talkmagic.co.uk

Hi guys,

I’m new to the world of entertainment and a naturally gifted Magician I am not! I do mostly children’s birthday parties as a clown, but I really want to incorporate some fun magic into my show.

I have the floppy wands, stiff rope, plunger hat, impossible box etc …… But I really want a self working, show stopping, crown pleasing, gasp out loud (you get the idea right)? Grand finale.

I have been looking at a magic carpet, you know the one where a child sits on a box and all four sides are taken away leaving him/her spinning freely in the air, or perhaps the chair suspension?

Can anyone give me advice on what works well with both children and adults and also let me know the best places to buy – I have been looking on websites like magic box, but some of their stuff does seem a bit expensive for what it is.

Any help or advice would be gladly received.

Kind regards

Milo.

A zombie ball maybe? floating effects seem to be the ones that amaze kids the most.

When you begin to look at larger illusions that are often designed for stage then the price will naturally be higher. There are a number of points to to consider in that you not only pay for the secret but you nearly always pay for the craftsmanship to make the props as well. Also, items tend to be priced so that they appeal to the serious magician whilst seeming unattractive to to someone who would just but an effect to learn the secret.

I would say to you - don't always be put off by the price. Look at the use that you will get from an effect and also the earning potential that it will give you by setting you apart from other childrens entertainers. If you're getting some originality then this can be worth the price of the item itself.

Don;t worry about how much an item costs - worry about whether you will get value from it.

Other than that, buy a TT

Jobasha wrote:A zombie ball maybe? floating effects seem to be the ones that amaze kids the most.

Yeah, I did kid magic for several years and the zombie ball was always the favourite. Always gets a good reaction. I used to use it as an opener. The show generally went downhill after that until I reached my grand finale which used to be the bottle of water turned over a volunteer's head (not sure of the trade name, but the water stays in the bottle).

Failing that, becoming posessed and passing on messages from dearly departed loved one is always a show stopper at kid's parties.

Air pressure/surface tension experiment, but that doesn't have much of a ring to it. The experiment where a kid at school the teachers don't like gets wet is a bit more accurate.

dat8962 wrote:Other than that, buy a TT

I've been meaning to do the salt one at school at lunch, but know I probably shouldn't distract them like that while eating.

Dlites although you have to have control over the lighting. Ummm I hear hippity hop rabbits is good but I am not sure if you are looking for that kind of reaction.

I would say a zombie ball would be a really good way to go - Bill Abbott's "The Thing" is an excellent version of this as it is largely angle proof and all together a bit more mysterious (they never see what's under the hanky).

Welcome to the boards by the way Milo - would you be able to do us a favour? If you start a thread, could you give some suggestion as to what it's about - subject lines such as "help with a kids party closer?" are a lot more helpful than "help me please!" which could be any number of things.

Don't mean to be pernickety, it just means the right people to help you will spot your message more easily, and people who have no interest in that area will not be made to read your message! Cheers matey

Remember going into a persons house with an illusion not always the easiest or smartest way to go. Look at effects with lots audience participation. Run Rabbit Run, and Stratosphere come to mind.

There is a dvd or a tape running around out there with this guy doing 30 minutes with a handkerchief and he has the kids going nuts, (he forms the hank into a mouse) What he did was way more impressive then a chair suspension and it packs flat and you can do it in any situation for any amount of people.

Think smart, not big. And it is not only the effect, but the presentation.

Brian

As a running gag for young kids, the lota takes some beating. It gives a continuity to your act, whatever it is.

Yeah, especially if you can sneakily introduce the naughty idea that it has something to do with wee Like, "I want to tell you a story about my old granny and her teapot, but you must be very good because some naughty children in another show started calling it a weepot, I'm sure you'd never do that..." then get them to finish the end of a sentence (be great if you could make it rhyme) about grandma needing another... tea

I am steadilly putting a childrens act together and did a gig with it on Sunday.

I don't have any big illusions, can't afford them but I kept quite a diverse age group happy, and laughing with the following programme.

1) Production of an 8' drinking straw from a small lunch bag. This is a great gag, very visual, relatively cheap and very easy. I dress it up with a story about having my lunch first and have a squeaky hot dog as part of the gag.

2) TT silk vanish. I took the routine out of the Seriously Silly book by David Kay, I will talk about this later.

3) Basic spongeball routine. The kids just love to guess how many balls you have in your hand and will shout like mad.

4) I have a glove puppet parrot called Archie. I bought him for £15 from Mike Danatas Magic Studio. He has a squeaker so I can make him say anything I like by interpretting for the children what he says. I play him a bit like Emu, a bit naughty but get him to help with a trick called Metamorpho Spots. This is plain handkerchiefs to spotted in a can. I then have a bit of a struggle getting him back in to his bag which gets a good laugh.

5) Appearing bouquet from a vase. My single most expensive piece of equipment, again from Mike Danata, £35

6) Rabbit from a hat. Not a real hat or rabbit, its a two silk trick with a TT. I then segue this in to putting the produced rabbit silk in to a change bag and bringing out a toy rabbit.

7) Cups and balls basic routine with a chop cup finish. This was a disaster. My super ending got screwed up because my wife who was helping me moved the balls after I had started and the chop cup ball got put in out of sequence and didn't stay in the cup when I needed it to!!

My finale was a three part Magic Colouring book routine. I tried out the Seriously Silly one this week but didn't like it so will go back to the one I usually use

I also have a magic egg can and would usually make this my finale but some of the kids at the party had seen me do it fairly recently and it rfelies on its end for the main effect.

I referred to the Seriously Silly book by David Kay. I bought this a couple of months aga and have mixed feelings about it.

The good side of it is that it does have some good advice about audience managment and about how to split children by age groups and how to treat the different age groups.

The down side is that it repeats itself a bit, it looks like he has written a series of shorter books or articles, strung them all together and edited them badly. He also advocates using some tasteless stuff to get a laugh. I just couldn't and wouldn't do it and don't see the need. Kids will laugh faitly easilly at quite harlemss stuff. I also got a bit fed up with his name dropping and self adualtion.

Any way, I hope that this helps. If I added up how much my act had cost to put together I suppose it would not come to much over £150.

As you will find in here there is a truth which runs through all types of magic - from putting out a couple of tricks for kids to Derren Brown and that is

"It isn't the trick its the performance"

As true for a 5 year olds birthday party as it is for any adult show.

Magicseen magazine pays serious attention to magic for children, and they've reviewed several books and DVDs on the subject lately. Sorry I can't remember any offhand... can't stand kids, don't pay a lot of attention... but I'll see if I can find some. It's a good magazine, anyway.

I do think they had good things to say about the two DVDs by "Magic Dave": Party Time and Bish-Bash-Bosh.

Magicbox has a lot of stuff suitable for children, including the two DVDs mentioned above.

bmat wrote:There is a dvd or a tape running around out there with this guy doing 30 minutes with a handkerchief and he has the kids going nuts, (he forms the hank into a mouse) What he did was way more impressive then a chair suspension and it packs flat and you can do it in any situation for any amount of people.

Did you mean "5 Minutes with a Pocket Hank," by Quentin Reynolds? I picked that up somewhere around 6 years ago and have been using it ever since. A lot of entertainers are turned off by Reynolds's style and presentation, but that is beside the point - you shouldn't try to be Reynolds anyway. The DVD (I bought the VHS - it's all they offered at the time of my purchase) is packed with bits of business, handling advice and, of course, the magic mouse itself.

While I would not advise trying to get 30 minutes out of it, you can certainly get well over 5 minutes out of it. Fact of the matter is, I've even entertained guys at a bar with that little mouse (as always though, working with drunks is very much like working with kids...). I highly recommend this DVD to any kids entertainer.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is quite what Milo is looking for (still, plenty of good advice above).

Mike.

http://www.emagictricks.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=5272 this as a closer and a regular change bag and my sokit routine as an opener.
http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic24181.php may not have acsess for this one so pm if required.