Title: How To Create Kids’ Magic and Triple Your Income!
Medium: Book
Arena: Kids show magic
Available: Any shop, distributed by Murphys Magic Supplies

I believe the hardest type of performance magic to do properly is for children. The only ones who don’t believe this are the guys who don’t perform for these little people and the main reason they likely don’t perform for children, one of the most lucrative types of magic, is because they can’t do it. The problem is kids show magic is also one of the easiest types of magic to get into as a business. You literally can go on line to a large magic shop, buy a few props, get business cards made up, and you can be out the next day looking for work. People do this all the time, agents do it, greedy little wanna be performer masters do it, and it hurts the careers and reputations of those out there working hard to become top notch performers and making a living doing magic for kids be it birthday parties or larger shows in community centers. One of the problems is there are very few good sources for how to be a good performer, what it really involved, and how to succeed in this often competitive field. It is amazing to me the number of people who consider themselves kids show performers who don’t ‘get it’ or have a clue how to routine for children of different ages. One of the great, recent, contributions to ending this was Seriously Silly by Silly Billy (David Kaye) which addressed routining and how to work for the different age groups. It was lacking information on marketing and the business of performing for kids and this is where John Breeds book comes into play.

John Breeds is an experienced kids show performer out of the United Kingdom who comes from not only a performers background but also as a telecommunications engineer who wrote tech manuals. This combination adds up to a man who not only knows how to succeed as a performer but also a man who understands how to communicate information clearly, logically, and often in a very direct manner. In this book, How To Create Kids’ Magic and Triple Your Income!, addresses the issues left out in Seriously Silly and does so very well. The book is soft covered and the paper is thicker than normal, meaning it is well made. There are lots of graphics, both drawings and photos as well as cartoons used to emphasize important points. Coming, as I do, from a high tech background I was very comfortable with the way the book is set up. It has a very good and detailed table of contents and index that will help you find sections you want to re read later. I thought the graphics used were well done and added to the text, the writing is clear and retains interest as you read it, meaning it isn’t dry even though based on tech manuals in style. This is a professionally done book and one John Breed can be proud of.

The book is broken down into sections, I’ll give the sections and my thoughts on each.

1. Selling You!

In this section you learn how to get the job. John gives a lot of information on, well, selling yourself, how to speak and what words and phrases work in making you the person hired rather than just another guy being considered. This is a marketing course with you as the product and the information is excellent and I learned a lot from it. I think if you read this section and really try to understand it you will improve your hire ability and you will get gigs that you might not get otherwise. You also get great hints on negotiating and other business aspects you could take years to learn if you learn it at all before giving up. This is the type of information I’ve been hoping would be put out because it hasn’t, to my knowledge, been available specifically for a kids show performer and now it is and it is gold. John is very good about sharing his own party tips and contracts and so forth, there is so much great stuff here you won’t believe it until you read it.

2. Publicity and Advertising Technique.

Another section of much needed information and again John shares, in abundance, his own material for you to look at. This is as you can figure out how to get your name out there and get people to consider you for jobs. There are some hints here that I thought were just brilliant, one is how to structure a two sided advertisement card so that it looks like two separate ads. John also goes into detail about what works for yellow page ads, this is information I never even considered and had me thinking “dang, he’s right!” as I read along. Like in section one the information here is something that has been missing until now and if this book was only these first two sections it would be worth having, but wait, there’s more!

3. Audience Control and Staging.

Again excellent information. I’ve been doing kids shows and puppets since the 70s and I found ideas here that were new to me and again left me thinking “dang he is right!” about John. This is the section where John goes into what different age groups find entertaining and based on questions I’ve seen asked this is still an area many are confused about. This area goes into sound, mikes, tables, backdrops, everything you could want to know. I agree completely with what John has to say. This is getting into the area others have addressed but John brings real world knowledge, just as Silly Billy does, to the table where a lot of ‘experts’ in the field are mostly just marketing their own products and writings and I don’t think are in the trenches as much as they would like us to believe. Do not assume you know enough about his area to ignore this section.

4. Funny Tricks With Clever Bits

This is the section the people who really need to read and study the first three sections will jump to and pretty much ignore the first three sections. I have little faith in people. This is where, clearly, the routines are. I have to tell you a number of them make use of items you will have to make and keep in mind John is an engineer. A lot of the material is beyond my abilities, I think, but the routines read to me as ones that will work. I did get a couple ideas that I wrote into routines based on statements made by John that I think are real winners. I will try to make a couple of these effects because I like the ideas so much. Another thing you need to know is John isn’t giving away the store here, he expects you to be able to come up with your own presentations, no scripts provided! Hey, if you are a professional performer you should be able to come up with your own scripting. Lastly it should be noted that John created the great idea of visual painting, as stolen by so many companies. There is a lot of information here and some great, great routines.

5. Non-Elimination Games

Many know the UK magicians often do games in a full party type situation. While I’ve not done games in years Johns approach makes perfect sense to me and I like these games. There is one item John uses that I completely forgot about but he is right, it is perfect for these types of situations. This section is enough to make you consider becoming a full party provider rather than just a magic show. Good stuff and good thoughts.


I know this has been a long review but I think this type of book is what was needed. Combine it with Seriously Silly and you have the foundation of a career. Do keep in mind the information in the book might be contrary to what you believe may have been told by your so called mentors. This is real world information from a very successful performer who has decades of experience backing him up and I recommend it to anyone, regardless of experience, who does or wants to do kids show magic and make money. I think John is right, read, study, and use the information and you will likely triple your income and do so by working less. Some of the best advice I ever got was to work smarter not harder and this book is one of the ways for you to get the smarts.

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I thought these reviews would be of interest.

John

Thanks for the review guys! Was just looking for it.

It seems like this book is out of print or sold out. Does any know of any in-stock sources?