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Doesn't anybody else try and work out their ideal volunteer at the time of their original routine outline?

I know I have only done a few children's shows, but I try and have a picture of the age and sex of the "ideal" child I would look for as a volunteer for that routine.
( Can't think of a better way to describe it, but if someone tries to make an innuendo of that, it would just be sick.)

I do a routine with my Dog Arm Puppet. It uses 3 children. For this, the ideal I am looking for is 2 girls and 1 boy. Ages about 5-6.
The extra girl for 2 reasons. First, I think they would enjoy the puppet more. Second, I just feel that 2 girls help each other and the boy more, if help was needed. The age is because they are old enough to understand and help with tha routine, but not too old to feel it is too childish. I remember that children may think something is magic while in the audience, yet feel foolish as they consider it childish, if they are helping with that routine.

Even on a stage show for adults, I could imagine their could be problems with selecting a volunteer randomly. Imagine doing a sponge ball routine, asking them to open their hands, where two appear in their hand.
Now imagine asking how many she has, if she was an Essex girl. You could be there half the night while she tried to add them up.

There are some very good points about spectator selection in Max Maven's Nothing DVD, with remarks about who was chosen for each trick and why.

Each selection depends on the particular trick and its requirements, and for some effects he's thinking several tricks ahead, spotting spectators to be used later on many grounds: apparent intelligence, personality, willingness to cooperate, and even location in the audience, which is crucial for some of the effects.

For example, for his psychometry effect ("Psycho-Metier"), he needs five spectators in a roughly even mix of male and female, all willing and able to follow instructions without supervision, interesting enough to make a good showing, sitting far enough away from him and each other to make collusion unlikely, and two of them need to be similar in sex, age, and personal style for the trick's finale. This takes a lot of finding, and he starts looking around and judging people right from the beginning of the show, even though the effect comes near the end.

In contrast, in his "add a number" prediction ("The Nile Derivation"), the only thing each spectator has to do is name a single-digit number, and anyone can do that. So he calls on spectators who wouldn't necessarily be suitable for starring roles in other effects. These spectators are seated well into the audience, so he can walk among the audience and let people see he is writing down the same numbers that are called out, without having to draw special attention to this.

Similarly, in his version of Bank Night ("Just Chintz"), each spectator only has to roll a die and be a good enough sport to accept a gag prize. So again he calls on people he knows he won't be using for anything else.

My stage selection process can really vary by show, audeince, how I am feeling, effect requirements, etc.

For example...in my comedy routine, I make a baseball player style "step and toss" motion, only to switch out what was at first a real golf ball to a foam ball, mid wind up...it gets people scattering and often gets a good laugh.

I also have some effects where I need a specifice spec..for one routine, I need to have someone that is much shorter than me when standing beside me...as it it helps with my angles (it is a gag on the spec)

If I have roaming time at a dinner event - prior to my after supper stage show - I use that time to source out personalities, etc that will fit my routine for the night.

As for random...tossing a foam ball works well....have thought about the paper airplane as a selection device as well.

I haven't watched it in a while, but I'm pretty sure Andy Nyman's DVD, Get Nyman, contains some great advice on spectator selection.