talkmagic.co.uk

Upto now all the events I have performed at have been ones of an adult nature such as club nights, late evening wedding do's etc. Basically free of children.
Last night I was hired to perform for a 30th birthday party and preceded to work the room. I approached a group, started introducing myself and as I said the word magician a woman with maternal pride suddenly made 4 kids appear from nowhere (best trick of the night probably).
Luckily I was prepared for this scenario and had spongeballs at the ready and then moved on to ninja rings and ended with spooked (which always goes down well).
Anyway, they were entertained and the adults enjoyed it too but a duo of kids then followed me around for the rest of the night and when I performed a routine for the next group which they had seen they would comment on it before the reveal.
It didn't really spoil any effects but frustrated the hell out of me. I gave them both a deck of cards and showed them a really simple key card effect for them to go show people but that didn't work either as they then returned to show me 'improvements' they had made.
I have two major beefs really.

1) When a comedian or musician comes on stage you dont ask them to do 'one for the kids'. So how come when you introduce yourself they immediately think you are there to entertain their vile offspring?

2) As a parent and you see your kids following a stranger around who is trying to do his job by entertaining and they are clearly being an annoyance then surely have the common decency to keep those 'things' under control. I am neither a babysitter nor a clown entertainer.

I'm sure there are some here who have had this experience. What do you do?
did I mention I dislike children immensely??? For me they are up there with nazis, daily mail readers and ITV

Yes, it's annoying and they do tend to follow you about for the rest of the evening hoping that you will teach them your wizard secrets you learnt at Hogwarts or some such place.
I usually teach them the jumping rubber band trick to get rid of them as this has been exposed on kids tv and is in any basic book and they can pick it up easily and show it to their mums and dads.

It's really hard to get rid of them though. After one show they even followed me to the car when I had packed up my stuff and they tried to get their grubby little mitts on the props. I know what you mean about the parents allowing their kids to go trailing after a complete stranger, particularly in this day and age and it's annoying that some adults instantly associate 'magician' with 'children's entertainer'.

I try to put a bit of tongue in cheek fear into some aspects of my kids shows just to keep them in check. You can always perform SAW to get rid of them and then say "Now your go!"

Oh they are such little b******s aren't they. When I approached the very first table at my very first gig I immediately had four kids shoved at me as if that was what I was there for. Obviously I was more than a bit nervy and couldn't deviate from the mental path I had set for myself so the nasty blighters got Poker Player's Picnic thrust upon them. Strangely enough they quite enjoyed it and cooed with pleasure when all their cards turned out to be aces, after which the rest of the table took an interest so not all was lost.

If I'm unfortunate enough to encounter a child nowadays I just do a french drop and pull the coin from behind their guardian's ear. I then repeat this until the child is thoroughly bored, which is usually several minutes after the parent, so a tacit point is quite nicely made.

kids in an adult oriented show can be a pain, i usualy show them some sponge tricks a few coin ones then say iv'e got to entertain them boring adults now as theave paid me to do so.
but if you'd like to ask your parents for £20 i'll teach you the vanishing knot trick, iv'e only had one parent send her kid back with the £20, which i took and she became my assistant for the evening and learnt some valuablr lessons in performance as well as performing some tricks for the adults, i belive she now has her own stage show in america.

most of the time the parents tell the kids not to bother the nice man he's working, amasing how controling the parents get when you hit them in the pocket.

greedoniz wrote:did I mention I dislike children immensely??? For me they are up there with nazis, daily mail readers and ITV

Hehe, brilliant. Now you know what us children's magicians have to go through! I got punched in the you-know-whats by a little b***er at my last show. On top of that, when I was kneeling doing my Rocky Raccoon meet and greet during my finale, the little *(%*$&£* pulled Rocky's tail so hard, he knocked me over.

Children are wonderful of course, and can be incredibly rewarding to perform to, but I must admit, I had the same point of view as yourself until I had kids of my own.

Having never been in your situation, in that I've never been paid to perform for adults (just family and friends), just children, all I can advise is to think on it like this:

Treat children like McDonalds do, in that, try and suck em in young, and you'll have customers for the rest of your life. If you teach them a wee trick, and get the interest going, you never know, if you're still performing 30 years down the line, they may book you for a dinner party or something!

As the others have said, you can't go wrong with some classics of magic like the sponge balls or chop cup or something that everyone can enjoy.

give 'em a bag of sponge balls to play with, safe in the knowledge that you've rubbed your bottom on one of the sponges...

just give them a bottle of gin thats what i say...

I use the line to the mother "I am friends with Ian Huntley" that dose the trick.

Me, Greedo , bronzy et-al got asked if done kids show in the pub the other day. Honestly I ask you.

If the parents ask me to teach their little brats I usually say I will, but not until my names off of the sex offenders register. You get left alone if you say that one!

Me, Greedo , bronzy et-al got asked if done kids show in the pub the other day. Honestly I ask you.

thats why i clean up becuase i can say yes, yes i certainly do, that'll be £250 please.

Bit cheap aint ya, not even beard is that cheap in soho on a saturday night.

now, now my parol officer said it would be ok as long as i didn't try any vanishing wand tricks with the tenage girls, I'm sure the reason my bookings have tailed off is that some people out there in tv land actualy belive some of the hype they read thease days.

Why is it parents tell their children not to talk to strangers, but it's OK for the children to harass this stranger if they say they're a magician?

Don't get me started on letting children talk to and take sweets off a jolly old fat stranger in a red suit...

Try hittin' 'em with a brick!

Peter Marucci wrote:Try hittin' 'em with a brick!

yup! The court will keep the kids away from you for you!

Yes, it does happen - particularly at restaurant or wedding reception bookings. Twenty years of studying the esoteric arts, reduced to the level of a balloon bender in one phrase: "Ooh, I'll shout me kids. They like a bit of magic."

Happened once in a local eatery where I was working the tables. Wife and husband called over their two young kids "to see the magic man". So I went into a trance and claimed to be possesed by the spirit of the wife's dead grandmother. In a croaky voice I asked if the kids were behaving themselves because "we have a place this side of the veil where naughty children go to, so be warned".

The wife fainted, the children started to cry, and the husband disappeared - presumably to complain to the manager of the restaurant.

The above didn't actually happen, but it's what goes through my mind everytime some chav family associates magic with kids entertainment. The term "psychic entertainer" for me gets the message across a little better.