talkmagic.co.uk

OK here goes.

Just before I went on holiday two weeks ago I agreed to entertain at a friends' daughter's birthday party. My friend works with me in Hospital Radio and throughout the year, Hospital Radio attend various events (Childrens' Festival, School Fetes etc) in and around Colchester. With the experience I have in live entertainment from my holiday park days, I love going along and presenting/hosting whichever event we're at and normally we end up playing games with kids to fill some time.

Basically, my friend's daughter's brithday is Thursday, and, given what he's seen at our Hospital Radio events over the last two Summers, he would like me to go along to her birthday party and play some games and do some magic. The magic bit of it only came about because I mentioned that I was really into doing a bit of magic and would love to go pro. I didn't think he'd offer me a job!

So, the party is arranged 2-4pm on Thursday. She's going to be 5 years old. I've got my fingers crossed that I can borrow a mage friend's strat-o-sphere/joker tube/whatever you want to call it, but other than that, I'm literally screwed for ideas.

I think he's more than happy for me to play a load of games 'to keep them occupied' if nothing else, but I know he'd rather see me do a bit of magic as well.

So there is the problem. I've worked and entertained kids before but never done magic for them. The party is two hours long. At the moment all I think I can use of my own collection is quite a bit of rope (I now regret buying all those damn card books...). I'm hoping to get hold of a mate's stratosphere, and I am comfortable doing a few balloon models.

Guys, please, if you can help me, then don't hold back.

I've left it this late because I lost my job last week (see other thread) so things have been a bit up in the air the last few days. However, this is a bonus as it means I have plenty of rehearsal time.

Thanks in advance.

how about mini mm's from a silk using TT, obvisouly only get about 12-15 in there, but could be given to birthday person

Calm down Zack

How about:

1. Cut and restored rope.
2. Vanish a sponge ball or silk in a TT
3. Put a modelling balloon in a TT, say you will make a doggie appear and pull out the balloon. The child shouts that is not a doggie. "Yes it is" you say "it is a balloon doggie!"

My Strat - O - Sphere rountine involves the owner of a sweet shop wanting a display for his window. He calls his worker to do it but the worker keeps getting it wrong (perform usual rountine). You get the gist? PM me if you would like the full script.

I currently getting prepared for a children's party for 40 on Saturday so if i think of anything else i will post it or PM you.

how about...booking a kids entertainer

5 is not an easy age to keep entertained for long.

The very best of luck....

have pm'd you

i am writing a PM for you (allow some time, this is big!)

Many, many, many thansk for your pm's and advice guys.

I've hunted around and found some past threads that have been of some help too.

Stephen, you were right, and you'll be happy to hear that I have calmed down somewhat!

At the moment, magic-wise, I think I'm going to go with cut-and-restored rope, Stratosphere (if I can get hold of it) and a Sliding Die Box (borrowed too). I've come across a set of sponge balls in my collection, so some by-play with those looks like a promising option too.

Does anyone know how long that kind of set can last? I figure the party is 2-4, they need to eat, so half hour of magic, half hour of games and 15 minutes of balloons should work out ok, yes?

Sponge balls! You are getting another PM

Zack wrote:
Does anyone know how long that kind of set can last? I figure the party is 2-4, they need to eat, so half hour of magic, half hour of games and 15 minutes of balloons should work out ok, yes?

Sounds Good Zack

From reactions with 6-year-old (mentioned in other post) TTs are good for kids - I liked {EDIT: Actually, now I think about it it was taneous'...} idea:

"First, we need to warm up the magic, so everybody hold out your left hands and wiggle them. Like this! Now your right hands too...perfect! Now close your left hand into a fist and rub it, thusly. Say "izzle bizzle bee (or something similar) and take the silk out of your fist. What, you don't have one?".

;D.

Kati

As Kati has edited above, I'll edit here otherwise it makes no sense.
(Like many of my posts). :D

Hey Zack
You have your time allotted pretty well each activity 30 minutes or so, to get extra time out of the balloons make them each a balloon hat after everyone has an animal.
I would do at least one sucker trick near the begining of the show. Many entertainers don't do sucker tricks for kids shows, but one near the beginning makes 5 year old think maybe they don't know how you are doing everything. This being your first kids show, that is an advantage you will need.
Make your host save the cake and candys for the end of the party. You don't want that suger rush kicking in untill they are ready to leave.
Rope tricks are great for kids, the sillyer the better. Kill time with kids holding silly magic wands. With kids show it's not the number of tricks that you do, it's how much you make the kids laugh.
For more ideas on planing a kids show check out the page called "party ideas" on my website www.iyqent.com let us know how it goes.

Hi Zack

I find that I can do a show of around 40 mins for 5 year olds. Anything over that is pushing it - but I have done longer a few times when it was raining and the parents looked a bit desperate (although I suppose that's the norm in the UK ). I have 5 routines in my show and a whole lot of gags (that add to the effects). The key is to get them laughing - that way they're happy and so are the parents. They laugh at silly things - like if you were doing C&R rope - put the scisors sticking out of your pocket or something so they can see them - and then pretend to look everywhere for them (in kid's ears while pulling out sponge balls, coins etc.) . The whole time they will be shouting to you that they're in your pocket and you either ignore them or look in the wrong pocket. That kind of thing entertains them and stretches a 30s trick into 5 mins or more.
You can spend at least 3 mins blowing up a balloon - get a balloon and cut a hole at the end so that when you blow it up it flaps around making funny sounds. Then stretch it and let go so that it flies out your hand - or snps on your finger and you pretend it hurt you. Pretend to tie it off - but don't - then hand it to a kid to hold while you get something and let go so it flies away. Blow it up back to front etc.etc.
Sponge balls are excellent - but give them personality.

The main thing is to have fun - this can be a difficult age to perform for, but it can also be a lot of fun. 5 year olds have a crazy sense of humour and if you hook in to it you'll enjoy yourself as much as they do.

The party was Thursday. I thought I'd let you all know how I got on.

Personally, I feel that I can do SO much better than how it turned out.

The party itself was a bit different to how I expected it - the kids arrived at 2pm (about 12 of them, mostly aged 5, but one slightly older boy), and, as the birthday girl's parent have a big garden, they all went straight for the trampoline and slide/swing play-area. My friend said that he'd like to leave them playing until about 2:40, when we'd play a game or two, then do a bit of magic. Hopefully we'd have them sitting down for food at 3pm, playing for ten minutes or so until 3:40, then play one more game and then have balloons.

"Result," I thought - that meant just 15 mins of magic and a whole load of balloons at the end. As the pros here will know - things generally don't work out as planned.

The kids played til 2:35, then we had a game of musical statues - only 9 of them wanted to play, and I think my friend was put off by this - so he said after that one game "Who wants to see some magic?" The kids cheered.

I was on.

I was going to start off with the sliding die box, then do a professor's nightmare routine, ending with a change bag to produce the three ropes 'as one' but knotted together with pop-off knots.

I performed the sliding die box (a BIG thank you to Bananafish for lending me his, and for Mr Mystic's advice on starting with a sucker-effect), and managed to load the 'die' into the wrong side of the box. This meant that there was no sliding sound as I tipped it from one side to the other. bu**er. Instead, I shook it and it rattled somewhat, so the kids had a vague idea of what I was up to. It worked, and I was quite surprised to see a five-year-old run up to me and pull open the other door on the front of the box. I was hoping to milk it a bit more, but his face as it opened was a picture. I pulled the die out of the black top-hat, and the kids seemed impressed.

I moved on to Professor's Nightmare, and got two kids from the group to come up and help me - a boy and a girl that I had found out earlier were 'boyfriend and girlfriend' (the girl was the birthday girl, too - bonus). I gave them the ends of the three ropes to pull apart (I kept my hand at the right point of the rope), and announced that they were now married. I transformed the three ropes back to their original sizes and got the little boy to put them into my change bag (thanks again Bananafish!), in the 'correct order' (a spot of quick thinking that turned out to be quite funny as he kept dropping them!). I pulled out of the chage bag one long piece of rope with two pop-off knots on it, making it look as though the three ropes had tied themselves together. I popped the knots off, then gave each one to the two 'helpers,' and told them they should keep them as they were as special as wedding rings. Ah. Bless. She kept hers in her hand for the rest of the afternoon!

"That went OK," I was thinking, until I looked at my watch. It was only 2:50! The magic had lasted all of 6 minutes. I was gutted. Andy (my friend) noticed that I was a bit lost at this point, and suggested some food for everyone. Thankfully, they agreed.

Whilst they were eating, I was chatting to Andy and explaining I thought it would last a bit longer, and, to make up for it, I said I could do some more magic before I did the balloons. I had packed my sponge rabbits, I still had that long piece of rope from Prof Nightmare and my TT was loaded with a balloon with a hole in the end, as per suggestions above. It made sense as if I didn't give it a go, I'd never know if I could do it.

They finished their food, had five minutes or so on the trampoline and we played pass the parcel. It was now 3:40, and time for my last bits of magic and for a balloon for everyone. I did the cut-and-restored routine, which went OK, but I saw the parents watch me dump the knots in my pocket as I pulled out the scissors, so that put me off somewhat.

The sponge rabbits went down a treat - I asked the kids if any of them had a pet rabbit, and only two did - I asked the girl if she'd help me with my rabbits that I had brought along. She obliged, and her face was a picture when she opened her hand to two big rabbits and the five babies.

As a reward for helping, I said that I'd give her a dog - but it would have to appear in my hands first. I pulled the balloon out the TT and continued as you can imagine. By the time I'd made everyone a balloon, it was 4:10pm, and everyone was all set to leave.

I insisted that Andy gave me no money for turning up, because I was just thankful for the opportunity and disappointed with how I did - but he slipped a few £20 notes my way "to cover your petrol, mate."

I was pleased he'd thought I was worth a bit of money, and his wife and the kids seemed to really enjoy everything I did. The thing is, I left there absolutely deflated. This is why.

My patter went to sh*t.

Loading the die incorrectly put me right off to start with - I'd planned to make it vanish and have it fly around the garden, invisibly of course, causing all sorts of mayhem. But, no, I messed up, it put me off and then the darling little five year old got up and pulled open the door anyway.

Prof. Nightmare went better, except that as I pulled the rope out of the change-bag, one of the kids made a grab for it and the lower knot fell off - again, I'd missed the chance for some patter. I was going to say the magic had gone wrong and that the ropes had merely knotted together, instead of turning into one. Cue the two helpers blowing on each knot etc etc, but as one had come off, it made sense for the other one to fall off immediately.

The cut-and-restored went alright, but I found myself merely describing what was going on, rather than making it entertaining. The adults watching my hand go to my pocket put me off, too. The same happened with the rabbits - I merely described what was going on. I was most disappointed with myself because the story attached to the rabbits is so easy to remember, and it would have worked a treat. However, my mind was blank.

I pulled the balloon from the TT, but again felt conscious of dumping it, but it wasn't spotted. The balloons, in my opinion, were the best bit of the afternoon - the by-play with pretending to tie it and giving it to the helper all worked a treat, and everyone was laughing.

The only slightly annoying bit about the balloons was that I had practised my balloons for a couple of days previous, but as soon as one of the kids asked for a sword, that's what they all wanted! I made two dogs and ten swords!

All in all, I rate my performance on Thursday as low. The kids enjoyed it, in fact I overheard a couple of them talking about the dice disappearing into the hat, which was good to hear.

So there we have it. There's loads more I want to say, mainly along the lines of "I wish I'd had this..." or "I wish I'd done that..." but I'll save it for now.

Again, a big thank you for everyone's help, most noteably Bananafish for the die box and change bag, and for Stephenmagic for all his pm's (about five or six in total - he knows his stuff!).

Does this mean I can change my profile to WP? No? Damn. Not even for one day? OK. I understand...

Glad your show went well, see we told you it would be fine