Let me tell you, I have usually had a fairly simple time performing for the highschool age kids. Now, most will tell you that it is a quite touchy age bracket to perform for...and I don't disagree...but I have to say. I did a HS Grad party tonight - What a blast. I have never had so many people enjoy and want to see more and more and more and be THAT enthusiastic throughout the whole thing. Don't get me wrong...I kill my audiences everytime. But this was out of control. I wasn't even done pocket loading - i.e. It was still 10 minutes before performance time and what started out as a few HS kids turned into 30+ and a 20 minute routine. The Psychic also hired for the gig got ****ED (I didn't even know she was there and waiting) and wanted one of the tables. Understandble, however there WAS a table or two for her to choose I think she was just upset because of the crowd I had gathered and the noise they were making. I apologized to her and explained I hadn't even gotten setup to perform yet...she was fine with it I guess aftwards but she was pretty smug. Anyway - I only had ONE kid that was upset and attempting to explain everything, however everyone else shut him up and I blew him away with some great unexplainable material.

Great night, great kids, great pay check.

Thanks for putting up with the rambling - it IS 2:43am however.

Keep rockin em Makmagic...good for you!!

When you get a batch of nice teens it is a pleasure performing for them. If you get a pack of punks it can be a horrible experience.

Glad everything went well...and you see, we're not THAT bad!

Best,
Steve

Sounds like you had a blast. Good job and good luck.

I have never had a problem with "a pack of punks" before. I always like to see them, because when you do an effect they think is really cool, I usually go from five punks to a crowd of twenty people.

I can't see why the psychic was so upset. She should have known it was going to happen, after all.

:lol: Nice one.

I always enjoy grad nights. I had one a couple of weeks ago with much the same result: two people grew to five, then ten, then twenty. Every time I thought I'd finished a set I heard, "Hey, got anything more?" We ended up going inside, commandeering a table and spending another hour there. What a fun group!

This would have to be my favorite group to perform for. Considering I honed my signature pieces in highschool hallways. Those were the Days.

Teens are some of my favorite audiences.

To me, though, the biggest mistake that I see other magicians make in presenting magic TO teens is that they tend to "talk down" to them. this is a critical mistake. The other critical mistake is trying to be "too cool" for your own age, if you are an older mage, like me (55 as I write this).

But there are ways around that that can make the audience see that you are NOT a "typical" older adult, too...

I have a myspace.com page - and I USE it. I follow current trends in music clothing and I play videogames. I actually can understand the majority of the slang being spoken and can tell jokes IN it. Well.

This usually comes as a shock to the audience in this demographic, especially when done in an off-hand manner. If you force it, however, you will die a death and they will eat your carcass.

So play WITH them, not "down to them."

It helps - and it's helped keep me working for a lot of years!

Lee Darrow, C.H.

I love to pay to teen audiences as they are old enough to treat as adults but very often react like children (despite themselves) and I find that a really pleasing combination.

Lee is right, though. I have seen magicians treat a teen crowd like a kids show and they have invariably died on their arses (am I allowed to say that?)

I have also seen older magicians try to 'act hip and be down with the homies' and bombed out just as badly.

I am 42 years old, bald with a goatee beard and look a little like door security. My magic persona is unsmiling and a little on the dry (as in sense of homour)and dour side - a little like door security, in fact.

I think that plays well with teens because it is an authoratative persona they recognise that is not parental or pedagogical. They usually end up trying to make me laugh or asking what I'm being so grumpy about and if one of them really thinks I'm really like that I might sneak them half a smile and a wink to show them it's an act, but generally I stick to it from entering the venue to leaving.

Probably, although perished would likely be more acceptable.


Or Vladimir Lenin.


Yup: Vladimir Lenin.

;)

Äà. Ìîé ñåêðåò ïîêàçàí.

Imperialist traitors! Why your forum not accept cyrillic script?

My identity is revealed at last comrades.

I think if you know your audience and do not play down to them, then teens can be great to play to. I have the advantage of having two sons in their late teens, so can try things out on them and their mates. There is always going to be somebody who tries to expose the tricks, but it is up to you to make that impossible. It is up to you to be so interesting that they get carried away with things

Incongruity is one key to dealing with teens, I have foud to be invaluable.

I do NOT look like anyone who would understand ANYTHING that they are into, yet, I am a myspace user, speak fluent computer geek, know who the top music stars are and can dis American Idol judges with the best of them.

This usually floors most teens, especially when I throw in some of the slang with a wink or in the middle of a routine, look up at them, pause and say... "What?" as if I had no idea that I have said something that has stunned them. Then smile.

Example - I was at Universal Theme Park in Orlando a couple of years ago and we were near the Log ride. This is where you stand on the bridge and the ride comes down and you get soaked as it hits the water at the bottom.

A teen from the inner city of my own hometown (Chicago) was talking to one of her friends, having an argument, when the ride hit, drenching her friend, but not her. She looked at her friend and said, "Girl, you be DRIPPIN!"

I looked at them both and simply said, "I'd rather be drippin than trippin..." and started to walk past them. Well, she couldn't say enough about THAT - in a positive way, called her friends over and ... well, they stopped me and my wife and their group wound up palling around with us for the better part of the afternoon - and we all had a great time... simply because of a silly comment.

You have to RELATE to COMMUNICATE. I guess...

Lee Darrow, C.H.