talkmagic.co.uk

I was wondering what would be some good tricks for an amateur magician for birthday parties? I can do sponge balls well, and I think for children's birthday parties I need more visual magic. Any suggestions?

I'd appreciate any help.

depending on age, baloons, chop cup spring to mind

cups and sponges.
cut and reatored rope.
burnt and restored knapkin.
colour changing paper plates.
salt from knapkin.
malteaser / twiglet matrix.
sponge snack (bill abbot).
do as i do cups with kiker ending.

who's that for a start.

If you buy a pack of childrens cards for the game Snap, they will come in bright colours with animals or similar. You can get away with some card effects using these.

magicdiscoman wrote:cups and sponges.
cut and reatored rope.
burnt and restored knapkin.
colour changing paper plates.
salt from knapkin.
malteaser / twiglet matrix.
sponge snack (bill abbot).
do as i do cups with kiker ending.

who's that for a start.

Thank you. How about professors nightmare? I have that one.

magicdiscoman wrote:cups and sponges.
cut and reatored rope.
burnt and restored knapkin.
colour changing paper plates.
salt from knapkin.
malteaser / twiglet matrix.
sponge snack (bill abbot).
do as i do cups with kiker ending.

who's that for a start.

Could you explain some of those please?

SBS - it's really not hard to find out about the effects MagicDiscoMan has thoughtfully posted for you. The internet is a wonderful place. Don't let it make you lazy.

If you do the research yourself, you may well come across other effects that you'd be even happier with.

SpongeBallSlight-of-hand wrote:I was wondering what would be some good tricks for an amateur magician for birthday parties? I can do sponge balls well, and I think for children's birthday parties I need more visual magic. Any suggestions?

I'd appreciate any help.

Have a look at the items in the trading section I'm selling many of them are from the kids show I did for my daughter. It was a one off so the items are as good new.

I figured why pay £100 to hire a magicina when I could just spend £100 on kids tricks then do it myself. By the end of it I was convinced that I should stick to adults and next year I'll be paying someone else to do it

Egg can is a ggod one for kids and anything with a FooCan

The advice given is great. Can I ask are you saying sponges aren't visual?

Also, they're great for kids because theyre not complicated to understand a bit of "maths" with them goes down well.

PM magicTom I know he does quite a lot of kids parties.

Nice sugestions guys, you could also try:

change bag/egg bag
goshman's sponge bunnies (if you fancy a bit of fun close up)
needle through balloon
Colour changing hankies
Silver sceptre (I don't do this but understand it's top for kids)
Rope to Silk
Loops (to do a bit of free range floating)!

Another alternative is to grab a decent book and build your own props. For this I would thoroughly recommend

'Vanishing Ladies and other magic' by Norman Hunter

Although this is now quite rare and out of print it's full of top low tech ideas and can sometimes be found secondhand (on ebay etc) relatively cheaply.

To improve your performance for kids try getting the DVD

Perform Like A Pro by Quentin Reynolds

Hope that helps!

It really depends on age.

Vanishing silk / color changing silks (great reaction guarantied no matter the age)
D'Lite
Magic coloring book (for smaller kids)
Mouth coil
Multiplying sponge rabits

For kids 10+ a chop cup would be great.