Baxt’s Boxes of Cereal – Robert Baxt

It’s not easy to find a mentalism routine for school-age kids. However, Robert Baxt came up with a clever amalgam of magic, mentalism, comedy and the magician in trouble plot all rolled into one. With Baxt’s Boxes of Cereal, you get a good solid five minutes of banter, jokes, and byplay, all the while making the audience think that they are in on the trick. The premise is that an audience member is called up to the stage and is shown several front panels of cereal boxes. The magician makes a prediction, shows it to the audience and places his prediction in an envelope. A second set of boxes are gotten and the spectator is told that they will pick a box out of that set which, if all goes right, will match the prediction made by the magician. However, before having the spectator make a selection, he shows the audience that all the boxes are the same which of course matches his prediction. The magician implies they are all in on the gag and the selection process continues. Ultimately the spectator doesn’t pick the force box but picks a different one. The magician is beside himself and is forced to admit something went wrong, however when he pulls the prediction out of the envelope, it isn’t the one he initially put in the envelope and now matches the chosen box. The magician wins again.

The props supplied are actual cereal box fronts. I imagine Mr. Baxt had to eat a lot of cereal to put this one together. You are supplied with all the needed props and a performance DVD as well. Most of Baxt’s material is easy to perform and leaves the door wide open for you to interject your own personality into the routine. Because the premise is very simple, it is easy to follow and appeals to the younger kids because they all like to be in on the joke. I can see this playing very well at parties as well as Blue and Gold events. The only issue I see in the routine is when the magician shows the second set of boxes, there may be some smart-mouthed audience member that may shout out that they are all the same. Some crowd control is definitely needed to make sure this one plays the way it was intended.

I think Baxt’s Boxes of Cereal is something you should consider if you are going to look for a different way of performance pieces. As a side note, Robert Baxt offers a complete act with 11 routines (this one included) that can be tailored for adult as well children.

To see a performance of Baxt’s Boxes of Cereal click here:
http://www.robertbaxt.com/product_cereal.html