Wow...Now I feel my opener is sooo inadequate.

I do the coloring book w/ appearing crayons. I tell them that at every show I clear my mind by drawing in this magic book that I purchased from the book store for 1 billion dollars and 42 cents.

Kids get involved with their fav colors. I even use the d'lites to "Capture" their colors and place them into the book

My favorite is a sponge ball routine to demonstrate what "Magic means to me". It is adapted so that I don't use any spectators. Pull one ball out of the air, tear it in two, restore both halves to full balls. After going through a few sequences, I end it by having all three vanish completely. The kids really love it and the unexpected vanish at the end makes them sit up and pay attention to the rest of the show. Total performance time is right at 2 1/2 minutes. Total cost is less than $5 (four 2" super soft sponges).

Here's my opinion... No matter what you do, your opener needs to be one of the most practiced routines you do. It must be snappy, smooth, and go off without a hitch or glitch. For kids, it needs to be visual and funny and probably a surprise ending. I try to keep mine under 3 minutes, but that is subjective when you are adding multiple effects. Also remember that your show should constantly build.

Wook

Hi,
it kind of varies with me, but some of the ones I like are very simple, quick and I inject a lot of slapstick as it plays well with the littlies. Yes, I also have a quick talk about the rules, but I like to get into magic really quickly.

Ones that have worked for me (even on stage) as children intros are the multiplying bananas, silver sceptre, and a quick production of a silk, vanishing and colour change (Cellini does a straight forward one). Played well (eg. blowing your nose on the silk, wiping it on your brow then going "Yech" and proceeding to vanish it etc.) they quickly get attention and kids like them. Some may think that simple stuff with a silk is overexposed, but most don't how you do the production, change etc. and I've had a lot of success with it.

The previous effects take little space and work in many different venues.

I think the silver sceptre is cool as an introduction, but I prefer to use it as a reserve if the attention is flagging as it plays well across the board and gets lots of laughs and is generally inexplicable to the layperson.

I have even combined them and turned the silk into a banana and linked that to the silver sceptre - but to me that's also better in the middle. I think you want it funny at the start, but not completely raucous as it's hard to keep them on track if you start too funny...

Anyway, hope it helps,

Regards,


Kevin Mc Lean.

Regarding opening with four silk tricks: You must really enjoy ironing.

David Ginn, who is no stranger to kid shows, does a 2-4 minute "Silent Magic to Music" segment after his initial "comedy warm-up". The warm up is designed to let the audience know that his show will be fun, that the performer is special and therefore the show will be worth watching and listening to. His book "Crash Course on Kid Shows" goes into detail on his philosophies on kid show performing (including Silent Magic to Music) and his DVD's are first rate. He's been doing kid shows professionally for lots of years (35+) and is still going strong. If you want to be a better kids show performer, get your hands on David's materials...they are timeless classics.

I have also been working on developing an opening routine to music based on the square circle. I did it quite successfully in a series of shows at an outdoor festival this past summer. About 4:30 of up-beat music (I used a Crazy Frog tune), showing the square and circle empty, then producing a silk which turned into a cane, then once again showed the square and circle empty and produced a rope and scissors which led into a quick cut and restored bit, then a silk which turned into a silk fountain, then show square and circle empty again followed by an appearing 4' crayon... While I wasn't pleased with the continuity of the effects I used, I was pleased with the concept. Now, I'm thinking I'm going to modify the bit to include a theme of flower and silk productions and reducing the time I spend showing the circle and square empty. I suppose I did that initially to fill time....now, I think I'll do it once at the beginning of the routine and again at the end.

Good luck with your routine and please let us know how it progresses and what kind of response you get from your audiences.

My advice :

Don't think like a magician, think like an entertainer.

Is a 5 minute silent silk act entertaining? If you're Duane Laflin, maybe. Otherwise chances are it will flop - especially for children.

I'm a fairly new magician, so I don't have tons of experience, but here are a few things I've noticed:

1) kids love the colour and size of silks. I did a school show 2 weeks ago and produced 6 silks out of a mini-square circle, and the kindergarten kids screamed out the colours of each one. Then I changed them into a 36" butterfly silk with a change bag and the entire audience went ballastic when the large silk came out. This was not the opener though, it was basically the finale.

2) One or two musical/silent numbers can be good in a show. In the above act it was silent (Vivaldi music in background) except for the cue (which the kids knew by now) to say the magic word. That builds the anticipation and lets them know when to expect the magic. It also lets them know they are important to the act even though it is a non-volunteer routine.

3) Kids do not need a long, manipulation-style opener like teens and adults do. I prepared a silk manipulation routine for a teen show and then did it for some kids and realized all the magic in that one routine could have been made into an entire show for the kids!

You might be able to use a pull to vanish the 20th century silks--that would give another strong impression that you can do bare-handed magic and don't need props to make them work.

I don't think you need to do so many streamers at the start. The fact that you can produce something out of nothing is probably enough. Personally, I would save the streamers until the end.

Hope this helps STeven. Again, I'm no pro, these are just my thoughts.

The sheer cleverness of many of these suggestions scares me. No one in their right mind would try and open a children's show with 'clever-clever' magic.

You're not there to be clever. You're there to entertain. You will achieve that by being the catalyst by which children from the audience appear clever. Now that's different.

Read what James said:

"But I believe it does need to do the following:

1. Establish your authority and demonstrate how you expect them to behave.
2. Show the kids that you are fun and entertaining and someone they WANT to watch."

That's how you open in order for the following one hour show - or only forty minutes if you are not capable of entertaining for an hour - to be successful.

James is a wise man but not infallible. He says above:

"I'm not saying you can't do that with your proposed opening....."

I'm afraid James is wrong. I'm telling you that you won't achieve that with your proposed opening.

Go and read the classic books on children's entertaining. If you find one that suggests a silent opening, bin it. It's not worth the paper it's printed on.

On a daily in and out show for birthday parties and schools and whatever, a silent opening is absolute death. No experienced children's entertainer would touch it.

I've done musical openings and entire manip acts. When there is a large contingent of children in the audience they always, almost without fail, talk to you during the set. No matter how well you do it. This is especially true in the more intimate settings of birthday parties, etc. Children want to interact with you, not sit quietly and watch beautiful magic performed to music. In family shows, when on a stage, with large audiences (500-1200 people) I still use a quick silk production sequence ending with a silk fountain and large silk in the center. The whole set is about 2-3 minutes. It's over before the kids start to get bored with watching something that appeals more to the adults. Once they see the first silk appear, then the second, it starts to get old quickly for them.

Just my 2¢ worth . . .

best,
Tim Sonefelt

Well, obviously I agree, Tony. I don't think a silent opening for children is effective, but without actually seeing his routine I can't say for sure that it won't work.

Indeed Tim you have a valid point. Working to audiences, family audiences of any size let alone 500 - 1200 is a quite different performing style to a birthday party.

That I thought was what we were mainly addressing. Birthdays and school parties. Once you introduce adults and volume it's a different game.