Ages 6-13

Jun 19, 2014
32
0
SO, i have officially started working doing magic.....

During my attempts to get booked for a walk around gig i booked one at a coffee shop...Then, i saw the fliers for it and it said kids show! (30-45 minutes about)

and again when i got booked for a walk around festival gig in which there are rotations of about 16 kids per rotation for 30 minutes per rotation and i would be a "station" from 9am-12

Now, i was ok with doing both of these until i stated to go through my material and i realized that most of my material wouldn't fly for the younger kids....

Some of the material i was able to scoop up and maybe able to use was:
David Copperfields Arm twist illusion (not exactly sure of the name)
Animental by Danny Archer
Spongeballs
hopping halves
a one coin routine W/ jumbo coin finish
bite out Oreo
That's nuts by Danny Archer (needs work though)
cut and restored handkerchief
guess the sucker by Dan Harlan
Hopping halves ( if i get it back from Johnson in time)
Salt and Silver by Giovanni Livera (maybe?)
Silk Vanish (But i dont really like the idea of "wow its gone, oh, and its back!?)
Any tricks you can recommend that i can make at home or may already have the supplies for?

And would cosmos 2 (Greg Rostami's OOTW) be good for kids that age ? its a pretty simple OOTW
at least i'm getting paid now !
thanks!!
 
Kids have limited focus and attention span. Some of the effects listed work great. But remember, they are kids and they want to have fun and not sit through a procedure of dealing out cards one at a time to show they are unshuffled. The kids might like the over all effect (shuffled cards are unshuffled) but the timing on that is much to slow and complex. I used to do some fiber optic routines, but soon found out that the general idea was very difficult for children to follow. The nightmare sequence was understood, but changing it into a long peice then the ends switching places and pulling the ends off etc etc just got too complex for a child to understand. You need to keep things straight to the point for children.

Sponge Balls: you almost can honestly do the same sequence a thousand times for kids and they will still love it. It is visual and they understand that they had one ball, now they have 2.

A 1 coin routine may work if you take your time. The coin is in one hand then jumps to the other. then vanishes. bring it back and change it.

silk vanish is popular and taught because it works. Many of these "old worn" tricks are still done because they work and play very well. just like sponge balls, as magicians we think they are ok and not too impressed, but they work. Same with a silk vanish. its a straight forward 1-2 punch. THis big silk, goes into the hand, sleeves up. With a wave it is GONE. Then you can pull it out from anywhere almost! Heck you can have a dupe and have it travel to a box or to a shoe or wherever.

now these are my general thoughts on children performing, but some of the tricks listed above will absolutly work for an older child (11-13) where they can understand the concepts, but for 6 year olds it can be a bit trickier.

When i perform most of my show goes into the energy i bring to have fun. As magicians we are just a bunch of adult-children, fascinated with what made us love magic in the first place when we were young. We want to have fun and we want to make money having fun. If we put most of our energy into having fun, then the children will mirror our fun and everyone will have a great time.

ALso remember, you can do children magic with out making it suck and without it being uncool or lame. If you dont like doing the trick Hopping Spots (the domino trick) then dont do it. I personally do it because with my performance it is a demonstration of the mind, then a demo of magic/foolery. I do that trick at every show and it kills children and the parents. When i perform I am performing not just for the children, but the adults as well, which is why i try to adapt my kids show tricks to play for an adult show if needed (save one or two lines/changes). I do not have a huge prop list and i can carry my whole show almost completely in my pockets, but what i do is play it big. Big gestures, big noise, different senses and visuals.

I know i did not get through all your effects, but i am just giving you some ideas that i have played with and things i do.
as for new effects, i do angle zero, ring to walnut, ambitious card, and even some mentalism. You dont have to do lame "kids" magic but you do need to have a fun kid attitude when performing which will make the difference.
 
Jun 19, 2014
32
0
Kids have limited focus and attention span. Some of the effects listed work great. But remember, they are kids and they want to have fun and not sit through a procedure of dealing out cards one at a time to show they are unshuffled. The kids might like the over all effect (shuffled cards are unshuffled) but the timing on that is much to slow and complex. I used to do some fiber optic routines, but soon found out that the general idea was very difficult for children to follow. The nightmare sequence was understood, but changing it into a long peice then the ends switching places and pulling the ends off etc etc just got too complex for a child to understand. You need to keep things straight to the point for children.

Sponge Balls: you almost can honestly do the same sequence a thousand times for kids and they will still love it. It is visual and they understand that they had one ball, now they have 2.

A 1 coin routine may work if you take your time. The coin is in one hand then jumps to the other. then vanishes. bring it back and change it.

silk vanish is popular and taught because it works. Many of these "old worn" tricks are still done because they work and play very well. just like sponge balls, as magicians we think they are ok and not too impressed, but they work. Same with a silk vanish. its a straight forward 1-2 punch. THis big silk, goes into the hand, sleeves up. With a wave it is GONE. Then you can pull it out from anywhere almost! Heck you can have a dupe and have it travel to a box or to a shoe or wherever.

now these are my general thoughts on children performing, but some of the tricks listed above will absolutly work for an older child (11-13) where they can understand the concepts, but for 6 year olds it can be a bit trickier.

When i perform most of my show goes into the energy i bring to have fun. As magicians we are just a bunch of adult-children, fascinated with what made us love magic in the first place when we were young. We want to have fun and we want to make money having fun. If we put most of our energy into having fun, then the children will mirror our fun and everyone will have a great time.

ALso remember, you can do children magic with out making it suck and without it being uncool or lame. If you dont like doing the trick Hopping Spots (the domino trick) then dont do it. I personally do it because with my performance it is a demonstration of the mind, then a demo of magic/foolery. I do that trick at every show and it kills children and the parents. When i perform I am performing not just for the children, but the adults as well, which is why i try to adapt my kids show tricks to play for an adult show if needed (save one or two lines/changes). I do not have a huge prop list and i can carry my whole show almost completely in my pockets, but what i do is play it big. Big gestures, big noise, different senses and visuals.

I know i did not get through all your effects, but i am just giving you some ideas that i have played with and things i do.
as for new effects, i do angle zero, ring to walnut, ambitious card, and even some mentalism. You dont have to do lame "kids" magic but you do need to have a fun kid attitude when performing which will make the difference.

i always feel like i post on here whenever i get extremely stressed out... so slowly im getting less stressed,

i also added a trick where the kids try to find the Big bill (a miillion dollar bill) but they all end up with a different type of bill like a ducks bill or the word BILL etc. so hopefully that will play well ... i can do ring thing i suppose and end it with one or two phases of ring leader.
also, my out to lunch trick where the spectator disappears off my business card
i do almost all of those tricks and end with like 10 minutes to spare and then i can only make it seem as if im like throwing in stuff to kill time ....

im use to like 5-8 minute sets at the most so doing tricks for 30 minutes at a time for kids will be a real challenge .. especially since i have no money to get any more tricks
 

Lyle Borders

Elite Member
Aug 5, 2008
1,604
859
Seattle, WA
www.theory11.com
Haha, nothing worse. I got booked for a gig a couple years back for "teenagers" that turned out to be 5-12 year olds. I came in prepared with the wrong material, and it turned out to be the worst show I had ever done. Completely unprepared to entertain children. Nightmares still.

Preparation is key. You want short, quick magic. Nothing take takes any sort of long preparation. Bright and visual is good. Funny is better. One of the best things I have seen done for kid magic is letting the kids to all the magic. Let them wave their hands. Let them say the magic words. "How did I do that?" is more powerful than "How did the magician do that?".

That is about all I can offer for experience, as kids shows were never my thing, but hopefully it helps.

// L
 
Jun 19, 2014
32
0
Haha, nothing worse. I got booked for a gig a couple years back for "teenagers" that turned out to be 5-12 year olds. I came in prepared with the wrong material, and it turned out to be the worst show I had ever done. Completely unprepared to entertain children. Nightmares still.

Preparation is key. You want short, quick magic. Nothing take takes any sort of long preparation. Bright and visual is good. Funny is better. One of the best things I have seen done for kid magic is letting the kids to all the magic. Let them wave their hands. Let them say the magic words. "How did I do that?" is more powerful than "How did the magician do that?".

That is about all I can offer for experience, as kids shows were never my thing, but hopefully it helps.

// L

thanks im still nervous but ill have to just be friendly and see where it takes me to joke a little bit more
 
May 21, 2014
127
6
Staunton, VA
Remember these 3 things when choosing material:

1. Is it simple? (to perform? to understand?)
2. Is it visual?
3. Does it tell a story?

If an effect meets those 3 criteria, you can perform it for pretty much ANY age group. Keep in mind the story doesn't have to be a story with characters or complex patter. It just needs to be a sequence of events that flows logically and is interesting to follow. The sponge ball routine tells the story of a ball vanishing, multiplying, traveling, etc. depending on your routine. The ambitious card tells the story of a card that keeps climbing to the top and then starts jumping to other places, changing altogether, whatever...again, it depends on your specific routine. My routines change very, very little between age groups, but I do adjust the patter and vocabulary a little depending on the audience.

It's entirely possible to present a longer or multi-phase routine to kids as long as each phase is simple and visual and the phases flow into a story that can be easily followed and understood. It also helps to involve them as much as possible and make them feel like part of the magic. Any time you can make magic happen in someone else's hands, that's another thing that's effective with any age group. It's always cool to be part of something magical.
 
Jun 19, 2014
32
0
Remember these 3 things when choosing material:

1. Is it simple? (to perform? to understand?)
2. Is it visual?
3. Does it tell a story?

If an effect meets those 3 criteria, you can perform it for pretty much ANY age group. Keep in mind the story doesn't have to be a story with characters or complex patter. It just needs to be a sequence of events that flows logically and is interesting to follow. The sponge ball routine tells the story of a ball vanishing, multiplying, traveling, etc. depending on your routine. The ambitious card tells the story of a card that keeps climbing to the top and then starts jumping to other places, changing altogether, whatever...again, it depends on your specific routine. My routines change very, very little between age groups, but I do adjust the patter and vocabulary a little depending on the audience.

It's entirely possible to present a longer or multi-phase routine to kids as long as each phase is simple and visual and the phases flow into a story that can be easily followed and understood. It also helps to involve them as much as possible and make them feel like part of the magic. Any time you can make magic happen in someone else's hands, that's another thing that's effective with any age group. It's always cool to be part of something magical.


Thanks ... ive got alot more stuff put together now, although i just gotta find what order to perform the tricks and how long my reset on the show will be.....

how do i order each routine?
 
May 21, 2014
127
6
Staunton, VA
Again, it might help to think about how a story is built. You're going to want to start with a strong attention hook. For this, I usually use something quick, visual, and surprising, and if I can avoid it I don't bring up a volunteer until at least the second effect. From there, you want to taper down to less impressive stuff and then gradually build into your finale; think rising action and climax.
 
Jun 19, 2014
32
0
Well i got a jam mode of tricks prepared and i cant wait to perform .... Despite the nerves it will be a great learning experience to do 6 kid shows in one night ! and btw Redbeard ... loving the youtube videos ! but thats a different topic
 
Jun 19, 2014
32
0
Tomorrow from 9 pm - 12 am at the kids lock in ....

Here's what i got:

-introduction ( explain im a beat boxer, then a modle, then a juggler, but none of its true im actually a magician) talk to the kids about them for a moment
-Eqivoque the color pink off of some blank cards( jokes about being color def because i mishear all the colors they say)
- produce a pink silk and explain how i dont like it when i have to use the pink one because it ddoesnt work without sleeves
-make a kid vanish it then produce it from my shoe
-talk about how that was one of my first tricks and how i got into magic
-Arm twist (2 types) "magician stretching"
-That's nuts by danny archer
-color change deck
-Card in hand switch
-ACR
-Guess the sucker by Dan Harlan with a ton of candy production
--invisible ball in bag
-sponge balls
-never ending sponge ball

-One coin routine w/ jumbo finish ( trick that makes "biggest" money)
- Extreme Burn ( trick that makes the MOST money)
-VERY BEAUTIFUL handkerchief restoration (first make the handkerchief into a ballerina by twisting it a certain way
-Animental
-bite out oreo (because i needed a snack after all those tricks but it tastes funny)
-Vanishing a spectator OTL

If need be:
Big bill Danny archer
Stirring silver with ring thing
Bank of steal (my own trick)
Vision test
------D'lites---------------
 
Jun 19, 2014
32
0
haha... pretend run throughs are always fun. I would love to hear how this turns out!

Turned out pretty well.... learned that kids are not the easiest to perform for but now i know what kind of stuff their into and that the stuff with less "method" is best .. i only got through like 4 tricks before 30 minutes was over everytime .. i was way over prepared .. which is always good
 
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