What kid's packet tricks can you name? For example with fruits, with pets, with cars, etc. I want to start using packets tricks for the kids in the restaurants I work at.

I mostly use blank cards and stickers or markers to adapt packet tricks for children. Instead of twisting four Aces, you can twist four different color butterflies. An oil and water effect can be about cats and dogs. A trick where the cards find their mates can be about superheroes and villains.

I have a set made to perform Bro. Hamman's Final Twist for kids. In the original routine, four blue-backed spades turn over in sequence (A-2-3-4), then the faces change to hearts, and then the backs change to red. In my routine four black and white jokers each have a different "favorite color" on their back (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow). After they turn over, I change the colored backs to Black and White, and on the faces the jokers are each dressed in their favorite color.

Another thing: Kids don't care if you glue cards together. If your packet trick needs a bunch of matching cards with the Batman logo on them, you can buy a deck with that logo on the back, stick them face to face with some old Bicycle cards, and put the rest away to make replacements later. If you're too much a purist for that, at least most novelty decks are easy to split. (I have a Spongebob/Hannah Montana double backer that I can't remember for the life of me what I wanted it for, but it's one of the best I've ever made.)

Don't underestimate the authority boost you get by being up on kid's trends. I was at a show a few years ago and brought along a set of "Skylanders" cards I'd made. I started the routine by laying the 8 cards out on the table and naming the Skylanders, just to show that the cards were all different. I looked up and the children were all staring at me, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. As if I had just performed an absolute miracle, and I hadn't even started the trick. I said "What, you've never met a grown-up who likes the Skylanders?" and they all just went bananas. I had to put aside the actual routine I had planned, because they just wanted to test me over and over again. But it's been ages since I saw a Skylanders lunchbox, at least in kid's years. If I brought those cards out today they'd probably roll their eyes because I was so out of touch. If you're making your own sets you can keep the same tricks in your act and just change the theme when the kids latch onto something new.

Great ideas. Thanks.

Wiz Kid Qua-Fiki managed to make many packet tricks from his Go Fish Card Tricks cards, first in the regular playing card size and more recently in jumbo and ultra jumbo cards for stage. Still a packet trick but also plays from a distance. He always added some new and original touches to the old packet concepts, so it wasn't just copying the old tricks and putting new faces on them.

http://magicnook.com/Qua-FikiCorner/Book1.htm

Thanks a lot.

Good to see you this weekend Mike. While at the IBM/SAM combined convention I picked up Emojication from Ronjo. It’s a matching game with 5 jumbo emoji cards. Fools adults too. Easy for them to follow. You can repeat it at same table with different outcomes. I like it .

Hi Patrick. I had a fun time at John Luka's Motor City Close Up Convention over the weekend. I am glad you were there. I really like your astonishing close up pads: http://www.pattricksmagic.com/pattrick-s-magical-mats/
Emojication sounds interesting. I will purchase it. Thank you.

Hi--I made my own kid-themed Color Monte sets for this very reason. I made a few seasonal ones and a few "all-season" sets. You can see them at this link below. I do sell these, but you can of course do your own thing if this sparks some creativity for you!

http://stalepeeps.com/uploads/3/4/7/9/34......orig.jpg

Jay

Good job Jay.

Pokémon cards are the exact same size as regular Bikes; I made a double backer (Bike-Pokémon) to turn a packet of playing cards into a deck of Pokémon cards.

Nice thread, thx
kj