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I don't know why they say you can't do good card magic for kids. I've shown some card work to 5 years olds and they went nuts! I know, you can not do card selection routines etc, etc BUT I've experimented with my little Kindergarten friends and they just eat up colour changes, Ambitious Card routines, and some Tenkai work.

And If I ever do a visual selected card effect, I always tell them to "Remember what that card looks like" and you can be assured they will take a mental picture and remember it all the way up to the visual card reveal. Just my two cents on the subject, so if you're ever stuck with just a deck of cards and a toddler asks to see a trick, you'll know what to do. AND If I do Ambitious Card, I have the scribble on the card for me.

Do you ever try card magic for 4,5,6,7 year olds? What effects do you use? Are they effective? Have any horror stories?

Also, on sort of an off subject, there's still ntohing more magical to a kid that age then pulling a coin from their ear and giving it to them.

I try my magic tricks on my brother who's six and although it's not the best person to do it to as they cant critisize you its still good practise so you get used to performing to people.

Hi Michael.

You're absolutely right, I've performed a lot of card magic to kids.
They do go nuts and I've had some of my best reactions.

I know, you can not do card selection routines etc, etc BUT I've experimented with my little Kindergarten friends and they just eat up colour changes, Ambitious Card routines, and some Tenkai work.

Absolutely, keep it simple. ACR is perfect. Colour changes, simple transpos, 'card to...' etc.
I have never had a problem with the names of the cards. A selected card becomes 'their card', and can be drawn on. Hey presto, problem solved. Stories are brilliant, but I would probably leave out Sam the Bellhop.

My bad bits? hmm.

Well attention span, but not as bad as I first thought.

Angles. Good grief, angles. All of my practise is based on an adult of roughly average height. I did not realise this until I performed for kids. I remember the first time I performed a visual pass (is that the correct name? You know, reversed card passed visually?). It was to a group of nine year olds, and the technique wasn't quite ready. I thought I'd get away with it. It's hard to keep your angles safe when two of them are crawling on the floor, looking up at your hands and "waiting for the magic to happen". Pah.
Solution? Practise more. Or make sure I'm at their eye level.

Oh aye, and they can be stubborn little sods. If one shouts "It was up your sleeve!" then just like that, the effect is ruined. They'll all convince themselves that this was how it worked.
Solution? Roll up sleeves.
Of course, this can be worked to an advantage. If you cover your bases, some, if not most, will think that real magic is happening.
Which of course, it is.

I did some very basic stuff for my friends little brother whilst round his house mainly as I was bored and saw a deck of cards, I mainly did some colour changes (He loved shapeshifter) and a few basic DL tricks and he loved it all.

Trouble was he wouldn't leave me alone after that . Although having said that cards would defiantly not be the best choice for kids shows far better for your traditional clown type acts with big simple effects in my very uninformed opinion as cards are just a little to subtle for young'uns.

My girlfriends 4 hear old sister LOVES magic tricks. The tricks I have to do need to be really visual, like a color change, and you have to make sure they understand what everything means.

So if I want the effect to be I put the card in the middle, I take the Joker and it becomes the selected card, I have to make sure she understands that there is only one card like hers, it's in the middle of the deck, blah blah blah.

It's cute because every time I come over now, she has some coin or somethings and says "Nick look! Look it's a coin but..." *cute shuffling of the feet* "Look over there! Now it's gone!"

She even came up and asks me to teach her what all the cards were, it was adorable.

But on second thought, I am a man, no child can sway me! (i.e. man it was adorable)

I have been told don't do cards for kids and I would repeat that to nearly all magicians. The reason is that unless you are experienced with the pace and simplicity of kids then you can loose them very easily and this is unprofesional.
I can also however relate to Michael Kras as I too have done cards for a two year old who loved it.

I don't for one minute think they understood any of it though.

Colour changes like erdenase are good. But if you are in an audience situation I would steer clear of cards for kids under 9. I am not saying you will not get a good reaction from the kids but there may be some kids there who don't understand what went on and just clap because everyone else does. If you are a pro then why loose perhaps 50% of your audience just because YOU want to do cards.
Kids magic works with props that kids handle all the time, like a hat or a box or a bag etc. They never handle cards at very young ages so have no concept of wether a card should be doing what it's doing. There's a magic box in the corner that shows moving pictures, so cards doing strange things well why not?(whats so strange about a card that changes colour) I should be able to get a group of kids under 5 cheering at anything once their wound up enough, do not think this is due to them understanding the miracle you have just acheived. They probebly loved the face you pulled half way through and dont give a second thought to the trick itself.
I am not saying don't do it, just be slow, explain properly and simply.
And be a bit more realistic as to what they are cheering about.

I understand your frustration of people labeling cards as adult only. I once told a kids magician that I did cups and balls for kids, he went through the roof. It's not a kids trick. You cant do that for kids etc.... Well if you say here is a ball and here is a cup, slow it down, and now I am doing this then they all can follow it no problem.

This is the main reason why i will say to guys doing their first kids show to stay away from cards. They will have no idea of the simplicity required and may go into it at adult pace which will cause the problems. They will use adult patter. "take the deck" "here is the pack" etc. Kids should be told "here are some cards, the backs are all red and the fronts have numbers and colours on them"

An ACR with blank cards with their drawing on one of them would be good way of creating this simplicity on a child like level.
I have done a normal deck, kid takes card, writes on it, places it back in the deck, then I spread the deck so all cards are blank except his card. Again very simple as values and suites are avoided. To the kid the numbers and pictures have vanished except HIS magic card.

WARNIG: They will now want to examine the deck (due in the main to marvin magic sets all having dodgy packs) You hand them the cards. They rip them to peices. And as I am a tight git this is another good reason to not do cards for young kids

I'm with connor o'connor on this one. No way should a pro kids' entertainer introduce a pack of cards into the mix. Firstly there is absolutely no chance that any kid under the age of 9 will understand what is going on. An ACR is pointless because for all the kids know, there may be a dozen ace of spades (or whatever) in the deck.

Now your little sister/niece etc. may totally love you doing card magic for her. But that's because it's you and not because of the trick. She loves you already. Doing it professionally for 20 hyped up kids would be suicide. As many on this forum know, I have many horror stories about kids' parties. Take it from me, card magic at a 7 year old birthday party will equal you losing their attention. and once you've lost their attention you ain't ever going to get it back. And as connor pointed out, they'll want to look at your cards, and once you've handed them over you can say good-bye to them.

I started out professionally as a magician for kids. This was many moons ago, and thankfully now I'm able to work solely as an adult magician and psychic. It's far, far easier. My road to Damascus moment came while entertaining some kids at a swanky dinner party. After the kids had been carted away, the hostess asked if I would do some card "tricks" for the adults in the dining room. What a revelation! The adults were polite, courteous, and genuinely interested in what I was doing. I made my mind up there and then. The kids' parties could go swivel! [/b]

Kids dont want to see new effects like fancy colour changes with cards, and visual vanishes!!
they want too a dove pan...an egg bag....a puppet....

I wish kids entertainers would try something new to be honest, i went to a pre school nursery the other week to see a friend and all i done was vanish a hanky a few times, i done 2 in the hand one in the pocket, and then a 3 fly routine!

the kids about 4 years old understood every little thing its all about presentation for them, if the effect doesnt work maybe you are using your adult patter?

you dont have to wear a brigh coloured suit and a wacky tie to entertain a child

aaronhayes wrote:you dont have to wear a brigh coloured suit and a wacky tie to entertain a child

Quite true, some kids are frightened by garish outfits, especially the OTT clown type costumes.

Mandrake wrote:Quite true, some kids are frightened by garish outfits, especially the OTT clown type costumes.

I know I certainly am. Clowns are the stuff of my own personal nightmares.

Anyone remember "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"? Sheer class! Or should that be sheer klass???

aaronhayes wrote

I wish kids entertainers would try something new to be honest, I went to a pre school nursery the other week to see a friend and all I done was vanish a hanky a few times, I done 2 in the hand one in the pocket, and then a 3 fly routine!

While I agree with all in his post, the above part is rather a tricky one for the kids entertainer. I do agree that most kids stuff seams to be repetative, but lots of the kids I do actualy want to see the tricks I did last time. Do the same trick with different patter and they say "I wish you did that silk thing you did last time"
They say "I love the colouring book.... Make the sponges appear in my hand.... Do the rope thing again...." The kids love you to repeat the tricks again and again and again.
It seams to even carry across shows, as if the kids go to see exactly the same show as before. I do not know why this is but kids minds do not work the same as ours and we would do well to remember this.

I am sure that this is not quite 100% what was ment in this quote. It would be nice for the average kids magician not to follow exactly the same patter as the last. Or to see differing routines. (gosh or dare I say it even a new one ) It would save a lot of bordom for the parents too

Most good kids tricks have the same trick done two or three times before a suprise ending. And surprisingly these are the exact same tricks they expect to see show after show.

examples:-
sponge balls one in hand one in pocket. Twice there are three balls in the hand then they all dissapear.
colouring book. black and white to colour to balack and white to colour etc etc then blank
cups and balls. balls appear under cups whenever they want. Then fruit appears

I am not saying that I do the same show all the time. I do have several completely differing shows. What I am pointing out is an observation of the responces I have got from my shows over the years. The resounding responce being "Do it again!!!!!!!!!"

seriously silly by david kaye puts it this way (and who am I to argue). It's not the magic with kids thats important, it's the ride.

PS I too was scared of clowns when younger.

aaronhayes wrote:Kids dont want to see new effects like fancy colour changes with cards, and visual vanishes!!

Yes they do! I couldn't disagree more.
Although I have only my own experience as evidence, as evidence goes it's pretty convincing.

I am not a kids entertainer, but I have done card magic for groups of nine year olds on a few occasions. My best reactions ever (ever ever) have been from children. Do you really think that kids do not want to see visual card magic? Cards are just props after all, and can be used just as effectively as a lot of other props. Hey, you can even use them to read minds.

Sure they're hard work, but all the more rewarding for it. Children will never feign being interested nor will they pretend not to notice if you screw up a little. They are far more transparent than adults and therefore you can always tell if you've hit the spot. In some ways I like this. If you're cr*p they'll make it quite obvious, but not with the malice or bitchiness that some of our adult counterparts would use (and they should know better ).

OK, so im only 17, and im not performing as a professional, i do have a neice who is 3.

She loves me making things dissappear, and appear. I perform simple tricks, like coin vanishes, coin resizes, sponge balls, and the one she likes best... Jam & Peanut butter sandwich!

When i was 8 i saw a magician for the first time, at my school. He performed simple tricks too, and that is what made me want to learn magic But the tricks he pulled off were things like Water in a newspaper, ripped newspaper restores, Jam and Peanut butter sandwhich, and coin restores.

But the patter is a big concern. When performing to my neice, i always keep it simple. They are easily misled - but are quick to point out when you mislead them too much. They like smiling people, and they love being involved.

I prefer the sponge balls trick for involing kids, as it is soo simple, yet they never manage to work it out. But, you cannot do it twice in a row, but you can perform it twice in a routine.

just been watching a kids magic show, and they have been performing some tricks that are pretty good! (Shame they showed the secret though )

There were things like a Levitating Wand, and never ending hankies.


Another thing, keep your colours bright, and keep your talk "childish". If you're unsure how to do that, ask a school if you can sit through a class, and get to know how the teacher works the kids. Gives you a little bit more of an idea of how to keep them entertained.

good simple advice from monsterous2008, welcolme to the boards.

marvomarky wrote

Yes they do! I couldn't disagree more.
Although I have only my own experience as evidence, as evidence goes it's pretty convincing.

And I entirely agree with all your post.
So how can I both agree and dissagree with cards for kids?


It comes down the fact that their is an age cut off for card tricks for kids.
And its quite a sharp cut off between understanding and no understanding.
Kids start handling cards at about 5, mr bun the baker, lexicon etc and know about playing cards at about 8. Now don't go and give me loads of posts about my kid knew them at 4 and 6 because I am talking about the age at which you can be reasomly sure that 99% of your audience will have handled cards to the experience level that is required for them to understand your trick. Also it will depend on the group of kids. For example my two year old can sort cards into red and black and understands court cards(boy, mummy and daddy cards). But this is because I have cards lying about all day(she has real hands on experience of them). Do card tricks for magicians kids and they will probably be stunned at 4, and telling you your back palm stinks at 4 3/4.

as I wrote earlier

if you are in an audience situation I would steer clear of cards for kids under 9.

It is generaly considered that adult card magic can be done at about age 9 onwards. You now need to consider the make up of your audience. If they are of mixed ages, 5 to 10 don't do cards as you will get a great reaction but the under sevens won't get it. if 7 to 13 then perhaps it's worth the risk.

The original question was do we do card magic for 4,5,6 or 7 year olds? My answer is

Yes informaly, but I do a quick simple one. If they don't get it then I move on before I loose them(but this is usualy for the adults to watch so they know I do cards and I may get an adult show booking ), OR I know the kid so I can judge it. Also be realistic about what they may be cheering. Is it the funny face or the fact that they are being shown something new, cards. Kids this young are amazed by anything new, pen lid, new crayons, empty box.... We kids magicians have a lot to compete with

NEVER in a proffesional performance.