Hi Mr Mitchell,

May I know how do you get your sense of humour? How do you inspire kids? Do any kids go on to become magicians? I am in the teaching profession and would wish to seek your advise on interacting with kids. Wouldn't mind if you teach me a magic trick or two on entertaining the kids! Thank you for your kind attention.

Regards
Shuaige

Thanks for your questions. It's hard to answer in a few sentences but I encourage you to visit my site for books that might help and my facebook group to ask the same questions of my members. They will help you SO MUCH. I'll post links at the bottom of this.
Humor - Most of it is just who we are and who we were around growing up. I had some great mentors. In my opinion, it also has to do with how much self-esteem you had as a child. The funny people are often those who were left out in school. And finally, I have a desire to study humor for both stress relief and because it's what puts food on my table. Check out Mike Bent's book, "The Everything Guide to Comedy Writing." He's brilliant and the more you know about the subject the more likely you are to be funny.

Inspiring kids. First rule, love kids and love people. Have the desire to encourage people. I was in my 40's before I realized my true mission in life was to inspire others. I had incredible mentors that did so much for me. I WOULD NOT be where I am without them today. I had to give back. In my 40's I realized I'm The Entertaining Encourager. My first goal is to entertain and then I earn the right to encourage.
www.entertainingencourager.com

Oh and here's my group that I forgot to link earlier.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/91490649859/

Now, one more thing. Check out my Mother of All Diamonds story trick and see how I told, story, trick, teaching, and encouragment all into one. There is a video on the link.
http://www.barrymitchellproducts.com/sto......07030111

Hi Mr Mitchell,

One thing caught my eye in your store. What is educational magic? I will pick up the book "The Everything Guide to Comedy Writing" one of these days. Thank you for the comprehensive explanation. May I know if there is comedy mentalism?

Regards
Lau

First, yes there is comedy mentalism. That would be the only type stuff I do. I'm not good at pulling off the serious stuff in mentalism.

By educational magic I mean magic that helps to teach something. It could be considered gospel magic if you're teaching biblical principles but in most cases it refers to school shows and library shows. Years ago an entertainer could do shows in schools there were entertainment only. But today you need to have something to teach if you're in a school. In years past the anti drug shows were big. Today the big push is for anti bully shows. But reading shows are also still very popular. Put simply, an educational show should focus on teaching something simple but using magic as a tool to help teach it. I hope I answered your question correctly and understood what you meant.

Dear Sir,

Ok, I get it now. Do you by any chance feel upset or frustrated when the kids turned wild and run about? What's your take on kids management? How far can you go in terms of humour to children? Sometimes when I talk a tad too much jokes, children tend to switch off and not listen.

Thanks!!!

Regards
Lau

First, how we manage kids has a lot to do with their age. Since my shows are usually bigger audiences than a birthday party there is more of a stage area. That helps. But mainly I always start my shows with an explanation of my expectations for their action. Performers need to understand that children do what we expect of them. If we set the rules early they will want to please us. When we have problems in shows it is either because a few kids just don't listen to anyone or it is because WE did not establish how we expect them to act. So to answer your question, I don't have kids run around at my shows. I've never had that. I set the rules in the beginning and their prize is the show if they obey. So I have no idea how I would feel about them running around because they have never done that to me. As far as jokes I use them all the time. Not really sure what you mean by "how far can you go."