Mixed ages show

wZEnigma

Elite Member
Jun 17, 2009
1,511
153
NE Ohio.
ianchandlerwriting.com
Hey everyone,

I've agreed to perform magic for a small-ish group of people (anywhere from 20 to 40 or so). The show is February 2nd, so I've got about a month to rehearse. The thing is, it is for a little siblings weekend, where college students bring in their smaller brothers or sisters and do fun activities with them. I've been told that the minimum age of said siblings is around ten. I'm a card man, so I figured it would be appropriate.

Essentially, I'm looking for suggestions of tricks that would be effective for this sort of environment. I'm planning to do a double cross-cut force with a regular and jumbo deck to play off the sibling idea. The show will be about half an hour so I'll need to fill that time with good material and presentation. Suggestions for either are welcome.

Thanks!

Ian
 
Sep 1, 2007
1,395
8
37
Belgrade, Serbia
Hey guys,

I would really like some feedback on this. I've never performed for this range of ages before so any help would be great.

I've performed for 10 year old kids before. Pretty much any card trick will work, just don't go too heavy on gambling demonstrations. So ACR is fine, Invisible Deck, any type of Transpo, 3 Card Monte with a jumbo deck, Triumph, Cards to Pocket, Open Travelers etc...
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
Similar to what Toby is saying, the cards need to be used as a prop, rather than a deck of cards.

Is the show going to be strolling / close up or parlor? If it is going to be parlor, you have the issue of visibility of a deck.

The effects need to play bigger, so with that in mind, here are some ideas:

If you have Mark Wilson's book, check out the Tic Tac Toe routine. It works very well for that age. I have some additional stuff for that routine that I'd be glad to share. A magic square would be something fun that could follow the Tic Tac Toe routine. Both effects could be done as a "what I've learned in college."

I could see using a Magic Milk pitcher to do a "drinking game" with milk of course....You would have to tread a fine line with the double entendre here - but it could be funny. You also could do some funny stuff with a Twentieth Century Shorts -- maybe something about doing laundry while in college and mixing darks and whites.

Slydini's Fight of the Paper Balls, is great, especially if you use one of the college students as your subject.

A Brainwaive routine where each kid names part of the card (color, suite, face or spot and value) which ends up being reversed (you could even have them name the color of the back). If you have a jumbo deck, you can make your own ID or Brainwaive deck for a bigger presentation. I also do this to music as an opener using a beach ball to select the kids to choose the part of the card.

Have a card selected and disappear from the deck and reappear (put pocket) on one of the kids. Use the subtlety that is in Mark Wilson's card to wallet routine.

Tossed out deck. There are a bunch of great handling for this.

Bank Night. Have the losers get a gift certificate for something in the college store - or give out college stickers or decals.

Harry Potter Book Test - There are a lot of methods but my favorite is Rachel Wild Columbini's which you can get HERE.

Let me know what resources you have (books, DVDs, magazines, etc.) and I can probably come up with ideas from them.
 
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