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shouksmiths Regular user York, England 109 Posts |
Hi Tony - I'd be interested to know what steps you take (or process you follow) when developing a new routine for children's shows?
Any advice for the rest of us? For example at what point do you feel that a new routine is good to road test with a live audience? |
Tony Chris V.I.P. Vancouver, Canada 714 Posts |
Hi Shouksmiths,
Excellent question. I only insert maybe one new trick a year to my kids shows. I know I really should do more but I just get so comfortable as I am sure many of us do with our A - material set that we don't want to go to far from it. In all honesty, I wish I could say that I have a new kids show every year but I am just too lazy to be honest to develop a whole new set. However, as I said, I do insert one new one every year sometimes two but mostly one. Here is my process: I will generally keep my eyes open all the time for new childrens magic effects or books that are released every year. I will usually by one or two new kid show effects in a year and will practice them until I am happy that I can get the motions down to performance ready execution. Then I really work hard on putting together a patter that not only works for the effect but has to be very funny I must feel that I can get some good laughs from it. Most of my childrens effects are approximately 3 - 5 minutes in length so as you have probably guessed, I add a lot of bits of funny business and try to get at least 5 strong laughs in each effect that I perform. Once I have the patter down and the comedy timing for it, I will bring in both my kids, aged 7 and 13 and have them sit in front of me as I perform the new effect. I will always tell them that daddy has a new magic trick and I need your help to watch it. I don't prompt them at any point as I need to make sure that the built in funny moments actually convey properly. I will then perform it and if I get the response I am looking for it will be ready to be inserted into my show. If however, I find that I miss on a couple of the funny bits, or they just don't go over as well as I thought, then I will revamp it a bit and do some tweaking. Once I am happy with the new effect, I will insert it in my next birthday party show around the half way mark. I wouldn't start with it and would make sure its place is strategically inserted so that I am also not nervous to use it as an opener. I also make sure and do a voice recording after that show when I am in the car as I leave verbal notes that I can review later. Example: The effect went over well but one laugh didn't work as well as I thought. Or the effect was fantastic and the kids laughed in all the right places. Or, It really wasn't that great and I need to revisit this one and try to figure out what to change. Or, It was perfect and is now in the show. Any one of those scenarios can happen. After all these years you think a guy could easily put together a brand new A - material show every year, but I just can't do it. Even when I have repeat shows for the same family or organization, I tend to do most of the same show but will then insert older A - Material effects that have been removed over the years and insert them in for the repeats. My advice to anyone else is to just work on one new or two new effects every year or more if you are comfortable and really work them in and just go out and try them. That is the only way to know if they will flop or fly! TC
As magicians we create what onlookers call magic. If they truly believe in what we have created for them to witness then magic is real!!!
- TONY CHRIS, A.K.A. Zany Zack http://www.tonychris.com |
MissMage Regular user 104 Posts |
You mentioned that you have an "age 3-6 show" in a different post. This got me to wondering. How do you break down the kid's age groups, and what kinds of effects have you found most effective for each group?
Oh, and one more thing... your persona is definitely very child oriented, but do you have any experience, opinions, or ideas about creating a show that kids and parents can equally enjoy? Do you think this is even a possibility? As I'm toying with the idea of developing a children's show, I have been having a discussion with a fellow bizarrist. His main complaint about doing kid shows is that they are "beneath" entertaining adults. But I'm thinking there must be some way to grab and hold a child's interest while offering something a little more cerebral to the parents. What do you think? Oh, and I lied, one more thing... Has your love of the bizarre ever crossed over into your children's shows? Thanks so much for your eagerness to share your experiences with the rest of us! I am really enjoying your contributions so far! |
Tony Chris V.I.P. Vancouver, Canada 714 Posts |
I actually make about 70% of my living doing kids shows. The other 30% is through adult stand up magic shows and close up shows for adults. There just seems to be a lot more work as a full time magician where I live in doing the kids shows. I love doing them and they are as I said, a huge part of my income.
I have essentially 3 different shows for kids. 3 - 5 year olds (approximately) this is the standard pre-school, and Kindergarten age group. The show is a zany adventure with tons of silliness and lots of colorful, fast paced magic. I keep the show shorter at around 35 minutes, a 5 minute puppet routine and 20 minutes of balloon animals. 6 - 9 year olds This show is still in my character of Zany Zack but my demeanor is not quite as silly. Still very off the wall, zaniness but I do speak to the kids with a little more seriousness. Just enough to let them know that I am not "baby talking" them and that I am talking to them with an age appropriate overtone. 10 - 12 year olds. This show involves a different costume and I certainly don't treat them as little kids. They are pretty mature at this age and the magic really has to be age appropriate. Let face it, they are mostly listening to pop music and are getting into that "cool" phase of life. The show is much more sophisticated and very age appropriate. At age 13 and up, they are getting the same show as my regular adult show but it is obviously a clean show and politically correct. I just edit it a bit to make it palatable for that complex age. To answer you last part of the question. I do lots of shows where kids and adults are present. That show is treated as a custom show and I simply do magic that will appeal to both intellects and age groups. Lets face it, you can't do just kids magic when there are adults present and vice versa. Those types of shows may scare some magicians as I know some performers that are very reluctant to do mixed ages shows. They believe their shows are only for kids or only for adults. I have never done bizarre magic in my kids shows as I simply have a kids show that is fairly bullet proof and I simply keep it that way. I really only do bizarre magic for certain groups and types of shows. They are not very often as that type of magic is a hard sell for the most part. I tend to do them for new age shops, vampire clubs, adult home parties around Halloween etc. There just isn't a very big market for performing bizarre magic as a principle source of magical income where I live. Everything out here in Vancouver is primarily kids show or corporate adult in nature.
As magicians we create what onlookers call magic. If they truly believe in what we have created for them to witness then magic is real!!!
- TONY CHRIS, A.K.A. Zany Zack http://www.tonychris.com |
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