CORDOVA -- Houdini, a Charleston-born magician entertained children at Edisto Elementary School on Feb. 3.

It wasn’t just a magic show, though. Houdini came to share his insights on the importance of staying in school, giving and receiving respect, saying no to drugs and believing in oneself. He encouraged all the children to pay attention by quizzing them after each trick.

Just before he took a dollar bill and turned it into a five-dollar bill, Houdini had the children write down an important word, “money.”

“Everybody wants it (money), but how do you get it?” he asked the children.

“You stay in school if you want to make money,” the magician said, then wowed the audience by multiplying one child’s single dollar by five.

“Education is so important; you can’t just learn something in the morning and forget it by the afternoon,” he told the children, adding that it was their responsibility to accept the knowledge offered by their teachers.

Houdini’s next trick was to pour water from a cup into a folded newspaper. Opening the magically dry newspaper, he illustrated that educators can’t just pour knowledge into their students’ heads, but that the children must be willing to do their part to gain and retain information.

Sharing his next focal word, “respect,” Houdini explained to the children how having respect for others could help them gain the most from their educational experience. He then refolded the newspaper and poured the water from the now magically wet newspaper back into the cup.

Alison Moneymaker, 10, of Cordova said she was reminded that it’s important to respect others and to gain knowledge to be successful in life.

“I know that it’s good to respect others and stay in school to get a good education,” said Moneymaker, who added that her favorite part of the magic show was seeing fellow fifth-grader Jabari Ryan levitated on stage.

Another of Houdini’s messages centered around making good choices and saying no to drugs.

“The Number 1 cause of people getting into trouble in and out of school is drugs,” he said. “It’s not just an issue that kids have to deal with; adults have to say no, too!”

He asked the students to repeatedly yell the word “no” to encourage them to remember the right thing to do when others offer them harmful or illegal substances.

Houdini’s final message to the children was the fact that they have to believe in themselves if they are to accomplish anything in life.

“Be just as fierce when saying ‘I believe in myself’ as you are when you say ‘no’ to drugs,” he said.

“When someone says that you’re not smart enough or good enough, you’ve got to say with confidence, ‘I believe in me’,” Houdini said.

Jamiyah Reeves, 9, of Orangeburg said, “I thought the show was hilarious, especially when he put my cousin to sleep and levitated him.”

But, apart from the excitement of the magic, Reeves said she learned that “you have to believe in yourself if you want to do anything.”

“You must treat people how you want to be treated #) that’s called respect,” the third-grader said.

Carolyn Evans, EES guidance counselor, said Houdini was invited to the school as part of the ongoing character education program.

“We want to instill in our children good character traits that will help them live their lives in positive ways because good character builds strong and caring citizens, ” Evans said.

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