talkmagic.co.uk

hey people,
Im doing a magic show for kids who arent my normal audience. The age range is from about 8 years to 15. The problem i have is, due to the massive difference in age, some tricks i have wont be understood by the young ones, while other tricks will be far too simple for the older ones.

My main problem is what will impress the younger children

My routine currently consists of simple math tricks, the think of a number one, and then i tell them what number they think of. Im unsure as to whether they will 'see the magic' in tricks like sam the bellhop, and me shuffling the cards and letting them pick a cnumer, between 1 and 52, and then i tell them what card it is.

So any advice on tricks i should do to keep everyone happy, or if i should do 30 mins show for the younger kids and a 30min show for the older kids or just advice in general would be cool.

I think we've responded to very similar requests several times before, why not give the Search Function a workout and see what you can find?

Kids can be a very tough crowd. They can also be very very perceptive even more so than most adults. They seem to like more visual tricks and personally I find that cards are not a very good medium for the younger ones. Be sure that you perform effects that involve their participation. Also make sure that your script for the effects (I hate the word patter) contains humor for if you keep them laughing you will hold their attention better. Another approch that worked well for myself was to do some effects that allow them to feel that they where responsable work the sucsess of the effect that without them it would of not been possable. Being new to this forum I don't know if I'm allowed to post the tricks i loved to perform for them. I used to do magic at a YCMA camp and loved working with the kids!! This is of course my personal opinion and its been some years since I've done this kind of magic but I still remeber how much fun you can have. Good luck

8 - 15 is probably the toughest audience for a 'kids' performance, as it's at this age that they feel that they're too old or too cool for magic shows.

My advice would be to treat them like an adult audience (providing there's nothing rude or gory in your act), but watch your back, as children are much harder to fool than grown-ups, and aren't too polite to discuss how they think tricks work when you're in the middle of a performance.

Whenever I'm asked to do a show for this age range, I actually do my comedy club mentalism act, as it's a side of magic that the kids have probably never encountered before, and it's more difficult for them to deconstruct. It also involves them directly, and - the way I play it - makes them look good.

Just some thinks...

Pete

One thing to remember when doing magic for kids is to watch your angles. There's a chance that they will be able to spot something that a (much taller) adult never would!

thanks for the tips, i think naming the tricks is allowed, revealing it is not.

Awwww they dont like cards.... i guess thats a good thing though, because ill have to branch out, i was thinking of doing some rope magic because those effects are very visual.

Mentalism isnt my strong point, unless its a card effect lol.

Thanks for the advice. Also could you please suggest some effects i should do which get a good reaction

What you want is magic thats highly visual, straightforward and impressive to adults.

When you are searching specifically look for the post Mark Lewis made on this subject. So far as I am concerned it was the definitive advice piece I have ever read on entertaining children. It is brilliant

I wish I could find it myself. I always like to marvel at my own brilliance.