I performed my first show yesterday. I decided to start off with an easy group... 10, five and six year old boys. It was a birthday party at the local zoo and they asked me to perform for 15 to 20 minutes while the zoo personnel were setting up the party. I approached this with some trepidation as I have read many horror stories about performing for children. Fortunately, one of the boys was my son who is an aspiring magician himself. (He does an amazingly smooth Stoplight paddle trick for five.)

I chose effects that had no serious angle problems and that were all pretty quick and performed them in this order:

1. Professor's Nightmare
2. Color Deception Brass
3. Hot Rod
4. Invisible Quarters
5. Bobo's coin fold with coin to Viking's Peerless boxes

Maybe it was beginner's luck, but it went great. I performed outside on a sidewalk and I had them all line up along a crack in the sidewalk. The magic words were Happy Birthday Ryan! They all behaved great and only once did I hear, "I know how that works!" It was Hot Rod and he said that jewels changed color. I said, "you're right, by magic."

I got them all laughing pretty good with invisible quarters. After picking up the second one and waving it around, I asked, "Can everyone see the invisible quarter?" They all said "Yes!" I asked, "How? It's invisible!"

They each got to put their initial on the quarter for the last effect and loved the flash as it disappeared. The laughed when I pulled out the brass box and shook it and said, "I can hear something inside!" "Another box!" They got excited as I opened each one and were amazed when they found the quarter with all their initials on it. I looked up and saw with of the mothers staring at me slack-jawed. I couldn't hear what she said to the mother next to her, but it looked something like "Wow!".

All in all, I was very pleased. The things I was really concerned about, pacing, delivery, and crowd management, went very smoothly. I can't wait to perform again!

Scott

Congratulations -sounds like things went great! I am still working towards my first show, but I like your line-up of tricks. I also like the magic words "Happy Birthday Ryan!"

Great Job!

Fantastic! and great choice of effects - especially liked your use of nested boxes and getting all of them to sign the coin - got to get me one of those - hadn't realised how truly wonderful it must have appeared to that age group - Bravo!

Awsome man! Im glad your 1st show went well!

That was awesome Scott. So did the adrenaline flow of your first show make you want to do more? It can get very addicting

Brian Cooper

Thanks Guys! The adrenaline flow did make me want to go out later that day and perform again.

I hadn't thought of having each little boy write his first initial before the show, but several of them hadn't gotten to help yet and I really think it helped them all feel involved. Ten is about the max I would have do it though or it would take too long. I didn't have anything to ditch, but if you did, it would give you plenty of time while you were getting a piece of flash paper. When little boys are taking turns performing a task, misdirection is not something you have to worry about.

The one effect that I didn't perform that suprisingly my little boy loves is the shell game. I wasn't using a table so it wasn't practical. But after thinking about it, it would probably play well. Little boys love guessing games. They really enjoyed guessing which hand held the black and white chip in Color Deception Brass, so I think the shell game would be popular. It's not as abstract for them as a three-card monte effect. Glenn Bishop has a routine where the pea ends up under a glass that you have set aside. It is a great finisher for the shell game. I don't know if he is the originator of that piece, but I saw it in one of his video clips.

Mike, good luck with your first show! I hope you have as much fun as I did.

Scott

Well done, Scott.
Performing WELL for children is a tough gig and you obviously did it WELL!
Good choice of effects, good handling of the youngsters, and you use the same criterion as I do (the adults' reaction) when judging a kids' show.
Congratulations.

Thanks Peter!

Doing effects for my son has really helped. He helps me stay angle conscious and grab conscious. It seems as long as I have something for him to do, he doesn't do something he isn't supposed to. He always wants to "help".

My criteria for selecting the effects I did was two-fold. I wanted things pretty angle-proof, and I wanted effects that I had down cold.

I think the best compliment I got was from my mom who was watching my youngest son. She said, "You know, you're really not too bad at that."

Scott

Congratulations! More will probably come in the future.

Way to go, Scott. Keep up the good work.

Good point. My first couple of kids parties I hadn't really thought this part out! If kids can grab something, it's a good bet that they will, so it's important to keep the important stuff out of reach (though I have found that allowing them to grab something that they think is important can help!).

Well done and good luck in the future.

Well done grats