Here's a thought-starter on things that scare kids, as we sometimes do in our acts completely without meaning to (and in my career I've inadvertently scared the heck out of individual kids, sometimes with as little as a friendly smile while in clown makeup). I hate when that happens, not so much because it disrupts my act, but because I wonder "could I have avoided this?"

Know how little kids can sometimes get scared over nothing, or really very little? Ever get sick of not being able to let your daughter watch THE WIZARD OF OZ as she's begging to, because little Cousin Ricky is visiting and he's scared of the witch? (well, actually he's scared of the witch AND the lion AND the tin man AND Dorothy...). I'm getting a little tired of Cousin Ricky, and if he doesn't stop telling me every detail of his "Nintendogs" game I'm going to turn the TV back on, put in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and leave the room, locking the door behind me.

I think back ... it's been about ... oh, 52 years. I'm 5, it's a bright sunny Sunday, the family's out front happily gardening, I'm inside watching TV because I hate plants. Some mystery is on TV, it's old and creaky even back then (1954) and I remember knowing it. Then the ham-handed director must have found a moment of skill, because the tension ratchets up just a notch or two ... the detective (or whatever he is) calls for the room to be darkened and says something like "Now here's what the 'Moon Killer' did..." and the bad guy creeps in ... closeup of the bad guy's face and I just GO OFF, running outside into the bright and happy sunlight in a blind panic, whimpering and sobbing, and nobody can make a bit of sense out of me, and I'm jittery the rest of the day.

I've remembered that moment for 52 years. Never knew what movie it was, and often tried to find out so I could see just just how scary it really was. And now I've found out. Turner Classic Movies showed DOCTOR X (1932). And all I can say is: "I got scared at THAT!?!?" No worse than a joke-shop gorilla mask. I won't say it harmed me in any real way, but the incident, just a teensy moment in time, left a mark on my memory a half-century later.

So, fellow magi, have you ever had a kid just "go off" over ... well, nothing, really, and you either faced the 'how could you do this to my kid' wrath of a protective mother, or wondered if you really had been 'over the line' a bit, or even if you had done nothing wrong, wondered if you could have avoided the problem somehow? (Without having to make your show bland and uninteresting to the rest of the audience) ???

I had a 10 year old kid literally get up, run over to another table in the room and duck under it when I did....GLORPY! Happened this past Saturday.
(Maybe it was the ghost I caught inside it...)

My gig is as a Magic Pirate. And I am a big burly monster of a man that can scare the heck out of little kids with just presence and voice so I have to be careful.

I like to do a Coin smash thru the hand for the right audiences. I set it up by asking who would like to see a trick where I samsh metal thru flesh and bone.
When they say yes I ask an appropriate volunteer to come up and place their hand on my table. I then proceed to unsheath my cutlass. The looks are priceless and the ensuing patter is fun.... eventually I get to the coin smash.

But DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU HAVE YOUNG GIRLS AGED 3-7 WATCHING YOUR SHOW. Just call it the voice of experience learned the hard way. When they think you are going to stab someone it takes awhile to get "the Happy Mood" back.

Just my experience

I had tons of kids who were unaccountably terrified of the SILVER SCEPTRE!! The mere sight of a silver rod and they are in floods of tears. I still have no idea why.
On the reverse side - when my Axtell Willie the Kid arrived I took one look at the puppet and thought it was probably one of the scariest things I have ever seen in my life but in nearly 10 years of performing with the character (I've just ordered my 6th!!) I have only had a tiny number of children who were frightened by him.

Sometimes kids "go off" for no appearant reason. Just this past weekend I started my show for a 4 year old's birthday in the usual way with a fun hand clapping excersise using the drooping flower. Not much to scare kids there. Kids clap, the flower stands up . . . kid starts to cry. I stop for a moment and the boy calms down (with his mom) so I start again . . . more crying. Man that took the wind out of a fun start to the show. After that I couldn't get the kids into the fun. And I tried every audience tried-and-true tested thing I knew to do -- short of lighting myself on fire (and you can only do that once!).

Another experience to learn from.

Referred to in the original post, above:

1970s, an IMMENSE street fair in DC's "semi-hippie" neighborhood - mobs of people, fairly happy atmosphere, and me in my VERY minimal clown face.

I'm going down the block, not performing at the moment, sent to get something (some water, supplies for someone, I forget) and pass by, maybe 4 feet from a kid of about 5 sitting curbside on his dad's lap. I don't say a thing, just glance over and notice the kid ... our eyes meet, and BANG! It's like an atomic bomb went off, kid is shrieking, trying to climb DIRECTLY THROUGH his father, anything to avoid the "nightmare that is me."

They say some people find clowns scary. Go figure.

Kimmo, I saw your funny video with that Willie puppet and have it on our website now. Very nice work! http://www.axtell.com/boy.html

Ax

Thanks very much Ax. Willie (Charlie in my show) is the only character that I never leave out. If you ever decide to stop producing these let me know so I can buy up all your remaining stock!
The routine I am performing in the video is my version of Steve Taylor's 'Frog Prince'from the 'Manipulating Your Dummy' DVD. I would recommend Steve's DVDs to anyone who wishes to add vent to their act and I believe Axtell can supply these (I promise I don't work for Axtell).

To return to the topic in question I have encountered quite a few children who are afraid of balloons. I have no problems with cutting balloons out of the show and will always do so if the client requests it. Nine times out of ten the balloonphobe will still sit with their fingers jammed in their ears throughout the show despite my repeated assurances that their will be no loud bangs. This behaviour can be contagious and sometimes spreads to the children sitting around them!!