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I had an inquiry today to do a kids party which I sadly had to not do as I feel most of the routines I do are either not suitable for children or are probably too complicated (maybe)
The party was for a 4 year old and I was wondering whether a 4 year old could grasp the concept of magic or not and if so how young can a prospective magic audience be.

I worte about this recently in another thread about how slight of hand is lost on children. Hmm just like my memorey is lost at the moment. Its all to do with how a child see the world and how an adlut expects things. i forget the word for it but i think its Latrial thinking or something like that.

You should be able to get away with magic for 4 year olds, 3 is probabaly the youngest that you can go.

You have to think slightly differently if performing for that age group though. You're going to have to be more of an entertainer than a convetional magician.

All effects need to be big, bright and bold. The more that you can do which they can interact with, the better. They need things they can hold or touch, make them call out magic words to keep them interested. I love having a glove puppet acting as the magician and performing the tricks.

I just dont like kids and will never do a kids party. Dam kids.

I'm with you on that one Markdini


Just a thought but if there is anyone out there who is an experienced kids magician (in London) I can pass your info over to this person.

oh greedoniz, do the gig! It'll be great fun, why are people so scared of kids? They're easy, no need for complicated manipulations to impress them. Nice and simple, big and bold and you can't go wrong. Throw is some cuddly toys and you're on to a winner.

You just have to make sure you keep them as involved as possible so they don't loose interest.

We need Magicdiscoman here he would sort this out in a jiffy.

I am not scared of them i just dont like them. Hats of to all them kids magicians dam hard job they do.

If I did a kids gig I would die on my *rse.

I'd rather do close up in the london zoos Lion enclosure. Far less dangerous...

I also dont wear brightly coloured clothing, find it hard not to swear and up beat behaviour is all a bit of a struggle

I love kids I think they're great.

I have 21 nephews/neices and the smallest ones are maybe 2-4ish.. They just love it when I stand around doing vanishes of coins, cards etc.. they know whats happening ( kind of ) and they even try and search you and misdirection is SOO easy with kids..

D'lite shows.. turn the lights out and pull lights out of your nosee..

sponge balls.. simple routines..

I.T work.. hummer card.. floating objects..

balloon making if you know how..

and just be a complete prat!! kids love it when you make a fool of yourself..

for those kids that do understand whats happening.. often tricks where you look like your a loser but come good in the end spark great reactions..

If none of this works.. show em 'saw' and make em scream!!!

Totaly agree. Times i wanted to punch some kids lights out and his parents for giving birth to him...

The most important thing is that everything you present needs to be VISUAL.

I once was watching a few kids as a favor to a friend of the family. The youngest one was 2-4 and was having a hell of a time. It was turning out to be a rather miserable afternoon. Even sitting her down for a video with a pacifier wasn't working and earned me a thunk in the head with said pacifier. I was about cracked at this point and responded by saying "You don't want it, watch, it's gone" and did a simple vanish.

Instantly the crying stopped and she sat staring in confusion. I pulled the pacifier out of her ear and the did the "pencil up the nose, out the mouth, in the ear" effect. For weeks afterward her parents told me she would shove her pacifier behind her head then laugh hysterically and show her hands as empty.

So, as answer to your question, yes - magic for these ages work. Provided it is very visual. Lady if Mystery is probably right and go with something bright and colorful - but even if in a pinch, anything visual will work.

I'd say go for it and do the show - at that age they're not old enough to be as critical as slightly older kids, but young enough to be easily distracted with streamers and shinny things.

The party was for a 4 year old and I was wondering whether a 4 year old could grasp the concept of magic or not and if so how young can a prospective magic audience be.

what was the question again oh yes i think most has already been said but as i do ultrasound to zimmer frame maybey i can give you a few pointers.

ok firstly you need to get into the right frame of mind and is like when you play peek a boo with a baby, your not thiking your feeding off the babys reaction and improvising as you go with the baby giving you all the ques.
most will probaly recoil in horror at giving the kids all that power but what I'm trying to get across is that kids think literaly, a good example is if you say to a kid i have this invisible coin and i rub some of the magic dust off of it part of it becomes visible, the kid will see a partialy visible invisible coin weras an adult will see were did that coin come from.

too the kid you havant done anything magical yet but if you take a sponge ball thats red and wave your hand over it and it turns green adding in a joke about the sponge ball that was green with envy then you have done something magical.

so this is the mindset that you need to get into another good example here anotated to show the diference between adult and kid thinking follows.

one empty bag shown this one lookes like some cow udders:- adult reaction thats funny, kids reaction hey that looks like cows bits ok you got my attention.
what do you get from cows then kids, now keep it clean no yellow milk jokes:- adults he meens pee pee jokes kids well if its not yellow milk it got to be real milk "milk".
good i just happen to have some milk here, brings out carton of milk upside down, its australian milk:- adults tee hee kids milk is milk.
how fresh do you think it is:- adults check the sell by date kids we dont care.
i think its pretty fresh turns milk carton over were it makes a moo noise:- adults yeah ok kids hey that carton made a moo cow noise thats funny is there a real cow in the milk carton.

show bag empty:- adults whats comeing next kids of cause its empty you just took the milk out of it.
this white silk will represent the milk the red one the flavour stawberry and the yellow one the straw, i'll stick them all in this bag:- adults whats he going to do with all thouse silks i can't see the trap door kids ok milk, starbery, straw got that.
we mix them all up and make a milk shake, bring out silk with milkshake design on it with yellow straw:- adults hey i didn't see the switch the bags empty wow thats good kids the silks have blended into a milkshake pulled out of a cows bum thats funny.

i hope this goes to ilustrate that the magic bit isn't necessary the same place when you do the effect for kids than if you do it for an adult audience.

in short kids don't over analise what has happened and take things literal its only magical for them if it changes state ie grows, changes colour or in this case melds into something else.
to a kid a broom can fly and they wont be looking for the wires and you can pull a milk shake from a cows bum.

How about a vanish using a raven?
do the in the kids hand vanish

I take it you couldnt do :

Stigmata
Saw
Swallowing razor blades

for kids then?

How about a vanish using a raven?
do the in the kids hand vanish yes but then you could just take the coin out of there hand and say its vanished same effect, see above post.

I take it you couldnt do :

Stigmata yes but what is the point of the effect to a kid you cpuld just as easily written it on your arm with biro.
Saw absolutly but they would probably try to garote there sister after all you did it so it must be ok.
Swallowing razor blades yes but weres the trick kids swallow all kids of things, the fact that you brought them out on a bit of string means nothing, see above answer on saw.

for kids then?

I never cease to be amazed at what kids find interesting. I perform "Twisting the Aces" for adults, and they always give a great reaction. I perform it for kids, and they just look at me with a "What else ya got?" look on their face. I make a coin disappear, and adults tend to notice my other hand (not good with coins), but I make a coin disappear for kids, and they get this huge smile on their face like "Where'd it go?" Then I bring it from their ear, and they just start giggling.

Powerful mentalist effects (Stigmata) or savage torture effects (Saw, Disjointed) don't have the same effect as they do on adults. I guess because they haven't been corrupted yet. There is no "wow" factor to kids in seeing someone hurt themselves. They hurt themselves all the time. Plus, I think it's very bad manners to perform these types of effects for kids, as they WILL do the same thing. I once made the mistake of doing a balloon swallowing effect in front of my 4 year-old nephew. My sister told me that since that time my nephew had been trying to stick balloons in his mouth, and failing to find balloons, was trying to swallow knives, spoons, forks, and anny other straight object he could find.