Kids Party with a huge age difference! Just got back.

[RickEverhart]

Wow...I just performed at my toughest b-day party to date. Keep in mind I have done about 5 other birthday parties and about 5 adult private gigs.

There were about 15 children who ranged from age 3 to age 12. Talk about trying to keep everyone's attention. This was a challenge. The other challenge was that the birthday girl was just at one of my other b-day gigs two months ago and some / not all...of my material was the same.

The first 20 minutes was doing balloon animals as guests were arriving. This went well and kids were happy which meant happy parents. Only two little kids popped there balloons which I of course gladly replaced for them...ha ha.

1.) I opened with a change bag routine and put popcorn seeds in the bag and made them pop into actual popcorn which as I shook the bag came out all over.
( brought a few laughs )
2.) Then I went into a mis-made dollar effect which none of the kids seem to care about...ha ha.
3.) Wonder Bubble routine where you can blow bubbles and then reach out and pluck one from the air - huge success..even the adults liked it.
4.) Magic coloring book routine (got some groans and "I've seen this one before" from many of the kids. I even revamped this routine with a multi colored silk produced from an empty canister.
5.) Card Trick where a little boy "shot a cap gun" at his preselected card in the deck...I reveal to show the card burnt with a bullet hole threw it. Let him keep it as a souvenir.
6.) Budda Money Mystery - Torn and restored Business Card ( Kids hated it )
7.) STAR GAZER - Rubber band effect for a little girl ( People went nuts )
8.) Glorpy Haunted Hanky - ( Kids all said they had seen it before )
9.) Stratosphere - red, green, and yellow balls switching place in the tube and then the vanish in the joker tube ( EVERYONE loved...I always close the kids show with this )

The challenge / aggravating part was hearing some of the kids say that they had "already seen this one before at so and so's b-day party when there was a magician there" or....like I said...the actual birthday girl was actually at my last gig and knew some of the material. She even got up and went back in the house during two of the effects while mom kept filming and everyone else seemed to be doing fine.

I know that magicians are supposed to have a couple different routines but honestly I am not going to just keep buying more and more props for kids shows just so kids aren't seeing things that some other magician did.

I also had problems getting volunteers to come up today which "I never" had this problem before, but it was a chain reaction once the first kids said he didn't want to come up. Then they all started being bashful.

Has anyone ever had this experience? The problem is that two other kids from this party want me to do their b-day parties in November and December and their parents were ready to book me today. I do not want to do the exact same show that they saw today or I'll get the same problems I had today from a repeat kid.

Oh well. Kids parties definitely can be challenging and put you in your place...ha ha. It is money well earned.

I'd like to hear from any other experienced magicians who have done quite a few kids b-day gigs. I know there are some horror stories out there.

 

[Quickshot]

I am very interested in this topic, although i am not an experienced b-day performer.

Do you find that card tricks are not as successful as other tricks? Or vice versa?

Also, what is your preferred age range of people to perform in front of?

 

[visualartist]

Then dont buy more props.
Create effects of your own. Your going to get this alot with the classics kids effects because its all the kids ever see now.

P.S. for anyone that asks. Yeah,kids dont care about card tricks.

 

[Kontents]

No sponge ball routine? I think (my opinion) with that age group colors and simplicity would hit harder.

You could be hardcore and perform thread from Wayne Houchin lol. That would entertain everyone.

on that note Gypsy thread would be a nice routine to put into if you do another gig in Nov.


Good luck man that sounds like a tough gig I would lose all hope lol.

 

[RickEverhart]

Spongeballs would have been ok for today however I do not have a good routine down yet. I know I know...by now 8 years in magic and you would have thought I would have done sponge balls.

Simplicity and Color does hit hard...but...the age range was age 3 to age 11 or 12.
What the 3 - 5 year olds liked wasn't what the 10-12 year olds liked and vice versa.
This made it especially challenging to keep their attention spans.

Oh well. Water under the bridge and hopefully I will continue to improve upon myself.

Card trick do not normally work with kids unless you incorporate something "fun" that is out of the ordinary. For example. My routine allows the kid to pick a card, I lose it in the deck, and then allow him to fire a mini cap gun at the deck to "shoot to find his card". Only his card is revealed with a bullet hole. It went over well.

 

[DannyT]

Tough break Rev.

Maybe you should try something at your next show with fire. Doesn't matter what age, fire always interests kids. (At least I would think so)
Also try color changing silks.
That's all I got for now, but sorry to hear that your show was a little rough.

 

[RickEverhart]

Thanks Danny. I was going to PM you how the show went but I figured other members may want to read about the performance as well.

I normally don't use fire in my kids shows. Just wiregrams and flash paper with the adults and teens.

I have color changing silks but thought the older kids might not like it.

Like I said...each kids show has been a little different. For those of you who do kids shows a lot you know how they can go sometimes.

I wouldn't say it was a failure of a show...but it was definitely not the reactions I was hoping for. I actually got a lot of compliments and possibly booked two more shows from this one.

Some tricks went over well and some just didn't. It is hard to say..."just scrap the stuff" that didn't work because some of the things that didn't work out so well today have normally done well in the past gigs.

 

[Quickshot]

Thanks Danny. I was going to PM you how the show went but I figured other members may want to read about the performance as well.

I normally don't use fire in my kids shows. Just wiregrams and flash paper with the adults and teens.

I have color changing silks but thought the older kids might not like it.

Like I said...each kids show has been a little different. For those of you who do kids shows a lot you know how they can go sometimes.

I wouldn't say it was a failure of a show...but it was definitely not the reactions I was hoping for. I actually got a lot of compliments and possibly booked two more shows from this one.

Some tricks went over well and some just didn't. It is hard to say..."just scrap the stuff" that didn't work because some of the things that didn't work out so well today have normally done well in the past gigs.

Don't get too discouraged from reactions. Seriously. There would be kids that just saw a magic trick done, had no reaction and practically just walked away -- but then when i saw them again they couldn't stop talking about how they think the trick was done.

You're gonna get monster reactions, and you're gonna get nothing sometimes. But just because you got nothing doesn't mean it WAS nothing.

 

[RickEverhart]

Thanks for the kind words Quick.