Looked all over in the Café but was not sure where tio post this question, so please help me find the right thread and help in this matter. I have been asked to do some magic for a group of Autistic children and their families. My question is, is there anyone out there that has done this and what changes need to be made to ones performance to keep all folks involved comfortable, or maybe even some tips of what one may experience from this sort of adventure. For example,,, no Volunteers, simple effects. magic that is direct and straight. or story type magic etc. I would like to hear from someone that has this experience and help us to understand what we may be up against, I want to create fun for all with out any unforeseen incident. Just doing my research here first to see what happens, then I will more then likely ask directly to the coordinator for advice, But would like some advice from my peers as well. Thank you.

The book "Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions "by Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde actually talks about Magic and Autism. It will be a little discouraging to your challenge. One of their themes is that good magic relies upon the way humans store memories of actions and most people have automatic responses to cetain actions, making it easier to fool them with slieght of hand. In people with Autism, these responses do not work. The book suggests that most magic will not work with the Autistic. I am sorry this doesn't really help and I have no personal experience, but if you continue to work with the Autistic, it may be worth reading. I found it a very interesting book.

Autism is kind of a broad-based term, with different levels of effect on those who have it. I have worked where there were Autistic children in the audience, but not exclusively for them as a group. You should definitely have a discussion with the coordinator for a list of things to avoid, triggers that may cause a negative response from someone.

Volunteers may still work, so long as you use "staff", and avoid placing them in perceived predicaments.

In regard to people with Autism not appreciating magic, I'd suspect this may be more true in regard to the "mystery" or impossibility of the effect, but this may not hold true for the "eye candy" aspect that some magic performances can offer. It may very well be that the key would be to find a stimulus, visual or otherwise, that is received favorably. Again, the coordinator can likely offer suggestions to indicate what kinds of things their people respond toward positively.

I have been involved with a foundation Action for Autism and Beyond for a few years. we did many shows both for kids with Autism and public shows to raise funds to help families with children that had Autism,

as already posted austism does have many levels of response as I call it. as some reacted well to some of the magic others no reaction at all (thats not to say they were a problem but just not much of a reaction) others needed a familiar face to come with them up on stage while I do the trick,

the best advice I can give you is to speak with whom ever it is that is hiring you and get some details from them

you will find that most kids with Autism do not like loud noises or sudden changes but again its best to check with the organization bringing you in.

I will pray you have a great show and that the kids enjoy your time with them.

sam

Thanks to all of you. This is all Great advice and bits of wisdom. Thanks to you all for chiming in at this point. I always make it a habit to chat with The coordinator of special occasions such as this to help me withwhat may be expected or unexpected. But... I was eager to hear from our peers that may have dealt with this issue. I have read of the different levels and still doing more research. I love the resources provided Magic-engineer, and all the thoughts and experiences sharedBy Mr. Baker And Sandler, Thank you guys very much for your time. And if there are any other peers that want to chime in.......... It is never to late, as I am sure others may benefit from this post. THANK YOU.

Contact Doug Scheer as he has a son with autism. I believe he has a lecture on how to perform for people who have it. I also believe he wrote an article in MAGIC earlier this year on the subject.

I have done a number of shows for autistic children and agree with the advice that has been dispensed here. I've always been able to get the coordinators to point out the children that are high functioning and can be used as onstage assistants. A simple explanation of what the child will be doing is enough for them to suggest which child would be appropriate to work with.

A little side story on the subject. I was hired to do a birthday party for twin 5 year-old girls several years back. The mom asked me if I would be doing anything with loud noises and I explained that I normally do Needle through Balloon. She said there was a special needs teenager that would get upset with loud noises so they would take her out of the room when I performed that routine. That was my only warning prior to the show.

The first 10 minutes of my show went quite normally but something odd occurred when I brought the twins up to assist me. I always let the birthday child use the magic wand when I do a party so when there are twins or two birthday children, I give the wand to one child and explain that the other child will get to use it in second routine. That usually works fine. In this case, the second child got miffed, went under a table covered by a table cloth and hid. I walked over to the table, lifted the table cloth a little, told her that she would get to use the wand next and asked if she wanted to come out and help with the trick. She said no.

I said okay and went back to performing the routine with her sister. I was very non-chalant about it and she came out from under the table less than a minute later and stood beside me like she had prior to her getting upset. I smiled at her and we finished up. Although her behavior wasn't really off, something did seem to indicate she was more than a spoiled child. I just went about the rest of my show the same way I would for any children's audience but made sure I was extra careful to not set her off again.

When the show was over, her mother complimented me on how well I had handled her daughter. She said she was very tempted to try to get her to come out from under the table cloth but was glad she let me handle it instead. It was at this point that she finally told me that all 22 children at this party were autistic. They were very high functioning so it was hard to spot. I was really glad that I had sensed that something was up. I had done many shows for special needs children prior to this so I can usually tell when I'm working with special needs kids. It's just rare to have a group that are this high functioning. I really didn't have to adjust my show at all but I just had to be careful with the one twin. I'm still amazed that her mom didn't tell me anything in advance!

My 4 year old daughter is autistic. Magic does not work for her at all, but she loves my balloon twisting. All autistic kids are different. My suggestion is to have a plan A, B and C - in other words have a lot of stuff you can do and go with what is working best. If you have puppets or do ballooning, or whatever, have that ready. Avoid loud noises, and high pitched noises. Arrange the volunteers in advance with the directors help so you know who is more likely to work out. Autistic kids are less verbal and more visual in general, so keep your talking short and your gags and magic more visual. You might want to have the teacher up there with you so a familiar person can help out as you go. And I'd maybe tell the director you'll do a short show, but if it's going OK, you'll go longer. How old are they? Maybe have some close-up magic for after the show so you can do more stuff for the ones who are into it.

It’s interesting that this thread popped up now I just book a show and after I accepted the deposit and confirmed it the next email informed me that the birthday child is a Special Ed child; this will be my first show like this and I want to be prepared.

I ordered spinning plates where I can get it spinning on the stick and hand it to the child, if he holds it straight up, it will spin for quite awhile, I am hoping this will give him a sense of accomplishment.

I start my shows by teaching the birthday child a simple trick he can perform as the first trick of the show, I’m also going to teach this child a few tricks to perform throughout the show; this will be an education for me, I am excited about this show as well.

There is an "enrichment center" where I live that works with folks who have disabilities. I know they had a magician there a few weeks ago and I tried to google it. During my search this video came up. It is from a different area than me, but he appears to be performing for people with similiar attributes as you are all discussing. Maybe you could contact him for some advice??

http://ecpcdc.blogspot.com/2010/09/magic......een.html

This is what I am talking about,,, Peers stepping up to the plate to help with Advice... Great to see all you folks chiming in for this. Great advice here. And advice that will be on record for many future guest, Thanks to you all on this one, and a big thanks to Dave Scribner to assisting me in getting this post in the right room.

I have performed magic for autisic children a few times mainly close-up as the larger stuff I do is mostly cabaret style.

I found no 'problem' other than they seem to want to or be able to, figure out 'how it works' way more often than other kids.
I found as long as you give them something to hold even if it is only the card box. This helps greatly from their mind from 'wandering off' and makes them focused on what is currently happening.

Hey everyone,

I am a full time children's magical entertainer but more importantly, both my children have autism. My daughter is 13 and is moderately autistic and my son is 7 and has mild autism. I can speak with great knowledge on this subject as a parent first and foremost and as a children's magical entertainer as I do tons of shows for the Autism organizations here in Vancouver and being a dad of two kids that have autism spectrum disorder I can tell you this.

As mentioned in some of the posts here, autism is an extremely diverse and varied disorder. It ranges from the very mild high functioning, to the severe non verbal and everything in between.

Here is my suggestions for you. This is what I do when I perform at autistic children's family events.

1. KEEP THE SHOW VERY SHORT -- My show is billed as approximately 25 minutes. This is very important as the attention span of many of the children in the audience will simply not go any further than that. I have even done 20 minute shows and prefer to do them mostly. Please remember that the autistic world of a child is a not the same one that we live in. They have an entirely different land of imagination and they prefer to spend much of their time living and playing in that world. It is a world that we only have a mere window into. They actually have a turbo charged, vivid imagination. Unfortunately, most children with autism, are unable to leave that world on command and cannot relate to what we neuro-typicals call reality,
***Please remember, they cannot sit still most of the time and watch any kind of entertainer most of the time because they are already playing out a fantasy scenario in their imagination 90% of the time that they are awake. It is very difficult for them to turn their world off and pay attention to ours.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL DISTRACTIONS AND LOUD NOISE -- The autistic child is much more prone to being distracted by little things around them. This could be ambient noise, the child sitting next to them, playing with their hair, (my daughter does this non stop) and please remember that loud noises hurts their ears and many children with autism will react differently to other kids who would laugh at our funny shtick and possible loud noises that could be in our act. Try to avoid having the audience participate with shouting or loud verbal cues. This is total opposite of my standard show as I perform as Zany Zack and my show is extremely wild, audience interaction with loud verbal cues from me etc. This is actually very frightening to many kids with autism. I have to tone my show way done and keep it much more reserved in the loudness factor for Autism show. Please remember that loud, wild crazy noise is almost like torture for them as they have severe sensory issues and poor recovery from that kind of discomfort.

3. THEY LOVE SILLY AND COLORFUL MAGIC -- My kids and the majority of autistic kids I have performed for and know, love silliness like most kids. Their social filters however are very poor so don't overdue the whole act with non-stop silliness as you may get them going on a roller coaster ride of mayhem that they will not be able to turn off and end up being very distracting for the rest of your show. I suggest to make your magic very colorful, quick, extremely simple in content and smile lots. I generally perform very visual silk magic, appearances of canes, vanishing objects, coloring book effects are great etc. Avoid any kind of audience participation that requires instructions that may be too complex for them. They cannot for the most part maintain anything more than very simple instructions and follow social grace for the few minutes they may be assisting you. Please remember that even the most high functioning autistic kids, will probably struggle a bit when they are up their helping you as an assistant.

4. DON'T GET FRUSTRATED WITH THEM -- I know this sounds silly, but I have seen other performers performing at an autism event that just don't get it! This really angers me because they will sometimes expect way to much from the autistic child thinking that they should be able to follow simple instructions like other kids. They may not laugh at all your standard gags and funny bits. They may not understand sucker tricks. I avoid all sucker tricks completely as I just don't enjoy doing them for autistic kids due to most of them not being able to comprehend the logic behind what is really going on. Also it may tick off a few parents who may think you are mocking their kids disability. I saw one fellow do hippity hop rabbits and fail quite miserably with it when the kids were not responding in the usual manner that non-autistic kids will with that sort of thing.

5. BE AS DIVERSE/CREATIVE AS POSSIBLE -- If you have other talents, please throw them into the the show even if you don't usually and are not super fantastic at those allied arts. In my regular childrens show, I have a 45 minute act that is bullet proof from start to finish and is all magic. In my autism show, that is all thrown out the window. I do a completely different show. I am also a children's music recording artist with 4 kids music cd's out on the market. Click here if you wanna see me in action with my kids music show http://www.zanyzack.ca I will always throw in a musical song as autistic kids love music for the most part and love to move and dance. They just like to get up and shake, rattle and roll! I have my acoustic guitar and dulcimer always when doing shows for autistic kids. I also do a little bit of juggling. Nothing stellar and I am certainly not able to carry an entire show as a juggling entertainer but I do a very simple juggling routine with three balls, that is only about 3 minutes in length but uses juggling scarfs, balls, blocks or D - sticks. They love that part of the show more than the magic. I don't juggle in my mainstream kids magic show (although I should ad it in) but it is a huge hit for these types of shows. I also do a 3 minute vent routine with my vent doll. I am not a great vent by any means but again, they love the doll coming to life and interacting with them. It is also huge in my autism show.

In a 25 minute show, I generally only do about 5 very quick, colorful and simple tricks, a couple of songs, a quick juggling routine and finish with the vent puppet. By then, I have captivated their wonderful imagination and not dragged out a show that could possibly loose many of these children's attentions spans with my typical 45 minute magic show. I use to do a full 25 minute magic show in the early days for autism shows but I realized that some kids in the audience just can't follow magic or possibly could not care less. Hey, there are many adults and non special needs kids that don't like magic either! I definitely suggest that you throw in some other forms of entertainment into the magic show. The people booking the show like diversity and it is such an easy sell to them when you tell them your show is full wonder, magic, music, juggling, puppetry or whatever you are comfortable with as an additional performance aspect.

Anyhoo, This is what works for me and yes, I have a ton of experience with being not only a seasoned performer for autism and many other special needs organizations but in the end, this may not work for you. But you won't know until you try it! I love performing for kids with autism. It really challenges me but most importantly, I can relate to each and every one of these kids and their families.

P.S. I generally perform these shows for free and they are the very few freebie shows and benefit events that I do these days. I am always offered payment when they are booked as the promoters and event coordinators are not expecting a free show. I give it to them for free, because it makes me feel good. Sometimes I wonder if it is therapy for me as my wife and I have a ton of heartbreak, stress and overall anxiety in our family due to our children both been born with autism. Performing these shows is my way of letting these very often, heart broken and extremely stressed out parents know that autism is a world that can be shared and they are never alone.

Tony Chris

Tony Chris Hack and other kind folk, This is Fantastic that you also have added your experience, Thank you so much for adding to this Forum. It is a treasure and will be great to have this Forum here for others to learn from or add to.

I've done several parties for autistic children and generally had no problems at all with just doing my usual show - with the exception of being warned about loud noises (as already mentioned several times above).

The only thing that I can add (bearing in mind that I'm certainly no expert) is that "autism" is obviously a pretty broad term ranging from "pretty normal" to "quite a bit off". No offence is meant with the terms that I've used - it's just the best way I can describe the children I've met with my limited vocabulary.

So be prepared to expect anything - or simply nothing at all!

Finally I've found working with these children and families extremely rewarding.

Mark

Thank you Keeblem

Tony,
Thank you for your advice. I'd like to see a video of you doing your show for autistic kids. My daughter is autistic, and so I'm thinking about volunteering to do shows like you, but would like more info. I did a show for Arc Industries (not autistic people - but adults with mental issues) - I guess they have centers all over. But that one didn't go well - the balloons went fine but my show was awkward, so moral support and tips are very helpful.

Hey Danfreed,

I guess you and I live in a similar world! Being the parents of children with autism or any special needs is quite a challenge to say the least as you already know. You know, its great to donate a show for a cause that really touches home base. I have on occasion thought of filming one of my shows for the autism community. I guess I just never got around to doing it though. I know there are many magicians out there who probably have been asked at one time or another to entertain organizations such as autism oriented events and it may at first seem a little daunting. Lets face it, we are use to getting great laughs with our jokes and gags, comedic timing moments are also huge to children's entertainers and it really does feel great to see a sea of children smiling and giggling with delight during our shows. We may not always get that with these types of shows but man, it feels fantastic when you get a big group of kids with autism laughing and being a part of our magical world if even for a short while when we put on a show.

It definitely feels like real magic to me when that happens!

I perform for a few autistic groups every year. It is one of my charities. There are many functional levels of autism. Everything that Tony Chris said is very important. In addition, I ask a teacher if there is any child that is to the level that they can come on stage and help me. If there is, have a qualified person be on stage with them in case there is a problem, and I spend a little time with the child before the show. Never work with the child alone. My show has a lot of music, color, animals and no interaction. It is a challenging show and he reward is worth it.

I contacted Doug Scheer for the article he wrote. Here is the link: http://www.diversitycircus.com/uploads/7......tage.pdf
It's a very good article.