I am a 12 yr. old magician who would like to get into doing Kid's Birthday Parties and Shows. I have been into magic for about a year and can do back palm productions, coin bite, pen through dollar bill, cigarette through quarter, here and there, world's quickest magic trick and other card effects. What would you suggest I start working on to prepare for doing Kid's Shows? And where would I go to get some help in coming up with a good routine?

Thanks,
CardKid

In order to do a kids show you need to forget manipulations like backpalming and stuff. It may get a wow but won't build your rep. Getting into kids shows can be very expensive and also not the easiest field. You only being 12 yourself is probably not the easiest way in for you. Have you ever heard the saying don't work with kids and animals? Well it can be true as kids do like to interrupt and I would hate for you to have a bad experience as young magicians are the future of magic. Also, with the skills your describe you would probably prefer table magic. See if you can get in with a nice restaurant owner. Wow him with some tricks and try for a little weekend job. As far as help, join your local magic club as I am sure every one there would love to give you some help and support. They may even lend you some tricks for those kids shows you wanna do if you ask them nicely

any way mate what ever you deside to do be successful.

Hi CardKid,
To do kid shows,you need magic effects that kids like.Things they can relate to.Card tricks bore kids.Most on line magic shops have a section called " Kid Show Magic" Try going to http://www.dennymagic.com ,or if their is a magic shop close to where you live go their.Try to find magicians in your area doing kid shows and see if you can go watch their show.See what they do and learn that way.Never copy but get ideas from them.
It takes time to get enough effects and tricks to do a kid show.You have to do about 30 minutes for birthday parties.
Hope this helped,Have a GREAT New Year,
Don

Thanks rvigon and DonDriver! I went to DennyMagic and loved the site. Thanks!

Check out this website: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~roy/magictalk-wisdom/ in the kid show section, there's a lot of good advice.

There's a lot of material out there written by working magicians.

I like David Ginns stuff:

http://www.ginnmagic.com/

which has a ton of books, and videos - KidBiz is a must have.

I also like the Silly Billy material, including How to Perform the Perfect Kids trick.

Understand that magic for 2-3 year olds is different than magic for 4-7 which is different than magic for 8-11, which is different... you get the idea.

My number on suggestion would be READ. Read the forums here, read the ones suggest above. Get some decent material from a master of kids shows (and a few of them post here) and study it. Then you can make some decisions. I know, it takes time. Sorry, no real shortcuts.

CardKid,
I wouldn't be in such a rush to get into kids' magic shows, if I were you.
A lot of performers think it's an easy way to pick up a few bucks.
Wrong!
Doing a kid's show WELL is about the hardest thing you will do in magic (only street work may be harder!).
Before you even CONSIDER doing any shows, make sure you have a workable act; in other words, have a product to sell before you start to sell it.
I always open with the Miser's Dream (kids are absolutely fascinated with pulling money out of the air); keep the tricks short and simple and the props big and colorful.
You are going about learning the job in the right way, though -- there's a ton of expertise here, willing to help you out.

I have done some shows for kids, but more importantly than that, I have spent a number of years working with kids as a child care worker. I do agree, of course, that you want to have some good tricks, but if you really want to PREPARE to do some kids shows, here are some things that you might want to think about:

1)If a kid knows how to do a trick, they will often try to show all of the other kids how to do it, which may ruin your effect

2) Kids are often not shy about trying to figure out how a trick is done. They may even run up to inspect your equipment after the show

3) Kids can get very antsy and lose interest if they are waiting for a long time for something to happen

good luck with your shows!

Dear dancin_carrot, Just4Fun, Peter Marucci and biff_g,

Thanks for all the great advice!

CardKid