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Bryan Smith New user Korea 99 Posts |
Some childrens shows are great. They pay attention, respond to the show, interact with you, and everything is cool. Sometimes, quite the opposite happens.
How do you folks handle kids that just don't listen, try grab things out of your hands, crawl under or ONTO the table while you are performing? etc. It's usually only a couple that start it, but once that vibe is started in a show full of kids, all of them seem to catch it. Soon, even the ones who desperately want to watch can't and the show is interrupted if you constantly have to stop to tell kids to sit down, stop hitting their friends or whatever else they are doing. I realize some people just don't like magic, and this includes kids. Unlike most adults, however, kids have no problem ruining everyone else's good time if they are not having one. The shows I am doing these days are a little different than what most of you do I'm sure. I do a 15 minute close-up show in a festival rotation, so they are led in from having done something else (basketball toss, face painting, etc.) and then after the show they are led to the next thing. Misbehaving kids are not as much of an issue in other sorts of settings in which the kids specifically hunker down to watch a magic show, but some of the same issues arise. How do people deal with kids that just won't behave themselves? My show is so short that if I have to play babysitter to these kids, it could waste half the time I have for the show! I have some ideas like having a much lengthier introduction segment so they can calm down and refusing to start at all until they are completely silent and sitting still, and stopping the show and waiting any time they even start to get a little unruly, but like I said, with such a short show that could end up cutting out half of it, and there are only two short routines to begin with.
"I'm half drunk most the time
and I'm all drunk the rest" --Tom Waits |
TheAmbitiousCard Eternal Order Northern California 13425 Posts |
There are a billion threads on this exact subject. Please use the search in this case.
www.theambitiouscard.com Hand Crafted Magic
Trophy Husband, Father of the Year Candidate, Chippendale's Dancer applicant, Unofficial World Record Holder. |
greatscott Special user 595 Posts |
There is a very good book on this subject. That book is: "Kid Control" , by Julian Franklin. Check it out.
David |
MikeHMagic Inner circle 1007 Posts |
David, you beat me to the punch. Great book, author is a great guy to boot!
Mike "Gus" Harvatt
"Bullwinkle that trick never works." |
Flymo Regular user 151 Posts |
Bryan, I use...
- "Ok, everyone sit up nice and straight, big smile, bigger, BIGGER, aaaaaaaaaah too big!, little bigger, PERFECT!". This gets everyone back on the same page. - "What's your name? Look how well .... was sitting everyone. Would you like to come up and be my next volunteer?". This gives the rest of the crowd a hint of how they should behave. - In more desperate situations, I let the kids know that if they are behaving really well that I will be making balloon animals for them at the end of the show. - Silly Billy uses a great one; if you have a particular child who is causing problems, give them a funny object and ask them to give it to their parent. Obviously entertaining is your number one priority, but I do think crowd management is really important so EVERYONE can enjoy the show. Best of luck. |
BIGmagiclV Veteran user 375 Posts |
I use a 20 gauge, pump action. One loud warning shot gets them all on the same page.
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