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magicman6 New user 12 Posts |
Hi;
I had a show maybe three weeks ago and it was memorable. In the middle of my show a boy stands up and shouts at the top of his lungs, "I know how you did that!". Then he began to stand up and said "let me show you". I asked him to sit down and he refused. Then he started to walk up to the front (he was in the back row) and I started to stand in his path and said to please go back to his seat. Then all of a sudden a little girl half his size grabbed his arm and pulled him down hard on his butt. She said " shhhhhhh I want to watch the magic show!!!" I was very relieved and finished the rest of the show without any distractions. Have any of you experenced that one punk kid at every show that tries to show off to their friends? -Greg |
Frank Tougas Inner circle Minneapolis, MN 1712 Posts |
Holy Audience Management Disaster Batman! Don't however be too quick to see him as a punk. He may have been challenged in some way such as developmentally delayed, have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, high functioning autism.
Tell us more. What about the venue, was it a school situation, public show or pivate birthday. Were there other adults nearby or were you essentially a paid babysitter. Was this your first or one hundred and first show? This kind of information will make it easier to more properly address the problem. There are some very experienced people on this fourm, I know I would like to help.
Frank Tougas The Twin Cities Most "Kid Experienced" Children's Performer :"Creating Positive Memories...One Smile at a Time"
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Andy Wonder Special user Auckland, New Zealand 747 Posts |
This is the thing; we all encourage children to be part of the show. We try and make the birthday child the star. We encourage them to ‘yell out’, when we don’t notice the breakaway wand, wilting flower or run rabbit run. The children of course don’t know all of this is carefully prepared and scripted. They assume we make it all up as we go along because they don’t know any better. When they buy in to all this by-play nonsense they really feel they have some control over what is going on. So this type of interruption is usually very innocent. If several children are all interrupting and/or is happens frequently that is an easy fix. You can re-work your script or routine to remove whatever motivation they had to interrupt. The one off type interruptions are usually pretty easy as well because you have the majority of kids on your side.
The children I have trouble with are the ones that have what I call ‘evil intent’.
Andy Wonder, Auckland, New Zealand
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Ron Reid Inner circle Phoenix, Arizona 2733 Posts |
David Ginn has some very good advice that would've helped Greg in his situation. David says he always arranges to have adult supervision at the show so he can be the "entertainer" and not the "disciplinarian". He specifically tells the adults what to do in the case of a child getting unruly. This allows him to still be the good guy and at the same time shut the kid up or removed from the show if needed.
Ron Reid |
Emazdad Inner circle Plymouth UK 1954 Posts |
When a kid says "I know how you did that", just say something to them like
"Do you, great we both know a secret then, Can you keep a secret? Look don't tell you friends it will ruin their fun. Sit down and we'll talk about it later." This makes them feel they know something special and they won't tell their friends. It works for me.
Yours Funfully
Clive "Emazdad" Hemsley www.emazdad.com "Magic is a secret, without the secret there is no magic" Remember there are only 3 types of people in the world, those that can count and those that can't. |
keven Regular user Apple Valley Ca 106 Posts |
What do you do if the child has alredy said how you did it , do you just play it off and move on ? How would you fix The mess you are in ?
Penn & Teller "God Bless Them"
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flourish dude Inner circle from ? But I know where I am going! 1195 Posts |
Say "All gusses are correct" and move on. I would follow it up with "Mom,(Dad) maybe you could help here" or "Mom (Dad) a little attention here" the worst thing you could do is ignore them.
Nothing of the same will bring any change, take action today!
Just taking a step, is a step in the right direction because when you stop working, your dream dies. www.magicalmemories.us |
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