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Performed my first live children's party magic show for around 9 years yesterday, in front of around 15 kids, and their parents.

I ended up performing around 8 tricks, those which I was most comfortable with:

- Zombie (which I call my Grandmother's Crystal Ball)
- Unequal/Equal Ropes
- Run Rabbit Run (got a fantastic reaction to this, despite not being entirely comfortable with the patter, having only got it from themagicwand the other day (thanks Paul)
- Tail Spin (see recent review if you haven't heard of it)
- Magic Colouring Book
- Hippy Hoppy Rabbits
- Stratospheres (as the Magic Traffic Lights)
- and finished with a short Rocky Raccoon meet and greet, followed by putting him in a french arm chopper for the finale, in line with the halloween party's theme.

Notes...this was a difficult audience, and something I have not really come across before - a very mixed age group. The youngest 15 months (my nephew), then 2 at 18 months (my daughters), then around 15 between 3-6.

To make matters worse, I couldn't find my Mic, and so ended up going without my Coomber (big mistake, as I'm very quietly spoken), and although the kids were pretty quiet, the mothers in the kitchen were making so much noise it was a struggle making myself heard over them at times.

There was one child with pretty obvious ADHD (or whatever it's called now) that wouldn't sit still (and punched me in the b**ls at one point...little ~@£$($*), but the majority of the kids enjoyed the show, and those that were too young to understand generally clapped when the other kids clapped or cheered, and didn't eat any of my props.

Maybe it was the age group, but Hippy Hoppy Rabbits didn't go down well at all, they just didn't get it, whereas the Zombie, Run Rabbit Run, Tail Spin, Magic Colouring Book, and Rocky Raccoon all went down a storm.

All in all, I've learned a valuable lesson regarding my sound - I need a mic to let my voice carry properly, especially with the unfortunate background noise. All the mothers phoned the hostess of the party afterwards, and all mentioned how good the magician was.

This was just a warm up, a short 25 minute show to get me into the way of things again, I don't have enough material up to standard quite yet to perform at my previous level, but hopefully by Christmas I will have.

Well done mate! You survived - in kids magic that's the first priority! Sounds like you had a ball too. Glad to hear it.

Excellent!

Well, if anyone has any ideas, I am down to do a haloween kids' thing on Wednesday... non-spooky if possible.

themagicwand wrote:Well done mate! You survived - in kids magic that's the first priority! Sounds like you had a ball too. Glad to hear it.

thanks for that folks - Paul, your Run Rabbit Run routine provided the best reaction of the day, all the kids were shouting out with this one. Thanks again for your help

seige wrote:Excellent!

Well, if anyone has any ideas, I am down to do a haloween kids' thing on Wednesday... non-spooky if possible.

How about needle thru balloon using an orange balloon drawn to make it look like a pumpkin?

seige,

the only thing that I did that was spooky was my Arm Chopper at the end, and I only decided to do this at the end with Rocky, because there were a lot more boys in the audience than girls, and I thought that they would appriciate it a little bit more than just a Rocky meet and greet like I normally do.

My show wasn't halloween themed as far as the tricks went. A cobweb and spider hanging down from your magic table, or from one or two of your props should do the job. Alternatively, if you do kids magic yourself, if you are giving any gifts away, make these halloween themed rather than your show. So, if you would normally give away a few chocolate bars or mini magic kits or something, give them a few eye balls or plastic vampire teeth sets or something instead.

On another note, I think I read somewhere (more than likely on here) that it was you that wrote the instructions for Marc Oberon's Oddball (nice work, very clear, and to the point) - as magicdiscoman has just suggested on the Oddball thread, this would be another nice wee trick that can be adapted for the little darlings...

Well, thanks for the tips...

I have an Axtel Pizza which has only been used once (http://www.axtell.com/pizza.html ) and was quite funny last time, as most kids know what a pizza is.

I think spongeballs is the way to go, and perhaps 'Oddball' with EYEBALLS!!! (for instance, who is holding my eyeball) as I notice that most of the halloween kids' stuff this year involves gooey eyeballs.

I've already been down to Netto and invested in a ruck of giveaway halloween sweets... so even if the little bu***rs don't like the magic, they all take away a handful of e-numbers and sugar...

(Hmmm... best check for allergies and diabetes!)

snakes and eyeballs in your favourate change device to fairy cakes.
bunch of rubery worms, a change bag, some magic rhym heavey on gore and a six foot snake, (mrs seige should be able to make you one up, just a big draft excluder from spongy fabric).
sponge routine with little pumpkin heads, super softs and a black marker or regular sponge and some sissors, makeup sponges from poundland.
scary picture of frankie transfoms into casper after singing the casper song using flapper card, probably copywrited by disney.
clear tube covered with cover, incantation and scare eyeballs apear.
forgetfull frankie, comercial effect were balloon replaces frankies head.

plenty more if required.