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What character do you play when you're performing? How much of it is related to you?
Was it a concious descision or did it just sort of evolve?
In trying to make my kid's show more proffesional I'm trying to work on what I wear, how I present myself, what my table and props look like etc.
I have found that for my kid's show I do the whole magic out of control thing - where I'm trying to show them some magic, but other magical things keep on happening and confusing what I'm doing. It's what works for me and the kids enjoy it. That way I can also get away with some sucker effects, but the joke's really on me - like I got it wrong.
I personally like the idea of being a clown that is no longer a clown, but is trying to do magic.

I was thinking of making a table out of an old large suitcase - with stickers all over it - ie. I open the suitcase and put it on it's side and thn put some kind of table top on top. I'd like to dress in a similar fashion - get a jacket that's a bit too big for me (difficult cos I'm quite tall). At the moment i wear every day clothes - cords with a black shirt, but now that I'm starting to do more shows I'd like to take things a bit more seriously.

Ok - I'm kind of rambling here and thinking out loud at the same time (making it easy for the mentalists ) But - I'd be keen to hear your thinking in this area ie. how your character(if any) evolved etc.

I also do a closeup dinner table routine for adults - with that I'm different - I find I'm much more myself then - although with the kid's shows I'm also playing a part of me that I can only be in front of kids - dunno if that makes sense?

In general terms I think it's best just to exagerate who you are slightly. People don't want to be entertained by just anybody; you have to be memorable. But people don't like fakes either and that is why it's a good idea to exagerate your own personality more because then you already have something to work with.

Also if you have a theme (such as your magic out of control idea) play up to that so that you are not simply performing but instead you are part of the performance.

Once you start performing in a certain style that style will become stronger and more obvious and it will evolve with you.

Every day's a school day!!

I have never thought about things like that (your character) when i do magic i just be myself and it seems to work.

I feel that, unless you are looking to be quite different to your normal self, spending a lot of time thinking about your character is probably not the way to go. If you go out and perform you will start to develope a feel and flow to your personality wich will be an enlarged version of yourself.

On the other hand, you might want to be someone different, for a stage show or kids parties, or even for your closeup. I would suggest you think carefully about the sort of character you want: do you want to be the bumbler, never quite sure why it all works? or maybe a great and powerful wizard or a clown? Once you've decided what you want to achieve, watch other performers in the same vein and see how they achieve it, then read up on acting techniques. You will probably go out and perform and make a complete hash of it until it finally clicks.

In my case I've looked at how I perform naturally. With the kids it seems to be the "bumbling, not sure how it works" thing - it makes them laugh
So I want to emphasise that and in a sense make a character out of who i already am when I perform. At first the bumbling thing was a good cover up for just being plain clumsy.
A couple of people at shows asked me why I don't wear a magician's outfit - cos I dressed relatively casually. So I started thinking about it and realised that there is a bit of an expectation when people are paying you. I really didn't want to do the bowtie and jacket thing - it really doesn't suit me, so I had a look at how i perform and what I could wear to emphasize that. I guess the thinking about a character thing sort of grew from there.

try bag to cape as an opener then wear it they will get the picture.