Entertaining 10 year olds
- Thread starter Larssen92
- Start date
Excellent. What did you end up performing? What went over the best? What went right? What wasn't as strong as you thought it would have been? In hindsight, what would you do different?
Doing a post-show analysis is the best way to improve your magic.
Doing a post-show analysis is the best way to improve your magic.
Definitely give us a run down of the show and how it went. Please be honest be yourself. You know what went well and what needs some improvement. If you let us know what needs some work we can give you some feedback!
I came in with a balloon-flower for the birthday girl, just to make a nice first impression.
And when i got set, and everybody was ready i started out with the invisible deck, and wanted to try the standard patter .
I asked the birthdaygirl to participate in the shuffling and picking out an invisible card and so on. She was kind of shy, so it didnt feel that it was as fun for the audience that i could be. So maybe i should have picked someone i could sense wasn't that shy. But okay reaction when i made her take the card and turn it around.
Then i went for Mathieu Bich's Watermark. Forced the card, and i pretended to mindread and fail a couple of times, until i pretended to give up, and took a piece of paper and sprinkled water on it, explaining that i heard of other magicians do this if they messed up, and i hoped it worked.. Revealing their card, and actually got a better reaction than i thought.
Then i asked them if they were up for a little guessing game, and did Michael Skinner's ultimate monte routine, having different kids guessing at each stage of the routine.. I'm not sure if that messed to much with their minds, and is more for an older crowd, but atleast i got one of the parents to leave the room saying "thats not possible man"
..
Then i went for a sponge routine, where i tried to involve them with the guessing. It was a pretty fast and simple routine, so it didn't seem like they understood i was done, when i made them disappear at the end of the routine.. So i might dig into the sponge routine from Mark Wilsons book, instead of the one i did. Mine only had 3 stages actually, so i felt it was done too fast.
Oh well, then i pulled out some robe, and started out doing "the endless robe" for a quick starter, and that actually worked pretty well to get their attention. Then i went for "a professors nightmare", handing out the robes for examination, asking them if they would please check if they were elastic.. Didnt get a huge reaction really. I think i need some interresting presentation for it, to make it more amazing.
Then i did the cut and restored (from page 238 in Mark Wilsons book).
I told them that sometimes when i cut my robes to get the right lenght, i might mess up, and maybe cut it too short (while i said that i did the cut, and showed that one end clearly seemed shorter than the other), and went on by saying that if you tie a knot, it actually works like if you get a little wound, and patch it up and it will heal within some days.. But i told them that i brought a little magic coin to speed up the process, and bam it was done.
I liked that one.. Got some "woooooows" when i revealed the restored robe .
OKAY now for the one you suggested, which i really had been looking forward to try out.
Bill in Lemon.. or actually in an orange in this case, but nevermind!
Well, i actually just followed the patter from the book, and it worked really well. And it was nice to have one kid say out the serial number at the end, one digit at a time, and the other kid with the envelope saying "Yeeah.. yeah.. yes", at every number while everyone else got more and more amazed..
And that was pretty much that...
Then after saying thanks for having me, i think i had 5 seconds to myself, until someone asked if i could make another balloon-flower for her, like the one i gave to the birthday-girl... And before i knew it, i had been making balloon-animals and flowers for an hour after the show.. So im glad i brought the balloons anyways ..
(Actually heard someone say it was the coolest birthday she had been to )
Pheew... Overall im very glad i got the chance to stand infront of an audience and experience in a whole new way.
And the parents asked me to come back for their other daughters birthday next summer .
..... so i must have done something right.
And when i got set, and everybody was ready i started out with the invisible deck, and wanted to try the standard patter .
I asked the birthdaygirl to participate in the shuffling and picking out an invisible card and so on. She was kind of shy, so it didnt feel that it was as fun for the audience that i could be. So maybe i should have picked someone i could sense wasn't that shy. But okay reaction when i made her take the card and turn it around.
Then i went for Mathieu Bich's Watermark. Forced the card, and i pretended to mindread and fail a couple of times, until i pretended to give up, and took a piece of paper and sprinkled water on it, explaining that i heard of other magicians do this if they messed up, and i hoped it worked.. Revealing their card, and actually got a better reaction than i thought.
Then i asked them if they were up for a little guessing game, and did Michael Skinner's ultimate monte routine, having different kids guessing at each stage of the routine.. I'm not sure if that messed to much with their minds, and is more for an older crowd, but atleast i got one of the parents to leave the room saying "thats not possible man"
.. Then i went for a sponge routine, where i tried to involve them with the guessing. It was a pretty fast and simple routine, so it didn't seem like they understood i was done, when i made them disappear at the end of the routine.. So i might dig into the sponge routine from Mark Wilsons book, instead of the one i did. Mine only had 3 stages actually, so i felt it was done too fast.
Oh well, then i pulled out some robe, and started out doing "the endless robe" for a quick starter, and that actually worked pretty well to get their attention. Then i went for "a professors nightmare", handing out the robes for examination, asking them if they would please check if they were elastic.. Didnt get a huge reaction really. I think i need some interresting presentation for it, to make it more amazing.
Then i did the cut and restored (from page 238 in Mark Wilsons book).
I told them that sometimes when i cut my robes to get the right lenght, i might mess up, and maybe cut it too short (while i said that i did the cut, and showed that one end clearly seemed shorter than the other), and went on by saying that if you tie a knot, it actually works like if you get a little wound, and patch it up and it will heal within some days.. But i told them that i brought a little magic coin to speed up the process, and bam it was done.
I liked that one.. Got some "woooooows" when i revealed the restored robe
.OKAY now for the one you suggested, which i really had been looking forward to try out.
Bill in Lemon.. or actually in an orange in this case, but nevermind!
Well, i actually just followed the patter from the book, and it worked really well. And it was nice to have one kid say out the serial number at the end, one digit at a time, and the other kid with the envelope saying "Yeeah.. yeah.. yes", at every number while everyone else got more and more amazed..
And that was pretty much that...
Then after saying thanks for having me, i think i had 5 seconds to myself, until someone asked if i could make another balloon-flower for her, like the one i gave to the birthday-girl... And before i knew it, i had been making balloon-animals and flowers for an hour after the show.. So im glad i brought the balloons anyways ..
(Actually heard someone say it was the coolest birthday she had been to
) Pheew... Overall im very glad i got the chance to stand infront of an audience and experience in a whole new way.
And the parents asked me to come back for their other daughters birthday next summer .
..... so i must have done something right.
..... so i must have done something right.
It defiantly sounds like you did more than something right.
A couple of thoughts. For an opener, you should do something that hits them with magic quickly or something that is interactive. Gets their attention and establishes credibility. The traditional invisible deck routine isn't a good opener. I've done it using a beach ball being tossed around the room and each person who catches it naming a part of the card (color, suite, face or number card and then value). It sounds like the endless rope followed by the cut & restored might make a good opener.
For the closer, you picked a good strong effect.
It sounds like you had the right amount of effects and weren't trying to do too much.
The next step is to try to revise the presentation (and maybe substitute the effects) so you have a good start for the next show. It will be easier to make changes now while the show is fresh in your mind than a couple of weeks or month from now.
Congrats.
When i look back, i can see that the opener wasn't strong enough as you say. I will try to think of a quick and visual effect, just to get their 110% attention. Maybe just get in with a robe hanging casual around the neck, and then i make the "pull-through-neck" thing, without even paying attention to it(and hopefully get a reaction), and get started with a robe routine..
That was just a quick idea i got while eating my breakfast.. Oh well i will use my sunday evaluate some more
Thanks for the feedback!
That was just a quick idea i got while eating my breakfast.. Oh well i will use my sunday evaluate some more
Thanks for the feedback!
i am 11 i have been performing and creating for over a year now and kids younger than me about 10 or 9 really like effect where something floats or maybe a stunt when hurting yourself dont forget to bring comedy into your performance
dont make it boring duhh good luck
dont make it boring duhh good luck