It seems we have gotten off the original topic, Is it a good idea for kids to perform at school or not?

It seems that a lot of the posters here are school aged, performing for their friends, (and possibly some enemies as well).

Be careful of who you are performing for, and for what purpose. If it is to entertain, amuse, bemuse, befuddle, or bedazzle, then you are on the right track. If you are performing for respect, I think you may be setting yourself up. What's going to happen when those who "respect" you happen to catch you when you mess up, and are exposed. False respect is not respect, in fact, I'd wager that the moment you flub an effect, they'll turn on you like hungry wolves.

The point is, I have seen kids, very good magicians, shot down by their "friends" the moment they made a mistake. I usually never perform for friends, unless they're paying me, or they're at one of my gigs. I do this because my friends have put me through the wringer when I've made a mistake, mostly because they can!

For school aged performers, I reccomend family, or family friends, and, as has been posted, the best friend who totally supports your art. And, as I've stated, gentlemen, be careful doing effects for the ladies. Show them stuff, yes, just be very careful.........

People performing at school is okay as long as they understand magic as what it is and not just tricks. Evidently, this doesn't happen most of the time and they can't control themselves to make the right decisions about performing magic and for the right reasons. It's never about just fooling them or entertaining them, it should have all the elements for more perfect magic. Having only one of them leads to disaster which is the case most of the time.

guys... i think the bottom line is this....perform at school..knowing what your going to get yourself into...so get ready for hecklers,beggers (begging to know the trick) know it alls...and the fairly frequent "perfect spectator", o and also for the stalker (ive had one)

Yeah, to do that, don't just practice the "tricks". You have to really perfect your patter and presentation so you don't look like a complete loser. Performing without even this respect for magic is just sad.

exactly..you understand here..it works with me..but ive only done B-2 bomber..and its helped alot...but YummyPIe..you understand where im coming from..and also work on the....i want to say illusuion..but anyway..perfect your patter..presentation..and mechanics (notice how i didnt say trick) but make all that seeemmmmm like your not doing a trick at all

I'm 13 and have been into magic since i was 8 and i think you are wrong to say this i would say buy at least one trick from every category(genre). When i started i liked close-up because my hands were smaller then i started card magic because i liked the fact that it had a lot of impromptu effects then i like money because its something everybody has then mentalism and now levitation and stage.My point is if you buy lots and lots of tricks and you find out you dont like the genre of maybe 20 of your tricks and your intrested in an expensive trick you will regret spending money on those tricks because now you have to perform tricks you dont like in order to get money for a trick you really want. So maybe you can get a couple of tricks from each genre but if you incourage people to buy to many tricks they will run out of money quick. However if you find you don,t like a certain genre go ahead and buy more of those tricks than the others but if you don't know what you like buy the cheaper tricks of each category(genre).

this is so not true i am a 13 year old magician and i can do sleights better than most adault magicians i know and trust me i know alot.and no i dont look a my hands. ive been doing magic for about 8 years now

Well your typing sure doesn't show that. Perhaps a eye or two on the home keys would do you well.

I find it hard to believe that a 13 year old kid can really do magic for "8 years." So that means you started at 5? That's yet another thing I dislike about the new younger magicians that say they're better than everyone else or at least the "adault"s.

Honestly, unless your dad's Mark Wilson, why say you started magic at such a young age? I think it's much more impressive to tell someone that you've been doing magic for a year or two, and let them reel back "YOU'RE ALREADY THAT GOOD?!" than say "I've been doing magic for 8 years, and I do sleights better than most adults lol," and show that you've sucked for at least 7 of those years.

I found the most comical part of that post when the kid mentions "and trust me i know alot." Just the structure of that sentence begets to me the fact that "Hiya I'm a dumb 13 year old kid that's
a)Overwhelmed by knowledge and surrounded by people so much more better than him that he has to brag that he's better in order to feel better, lest his parents sign him up for extra sessions with the therapist.

b)Is Dai Vernon reincarnated and in disguise to test us.

or
c)Doesn't know a lot.

Yeah. I'll agree with whoever here says that younger magicians suck at performing, because let's look at it honestly, YOUNG KIDS MAKE SUCKY AUDIENCES. They don't have any of their [edited] together so the fact that someone else has something of a remnant of a [edited] that they can't figure out drives them NUTS. And most of those sissies are allergic to nuts, so they'll chow down on those nuts till they choke to death and force themselves to have MORE AND MORE nuts until they're peers are so overwhelmed from the reeking fumes from those crazy nuts that they're dragged down in a magnificent volatile gaseous cloud that will serve nicely as fuel for Copperfield's next Tornado of Fire special.

Nuts.[/quote]