I know that some people put on great kid shows . I've performing magic for about 3 years now, and I'm starting to look into kids shows. Can you please let me know what effects you use for kids shows? Any good books you recommend (any David Ginn books?). Thank you very much

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Thanks.

SpongeSpider,

I would recommend reading the top 3 "stickies" in this section. I think you will find it packed with information that will be helpful to you and may answer a lot of your questions.

You may or may not get responses to the question what "effects" they use. The only reason I say this is because I know from our own standpoint we spend a vast amount of time researching to do something out of the ordinary so it is different from the "standard". There will always be magicians that will use the "standard" kid show effects and then there will be magicians who look outside the box to be different. There is no right or wrong with either, it is a matter of who YOU want to be as a performer.

First you need to determine what kind of magic best represents you and then go from there and find out what effects meet those needs.

Good luck!

~ Kristen

Thanks alot Kristenl
Everyone here on penguin always likes hearing responses from you

Thank you SpongeSpider.

I forgot to mention earlier one great tool I like to use for researching magic. There is a magic catalog put out y a different vendor that is about the size of a thick telephone book, 600 pages. It is a great resource for finding something "different". PM me if you want the name so you can order it. The catalog is $19.95, but to me was well worth the price. I love finding something obscure so for us it was the perfect research tool!

Since my daughter does family magic, DVDs don't usually work for her too much. Although, a good rope DVD is always a bonus. However, kids can't really follow cards very well (although you can adapt some things for a one-on-one situation) so a lot of what she needs can't be found on DVDs.

To get started I always like to come up with a "story" to carry throughout the show and then match the tricks up to that story. Keep a notebook or journal for any ideas that might pop up.

I like using both standards and rarities that others aren't using.

The standards because the kids are young and most likely haven't seen any of the standards you will be performing. For many, you will be performing the first magic show they have ever seen so for them, there are no standards. Everything is new.

The rarities because many of my favorite effects that I enjoy performing are ones that others aren't using but are so much fun to perform. You can also always have that extra bit of confidence that no one has ever seen these tricks before.

The key thing in all of this, however, is that one must enjoy what they're performing because your performance will be felt by the audience. If you're not enjoying yourself, how can you truly give an enjoyable performance for the kids!