Family adds magic to neighborhood’s Halloween fun

Stonehedge Drive’s Giovine family presentsannual Halloween magic show

By: Michael Arges
   
   EAST WINDSOR – There was real magic on Halloween night in the Giovine garage on Stonehedge Drive. There also were wonderful illusions, from "The Cone Trick" to "The Metamorphosis."
   The real magic was a family working together to share their enjoyment with children and families in the neighborhood.
   "It’s a way of sharing with everybody. For us, it is a family thing," said amateur magician Dennis Giovine.
   The family’s tradition of Halloween magic started with a simple show for children based on the kind of tricks Mr. Giovine occasionally did for birthday parties. But the popularity of the show soon led the family to expand their program, Mr. Giovine recalled.
   "I have a two-car garage and it’s fairly long. I started four years ago just doing kiddie stuff, and I put out 20 chairs and 50 people showed up."
   Because of this popularity Mr. Giovine expanded the show.
   "I built a backdrop so we could have a backstage; I covered the walls of the garage with black paper, so it looks somewhat like a theater."
   He also borrowed 40 chairs. "I could actually fit 60 people in the garage. I went out and got a whole lot of new magic, we practiced, and about 110 to 115 people showed up!"
   Tuesday’s crowd numbered 55 to 60, smaller than attendance at shows in recent years when Halloween occurred on the weekend. However, this year’s crowd was more attentive, there was less talking between tricks, Mr. Giovine said, so the family had even more fun this year.
   The show includes just about everyone in the Giovine household, including son, Dennis Jr., 19, who juggles and lends a hand with the magic, and disappearing daughter Michele, 25.
   "I’m the person who disappears and reappears and I get swords through me, etc.," Michele noted. "It’ fun to do. My father’s been doing magic since I was a little girl, so in his shows I’ve always been the person who disappeared – but I keep coming back! It’s pretty cool getting the whole neighborhood all together."
   "My younger daughter Nicole did the audio; she set up the music. And my wife videotaped it. We were all involved!" Mr. Giovine noted.
   "I do it for the sake of the laughs!" Dennis Jr. said. "I just like to see people smile and laugh at me! I assist my father with the tricks, and I make the tricks funny."
   For example, he dressed up as a doctor for the funnel trick, his father noted.
   "I had a pitcher, I made a cone out of paper, a kid held the paper over his head, I poured the liquid into the paper and the liquid disappeared. I said, ‘Oh my God! Where did the liquid go? The liquid must be inside the kid! Is there a doctor in the house?’"
   From the back of the stage Dennis Jr. came in dressed in a white lab coat with a stethoscope made out of a plumbers’ helper to help his father look for the vanished liquid.
   Dennis Jr. also appeared as a rabbit hunter, his father said.
   "He came out in camouflage and we tried to find the rabbit, we had this rabbit trap, and we never found the rabbit. Last year, we found a three foot long monitor lizard. This year we added on to it. We made snakes appear, instead. We put the snakes into a carry-all box, then when we took the carry-all box apart, there was a rabbit!"
   The finale was a trick called "The Metamorphosis," Mr. Giovine said.
   "Dennis was handcuffed and put into a box. Michele stood on top of the box, held a curtain in front of her, and counted ‘One, Two, Three.’ On the count of three, Dennis was on top of the box, and then we opened up the box and Michele was inside, handcuffed!"
   Mr. Giovine is president of the Hightstown/East Windsor chapter of the Society of American Magicians, an amateur magicians’ club that does shows to benefit the community, such as volunteering to do fund-raising shows for the Hightstown High School after-prom party, and for Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. They meet the first Thursday of every month at the Georgetown Condominium clubhouse.