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Iv been asked to do a charity thing in September for a kids/teenagers charity, but Im struggling for effects for the younger end of the spectrum. They need to be walk around effects or stuff that can be performed on a counter (but i need to be able to carry the props). I was thinking of one of the many effects where a motorized car/toy/animal finds a selected card. Can anyone recomend one? (or any other effect that may be suitable)

There's a great one by Henry Evans that I saw at Blackpool called Find The Way Where a toy fire engine finds the selected card. Mike Danata had one in stock I think.

You could try one of the tt effects using hankies... Still a winner even though it's more widely known these days.

What about a little pk?

-Hummer card although it is a pain.

-Spongeballs are always good.

-Dlites maybe if it is dark enough?

-One of the effects that I loved when I was a kid was the removable thumb (I was only 6) and it doesn't require any props and I showed it to my little cousin and he loved it and he was 7 I believe.

-Can't go wrong with some packet tricks or 2 card monte.

-I don't have them but I heard there were some 6in linking rings maybe...

Spongeballs always go down well, as do fairly simple fun and colourfull cups and balls.

I dont think hummer card would be an option because its going to be close up. I have a couple of sponge ball routines. I hadn't thought of D lites, great idea! Any more suggestions?

Flash wrote:What about a little pk?

What type of pk effects were you thinking?

dat8962 wrote:There's a great one by Henry Evans that I saw at Blackpool called Find The Way Where a toy fire engine finds the selected card. Mike Danata had one in stock I think.

I just found that but its going to be around £65 upwards with postage, and I cant justify that for an unpaid charity gig

some rope magic is always good. Very visual with no surfaces needed. Fibre optics maybe or the hallucination rope routine on David Stones First DVD.

Linking rings - Either ninja rings or Sankeys 3 ring circus for portability

Crazy mans handcuffs. No pocket space and an audience winner

If you have a small counter then a chop cup routine.

If the kids are not too young then simple visual card magic will also go down a storm. Biddle trick, design for laughter, short ACR


maybe even some I.T levitations

I'd go with ropes as they are great close up or at a distance. The car thing you were talking about is usually expensive if you want one that works. Juan Tamariz comes to mind.

Crazy mans handcuffs as mentioned before. Can be great fun and packs really small. A do as I do card routine, I wish I knew the name but it only uses four cards. The best part of this is you can hand several people four cards each and everyone does it at the same time. It is always a lot of fun. perhaps a chop cup routine.

Lozey wrote:

I just found that but its going to be around £65 upwards with postage, and I cant justify that for an unpaid charity gig

I know what you mean but you sometimes have to look at some effects as a longer term investment, particularly if it then leads to you getting some paid work

Hi Lozey,
There's a trick with a toy robot on Eugene Burger's site (the essays bit I think) but a I remember he doesn't expose it, however, the workings are easily work-out-able (for those about to shout "fraud", he encourages the reader to do this...):

Basically, lay out five cards side to side, edges touching and work out with any wind-up toy how many winds it takes to get to a certain card from the edge. Then it's just a matter of controlling a card, suggesting that your powers are only good to a five card range and that you need your little magic friend to help you with the final section and Bob est ton oncle.

I tried this with some cool little tin robots, worked well but the tin toys were antiques and broke very rapidly What's quite cool is you can plot it out to regularly stop on, for example, 3, but then with one extra or one less twist it will usually go to card 4 or card 2, so if the same kids see the trick again (and they regularly do if it's walk around) it doesn't matter.

I would agree with the team that with younger people, cards are not a great idea. They typically have not seen them before so effects simply do not connect. Rope is good though

I tend to stick to things that play well to any audience for these times of things. Sponge Balls as previously mentioned, plus some good old fashioned sleight of hand - unequal/equal ropes (always gets me a good reaction), Sankey's Leaving Home (always ready to go, minimal pocket space and patter can be adapted to suit the audience or use none at all). I would avoid anything complicated card wise, but something pretty visual usually goes down well (monte or 4 ace routine type things)

In answer to your question Miss Lozey I shall give you a routine I did using a s*****d match and Bertha which I used with some kiddies when I was being Professor Snape for a Harry Potter event last year.

I got the little loves to think of a levitation spell from their classes at hogwarts (which obviously they hadn't been to) and asked them to point their wands at a little matchstick and get it to fly around the room three times. If they didn't have a wand they could borrow mine. Of course the match wouldn't fly, but it would move. So they felt satisfied and amazed, I could berate them (I was Snape after all) and all the heat was on the wand and nowhere near my associate the beautifully attractive Miss B. Everybody's happy!