I am performing for a group of about 30 kids this weekend, and I just found out that basically all of them are "special needs" children. I am not sure exactly what that means, all I was told is that they are 10 years old but are more like 6 or 7 mentally. I knew there were going to be a few kids like this, but I didn't know it was going to be the whole audience.

I was thinking of doing a hand-clapping warm-up, to make sure they all understand the concept of clapping for a trick or clapping for an volunteer.

I am excited about bringing some fun and happiness into these children's lives through magic. I just was wondering if anyone has experience with audiences like this and if anyone has any words of wisdom about performing for them.

Hey Danny,
As a teacher of kids with "special needs",I can tell you that this umbrella label can encompass a variety of conditions that the children may be dealing with. Your best definition of the term as it pertains to the kids you'll be performing for will probably come from the people that hired you. If its any help, for the most part,kids with special needs usually understand the concepts that a kids magicians act entails and enjoy the effects the way most kids would.
However,(and this is a big however!)if the special needs label is a result of behavior concerns,insist that adults who are working with the kids and are trained in addressing the behaviors as they arise. Even the most seasoned kids performer can be easily frustrated when performing for a population of children who struggle with appropriate behaviors in social situations.
Hope this gets to you before showtime..let me know how it goes/went.

I agree, if it is not behavioral then you can perform basically the same as your normal show. I had the pleasure of performing at my restaurant job for a group of special needs adults in the banquet room. They are a lot like children and they react the same way-many of them liked in the hand tricks that required volunteers. If you perform something a little too involved you can always get one of the adults to help out-they tend to like that as well.

Overall, it will probably be an enjoyable and fun magic show for you and them.

Let us know how it turns out.
Chad

To add a bit to what Peppermeat said, if they are behaviorally challenged, don't request, INSIST that there is adequate trained staff in the room. There are too many distractions, and too many opportunities for mischief, especially if they get the feeling that you are 'fresh meat'. It is not unlike being a lion tamer in a cage; if they know the trainer lacks the confidence/training, they can eat you alive.

However, with staff there, and you have briefed THEM on what you expect... let them know if you can handle a little liveliness from the audience IF the kids can. I usually draw the line at getting out of their seats/off the floor,--- I encourage the kids to call out at times (nothing is worse than doing a sucker bit like Fraidy Cat Rabbit, and the kids have all been told to "shut up and watch", so no one calls out anything...)-- but let them know that you can change things if the kids cannot handle even that little 'freedom'.

If you and the staff have this worked out, you can have a great time. I was a therapist, and prior to that a residential counselor with 'those' kids for about a decade, and spending time with them can be very rewarding, but challenging.

Again, it is nothing to be overly worried about; just prepare with the staff ahead of time, and save yourself hassles at the show.

With the cognitively challenged, you are more likley going to run into the kids wanting to come up to be close to you, or see what is happening, not ruin everything. Staff can be very helpful there, too.

JM

There will be a few adults present, I made sure of that when accepting this gig. I hadn't thought about Special Needs possibly meaning behavior problems, that is kinda scary! I have made a few alterations to my show to accomodate this particular crowd, hopefull all goes well. The show is tomorrow, I will let you know how it goes...

I did a show the other day for liams birthday, I've done it for the last 4 years. Liam is special, he is 16 going on 7, all his friends at the hostel (A place where they stay once a week to give their parents a break) were special as well and though thier ages ranged from 8 to 16 their mental ages were much younger.

I had one lad who told me a hundred times during the show that his name was Ben, Another who insisted on coming over and cleaning up my performance area anytime I dropped even the smallest
piece of cut off balloon, A young girl who only spoke at extra loud volomue, A downs Girl and a girl who when she talked could not stop waving her hands and wiggling her fingers about wildly. It was a great show apart from being extra patient I did my usual show, I treated them as normal, Wavy hand girl amazed the staff by standing for a couple of minutes with her hands still while she held a bag at arms length. Loud girl helped with marmites routine, Liam got dressed up as a knight, which is no mean feat when the lad is taller than me. After the show the staff told me the kids had never sat so long before and that one was so exited she'd wet herself rather than go to the toilet and miss the show.

You will find that unlike other adults, parents of special kids will stay with their kids to help them to enjoy the show, If the child is very handicapped the parents acually join in for them. If it's a special home or hostel the staff will be fully aware of the childrens moods and particular problems they will not leave the kids with you unattended. They will deal with any kids who misbehave (misbehave is probably the wrong word, as to misbehave you have to know your doing wrong) before it becomes a problem, I wish all adults at parties made such efforts to control their kids.

All in all the look of joy on their kids faces along with their uninhibited enthusiasum will give you such a high you'll be floating for a week.

If you use magic with colours like silks and simple things they will enjoy and understand a bit more, plus you will enjoy the smiles on there faces

If your informant assessed accurately, 6 or 7 is a pretty good (effective) age for most kid's magic!

OK, show's over, here are the results...

First of all, the total in attendance was closer to about 16-18 kids, not 30 as I anticipated. Second, only about 4 of the kids were special needs children.

Overall, the show was a success, but as with all of my shows, I learned a lot about what I can do to make my future shows better. There were the little things like my foolishness in not sorting my darker balloons, making it tough for me to find purples and blacks especially, and not blowing up balloons beforehand to speed up the process of twisting for all the kids. Also, I am making up an informal contract with the date and price in writing, because there was a slight discrepancy in the price once all was said and done (I orginally quoted for 30 kids, only 16-18 showed up - which is a lower price based on my pricing system).

The special needs children were the friendliest and most polite of all the children there. I really enjoyed working with them. They all had bright smiles that never left their faces. The other kids were about 10, a few looked 11. In my limited experience, that age seems to be the point where kids transition from escaping into the show and enjoying the magic, to wanting to make the magician look like an idiot by asking questions about his props and trying to ruin his tricks. A small group of boys fit the latter description, so I handled it by not choosing any of them as volunteers.

During the show, a young girl let out the loudest and deepest burp I have ever heard! I was shocked by it, and even more shocked that of the 3 adults in the room, not one of them reprimanded her for the belch! My first instinct was to look at her and say "Bless You!", but I knew that would make a joke of the situation and almost make it seem like she did something funny and worthy of my attention. I chose to completely ignore it, and it worked well.

One really notable situation occured, unlike anything I could have prepared for...

I do David Gibson's Rope Thru Boy routine in my show. The trick is a simple one: I tie a couple ropes aroung the waist of the volunteer, and then with a few minutes of jokes and false starts, I proceed to pull the rope right through the volunteers body, leaving him unharmed of course. I chose a nice quiet boy who was smiling and raising his hand. When he got up, and made his way up in front with me, I realized he was likely autistic. He was giggling and moving his arms around a lot, and he couldn't really stay still. I thought I may have made a mistake with my choice for this particular trick. The boy was named Nicholas. I asked him if he was brave...he said no. I asked him if he wanted to do the stunt, he said no. I said, "no, you don't? It's ok if you don't want to". He said "yes". I said, "Yes, you DO want to help?" He said yes. It was a comical and confusing minute trying to determine if he really wanted to participate or not. I determined he wanted to go on, so we did.

I tie the ropes around him and and he already is trying to touch the ropes and the knot. I am going through the jokes and false attempts, meanwhile trying my best to reassure him that he is gonna be fine. He isn't scared at this point, just nervously excited, still giggling and fidgeting around. Finally, I make the last stall before I do the actual pull of the ropes where they appear to pass through him...

"OK, this time for real, 1...2...3 weeks ago I did this trick to a boy and...oh nevermind, you don't want to hear that..."

And all of a sudden, I feel a jerk of the ropes and I turn back and see the kid lying on the floor with the ropes not attached to him anymore! Oh man, this caught me off guard! I didn't panic. I noticed the kid was laughing, he didn't have a heart attack or pass out or anything, I guess he was just getting so excited that he either fell backwards or just felt the need to lie down! Now I have a kid lying on his back laughing, with his arms flailing around and his legs up in the air a bit!! What a scene, I tell ya! I thought quickly, and did the only thing I could think of. I flipped the trick around to make him the magician. I knew Nicholas was fine, and the ropes DID pass through him as they were supposed to, just earlier than I expected and not with my pull! So I played the role of confused magician where the kid tricked me. I said "Nicholas, are you ok? How on earth did you do that?? Are you a magician??" I then showed the ropes and said "let's have a big round of applause for Nicholas! I have no idea how he did that, that was cool!"

All in all, a good show with a lot learned. And one thing I learned is that you never know what to expect in a show!

Thanks for the follow up report Danny. sounds like the show was a success. There may have been a few speedbumps, but you handled them like a professional which is what is most important.