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So my aunt was over the other day and I was performing tricks for her children (10 and 12) and they loved it. They got me to show their mom, and she loved it too. She brought up the idea of paying me to perform at her kid's bday party in June. He will be turning 11. So taking that into consideration, this will be my first magic experience to a small crowd. I have no idea what to perform tho! The only idea I had was perhaps a bill switch for the birthday kid, turn a 5 into a 20 or something for him to keep? I don't want it to be all cards because of their smaller attention span. What tricks would you suggest for that age group?

You shouldn't really do card tricks for kids, not only because of attention span, but because kids do not really undertstand what cards are. I recommend, if you do not have standard kidshow apparatus, rope tricks and silk effects. Maybe some coin stuff, but only visual coin stuff.

If you are going to get into kid shows, I suggest you pick up the following:

Strat-O-Sphere- A kid show classic that involves a travelling ball in a tube and a surprise vanish and reproduction of the ball at the end. The ball, initially, melts through two other odd coloured balls in a solid tube. The bad ball is then put into a box whereupon it vanishes and reappears in the tube with the other two balls

Dove Pan- A production item that doens't necessarily have to produce doves. I use mine to produce silks, but you could produce candy or confetti

Mouth Coils- Special gimmick allows you to pull 50 feet of streamer out of your mouth

Colouring Book- Pictures and colours appear and vanish from a colouring book. The routining possibilities with this are endless.

These items are the basics to a great kid show act.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

Michael Kras

OR, you could invest in a single item: Sankey's SUPERNATURAL DVD.

I recommend this becuase many of the routines in it are brilliant and can easily be adapted into a kid show. Stuff with packing bubbles, bags of bread and Monopoly money are asome examples.

hmm I appreciate that but he is 11. All the tricks I showed him that impressed him were ones using cards.

Although I am thinking of real impact ones, not your standard.. Oh I found you card dealios. Like, in a flash, bigger finish, hummingbird card etc. Then I like the ideas of bill switches as well.

The suggestion of the ropes trick is pretty good because that is what I saw my uncle first perform when I was younger and it left such a good impression on me.

Any other tricks that are really visual and get the kids involved?

OH ok... hmmm... good effect...

Well, definitely something visual. Make use of colour changes as much as possible there.

I recommend you use any Twisting The Aces routine. Or Triumph.. also Ambitious Card. Those are some of the best.

Mike, (can I call you Mike?), eleven year olds can appreciate card magic. As long as it's kept visual, light hearted, and easy to understand.

King, card stuff should be fine as long as you avoid condescending patter and complex mind effects (invisible deal, RGM, thatkindofstuff). Good luck!

I'd like a routine of effect that link together somewhat, and not just be of cards. I want to have some rope, some TT, and cards. I don't have any other props as of yet, but what would be some worth purchasing? Like appearing cane or something? I've heard alot about that but dunno if it is worth it. And what about the use of d'lites? Would you suggest that or not?

Appearing Cane... I wouldn't recommend for parlour shows.. That is more of a stage trick.

However, Dlites would be perfect.. just need to be in an indoor settng so the light is dimmer and the effect is better

First off, don't think too much about how many props and gimmicks you can stuff in. One-off effects can be good, but not if that's ALL you're doing. If all you're doing is constantly reaching into your "bag of tricks" to produce the next "thing" with no reasoning or thought given to routining and presentation - I don't care how visual it is, the kids will get bored. Michael gave you a number of effects that are, indeed, very powerful and are classics. However, buying up a bunch of these props and performing them one by one does not make a magic act. Kids are an audience - one of THE TOUGHEST audiences you will EVER face. They're not polite, they're not easy to entertain, they WILL point out every single flaw you make. I have no problem saying that if you just pull together a ragtag bunch of tricks and don't put time and effort into working and routining them to perfection - they will tear you to shreds.

Yes, children have a shorter attention span than adults. However, they also don't need to be constantly bombarded by trick after trick after trick. Short attention - not ZERO attention.

Case in point, there's hardly a child alive who gets bored during a well-presented sponge ball routine.

Sticking to the basics is a good start, but don't think you have to bring tons of props to get the job done.

King, you mentioned wanting to link effects. This is exactly where you need to be heading. Think of an overall concept you want to work with, and build your act from there. You don't need tons of props to get the kids to enjoy the show.

I suggest looking into Sponge Ball routines. Rope routines and silk effects are also a good place to build a theme from. Also, chat up magicdiscoman - he was incredibly helpful for me in this area, in the past.

Start with a collapsing wand, I find it gets them laughing straight away.

Then, if you like bill switches, why not have a black and white drawing, fold it and have one of the kids wave the wand over the paper, and unfold it to show it coloured in? Ask them how they did it and if they'll teach it to you one day, they love that!

Others i find work well with kids are TT vanishes, Sponge balls and a chop cup ( ask them to guess where the red ball is a few times etc ) the magic colouring book, Dlites, vanishing bottle etc Also if you want to do cards why not try out of this world and ask each child in turn whether they think the card is red or black?

Good luck anyway!

Silks and sponges are the staples for a good kids routine.

can anyone recommend a good entertaining routine (involving sponges)?

It's pretty easy to make up your own. Try some experimenting.

I don't have any sponge balls, nor have I scene many routines using them so I am totally new to them.

You should be able to find a few small books about sponge balls at any magic shop. I can't think of any in particular you should get, though.