I've been doing magic more seriously for a few months now and I've bumped into a couple of issues I would like to run by The Café:

1. What are some good effects for kids? My nieces love when I do magic, but a couple of them are too young to really get card tricks and my repertoire is currently quite card heavy. They love scotch & soda and sponge balls (Carney's Current Classic). Mark Wilson's Sucker TnR Napkin from the complete course has also played well. What are some other effects that kids like?
   
2. How do you deal with frequent requests for performing from the same audience? I find that my repertoire, which I'm very proud of at this point, is quite limited and when I'm around folks that enjoy the magic (Great to have those!) they want me to perform and I find myself trying to adjust my methods so that I can perform my effects multiple times without anyone catching on, but I'm starting to exhaust my options there too.
   

Thanks in advance!

Smaller kids are not a really good audience. In addition to the sponge balls (and sponge bunnies, which are much, much better), get a thumb tip and a 9" silk. I have a large silk with a top hat on it, and a small silk with a bunny picture on it, so I can put the rabbit in the hat or take him out.

Jim

How old are your nieces?

Some thoughts would be the Milk Pitcher, rope magic, and the Magic Coloring Book. Tricks that are visual and easy to understand.

G'day Jamie
Sounds like you are enjoying the performing.
I find that for younger audiences the above suggestions are spot on.
A 3 rope routine like "Professor's Nightmare" with a story line that suits their age, or a multiple cut and restored rope again with a good story line and with out a doubt the colouring book with multiple changes and the audience making the magic moves works well for the younger ones and I find that the parents are just as intrigued by these routines.
A silk routine including silk to cane, Daryl's Rubix Cube, a bottle that vanishes in a brown paper bag, funny wands (like the break away wand) and one of the classics is the "Dice Box" - some of these are often presented as a "sucker effect" - but I find that with a bit of thinking they can be done positively.
The story line is what gives these routines there interest and I find that it also makes it more interesting to present as well as helping with moments of misdirection.
Let us know what you decide to do.
Bob Latta (aka Troppo Bob)

I'm assuming you're in a semi-impromptu situation so...
Whether you use magic or joke around with them kids need to be entertained.
Pulling things from nose, mouth, butt, etc get kids laughing.
Finger Ring tricks in conjunction with wand, pencil, string, spoon, etc works.
Coin matrix's and assemblies.
Squeakers are fun to use.
Just keep it all simple and fun.

I gave up on doing requests for tricks every time I visited someone.
Saying, "I have nothing new." worked.
I know that it's good to show your stuff but you have to space it out over time.
Showing one newer trick rather than a whole show keeps things under some control.

Brilliant, Jaz! I forgot all about that! I use to get major mileage out of the "squeaker"! I need to find a good one like I had! Several options present themselves...

Doug

The hot rod seems to go over well
Simple coin things (eg Gadabout coins - "the friendly coins") etc

Hippity-hop rabbits work really well, as does Rocky the Raccoon. Also an inexpensive change bag is great, as is the Vanishing Bandana.

Regarding repeat magic, many effects can be restructured in a way that the audience feels it is a new effect. For example, once I had mastered the Elmsley Count, I realized at least a dozen different card effects could be done. Sometimes just a different story line, adding music, changing from balloons to candy, etc. is enough to create a new effect. Finally, while not lessening your continued practice on your "A LIST", adding one or two self-working effects can really help and not require tons of practice.

Just some thoughts...

Jim

Any trick where the kids can participate will enhance the magic for them. I often have one volunteer hold the magic wand, make a swish or tap, and say the magic words to creat the magic. I do this with sponge bunnies, sponge balls, coloring book, cards, and even rope. It also helps control them - "stand right here and don't move till we are ready to do the magic", "stay back now and you will get your turn".

On separate point, if you are visiting with the same children on a frequent basis, it will either be very expensive or very time consuming to have new, polished, material on say a weekly basis. You may want to reserve for special occasions - for me it is every Chrisrmas or Thanksgiving that I do magic for family. Maybe during the summer on a vacation. That makes it special and even if you do a similar trick, they won't really remember the details well enough to limit the impact.

Remember a few tricks, done very well, will have a greater impact that a flurry of tricks that the next day will be remembered as, "a bunch of magic tricks"

Hudson

Magic Coloring book, a la Silly Billy is killer for kids, say 4-8. It really gets them involved and you can have as much fun with it as they can! So is a die box, for just about any crowd.

Sooner or later you'll probably end up performing for some of the same folks more than once. Pros do it all the time, yet folks still want to see them. It's the performance that matters.

I’ve had a whole lot of fun with the Vanishing Yellow Bandanna. If you have access to anything that will play CD’s or MP3s, you’re in. It’s a hilarious 3 minutes that everyone (even the grownups) will ask to see again whenever they see you.

The effect is simplicity itself, which allows you to focus on “hamming it up”, and the very VERY visceral appeal of squishing a real banana will get laughs, even from the sourpusses.

Watch Justin Kredible do this and you’ll see why it’s everyone’s favorite.

Sounds like I’ve just written a review, but this trick is worth the price, and it literally never gets old!

DW and OP.....if you look closely at my Avatar, you'll see me offering the crushed banana skin to an audience member. And you're right DW, it's a favorite of mine too!

You can do a nice silk blendo with a change bag. comedy glass routine rope tricks work well with kids.

Jxpx777

I have a presentation for cards across for kids that I'm happy to share with you and a few other things if you like? Just PM me for details.

Magically

Aus

[quote]On 2011-12-28 08:49, Jaz wrote:
I'm assuming you're in a semi-impromptu situation so...
Whether you use magic or joke around with them kids need to be entertained.
Pulling things from nose, mouth, butt, etc get kids laughing.


Kids love the D'Lite.

To add to the great ideas so far, you can do a single coin routine where you pull a coin out their ear. If there are a bunch of kids they will all want you to do that
to them. Thus, the miser's dream is fantastic (see Chris Caphart's work).



As Jaz touched upon above, the key here is to keep them wanting more. I've read/heard plenty of times the amature performs the same magic to the same audience
and the pro performs the same magic to different audiences. With that said, it
would be exhausting (financially and magically) to perform all the time to the same
audiance. As mentioned above, give them a taste and don't do a full blown show;
blowing out your rep. Meanwhile, you keep building your rep.

Here is a thought, that I think I read somewhere (Jim Sisti?) about restaurant
performing where you can potentially have regulars (i.e. the same audience). You
have set A that you perform all the time to different people. Then you have set B
that you save for your repeat audiences, depending on how long they last saw you.
Finally, you have set C of your material that you are working on or save for that
special repeat customer.

Hope this helps...