What a difference a year makes!?
I just wanted to share this and see if any of you guys or gals have had the same or similar experience. I did a show last year for a young boy of 5 years old and he and his friends were the most polite, well behaved group of children I had ever performed to. They all put their hands in the air before asking a question or said "Excuse me" if they wanted to speak. And I have commented for the past year to other magicians, the parents and friends etc on how polite these kids were. It was like Utopia for children's entertainers.

Well I had the repeat booking today, and my goodness what a change! What had happened to these kids in 365 days!! No sign of any politeness, shouting out all the time, never sitting still. I must give them their dues they were still well behaved compared to some shows I have done, but I could not beleive the contrast. I had performed a virtually completely different show so they would not keep saying,"seen that one" but the Birthday boy had asked specifically to see a few of the tricks again, like the Jack Hughes Neck Spiker and I was asked to perform some more gory stuff too, which I was a bit concerned about, but I performed the Electric Sawing in Half.( I am sure that might provoke a response in itself) but they loved it!!
Has anyone else had this experience?
Fortunately the show went well and the parents and the kids seemed really pleased, but I an dreading it if they book me for next year, what will they turn into then?

Well, you have had the two extremes. Next year will likely be somewhere in between. It sounds like there were no girls at this party. It is amazing what a calming affect a few girls can have. Having a chance to hold a live bunny also seems to have a good calming affect on them. I've experienced the same thing before. It is quite common for a group of 6 year old boys to be like that.

The best thing you can do to prepare is remind the parents to make sure they don’t have access to items like plastic swords & guns during the party.

During a show for boys this age is good to use a lot of magician in trouble type situations where you have conflict between yourself and a prop or yourself and a puppet. They crave conflict. If you don’t introduce conflict as part of the show they try and create their own.

I also have the Electric Sawing in Half but seldom perform it for this age group. When I have done it for a mixed age group it is always the young girls that don't like it. Boys can be reluctant to be sawn in half but never worried about seeing others cut in half. I guess they don’t have the same empathy skills girls have.

Actually this show contained more girls than last time. I asked the parents before I started how many and whether they were all the same from last year and she said that they were basically the same but more girls! And it was one of the girls that came up and performed the sawing thru!! But she was great, I just kept reassuring her etc, and told her what to expect and she was great!!

You must have a very gentle trustworthy character for the girls to not be frightening with the sawing in half. I remember doing this for a group of about 100 kids & girls about 5 years old quite upset. I sometimes have kids get frightened with the needle thru balloon.