Hi,

My mum is having her birthday party on the 6th of December 08. I know it's a long time to go but she's organizing it already. Anyway, to the main point, she wants me to entertain the little kiddys. This will be my first ever show. What will be good tricks to do? A good opener and closer??? I have these tricks so far:
1.Kitty Kat Kapers (i think they should rename that)
2.Wonder silk box
3.Gung-ho box (some sort of silk changer thingy)
4.Change bag
5.Money maker
6.Humming Bird (I think the kids will like this)
7.Mercury (card trick)
8.Rope to silk
9. Flower thingy (i can't remember what it is called. Where you make the flower appear in the pot from the wand.
10. A card trick i made myself. I force a card and then i do a little routine and i tell the child to see if he can find his card and he's looking for it and all the other children are laughing, and he has his card (well a larger one i made) stuck to his back.
11.Sucker Die Box (it's only a small plastic thing but i'm going to make a better one at school.
12:Roxie raccooon

Well that's all of them i think. What would be good for a childrens show? And any good routines please . I think i will be getting around £100-£150 before December and i was thinking of buying some other tricks.... What would be best to get? I want ones that are good and/or cheap. (when i say cheap i don;t mean tatty things that break and are made of brittle plastic). I was thinking of getting the Production Breifcase. It's £99.99. I think the children would find this funny while i'm looking for my tricks i take a a big bear (toy, of course) and a tin of paint.


Please don't answer if you're going to say think for yourself. I've never done a show before.




Thanks,

Steven

At least you gave yourself a year to prepare.


Keep the change bag and make a fun routine out of that. You could go for hours just with that prop alone.

Hummingbird is a nono with kids. At least it was when I used to use it. Kids think simple, and the thing they will think of that keeps that card up is going to be the correct answer.

I like the card trick you came up with but only if you can do it in a non threatining way to the kid who will be the laugh of the joke.

[quote="magikrn"]At least you gave yourself a year to prepare.


Keep the change bag and make a fun routine out of that. You could go for hours just with that prop alone.

Hummingbird is a nono with kids. At least it was when I used to use it. Kids think simple, and the thing they will think of that keeps that card up is going to be the correct answer.

I like the card trick you came up with but only if you can do it in a non threatining way to the kid who will be the laugh of the joke.[/quote]

Well i wouldn't want the kid to feel embarrest or upset at all. What do you suggest?

Thanks

My advice is to keep away from anything with cards, unless it's really funny. I remember before one of my shows, while all the kids were piling in and I was waiting for the OK to start, I did a pretty visual card trick for the heck of it - went completely over their heads, they just sat there staring at me like . Then I did a quick rope trick - instant happiness.

The best advice I got is in Seriously Silly by David Kaye. He says that magic to a kid is when something natural doesn't go as planned. IE: Water poured into a cup and not coming out when turned upside down. So instead of changing a rope to a silk, pick up a coloring book - you can get a solid 10 minutes out of that with a LOT of comedy.

Just my 2 cents, Good Luck!

you must ask yourself if performing for children is something you really want to do. There are far to many performers out there that get into performing for children because they think its easy. These are the ones that make it harder for the rest of us.

If you really want to perform for children I would spend half of your money on videos and reading material before spending the other half on props. You could easily build some props to work with and also do a routine with ropes.

With performing for children always think big, colorful, visual magic.

The above posts contain very useful material, from professionals. Listen to them, looking through the above posts, I can find everything i need to be able to put on a good show, from props, to advice, to books.

Sure it will take a while, but you have all the help you need there.

Unfortunatly the advice you say you don't want is the most needed advice. Think for yourself.

But a few ideas first. Kids shows should run about 30 minutes. Any longer and you lose their attention. So pick out 3 or 4 of those tricks and tie them together into a storyline. Then as you tell the story you perform the trick this way both the story and the magic are kept interesting.

You have all the tricks you need, but you may want to add a rope routine and go with just silks and rope. You can make the professor's nightmare into a good 5 minute thing very easily. In fact Whit Hyden's Mongolian pop knot is a cut and restored rope into a professor's nightmare then back to a full restoration of the rope. I have run this one for 15 minutes and not lost a kid.