On Friday evening, in the Sinatra Room at Little Italy restaurant ( www.littleitalyhomestead.com ) in Nassawadox, Virginia over a hundred kids and parents were on hand to see the magic of Gemini. Ever a skeptic, I hoped my three grandchildren, ages 5, 7 and 8, would have a great time but expected to be pretty bored myself. Au contrarie, mon amis, all the adults, myself included, had a really good time, if lots of laughter and applause are reliable indicators. And the kids just absolutely loved it !
Dinner in the dining room came first. Pizza, the official food of kids everywhere, and salad all around— everyone happily finished their food and no drinks were spilled (courtesy of Little Italy’s special kid’s cups) so I would rate dinner as a complete success. Then down the hall to the Sinatra Room — we had a front row table with a clear, up-close view of the stage which had a sort of bell, book and candle setting. Before long, courtesy of Franco, owner/chef turned stagehand- for- the- night, the room lights came down, the stage lights came up and the music started. Gemini came sauntering out, lit the candle and we were off to an hour and a half of pure fun.
After a few magic tricks, including burning things and making them re-appear unscathed, came the first of several very popular audience participation tricks and antics. My 7 year old grandaughter was dressed in a sweet little white dress with pink and yellow flowers and wore a very pretty new pink sweater — and it was her new pink sweater that Gemini came down from the stage and asked to borrow ! I could see the internal struggle, she really didn’t want to let the sweater go but she didn’t want to say no either. So back up on the stage went Gemini, with the sweater, which became part of a fire trick, appearing at every turn that it would definately go up in flames. Eyes got bigger and bigger, kids were literally holding their breath to see if that sweater was going to burst into fire. Of course, it was returned unharmed and Gemini was on to his next trick.
Although magic tricks are the foundation of his act, Gemini is like a one-man band — he’s a comedian, a ventriliquist and a magician rolled into one cohesive show, plus two birds and a bunny ! Over-all, I think the favorite was an audience participation trick featuring two younger and two older kids selected to come up on stage where they then donned the funniest rubber masks of adult faces and became a part of several cute magic tricks. The incongruence of these cute kids and those funny, funny adult masks was so hilarious– kids and adults alike just roared with laughter and more laughter !
Gemini continued with three funny ventriliquist skits– the one with the Godfather dummy was especially good, he really had Marlon Brando’s voice down pat . The show ended with lots of applause- – clearly everyone had enjoyed a great time ! But then, to the kid’s delight, he brought the two birds and the bunny down into the audience for everyone to see and pet, up close and personal. Gracious about autographs and happy to pose for pictures with the kids, Gemini brought the evening to a delightful close. It was magic, Gemini magic.