At the restaraunt where I table-hop, it's a Disney place, so I carry a lot of kid-based effects. There was this one group which was about 3 families and all the kids (6 girls, 2 boys, ages about 5-8) were at a seperate table, and usually when I see this it's perfect, but little did I know what I was in for! One of them was playing with a 3-d puzzle, and two others were playing a card game I'd never seen before. When I started doing the D'lite routine, they were thouroghly unimpressed and told me how it was done right away. The vanishing silk got most of them at first, but one of the 5 year old girls doped it out!?! I had better luck with the parents who were amazed at the stealth pen, and the kids askled to see it. I did the effect, and they were stumped. As I was going to other tables, I noticed all the kids at that previous table were in a huddle & discussion, and 2 tables later, they waved me over. There, on the table, drawn on a sketchpad, were various pictues & DESIGNS accopmpanied by notes & theories as to how the pen-trick had been done! And one of them was right! The boys hi-fived and started speaking to each other in what I was told was Latin....one of the girls said they (the boys) use Latin to shut the girls out, but the girls could retaliate by speaking French!

Needless to say, I didn't even TRY to do the sponge-bunnies! Has anyone ever encounbtered a party of child-geniuses?

That sounds like an episode of "The Twighlight Zone",or at least it should be.Maybe they were Aliens?

Rich

I feel sorry for those kids. Nothing really amazes them. Everything is just a puzzle to be figured out.

Look at it this way. Each of those kids and the offspring they will produce will help even out the dopers and their offspring. The vast area in the middle is what we call our audience. meanwhile write it up and send it to Speilberg, you might have a movie deal in the making.

Frank Tougas

Sounds like fun! You should have done the sponge bunnies. When you do routines, rather than gimmicked tricks, they are more difficult for logical thinkers to recreate, especially if you vary the method.

And don't feel sorry for these kids, they are still amazed. My guess is the parents made the challenge for them. My 9-year-old daughter has a 141 I.Q. (didn't get it from me!) and still has fun watching things. She'll try to figure them out sometimes, but other times she'll just watch like everyone else and not even try to figure stuff out.

I would have given them an impossible scenario and put them to work on it ("Hey, kid, my friend can vanish from the waist down. How do you think he does it?") Maybe they'd have invented a new trick!

Don't worry about the lil' brains. I knew a kid in highschool who was a certifiable genius. As a freshman he'd go to Stanford and Cal Poly to take part in projects, was heavily recruited by every top university in the US and some outside. He actually did rocket science as a hobby. Last time I saw him he was in a leather jacket (funny cuz he was the stereo typical nerd, about 5'5", thick glasses, pocket protector in his button down shirt) and an odd look in his eyes. He had a complete breakdown at 17 and I don't think ever fully recovered. Been about 20 years since I saw him. That is what they have comin'!
Steve V

The Red Snapper... that does them in every time. If the method is EXTREMELY simple, maybe like the coin in soda can, the scientist inside them gets fooled into searching for the wrong solution.

When I encounter things of this sort, I strive not to so much wow them or impress them as I do to simply entertain them in any means possible. Sometimes I can sense the kids are just very smart and intellectual. This is when I strive to make the journey MORE fun then the effect itself. I get them laughing and giggling and having fun with the routine so that the effect may not be so important to them as it is the fact that they had fun with it. Just my thoughts.

Kyle

I hope those kids find a cure for cancer or something.

Hey, get them in a room and give them enougn crayons and paper and we might not only find a cure, but get us to figure out exactly why they place locks on gas station bathrooms. Are they afraid someone might break in and clean them? Never could figure that out.. but maybe they can. hehehe

Kyle