I've been approached to perform for children (5-7) for children's day..
Appreciate if some advice could be given..

And also, what do y'all think about Snowstorm In China?

Ade

spongeballs and coins.
they get confused with cards.

oh ok.. thanks :)

so cups and balls routine should be fine?
what about ropes?

Ade

Hey Ade :)

Wow! This is great, is this your first kid's show? For young children, I'd recommend things like rope tricks (fun/ comedy stuff), magic coloring book, colorful silk magic, streamers, mouth coils, slush powder/ instant snow, and ending with snow storm ^_^

Good luck with your show... do tell us more!

Cheers,
Ning ;)

Young kids will definately love cups and balls. It's my fav too! :D

Yea rope magic will be great. But if you want more interaction, then sponge balls or silk.

Good luck with your children show :D

i advise against cups and balls. it tends to get too repetitive and confusing for children.

Hmmm... actually, it all depends on the style and patter. I think done right in a suitable way it will be very entertaining for kids :)

For kids anything visual and entrtaining will be fine as long as it is not cards :D

Great, first kid's show?

I just done one for the kids and young children,

started with the story of the magic ward

Magic ward and spongeballs produce

3 friends Rope

Magic ward and Magic coloring book

Colorful silk magic Tube

TT and the streamers

Magic hat and it friend

Show can be use (if you had people to clear and clean the place)

God Bless
M.A.D. B)

I tink when u are performing to kids it is best to use those magic which are v obvious..like levitation these kind. ^_^ they will like it...

one advice, after u perform, quickly pack yr thing and do not let them touch yr things..my card levitating a match stick was nearly exposed by kids as they just take any card n try..

oh yes..
i tried some magic with my nephews and niece before. they tried to take my stuff and mess with them. luckily i got their moms to bring them away...

Ade.

unless ur ready, feel free to decline the show, esp if its a large one.

and the problem of grabbers arent particular with kids, adults do too, especially in a strong effect. but is it necessarily their fault? how else can a performer avert that besides immediately putting the prop aside (which kinds of gives them a solution, does it not?)?

Vanish them before putting away your stuff? :P

But seriously, sometimes the adults also try to come up and make me say the secret (which i obviously didn't give away) but i don't think they will grab your stuff.. Adults are supposed to be better mannered, isn't it? ^_^

Ade.

HA..HA... B)

i once drop my TT, i total them this was my 3rd T and given by my doctor Mr Magic.

u'll be surprised, especially if the effect is very very strong. but then again, they shud not suspect anything in the first place. but what this shows is that good magic reaches the emotions.

Spellbinder and I just collaborated on writing up our routines for the Magic Coloring Book. We do it differently than most. For one thing, we use real coloring books colored by real crayons, not the commercial book that is printed in ink colors. The instructions also include directions for making your own books, vanishing crayons, color catching scarf or book-bag, multiplying crayons and reappearing crayons. At the end of the routine, you are left clean with an uncolored coloring book you can give to your helper, along with the crayons which have reappeared. It's on Spellbinder's site for those interested : http://www.magicnook.com

Whoa. That sounds cool. i did thought of incorporating coloring book, but was not sure how.. i'll definitely check it out..
thanks
Ade.

Hey all doing children's magic.
i got the magic colouring book from the site. i think its really worth it if you are doing children's magic. yep. its cool.
Ade.

Yup... Magic Colouring Book never fails to entertain the young kids. Infact, some Magic Colouring Book do have a small prediction effect on the book itself.

Magic Colouring Book is my most requested effect among young kids.

as david kayes says "it's the journey, not the destination..."

rather than choosing the acts that are suitable, think about the "journey" more... :) you can even use ambitious card routine if you can make the journey suitable for kids.

Mr Bottle,

i buy the ideas of David Kayes saying "it's the journey, not the destination..."

and agree with you on rather than choosing the acts that are suitable, think about the "journey" more... :)

yes we can even use ambitious card routine if you can make the journey suitable for kids.

M.A.D. B)

Eleazar Goodenough is an eight-year-old magician who has written a book "Tear-Able Magic" (available on my site) which is all about his paper magic for Wizards.

I recently got to see him perform a show for kids his own age or younger and now I see why younger magicians are so obsessed with having tricks that can be examined by the audience. This audience of kids literally grabbed stuff out of his hands, off his table and even tried to rummage through his trunk.

I have seen Eleazar perform for adults. Adults are in awe of him because he is so young and yet so professional, but to the kids, he is just "one of them" and they have no respect except when he fools them completely. Even then they can't believe it and grab things to figure out how he did it.

I wouldn't have taken it, but Eleazar kept cool and continued to earn their respect by performing trick after trick where he stayed one step ahead of them, managing to get rid of gimmicks just seconds before they grabbed for the props. I noticed that his Ultimate Newspaper Tear had a new ending that blew them all away. I wrote it up and added it to that chapter in his book because it was so clever:

"During the tearing of the newspaper, the Wizard 'accidentally' drops an odd shaped torn piece to the floor. Then when he shakes out the restored paper, the audience (especially if they are kids!) is quick to note the odd shaped torn section on one corner of the newspaper and the torn piece still lying on the floor. The Wizard picks up the piece to show that it exactly fits in the corner section. But wait... there's more! He gives it a flick and the torn piece merges with the rest of the restored newspaper. He rubs the corner to show that it is solidly restored, and then casually drops the entire restored newspaper into the hands of the nearest spectator before going on with the next effect."

An audience of adults would normally pass the restored newspaper around in amazement, but these kids just tore it up and handed him back the pieces, challenging him to do it again. To my amazement, he took the pieces and did just that! Then he handed the doubly restored newspaper back to the kids and told them that if they tore it up again, they could put it back together themselves because he was finished with it.

After the show, he told me that he was always ready for this extra restoration when he worked kid audiences. His Ultimate Newspaper Tear allows for this kind of repetition because it is so clean. I have to admit it worked. The kids pretty much settled down after that and paid more attention to the rest of his show, convinced that he could really do magic.

I've been approached to perform for children (4-6) for birthday celebration..

i am doing this few magic for them

Appearing coin from no where
Coin thur eye
Basic Cups and Balls
Animal Balloon
Rainbow Ropes
Card mind reading
Palm and throw

Appreciate if some advice could be given..

M.A.D. B)

kid's magic needs to be visual i guess.... any visual magic will go well with children...

That's why the success of professor's nightmare, colour changing silks, etc.

cups and balls MAY be a lil too confusing for them as some may think they aren't looking closely enough, BUT it depends on how u do it la.

I love the peanut butter and jelly illusion from penguin. =)

gd lucks~

Hi Nyx. Thank for you suggestion and pointer, i believe you know best what they like 4-6 years old, you have loved magic ever since you was in kindergarten.

Last night i SMS number of the SMC and friends in the magic circle
their suggestion was...

Jeff McB open acts
Hand Coil
TT & Steamer
Basic Cups and Balls(SponseBall produce)
Basic Sponse Balls
Animal Balloon
Simple Card Mind Reading
Simple Card in the Air...

MAD B)

To be frank, when i was young, i was intrigued by any kind of magic performances. I'd catch every specials on tv, be very enthusiastic in primary schools when there's a show, etc..

What matters most is to present it magically. I remember my dad showing me a stripper and he did it like, mix the card in the middle and bam he got it out again. that didn't impress me. haha.

i thk u can do cards! be creative.. u dun have to use poke cards! use pokemon, etc cards intead.. and after the peformance , give the cards to them.... btw , u can levitate the pokemon cards or make it vanish or make it appear out of nowhere...

Although this thread so old already.. I'd like to give my 2 cents worth...

To prevent curious kids from tampering with your stuff...

At the start of the show... take a big masking tape... make sure the colour is any of the primary colours ( haha)

Then tell the kids "ok... I'm going to paste this tape on the floor.. No one should cross the this side unless I call for your help ok kids?" something like that.. no need to sound so uncle like me....

Then ah... you appoint a monitress or monitor... tell him to 'jaga'.... anyone cross the line tell him to report it to you....

This tip I got from a lao chiao... it's so very useful..... honestly it helped me through all the kids shows... so ya.. i'm passing it on to you guys....

good luck with the kids shows!!!

fiQ

Hey, I really like that statement. I agree with it.

My view is also that performers, (i'm not only speaking about magicians), should be aware that 'children' are in different age groups and hence they make up different 'audiences'.

Some tricks that go well with the 4 - 6 yrs olds may not appeal to the 10 - 12 yr olds. Another issue to note is gender. Some tricks appeal to girls more and vice versa.

It is best after you do one stunning magic. Let the kids settle down.

I remember me doing "the closer" All kids was like @.@
That time I went to a camp and I was very close to all the kids. They are about 6 to 9. They all went jumping on me. Trying to force me to say out my magics! LOLX

Will escapes work? i was just wondering man.

Why not? Anything visible and astonishing will impress the crowd.