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Tardis and I had a 17 day camping holiday. During that time, we wanted to practise some of our routines, which we did.
We got talking to some people their and offered to do some balloon modelling, with some magic. This was arranged for the Sunday. I did find out that one boy would be 5 on the Saturday, so made some balloons up that day just for him, which went down very well.

Where we were camping was just a field, not a commercial site. It was used as a holiday base, for people to visit the area and was on for a few weeks. That meant people would be coming on/moving on regualy. We had no way of knowing age or numbers that would be there at the time of the show.

About 12 turned up, with over half of them being 3 years old or younger. Not what I expected.
I decided to make the balloon models first, then get them to take them back to their tents/caravans, giving us 15 minutes before we started the magic. I felt that for this age, it would break it up, with them looking forward to the magic.

I started off with a Goofus plant, which only flowers when they clap and cheer loud enough. I use this to get them all knowing they CAN make noise, at the right times. I use it as a running gag throughout, until it flowers at the very end of the show. I found it works perfectly as a warm up as well as being a signal that the show has ended. Also works as a good applause cue.

I then did my Die Box routine, finding that I was the one who had to say some people think I'm sliding it. I had already exaggerated my movements more, due to the ages, but it wasn't enough without the verbal cue.
I will freely admit that it wasn't easy for that age to understand that part straight away. This is why I'm so happy I changed the whole routine a year or so ago.
I said that I needed somebody to help with the magic, as I wasn't able to make it vanish. A child came up, waved the wand/said the words, THEN I opened all the doors. They ALL did the magic to make the Die reappear.
So the first part was forgettable. What they will remember is that THEY made it vanish/appear, which I am more than happy with.

I then did my version of Dots Next, picking out the oldest girl, who was about 7. For most of them, the routine went over their heads, due to the counting factor. What they did see was that spots appeared by magic, so it was as good as I could hope for.

Tardis then did a Clatter Box/Change Bag routine.
I moved to the audience, slightly to the side, so I could watch.
He uses 2 children and one adult, who he managed to persuade to come up. She holds the Clatter Box, so the children don't start thinking they have broken it.
This routine went down MUCH better than mine. It is visual with coloured silks, plus it had them giggling when different people could see/not see the silks at different times.
I am not sure who gave me the advice on using an adult for holding the box, but I am VERY grateful to them. She honestly thought she had broken it, until I whispered to her as I went to pick the parts up. Imagine if that had been a young child!

I ended with the Goofus, leaving out the dog arm puppet routine, as I felt they were too young for that routine.

I was asked if I minded doing another one in the afternoon, as there may be children who have been out with their parents in the morning.
I agreed, but said I wouldn't do the same show.


We went back to the tent and thought hard about what we could do, that we had enough practise on over the years.
I then pre made some models before the show.
I had decided that I would make it harder for myself and give the models out, so they had them during the show, giving me chance to learn a bit of audience control.
This failed completely. Once the show started, they didn't touch them again until the end. I suppose I should be pleased with that as they must have been enjoying the show, but it would have been nice to get some experience with them plaing while I was doing a show.

Anyway, there were 6 at the second show, which by pure fluke was how many I managed to make in the time I had.

Tardis used the change bag again, but this time turnig two silks into a silk fountain, which again, went down very well. He has done this routine before and used the change bag enough to know exactly what he is doing. In my eyes though, it didn't look rehearsed enough, as there were a couple of pauses. As I said, it DID go down well with the children, but I could tell the difference between the mornmings routine and this one.

I had decided that I would do the dog puppet routine. I chose the three oldest to come up and help. The youngest of which could stand ok, was slightly wobbly when walking and was still at the dummy stage. It was slow going with him at first, but by the end he was swapping the pictures around ok when he needed to. For the younger children, it was more a case that somebody was reading a story out.

The last item was a drawer box. I hadn't been able to think of enough that we had that would make it impressive, so I cheated. I used it to produce what I was going to do for the final part, which was pas the parcel. I had taken the reusable cloth bags and put a toffee in each, with a pack of sweets in the centre. I had checked quietly with the parents as they came in, offering for them to open the bag, finding it "empty", if they didn't want their child to have one. I would then give them a balloon and make up a model after. All of them opted to let them have the sweets.
Anyway, after telling them I was doing Pass the Parcel to finish, I picked up the Drawer box only to find it empty. I then got one of them up to do the magic, lettimg them open the box, rather than me. ( Have done this before and prefer it this way.)
Inside there were the bags, a personal DVD player and the speakers.
I learnt a valuble lesson, which, again by luck, I had succeeded in doing.
If you are going to do this using sweets, make sure it is at the end. Seeing their faces and hands after, I wouldn't have wanted them holding any props! I wish I could say I had thought about it beforehand, but guess I didn't have the experience to. I just thought that with the limited things we were doing, that would be the best to leave until last.


The good points.

Got some feedback from parents. Generally they enjoyed the show and so did their children. Other feedback is in the bad points part.

It taught us a massive amount.
Although most were younger than I would think we would perform to, they were completely following the show.

They enjoyed the shows.

WE enjoyed doing the shows.

We also found out that the way we script is right for us. I right down drafts, changing it lots of times, before we are happy with it. As we learn, we keep changing it, but after a while, I no longer write anything. This is when we have got to the stage of knowing it enough for it to become a loose script, that we can change as the situation dictates. The only downside is that I get caught out thinking that Tardis has made a mistake, to then realise he is ad libbing and changing things to suit while performing. Knowing what he has been saying and doing, it looks like a mistake to me, but not to the audience, as he seems to get it right more often than not. After all, they don't know the script so they wouldn't know if he is keeping to it.
While we are learning, this certainly teaches us more than a more rigid script.

Bad Points.

One bit of feedback was that there should be a cue for the children to know when to call out the magic words. It was suggested that 1,2,3 was said beforehand, with younger children. I realised that she was right. Told Tardis, who pointed out that he does that anyway. After thinking back, I realise he does. Cocky s*d!

Another piece of feedback was that for the really young ones, some of it ws complicated. I agree again, but wouldn't normally put on a show for the younger ones that were there.

The second change bag routine had a couple of pauses when Tardis had to remember which side which silk was in. Not too noticalble and didn't really slow it down, but would have done if every routine was like it. Although he didn't need practise on the change bag or silk fountain, it would have been better to have had a bit longer practising which side each colour silk would go in.

We didn't have the experience or skill to look at the ages and decide to use something else instead. We may have been able to change how we used them and to get shorter and more colourful effects, ( SOME, I could have, but only some.) but this is one time where it wasn't helped by having two of us perform. Ift would have been confusing between us to suddenly do something too different with the props we had the next person wouldn't be ready for their routine. Will have to look at that in detail and look at cues we can give each other.

Points to consider.

One thing I need to think about is the dog arm puppet. Although I would keep him in their for certain age groups and am happy with that, I am now wondering what to do with him if somebody wanted a two hour show, with games and magic.
It may be that I put him in the games part for that, keeping him in the magic shows that are purely magic shows.

Everything in the bad points list needs to be sorted.