I have been practicing magic ever since I can remember and it has always been my favorite activity. I have finally decided to put my favorite activity to use by doing children's birthday parties. I have been practicing in front of my family for what seems like forever and every Saturday I put a show on for them. There are only 5 of us in the house and none in the age group I intend to cater to so I'm looking for a little help on where the best place to get an audience is. I made a flyer up for businesses that hosts children's parties, ie: Bowling alleys and a few places designed just for kids. The flyers basically ask the owner's if I could do a free show for an upcoming party they are hosting and that I be allowed to collect anonymous surveys. A few of the places I went seemed like they were interested and didn't just blow me off. What I would like to know is there other ways of getting an audience to basically "practice" in front of?

The street is a great way to practice... it may be hard to draw a crowd but you will really learn fast what people like and don't like. Local street fairs, farmers markets. I would join you local club, go to the meeting and show your magic to pros that can really guide you the right direction.

Good luck and practice in isolation...

If there's a magic shop near by, go there during a busy day, most likely there will be people looking around with their kids,ask them if they like magic,show them some magic. A good way to practice is by having conversations with kids, see what they like and what they find funny, you will realize that when you perform for kids it helps to understand how to communicate with them, the magic is not that hard.

If you don't already make balloon animals..learn. I recommend it, its a big plus at childrens parties.

These are just a couple of ideas I have but bear in mind that I do very little magic in front of children. My guess is that local scout groups would love to have you do magic for their kids. My neighbor once asked me to do 10 minutes for her pack (den?). I don't know the right name for the smallest unit of cub scouts /boy scouts/ girl scouts.
Other possibilities are elementary schools and church groups.I'd make sure the teachers knew you would do small groups only.
I agree with the post above in that you should "practice" alone, but if you are comfortable with your presentation but need experience in front of small groups, there is no experience like experience.

Thank you everyone for your responses. The routines I have put together are practiced constantly and my fiance still can't figure out the tricks that she didn't help me make. She's probably seen them over 100 times too. The closest magic shop that I know of near me is in Atlantic City, NJ which is about 45 min from me. There used to be one in Philadelphia called Hocus Pocus but their number is no longer in service. I'm guessing they may have gone out of business but next time I travel to PA I'll check there as well.
I have confidence in the tricks I perform but trying to pretend that my fiance and my Mom or whoever else comes over on Saturday's are young children is my problem. My niece is in the girl scouts so maybe I will go see if I can do a show for them.

Good luck Adam, It's all about going out there and performing, carry a few things with you and perform for your friends kids or something,elementary schools are a great idea.

Adam,

If you're planning on getting into doing shows for children, I'd encourage you to read through as many posts as possible here on The Little Darlings forum. Shut your door, put down the cards, grab a pot of coffee, open a new Word document (or whatever form of notetaking you prefer), and start working your way through. This is a virtual university in material and ideas on working as a kidshow magician: how to get started, what kinds of tricks to use, what books and materials to read and watch, how to book shows, what to charge, etc.

When you *think* your show is ready (you actually never really know until you try it out on a live audience), call up a local daycare, and offer to do a 30-minute show for them, in exchange for their honest feedback and evaluation. Also, see if they'll allow you to videotape your performance (offer to give them a copy so they can keep showing it to the kids). That's basically how I started in this market, and I've been fulltime now for four years.

Brian

Adam:
I started out by doing birthday shows for people in my neighborhood. The first two or three I did were no charge--just a chance for me to get experience and a few references.

Then I took out a small ad in a local community newspaper and got a few more shows under my belt. These I charged a minimal fee. Then I took out an ad in a local parenting magazine and got more bookings. Also, by then, you should develop a website. Use your early shows to get photographs you can use on your website.
Larry Lipman
Lorenzo the Great!

Adam
You can do free shows at nursing homes to apreciative audiences, and the staff will welcome you.

BREAK A LEG

Don't forget the local library. They may have a regular "children's hour", or even give you a special Saturday to yourself (like they just did with me!). Also, check with your city's recreation department and with homeschool groups. Schools may be hard to get into, and you'd probably have to go through the District office, but you might try locally-organized charter schools as they would have a bit more leeway.

Ed

I second Ed's post. Try your libraries they are always looking for away to draw the kid's in.

Try local fraternities like Masonic Lodge , Moose, Elks, Kiwanis, Shriners ... They may be able to hook you up for one of their events.

Try your local Church Groups.

How about local Schools.

Ask your local Children's Hospital.

Try any local charity groups, community centers, soup kitchens, shelters, abuse centers, senior centers, foster centers, Victim Centers, adoption centers they all could use a good magic show.

Don't forget your Local Fire Department, and Police Department, they usually have charity functions or know of them.

Put up a sign "FREE Magic Show @ 1:00pm" at your local Park (check local regulations first).

Volunteer at a Kid Oriented Restaurant could lead to a Paid Gig.

Pass out Business Cards and/or Flyers at every event. Heck leave a card even if they say No. It could produce later on.


Hope that helped ,

Metatron

Ed I hope you are not suggesting that Adam gives the shows to libraries for free. These places have a budget and by offering a free show you may be taking a gig away from someone else or at least lowering the perceived value of their service. They may question why they should pay someone for example $300 when they can have you for free. I would only ever suggest doing this type of venue for free if you need the experience and you are asked specifically by someone you know.

As for where to get experience I suggest you keep it in the family. Nearly everyone has cousins, nieces or nephews that are in the target age range. Do their birthdays for free. That is where I got my start. If you don't have family than look for friends with kids.

If that failed than there are children's charities and like Al suggested senior centres. Again these places do have a budget for entertainment so be careful how many you do for them so you are not the guy doing magic for free.

Then again, Ryan, if its a very first show and he charges for it, that would lower the perceived value for magicians in general. Offering a free show on a date when nothing else is being offered, and letting them know why the show is free is a not a bad thing. In the end, its a win win.

Thanks Again everyone. I made it very clear to the places that I asked to do a free show at that it would only be one free show and if after the show they liked what they saw we could then discuss further shows. I thought about the restaurants but the one's that have private party rooms near me all state on their website, "No outside entertainment allowed" so didn't bother trying those places and the other popular kid restaurants don't have private party rooms so I wasn't sure if they'd like a bunch of kids getting very loud while the rest of the guests were trying to eat. I have emailed my niece's girlscout troop leader and the next time they meet they will decide if I can do a show for them. They haven't met for a few weeks because of all the snow we got.
Metatron, you gave me a lot more avenues to try. Thank you. I would have never thought of some of those places.
Again thank you everyone for your advice. I am really glad I joined this forum

I have a friend who is an elementary school teacher. I asked her if I could come in on a Friday and perform for her class for free. She happily agreed. It was a great first experience that I learned A LOT from. If you don't know any teachers than the recommendations above are great as well. Film your show. Studying it afterwards will give you a lot of personal education on your show and your style.

As brian mentioned above this site is a tresure trove of info most of it good info at that.

th e one thing I have not read is that you shoudl really look to another magican locvally to you that already does this either a pro or part time some one with experience that you can talk to and show what you are doing.

do you belong to SAM th ey meet I believe evrery third thursday in NE philly you will get a lot of info there. you are on the right track but really get some one wh o has experience to look at what you are doing. even if its jsut a video of the show or tricks you are doing they can watch it and offer some fed back.

lots of good suggestions here and keep up the good work. teh magic show in AC I am assumming is the trick zone theatre magic shop they are good people and will answer your questions although they do not carry what I would call "birthday party" magic as they cater to impulse sales and that being said I think they can get anything th at you need though.
on a side note I will be performing there august 2-8 stop by and say h i.

magically yours

sam

Well it's been a few months and I've been going through reading as much as I can on here. Last night I was talking with someone I had just met. I was telling them how much I enjoy magic. After a long talk he mentioned that he could let me practice with a group of mentally challenged adults. He said even though they are adults that their brains work like that of 3-7 year old and he thinks it would be a good place for me to practice. I told him I would let him know.
Despite what he told me I am worried that I might upset them if I go in and do a show aimed at 4 year olds for them. I also don't want to do anything that might make them feel I am treating them like children. I have mixed feelings about this. I really want to go out there and do the show.
I guess what I'm asking is: Has anyone ever done a show for this type of audience before? If so do I need to start over and work on a new type of show or can I try and pretend I'm doing a show for children? If anyone can give me some advice that would be great.

P.S. Sam sorry I didn't respond to your post above but I will definitely make it out to see you when you come to AC.

I've done 2 shows for the mentally challenged adults, did my usual children's party show and they loved it...

Was very gratifying.
I also was a little apprehensive about it but it was great.

Don

I would listen to what your contact told you. You don't need to treat the people like children, but keep in mind that anything that works for children, will work very well with this group.

I've only done one show for mentally challenged adults (a 20-year-old woman's birthday party) but I did my regular birthday party show geared to a family audience. It worked fine. I don't talk down to children; and don't talk down to the mentally challenged adults. To paraphrase Scott, treat the children and mentally challenged adults like people.