Performing a great magic show takes tremendous amounts of preparation, something that the audience does not realise in most cases. This article with help you prepare an amazing routine for different ages.

There are different demorgraphics that you will encounter in your performances. There are children (Will either be a group of boys, a group of girls or a mix of the two). There are also adults (Different age groups). It is important to plan your performance accordingly to the age of the audience. You do not want to be performing a childrens show to a group of classy adults.

Younger adults are usually more responsive to comedy in your routine. Older people wouldn't be as comfortable with humor that does not suit them. Being able to adapt to you surroundings and audience is important. You can perform the same routine for different groups, but change the patter accordingly. You will have to practice different patters for you routines before going to perform. Once you have your audience you have chosen, you can then choose the patter that suits them best. It wouldn't be too good if your talking about skirts with boys and violent video games with girls.

If you have a job performing at a restauraunt, then you should dress and act accordingly. Usually people at a restauraunt are dressed in a formal manner and act classy. You must present yourself as one of them to get them comfortable with you.

You should also make sure that you personality is still with you. If you are not a natural comedian or a natural spiritualist, don't try to be. You should always be yourself.
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Now let's get into more detail about the actual planning.

For children's parties... Keep in mind that children from ages 5-10 have short attention spans and might not pay attention for the whole act. You must stop this from happening. You have to captivate them from beginning to end. Get them into it, if they know they are liked, they will surely like you. Yell some magic incantations at the beginning of the show and tell them to follow along. Then perform a HIGHLY visual, and colourful trick that doesn't take too long and doesn't need any participation.

After that, you should have a trick that involves a funny story, and audience participation. You wan't the kids to be into it, and their parents. Their parents want to see their children happy. This brings be to something else, BE SURE to give them rewards after coming up to help with a trick, give them a balloon, or a pack of childrens playing card (with your business card). If you tell the children that they have to watch and listen to be called onto up to help they will surely do so. They wan't attention.

The rest of the performance should have tricks that gradually get bigger and better, with an AMAZING finale that is super colourful.

As for adults, it is basicly the same as preparing a childrens show, except that the adults will listen more and watch you more. Make sure you use full proof tricks that you have practiced for ages, they will be looking for any mistake you can make. Use different patter, and instead of magic fairies and bunnies, use a more mysterious theme.

Impromptu tricks are the best type for adults, you will start clean and end clean, they won't find nor see anything.

Thank you.

Mitchell

Mitchell this is another great post. I only wish more Café members were able to say as much with so few words. You mention some the differences between performing for children an performing for adults. Are there any routines in your repetorie that work for both groups? If so, how have you changed the script/ patter and presentation to suit both audiences?

Anyone else have such "cross-over" material that they change to suit the situation?

- MW

Terrytoon Circus's Claude Kirshner (yes, I'm showing my age) used to open with a line that included the phrase "children of all ages".

Children's parties will include adult spectators as well.
Beside that fact, the adults are the ones paying you.
It may be a good idea to entertainment that all ages will enjoy.

Jaz you reminded me of this:

I have wrought my simple plan
If I give one hour of joy
To the boy who's half a man
Or the man who's half a boy

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (from the preface of his non-Holmes novel, "The Lost World")

It too is important to understand that there are no hard and fast rules in the world of the entertainer. Only guidelines. What works for one might very well fail for another. One needs to find ones own path on the road to magic and develop a perfomance style and approach that works for them. I do little of what you set down above. This doesn't make what you do wrong, it only means you have a differnt approach to reaching your audience that I do.

Jaz,
Precisely. Two mistakes are often made by movie makers as well: they forget you've got to keep the parents entertained as well as the kids, and they underestimate the sophistication of the kids.
A good children's book will hold the interest of the adult who reads it to their child. A good children's movie does the same.
Sure, you can try and entertain the kids while the parents go off and gossip, but then they haven't seen your show, and you get no word-of-mouth advertising. And worse, if you take this approach and also underestimated the kids, you'll have to deal with a bunch of bored children, who quickly find disruptive ways of entertaining themselves.

That's why I don't do children's magic.

I have a theory.

Childrens entertainers tend to entertain children the way they remember being entertained when they were young. Hence they always tend to be thirty years out of date.

OHMIGAWD! Haven't thought about that in 45 years. And do you remember Clowny and how each show ended : "And now it's time for most of you to go to bed . . . " And we would always talk back to the TV--"Not us!"

Hey Mitchell, there's a forum here just about children's magic called The little darlings. There are some very knowledgeable people there, if you'd like to learn more about doing kid shows.


Jack Shalom

In all fairness he usually quotes Mark Wilson, and dosn't credit the sourse. Plagorisim is I believe the term.

Dosn't make him wrong, just not so original. Myabe that is why he can say so much with so few words.