Hello everybody, I havn't wrote here for some time and I have a big show (for me) coming next month - a Summer Camp for 300 young girls, 1st-7th grade, 6 groups of 50 each. Jeneraly I do a close-ups so I need do prepare a few routines for the different ages.

I'd like some ideas if someone wants to share.
For now I paln to do:
Healed & sealed.
6 cards repeat.
Enchanted cube.
Invisible deck.
Forced card+Forced animal that appear in an envelope.

I'll be happy if you'll share some thoughts.

Congratulations on your upcoming show(s)! Just remember that some close up doesn't work as well for groups of 50.

I also wouldn't advise performing more than one card trick... especially for the younger girls. I would try to include some more visual tricks, perhaps a silk routine.

You didn't say how long each group performance would be, but if they are back to back shows you need to avoid tricks that require lengthy set ups (such as healed and sealed).
Good luck!

Just about anything could be suitable just think of your presentation angle for the girls. Here a few ideas:

The Linking Rings: You could work up a presentation around the fact you call them elephant wedding rings, friendship bands or ear rings which young girls are very familiar with.

Lipstick prediction: Do a one-ahead prediction of how the girls apply make up to a picture of somebody with a force of a lipstick colour at the end as the lever to get one ahead. You could do this with crayons rather than real makeup to be more practical. The comedy avenues with this one are endless.

Pro-nightmare: Talk about how you made the wrong choice when you went to buy hair extensions as they were three different sizes, you then magically lengthen them to the same size until you realised you chose the wrong colour and put them back to their different sizes again.

Dolly magazine book test: Speaks for itself.

Chain Letter prediction: Same concept at the Lipstick prediction but better suited for the older girls; just think of some things that you could get them to write in a chain letter passed between the girls that you could predict.

Miser’s Dream: Explain that you have discovered the secret of where the tooth fairy hides its money.

The Vanishing Zit Cream: A nice little comedy piece where you could show the virtues of a new Zit cream that not only vanishes zits but everything else as well i.e.: annoying brothers, embarrassing Dads etc. You could also use a makeup concealer in the same context.

The Psychic Hair Straightener: Have a card selected and place back in the deck throw the deck onto the air and thrust the hair straightener into the cloud of cards and the chosen cards is found in the jaws of the hair straightener.

A Magic Selfie: Have a girl come on stage and take a selfie holding a blank faced card, then have a card selected from a normal deck and returned. With some magic mumbo jumbo the blank card in the selfie turns into the selection.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Magically

Aus

I find for teenage girls effect like mind reading and messages from the spirits go down well.

Sorry Yair, but, IMHO, you have done a foolish thing.

You have booked an act that you don't have. Robin and Aus, are good guys, and are trying to help you. They havs offered suggestions. But, A BUNCH OF TRICKS IS NOT AN ACT!

NEMO DAT QUOD NON HABET! (NO ONE CAN GIVE WHAT HE DOES NOT HAVE!) --You don't HAVE an act. I have "sat" on audition committees, and have had young magicians with a lot more to show than you apparently have. They did not pass our stringent requirements! I have been a judge on a number of talent contests at national and regional magic conventions. I think that I have a fairly good idea of what an act must be.

I can't imagine developing a performance in less than a month--particularly when four out of five effects in your "repertoire" are card tricks, and your potential audience is primary, elementary, and Jr. High School girls.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but "them's the facts"!

If you really want to do stand up shows, I suggest you start reading! --TARBELL, WEBER,et al.

There aint no shallow end in this pool! Before you jump in, you need to know how to swim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure that there will be some reactions to my comments, such as: "You are not sharing!" etc. I AM SHARING! --some d==n good advice!

I have been asked by a "few" professionals to critique and help develop and produce their acts. (And, I have been well paid for my counsel.)

I wish you well, but, I think this is apt to be a disaster!

I have to agree with Dick's comments. To put an act together in so short a time is very difficult, if not impossible. I often have ideas that sound great, but when you put them in your act they just don't work. The only way unfortunately is to do a lot of shows and see what works best for you. This is why you see someone do an effect and you think to yourself'' I like that effect, I think I'll put it in my act'' only to find when you do it you don't get the same response. We are not trying to be negative when we say these things, we just know from experience the way things are.
I wish you the very best for your upcoming show and am sure that sometime in the future, you will look back on these remarks, when you have gained experience, and think, now I know what they were trying to say, break a leg, George

I've been away for 35 yrs. Saw a performance recently by a very active magician (being paid) and thought to myself "My act is better than that one". Saw another one recently, and thought "this guy is good! -way better than me" Again, a professional.

I don't know the level of your expertise. I WILL say, that that age & sex can be tough. They'll be more attentive than a boys-only crowd would be. Are you doing 6 performances for groups of 50? Did I get that right? Or, is it one performance for 300 girls, who are within six sub-groups, but combined for one big audience?

1- You're going to need some stage/parlor stuff. You'll need to go beyond cards. Frankly, I'd drop all but maybe one or two (at most) card effects, unless they are stage-propped (i.e., a large card-in-frame).

2- If one show, for one large group, that's one thing. If you're doing multiple shows, you need to prepare one act for grades 1-3 or 1-4; and, a completely different one for grades 5-7 or 4-7. I cannot emphasize that enough. With six sets, you may even want to sub out tricks so everyone doesn't see the same show.

3- I REALLY like the suggestion above about scarves. Silks. Work some silk/scarf stuff in. MUST. Production box, whatever.

4- Rope tricks. Linking Rings suggested above is also a great idea (bigger, the better). Elephant earrings. Hippy-Hop Rabbits? Die box? I like a sucker trick here or there for kids; but don't over-do the sucker angle. Do you have a Dove Pan?

5- Be ready to make a couple of cultural references. Not too many (which would appear fake), but just enough to let them know early on that you're cool. That will get their attention & approval early. I recommend going to WalMart (or equivalent) and looking through the CDs. I have no idea what the bubblegum set listens to now days (what is the 2014 version of "backstreet boys"?). But you need to know, and work that into your act. Maybe buy a "tiger beat" type of magazine before hand to prepare yourself. TV & music.

6- Aus has some GREAT recommendations.

7- I also 100% agree w/ the mind-reading angle. Girls like that. (invisible deck, girl on stage. Blindfold her. Have her friend pick invisible card. Have friend show invisible card to blindfolded girl {No! Not that side! Show her the face of the card!}, as blindfolded girl holds boxed deck you gave her after blindfolding. Ask blindfolded girl to name the card. -that makes HER the mind reader/magician etc)

8- Generate as much participation as you can handle. Helps them keep focus. With kids, VARY the length of each trick. Start with a strong quick hitter for attention. Don't let any trick drag too long. Short-medium- medium- short- long - medium. Kids now days have very short attention spans. Be as visual as you possibly can with tricks.

There's a lot of variables we don't know. How long a set are you to do? All the same day? Back-to-back-to-back, or One show for a 300 person crowd?

good luckm yair. post again!

S.D.! Are you serious?

I started to refute your 8 suggestions, but I deleted my comments, lest someone think that I was attackint YOU. I wasn't! I was refuting your suggestions. I cannot imagine the OP doing all that in one month. --especially with his very limited repertoire and experience.

I speak from 68 successful years of doing magic for $$$$$$.

Maybe this quotation from no less an authority than S. H. SHARPE might illustrate my phiosophy:

"THOSE WHO THINK THAT MAGIC IS DOING TRICKS, ARE STRANGERS TO MAGIC. TRICKS ARE ONLY THE CRUDE RESIDUE FROM WHICH THE LIFEBLOOD OF MAGIC HAS BEEN DRAINED."

Hi, yair61.

I don't have much experience at all performing or teaching magic, but I do make my living as a musician and am a career music teacher. Without knowing your background in magic and how practiced you are in the effects you listed, I can only offer general advice from my point of view as a professional performer and educator outside of the magic field.

Some of the experienced folks above suggest that you're setting yourself up to fail here, but I think that's fine - provided you don't fail too badly. Failure is an important part of the learning process and without making a few mistakes from time to time and learning from them you won't improve. While it may be true that you're biting off more than you can chew, maybe this experience is just the thing to help you take your magic up to the next level. Often times I will program a piece on a concert that is just beyond the abilities of my students to perform, expecting that it will not be as good as it could be but knowing that the experience will be educational for them (this is a tricky thing to do, by the way, because you don't want it to crush their self-esteem, just provide a "kick in the pants" to let them learn how much they don't know). Or, to paraphrase something I heard Michael Ammar say, "Everyone needs an opportunity to be bad."

It seems that there may be two extreme approaches you could take with this show. You could develop a whole new routine in only a month (which is not going to be as strong as it should be) or try to adapt your existing close up material for a situation where you know it's not really going to work so well. Perhaps trying to find a balance between the two and choosing the lesser of two evils is best. Maybe you could do a shorter show to help you get whatever material you decide on down much stronger rather than trying to fill up a lot of time with more effects that aren't performed as well. Maybe pad out your patter with stories or jokes that will help you lengthen your show without needing to perform as many tricks. Is there someone else you could invite to share your show with you? It doesn't need to be another magician, maybe turn it into a little variety show involving juggling, dancing, comedy skits, etc.

Back when I used to perform kid's birthday parties I had a couple of self-working or very simple tricks that worked great. The Magic Coloring Book trick is the first one that comes to my mind. The illusion pretty much does itself, so I could concentrate more on how to present it in an entertaining way and less on practicing the technique. That trick is probably too "young" for middle school students, but I'll bet if you visit your local magic shop or call up one that can ship stuff to you that they might be able to recommend some easy-to-perform effects that will work better for a larger audience and allow you to get the most out of your limited practice time. Is there a magic club in your area where you can meet with more experience magicians in person?

Again, you should take my thoughts here with a big grain of salt. Consider the source of this advice accordingly.

Good luck!

Dave

Well, one thing I ask about is his relative level of experience. Nothing in his post tells what his experience really is.
Do we know? I saw your post predicting disaster (which may well be the case), but without knowing his experience level, how would we anticipate success or disaster?

I know he said he tends to do close up. But does that mean he doesn't know rope, linking rings, dove pan, & etc?

Like I said. I saw a long-time pro bomb very recently.

I will say for future reference, rope and silk magic works for just about any situation. Silk is wonderful for all the color effects you can do and rope is a fairly cheap item that plays big. But I am with the others unless you have more then just cards effects you are doomed.

Little story about the first birthday show I ever did. I had a number of effects about 12 with my best ones at the end and a good one to start the rest were ok (at the time). I realized when I got there that about 5 of my effects were not going to work for that venue - no way no how. There went about 20 minutes of material. Luckily enough my best ones were still good to go. That was one of the longest 45 minutes for me. I stretched those effects out. The main thing I got from that near disaster was to over prepare and try to think of quality effects that can play on what ever arena you are in. I don't do stage magic, but I work on effects that may work there just in case something comes up.

It is also important to work on many areas of magic. If for nothing else, then to be prepared when the time comes.

I hope things work for you.

I'm at work and had to go before I finished my thought (is there no 'edit post' function here?). I was going to add that, by & large, I've found this place to be a great message board. Dick, I think you're "gentle" enough that I'd not have taken anything personally (I hope!), but rather in a good spirit intended to advance the art & simply (honestly) exchange ideas.

I may be missing a lot of info (prior posts?) on this poster's level of experience.

I'm not sure what happened to yair61, but unfortunately we see this happen far too often. A new poster asks for advice and when they get it, they disappear and do not participate in the conversation. It really is hard to make suggestions to someone when you don't know whether they have been performing in public for years or may have never performed for anyone other than family or a few friends. If he has no experience performing before an audience, perhaps the advice that has been given will have him rethink accepting this camp gig and work on getting a little more performing experience before taking on what could be a stressful challenge for even the seasoned pro.

I just hope that he understands that no one is trying to attack him and what he is trying to do, but instead are trying to let him know that it is sometimes better to turn down difficult performing opportunities until you are experienced enough to pull it off.

Going to go a little of topic but hope to highlight a issue that could be a factor in play here.

Those who think that magic is doing tricks- I feel that is what we are seeing on TV at the moment. Very un creative presentations of tricks. 'Can I see your your phone, watch, it in the bottle, Then magician walks off'. And we just look back on mock the old school because we can. I know some one that apart from the odd kid show when they was young has not seen a magican till the recent TV shows started. Just the other week there was one of Derren brown stage shows on TV I got this guy to watch. He enjoyed it but he separated from magic as something else. Not as mentalist or medium but he separated because it was different to what he seen on TV. Glad to report he prefers it and has took a lot of my Derren Brown DVDs and books as well as a few others.

The other issue is there is no standard. Any one can promote them self as a magician and get away with it. And this is easy because the audience expected standard can be low and uninformed.

However this is my rant over, I still wish the original post the best of luck and hope all gose well. Also let us know how it went. I think we can all learn from this and any told you so post will be to late and un helpful.

Hello everyone, I've been away for a few days and now I see all your responses. thank you for your knowledge and sharing. I hope I'll answer all of you and will not forget anyone.
first of all, Aus, Wow, you are very creative and changed every magic and story to match to the audience. it is very helpful. and SDMoore1, thank you for being very practical, for your questions, it's 6 shows for 50 girls each (3 shows every day), every group is a different age, and of course I need to adjust the show to the right age. every show is 30 min, and I've a few self-working magics in my arsenal too. it's of course not my first show for children, I did a few birthday parties and camps before, but nota lot (less than 10).
Dick, you right and I know that I've big shoes to fill (or more accurate "biting off more than I can chew"), but I said to myself that I'm not rejecting any offer that I have and think I can make, and as Wilktone wrote that it can be pushing me to the next level, and I hope to not fail too badly, and give the audience a good and entertaining show.

Thanks to Andy_Young and Robin4Kids too for there comments.

Yair61 no matter how things turn out I wish you luck my friend even though I do share some of the sentiments expressed here buy others. It will be a learning experience, and if you do fail is some respect learn from it because failure is the price of success.

Presentation is everything in children's magic and I have been saying this so much in general lately I'm starting to get sick and tired of my own voice. Presentation of a trick can add significantly to the duration of a children's act so it's not accurate to just write a list of tricks on a piece of paper and say that's what I'm going to perform, you need a lot more work then that.

You need to know how to structure your tricks and the various presentations so you can find a balance between quite moments and more lively and noisy interludes as building children up into a frenzy of shouting and screaming for long periods isn't advisable as this can lead to all sorts of problems.

Also consider a warm up at the start of the show to help establish the tone and the children's participation as many kids have probably not been to a live magic show before and are not sure what is acceptable behavior.

If you get deeper in the area of children's magic these and many other considerations will reveal themselves to you. My personnel kids show only has six tricks in it which are, Cards Across, Milk from Elbow, Milk Shake Monte, Change bag routine,Rope routine and the linking rings as the final which all put together goes for a little over 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the circumstance. To be honest you don't really need a great deal prop wise to entertain children as once I read somewhere that the British entertainer Mark Leveridge fits all his props into a 4 liter ice-cream container.

Magically

Aus

Hello everybody, the show was last week and tomorrow I've got another one.
Although I was worried, it went well and the children very enjoyed.
Thank you all for the advies and help.