Well, after a couple of months of thinking about it, and practicing some ideas, my 14 year old son, 12 year old daughter and I took the plunge and performed our 1st show today.

Our neighborhood hosted its annual Easter egg hunt, and we had arranged to do a magic show after the hunt which wasn't announced to the kids (mostly 3-10 year olds, roughly 30 or so). So, a large diverse group, for us at least. Reactions during and after the show were great and many of the parents commented how they liked it.

We learned a lot of lessons, some on things we wouldn't have anticipated without performing, but we and the kids had a blast and we had the kids' attention for the entire time.

Our routine was loosely thematic, around the Easter and springtime themes, with 7 effects (way too many in retrospect). We were going for mostly visual effects because of the young age group.

So, we started with a magic flower-from-wand production where all the kids threw pretend seeds, dirt and water into the empty magic pot to make a flower. We followed this with color changing silks designed as a sucker trick (the magician being the sucker, stating she will next use her magic blue and red hankies, showing instead the green and yellow ones -- oops!).

This led into magically producing a 3d sponge bunny from an "empty" Creative Magic Change cap from the magician's father, and going into a 3d sponge bunny routine. This went over great with the kids who could see it (and especially with the volunteer who held the bunnies). Bad thing, though, that kids further back couldn't see the ending effect. I was wondering what others would do in this situation -- repeat the effect with smaller groups?

After this, I did the Malini egg bag routine based on Ken Brooke's routine, using my great old Uncle Charlie's lucky pocket from his best Sunday suit (the egg bag) -- the only thing of his that survived decades of moths in the attic. This went over really well.

Next, my son did the magic coloring book -- he did a great job getting all the kids to "throw" in some pictures and the colors. He ended this by undoing all the work, and wondering where all the colors went . . . (I'm grateful we got the blank "hold out" coloring book for the inquisitive kids and parents who came up at the end).

My son then did an effect we all came up with this morning -- let's just call it the "Hot Rod Egg Lasso". We took 6 glossy colored plastic eggs from Walmart, arranged them in a clear plastic bag vertically which we tied onto Mardi Gras beads for an "egglass". We used this to set up a kind of hot rod color force to force the green egg. One volunteer to pick the color egg and another 5 to place each egg into the "rabbit hole" (one handed change bag). Then, with a magic rope (Miracle Rope), we magically "lassoed" the chosen egg. We ended this by showing the rabbit hole bag empty by unzipping the bottom and putting our hand through. Parents liked this one, too, but the smallest ones stopped following after we lassoed the egg.

Finally, we finished with a square circle production of intense color -- silks, beads, and over 130 feet of a ribbon fountain. We had one child and my son (with all the kids following) take the ribbon across the field -- of course, that's where all the color from the coloring book went.

The finale went great, and the color across the gray field with kids chasing it was fun.

It was windy, cold and the rain held off just long enough, but the kids seemed to have enjoyed it and the parents were pleasantly surprised. My son and daughter babysit for a few of these kids, so they were celebrities.

In retrospect, we would have shortened it and set up the square-circle on a taller table (I think the inner tube may have flashed to someone who moved around behind us).

And I know we had some repititious productions, but all in all we wanted to do visual and colorful effects which were within our short amateur grasp.

Sorry for the long note, but I wanted to thank all the wonderful contributors here at the Café and our local magic dealers who emboldened us to take our hobby and concentrate on creating magic for others.

To other newbies and hobbyists like us, look for performing opportunities, respect and heed the advice of the pros, plan an entertaining routine and just do it -- it places you onto a whole different learning curve.

Performing is learning, sounds like you had a good start. Looks like you now have the first of what will probably many wonderful memories.

I'm Trekdad's son.

I just want to add that I was also happy how it turned out, given the bad weather and restlessness of the kids.

As another father of a 14-year-old magician, I enjoyed your story!

///ark

You hit it right on the head...There's no substitute for actually performing in front of a live audience. You can read books and watch videos until you're blue in the face, but experience is the best teacher of them all.

What tricks did your daughter get to perform?

I am glad to hear that it went so well for you. I've heard that the first performance can always be the most exasperating and the most rewarding at the same time. You never forget the first one and neither will your children.

Awww... very cute story. thanks for sharing!

Great story about your debut performance - brings back memories of my early days. I expect you will all go from strength to strength. Thanks for taking the time to write up your story.

Bob Latta (aka Troppo Bob)

That sounds awesome. did you talk to the coordinators of the event, or just go ahead and do it? This makes me think of a lot of community gatherings I have around here. I really like the theme also that's really good how so many of the tricks realate to each other, so that really is an Easter experience, instead of just an experience on easter.
I just did my first show also. It was great, but I didn't have a theme running throughout, I want to work on that.
I did my cousins 6th birthday party. I adapted Dan Harlan's kids show (I'd say I used 1/3, adapted 1/3 and changed 1/3 of the routines for others that I like better)
Like you I learned so much. I'd been working on the show for a while and performed the show a couple times for people in the building, but doing the show in front of a group of 6yr. olds taught me more than I would have ever thought.
My show ran a little long, I stuck to long with the linking rings, becuse I like the figures so much, and I think instead of a C&R rope routine I should have just done the basic comedy version of the trick (where the knot slides off) and focused on my back and forth with the kids. I also didn't touch base with my sister-in-law, so instead of doing the show in the begining, I did it in the middle, when everyone had been running around for awhile.
So, I lost a few of the kids at the second to last routine, but most importantly They and I (and their parents) had a really wondeful time. I can't wait to do it again. Now I'm working on a few close up tricks for strolling (I got some mind blowing stuff by Jay Sankey) and I want to come up with a really nice parlour size show for grown-ups.

Thanks to all for taking the time to respond and for the thoughtful comments. Our family continues to practice and rehearse.

To clynim, that day my daughter performed the wand to flower, color changing silk and the sponge bunnies. And the square circle is her prop -- She's a natural performer, too.

To seadog93, we tipped the parent coordinators that we'd like to entertain the kids with a little magic show, and they wanted it. Just a neighborhood thing; they hid a couple thousand (really!) plastic eggs for the kids, so it's an event that the kids look forward to. I don't know the best way to start performing at community gatherings, but I would bet that your local SAM or IBM groups or magic shops (if one's accessible to you) would have many people with good advice on the best way to get involved with local community events.

I'm fortunate enough to have 2 magic shops relatively close by, and each has local magicians performing in the shop. One shop, Magic Sojourn, actually has a magician's "hang-out"/"happy hour" every Friday night -- we pick up so many tips and subtle variations for performances from these. The other shop, Mingus Magic, has free performances twice a month, where local magicians can perform for an audience. Both are great resources beyond what they sell -- like a live version of the Café.

"We all have to start somewhere"

I enjoyed the story. If you can perform for kids, you can perform for ANYONE...

I hope that made sense

Ben

Great story! Glad that you and your audience all enjoyed yourselves! I can't wait to get out there for my first performance. It'll be awhile, though.