http://www.grand-illusions.com/
You can find some cool items here, that may work for you in your shows. Not exactly magic, but optical illusions and puzzles, nevertheless fascinating stuff!
Potty

Great site Doug, thanks for posting it!

Interesting products - hey, if you call it magic and believe in it, your audience will too . . .

I liked it, too. If you check out the video for "Spring Toys 2010", he shows a tiny working model of Robert Houdin's orange tree magic trick.

- Donald

I liked this one

http://www.grand-illusions.com/articles/odd_one_out/

Perhaps a useful puzzle to try on older children

Mark

Me too..there's a link from there to an even more devilish puzzle along the same lines, but it's a bit too advanced for kids!
There are SO many cool things I've found on this site, especially love the collection of toys, which though not for sale, are wonderful to watch!
:)

Man... I got on there and couldn't get myself to sign off...
I'm going to order these!
http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatalog/......ers.html

Potty, I think you've found a goldmine!
Many of these principles could aptly be applied to a science show when it comes to cognitive development? Many of these would be great ideas for teaching children how the brain learns and retains information.

Another cool trick:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatalog/......t_1.html

However in the description in states:

"based on a recent discovery made at Stanford University, USA."

This isn't true because I came across this principle years and years ago in a dice magic book (I think by Nick Trost)

Mark

Loved that link! Thanks Potty, you the Pirate!

Yes, I've also known about this principle for a long time. It's a fascinating experiment in probablility, though, and could easily be the basis of a philosophical thesis on statistics. Take this little "trick", and show that statistics can never be seen as "scientific", or "logical"......
When you consider how important statistics are to our modern world, and the importance that Governments put on them, it's interesting to realise that probablities can be circular, one event always being more likely than another, until you reach your starting point again.
Anyone thinking of developing a mathematics show for older kids? This would be a wonderful piece to include!
Potty

Perhaps these could be used with a flea circus:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatalog/......tml#a219

Mark