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Back in August I was on holiday with my brother and familly and doing a few tricks for them one evening. My sister in law, a teacher asked me if I would do an act for her class Christmas party. Red wine and flattery made me say yes. Now the chickens are coming home to roost so to speak.

She rang me on Monday to say that the party is on 13th Decembre and how would I feel about entertaining 60 6/7 year olds! It seems that she has told her colleagues and two other classes want to join in. What I finally agreed was that I would do the show three times, once to each class. I was somewhat daunted by the idea of facing 60 children at once!

Now, what was a small favour promised somehwere out on a balmy evening in the Mediteranean, has become a full blown performance and I am somewhat nervous. I know that there have been threads about this sort of performance before but I would be grateful for opinions on what I plan to do.

So far I haven't got a running order and my repertoire of truly childrens tricks is limitted. I can't see an ace production courtesy of Simon Lovell cutting it in this environment!

So, I am going with TT and silk disappearance / appearance, some trickery with a foo can making water disappear and then reappear coloured (note: do not use food colouring it takes weeks to get the stains out of your fingers!), magic colouring book using a colour changing silk to supply the final colour, Metamorpho Spots with a nice little routine Mike Danata showed me when I bought it in his shop, possibly some sponge ball multiplication and as a finale the Magic Egg Can using teacher as the "victim". I am only looking for about 20 minutes and intend to use my finger flasher occasionally to make the magic happen.

Is there anything anyone can recommend as an absolute must that I should add to this? I seem to remember somebody posting a bit about using D Lites to make fairies appear. I can't find it now but do like the idea, it fits in nicely with Christmas, I wouldn't mind a pointer on that one if anyone recalls it.

All tips will be very gratefully received

D'Lites would be cool for 60 children - ask for the lights to be turned of and then you can show the kids where the magic realyl is - at your fingertips!

Also, see if you can get hold of the Silver Sceptre - I can't remember where I got mine from, but I'll find out.

I tell you what, 60 6 year olds are going to be so noisy. You'll have a whale of a time.

Here's my review of the Silver Sceptre, including the link to where I bought it from. It's well worth the money - if I'd have known how powerful this can be, I'd have happily paid £25 for it.

Thanks, at £12 I can't go wrong. Ordered one this afternoon.

First off.....good call on splitting the little goobers up! With that age group you would lose your mind with 60 of them.

As far as the effects you listed go....that is a great selection of effects, and all of the visual nature and ideal for them......a couple of other suggestions for you:

Cups and balls are always fun for kids

Cut and restored rope is easy and fun

Chico the chimp will get them laughing for sure

How about a "misers dream" routine with choclate coins....hand them out after

Linking rings

My closer with all my young school groups is as follows.....actually PM if you are interested, it is easy and the kids will love it!

Thanks, can't think why I didn't put Cups and Balls in, I have been studying the Michael Ammar DVD for the past four weeks! It is now in the programme

Oh, and another thing. We have gone so politically correct mad in this country that, at this school anyway, I am not allowed to hand out sweets without parents permission!!! I am still trying to decide what to fill up the whatsit in the egg can with, I usually use chocolate eggs

Well, yesterday was the day.

The performance was split in to three with 20 childrenat a time. The third group had the advantage of seeing me with my nerves under control and the tips picked up in the first two put in practice.

I started with a disappearing silk and TT, just to test their calling out of the magic words.. Then I did a little routine with an invisible ball which I threw to the audience, the threw back and I caught it in my change bag. After a few throws it turned in to a real sponge ball. I did a Magic Bottle and rope routine which brought up a couple of volunteers. I was well pleased with this, it was home made after reading it up in Mark Wilsons Complete Course

Then I did disappearing and reappearing water in a foo can, a routine with the silver sceptre which as predicted was a big hit, I did Metamorpho Spots wwith loads of interaction and my finale was a Magic Colouring book routine incorporating a Chameleon Silk (I bought the silk from Mike Danatas Magic Shop and got in to a terrible muddle whilst rehearsing yesterday morning. So I phoned Mike who very helpfully put me right. Thats customer service!)

Now, what I did wrong. My biggest failing was to forget the main prop for my intended finale. I had intended to finale each session with a Magic Egg Can routine roping in the teachers as victims. I forgot to take the eggs! I mentioned this to a teacher who helpfully offered to get me some from the canteen and I had an interesting few minutes trying to explain why that wouldn't work without blowing the secret!

The whole set took about 20 minutes which was long enough for each group and certainly from the kids point of view went down really well.

This was my first exposure to a live audience that was not familly, firends or magic club colleagues. I know that I was dry mouthed and a bit stilted on the first run through but the kids didn't notice. The kids laughed, they shouted (when appropriate), they joined in, they went oohh and ahh when the water disappeared or I sent up a flare from my finger flasher and they genuinely seemed to enjoy.

For me it was a huge experience and one that I am really keen to repeat. For now I am happy to cut my teeth giving free shows but can now see that earning a bit from this sort of thing is a possibility.

A question arises from that possibility. I know that if I am going to do this regularly I need third party insuarance. Any tips on a good place to buy? Also, will I be asked for CRB clearance if I start to work with children regularly?

Anyway, it was a great day and a big step forward in magic for me.

Johnny Wizz wrote:will I be asked for CRB clearance if I start to work with children regularly?

Quite likely that you will - the way things are going in that direction even if you have no direct contact with children but are working regularly in the same building where they can 'get used' to seeing you, you might have to be checked over. There are bound to be some zealous overuses of what was supposed to be careful and essential legislation to protect children but at least you'll be able to reassure potential bookers that the CRB checks are all OK. I'm not sure how you go about it these days, at one time the organisation employing you had to arrange for the checks to be made rather than you arranging it yourself.

PS Congrats on your gig, it sounds like everyone had a good time!

Thanks for the response, I can sort out the how now I know its going to be required at some stage.

The company I work for has to do it for service engineers we employ so I will go and have a chat with our personnel people

CRB clearance is almost always required if you are going to do anything in a school. The headteacher will usually just give you sheet and you fill it out and sent it off. It's no problem and only takes minutes to fill out. If you send yours off at a time when loads of people are sending off theirs then you may have to wait a while.

Edit: I forgot the point I was going to make. In my experience kids will eat chocolate even if they know it will kill them. Or drink a pint of Tango, knowing they're diabetic. If I was going to give out prizes they would be non-edible.

CRBs are always a pain, you don't actually NEED one as long as the teachers are present at all times. However it might be a good idea to get it done as I'd expect some schools might want you to have one.

Anyway sounds like a great gig, well done!