Anthony, to answer your questions / comments about props....yes...initially you will need to spend some money to put together a decent kids act. As you perform more and more shows, and build some revenue, you can make some additional purchases to put in your act. For example: I just recently purchased Silly Billy's "Princess in a Pickle" Silk routine which runs over $250. However...I have now closed my past 3 events with this effect and it basically paid for itself after one gig. Start up small with inexpensive items as RedBeard has mentioned.
You can do it much cheaper with props like newspaper, a few silks, spongeballs, rope, etc. and still do a great job but eventually you'll want the nice new shiny props that the kids love to be entertained with.
As far as being the goofy, silly, character like Silly Billy, that is not completely necessary as you will find out from Reality One. There are many magicians who play a serious magician who just simply do great magic with good patter / story lines to entertain the kids. So if you don't feel like you can be that type of character or if it doesn't fit your style...then don't...you can do whatever you want. My kid / family show is more of a mixture of some comedy routines and some serious magic. I go back and forth between the two and it just "works" for me and I've had lots of success.
