talkmagic.co.uk

Hi, welcome to TM, just lurve the hat!!

Jolly Roger wrote:On looking through this forum, I am not finding an area devoted to children's entertainment. It seems to me that as there are more professional children's entertainers in magic than any other branch of the profession, this might be a good idea.......Does anyone agree with me, or is there a category already here and I have been unable to locate it? JR

It's been suggested once or twice before but with little support and unless such a new 'room' will be used regularly then it's unlikely to be viable to create one. In fact, we've recently reduced the amount of areas and rooms on TM in response to requests to make the Forum clearer and easier to use.

Whilst we all acknowledge that being a Children's Magician takes extra skill and guts (!) the existing rooms can, and do, cater for magic equally suited to the youngsters as well as for the oldies. However, as we regularly say, few things are cast in stone on TM and we're constantly checking and considering new ideas.....

Do stop talking tosh, Roger. Do you really want this place to look like the magic cafe with 3 and a half million different sections including that rather silly one where they purport to be talking about grafting which they obviously know nothing whatever about?

Do stop talking tosh, Roger. Do you really want this place to look like the magic cafe with 3 and a half million different sections

Ofcourse I don't want this place to look like The Magic Cafe, Ronnie! All I am suggesting is a room solely for children's entertainers. I believe there are many out there who would post once the word got out. It is the most frequented area over on the Cafe I believe. As said above, it is the most popular branch of our profession, and it seems ludicrous to have all these areas on Mentalism, and none on the entertainment of children.

I can see that an area on grafting would not be popular, as my guess would be that most grafters do not own a computer, but I could be wrong. JR

I am still a newbie here, and have to confess to being somewhat confused. Maybe this forum is mainly for mentalists, and if that is the case, I shall bow out gracefully, as that is of little interest to me. However, if Children's entertainers are welcome here, then it seems they deserve their own area, in the same way as mentalists, illusionists, close-up and others specialised fields do. Do you not agree? It makes no sense to favour one over the other.....unless, ofcourse, some consider children's entertainers to be inferior! JR

I get about half of my income from childrens shows these days. I haven't found this forum to be anti-kids shows and in the general areas (Miscellaneous and Support & Tips) for magic discussion, kids magic has been discussed plenty.

Talk Magic is, however, a safe haven for mentalists in that they can discuss their business without the flaming that (generally) happens on other magic forums. This forum also has some members who are presently considered cutting edge in the mentalist field. So, the site does tend to favor the mentalist community.

All in all, though, it is a well managed site with few flame wars and run properly, to my way of thinking. Stick around, you'll enjoy the community here.

But just because they don't open a forum specifically for kids magicians doesn't mean that they are taking a shot at you personally or kids magicians generally. It's just the way that this site is.

Mike.

Roger. I have just changed my mind. I now think a children's section would be a splendid idea.

Incidentally you are correct about the grafters. I think I am the only one I know that owns a computer. And I don't know that much about it either.

In fact I know as much about computers as that dimwitted bunch on the magic cafe "step right up" section know about grafting.

It hasn't dawned on them that the Don Driver tape is a bunch of tosh and a wonderful way to do things the wrong way. Don doesn't like it when I say this and I don't like the way he gives out information which is not his to give.

Just to reinforce views expressed here and elsewhere, at TM we welcome all magicians of all skill levels whether they be professionals or ham fisted amateurs like me. There's certainly a great interest in Mentalism here but that's probably because Mentalism is still the big thing in UK magic. The separate Mentalist section was created simply to allow the free discussion and development of effects and routines out of the public eye, very much as the Magicians' Only section caters for similarly private matters on more general magic. If we had a Children's section it would be another room in the public area and there's no reason why matters specifically concerning Children's magic can't be posted and discussed in the existing areas. Perhaps it would help if the thread title made it clear, for example: Children's Magic - Favourite Routines' and then we'd all be able to pick up on the topic immediately. As was said somewhere else, we have a lot of respect for those who specialise in Children's Magic and we'd like to see more discussion on the subject if possible. At the moment, we feel the existing TM set-up caters for this as much as is required but such opinions can, and do, change!