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I have offered to perform at my grandson's sixth birthday party in a couple of weeks time. I have a full children's party repertoire which serves me well but I have been handed a bit of a challenge here. My daughter informed me last night that it was going to be a Space / Astronaut themed party and could I incorporate any "space magic".

Any suggestions will be very warmly welcomed by me!!

Sponge magic with space rocks

http://www.magicbox.uk.com/magic-tricks ... -rock.html

D'lites would be good for some sort of star lights.
Zombie ball as some sort of floating UFO

Threadwork for some kind of anti-gravity routine sticks to mind.

Stick googly eyes on green sponge balls for an alien themed routine.

Hm... just thinking about how my sponge routines usually go, what is the chance that a 6 year old knows what a Tribble is? That would make a great routine...

-Stacy

How about dressing as an alien and showing them your alien powers rather than your magic.
Do you do Torn & restored newspaper? You could tear it then do a bit of time travel and restore it.

Not sure if it comes under the heading of space magic but Dr Who's Tardis is bigger on the inside so any routine which produces endless items, or impossibly large items from an apparently smaller or empty container could be rehashed with Tardis-like decorations and props.

Zombie or anything with 'zero gravity'

look at "help, my supply teacher is magic" from cbbc earlier this week.
John Archer has a good zombie effect to capture invisible flies. could be used to capture space dust, or invisible aliens.

The Muscle Pass screams anti-gravity to me and looks like real magic to boot.

I never change my routines to fit a theme. I can change my patter quite easily, which I find more effective. That way leaves me with routines I know well, and do not screw up.

Just do all your usual routines but claim you are in space while you perform them, or spin some story about how some 12 eyed green blob type character taught you how to do the trick while you were shopping in the Co-op on Planet Mongogo immediately before you perform them.

Out of this World???

Just kidding, not age appropriate.

Alien Autopsy by Jim Pace?

You could get some blank cards and make up a set of Colour Monte cards which are alien/ufo themed.
If you know the muscle pass you could perform the Coin That Falls Up and demonstrate gravity on the moon/other planets.
Sponge balls could be planets.
D'lites could be used to fit a space theme...

Lord Freddie wrote:Sponge balls could be planets.
D'lites could be used to fit a space theme...

When I read the original post, both of these came to mind, in partcular Jay Scott Berry's wonderful Magic of the Spheres routine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ktMTfxarEc

Which you don't really have time to learn, sadly. Perhaps you can come up with something similar based on what you already do.

You can also get sponge stars (I think the yellow ones look a lot better than the red), which might suit a regular sponge routine you do.

What you might have time to buy and learn is Phil Goldstein's Procket (which sounds like it could use a visit to innuendo bingo).

This is a quick packet routine involving four picture cards. One shows a rocket ship; it's dealt to the table. The others bear the numerals for a countdown, and the cards are dealt as the performer calls out, "Three, two, one... blast off!!" With this final exclamation, the initial card is turned up, and the rocket is gone, replaced by an explosion denoting its magical departure! The best part is that the rocket is then reproduced from the magician's pocket!

Something else that occurred to me is a rising card effect, representing a rocket taking off, maybe with a card you've drawn a rocket on (bearing in mind the audience age). You could also simulate a rocket launch with something like the Silver Sceptre.

I am not sure how good six year olds are on the concept of gravity. Obviously, they will know things fall down when dropped, but I am not sure if they'd grasp that the moon has less gravity than the earth, or that things float in space. If it is appropriate, then you've also got levitations and other anti-gravity tricks.

I've done a cups and balls routine in the past using those little charity bugs as aliens, the cups and space ships and told a little story about naughty alien children teleporting themselves around the ships. It was pretty much made up on the spot for my nephew but was good fun.