Well...I have to disagree with exodus here...


He is right about kids loving color and flashy things...but I find fire okay in situations where you will be on stage. Now if you are in someones home doing a birthday party it is best to stay away from fire...but on stage it is just fine. Go for it if you have it...flash paper, flash string, etc. They are great ways to produce items. And kids do like card tricks and do understand them...you just have to know what kinds of card tricks to do for them. They must be very visual card tricks which are easily understood. I do them all the time for kids...heck, even David Ginn does cards for kids!

Kids 3-6 generally will NOT understand, or more importantly ENJOY, even the simplest of card tricks. Most cards tricks fall under mentalism, and mentalism really has no place in a kids show.

And like Sluggo said, your patter examples sounds pretty limited and pretty awful. The routines and patter are actually more important than the effects themselves.

Another thing that has not been mentioned, is the size of your props. Since you will have a much bigger crowd than the standard living room show, you should be using much bigger props, for visibility.

From the sound of it, this seems like it is one of your very first shows for a real audience. Starting off in front of an audience of 400 is probably not a good idea. You would have been much better served to get your feet wet with some small birthday parties first.

The only thing that sounds good from your post, is that you are not getting paid for this. Thank Heavens! Good luck!

Not to sound pessimistic, but you won't be able to hold attention of everyone, let alone entertain everyone due to the huge age range and huge number of people. With that in mind, go for big, flashy, and visual, as opposed to magical content.