoyle Sundial

Even the folks at the venerable Hallowed Haunting Grounds liked this Gargoyle Sundial enough to include it in their front yard. Painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, it became an eerie atmospheric piece in their haunt.

Glow-in-the-dark paint can be found at Michael's craft stores in small bottles for about $3.00, or in spray-paint form at a big-box hardware store like Lowe's for a bit more. Since the paint is intended for indoor use only, touching-up is recommended when used on outdoor pieces like this.

The gargoyle sundial is 11.5 inches wide and 8 inches high, comes in many finishes and sells for $59.00 plus shipping from Zhkis.com.  I would like to warn you, dear readers, of one thing: the coloring. I ordered one and selected the finish option of "As Shown". Upon receiving the sundial, I was disappointed to find that this apparently means fiberglass in "Gothic Stone" coloring, which is actually YELLOW instead of the grayish-beige cement color I was expecting. In color, it more closely resembles the  gargoyle lamp found here. If I had to do it again, I might try fiberstone in White Moss coloring to obtain the look I wanted.

I do love it when my Halloween props are versatile enough to stay in the garden all year long and blend in.