When I look at the common magic effects used by children's entertainers, very few of them are genuinely amazing. Many are very funny, many feel magical but few are jaw droppingly mind-blowingly gobstoppingly AMAZING!

We seem to have forgotten that we are magicians and, first and foremost, we must be MAGICAL. To be a GOOD magician we must also be entertaining but to truly call ourselves magicians, we must amaze our audiences!

A good rule of thumb to consider is "would this amaze an adult?" This does not mean the routine should not be aimed at children both in style and entertainment but that a reasonable adult, watching your show, should not know how you did it.

Some popular effects, such as the magic colouring book, silk vanish into a TT and a good sponge ball routine, will always impress an audience. I have spoken with Dads who have watched and re-watched my linking ring routine to figure it out. However, tricks like Run Rabbit Run and change bag transformations, whilst surprising and entertaining are seldom amazing.

"But kid's don't care about being amazed" - Don't they? Kid's love being amazed by strong magic that they understand. Often, when they look unimpressed by a trick or shout "I know how you did that" it is because they have seen POOR magic that does not challenge their field of knowledge.

Young children don't understand that face up and face down cards take a long time to sort out, so they have no reason to be amazed by Triumph. However, they do know that a red sponge ball that appears from nowhere before growing to five times it's size is amazing.

Have a look at you show and consider each magical moment (not "tricks") but actual moments when something impossible happens.

How magical is your show?

Mine is magical! I like to do the stuff that makes the kids laugh but the ending must be magical. My goal is to get the kids to laugh and the parents to wonder what the heck they just saw.

In what way?

In a half hour show, I maybe do 8-10 routines. Some of the tricks are less magical than others and some are big on magic! I try to open magically strong and finish that way too. Sometimes the routines are funnier than they are magical but are enjoyed nonetheless.

In the sense that you drop something and don't notice it, drop it again, say something silly, all that good stuff, then you do a rope routine or something that is solid magic. You pull the parents into thinking it is all cute and funny and they lose the expectation of being fooled, then you fool the heck out of them. I also pick one older kid, there seems to always be one, who is too cool for school, and I am going to have that kid get a shocked expression at least once during the show.

Hi Nicholas

I would have to repsectivley disagree with you. In my opinion I believe a children's show should be exactly the opposite of what you have described. I have never once used a thumb tip, linking rings or any other effect that makes the magician look clever. The quote "we are magicians first" is as about as far away from the truth as is possible. The first thing a children's entertainer should be, is a childrens entertainer! Who ever said there has to be any magic involved. MAybe it's different in the US, but over in the UK the last thing the children want is someone standing up the front showing how clever they are!

Only my opinion

Matthew

In my opinion if you bill yourself as a magician there must be magic. It doesn’t have to be the worlds strongest magic how ever. Every routine needs to be entertaining. My first goal is to entertain and a far second is to fool.

This not an either/or situation.

You are not being asked to CHOOSE one or the other.

If you are going to brand yourself as a magician, you should do magic and it should be GOOD MAGIC. If you are going to brand yourself as a children's entertainer you should ENTERTAIN. If you claim to be both then you should do BOTH!

The suggestion that just because the magic is good then the magician is trying to looking clever is also way off the mark. Magic should be amazing without looking as if the performer is showing off. Read Showmanship For Magicians if you need more help with it.

We are magicians who entertain through the medium of magic. If we focus solely on just being 'entertainers' then what is it that separates us from clowns, jugglers, balloon benders, stiltwalkers, musicians, fire breathers, frog swallowes, dancers, actors, singers....

Don't entertain at the expense of the magic and don't perform good magic at the expense of being entertaining.

I tend to agree somewhat with Mr. Marvel. I do not believe a young child even understands the concept of magic. To them, their whole universe is magical. To have a wand collapse in their hand, or to see a cardboard cat popping out from behind a farmhouse, is just as magical, if not more so, than linking two rings together or cutting a rope and restoring it. I think, Nicholas, you are thinking too much like an adult.

I think about this a lot. A long time ago I realized that when entertaining children--colorful props and comedy go a long way. Despite that, I have never stopped wanting to mystify people. I try to focus on the comedy, while providing as high a quality of magic as possible. Magic that (for the most part) fools the kids and the adults. It's certainly not a one or the other proposition, but IF you had to pick one or the other, as a children's entertainer, you would have to pick entertainment.

I'm pretty much with Nick on this one. My aim is to make the kids laugh so hard that it hurts while throwing in some absolutely stunning magic along the way. I am not standing up and showing off how clever I am - as far as the kids are concerned I am just as amazed and confused by the magic as they are!

I notice from talking to kids after a show, the laughs are forgotten pretty quickly. It's the "how did he do that?" they remember.
Marc the Magic Man

Nick is right, as usual.

If your reviews are all saying it was "funny" and nobody ever mentions the magic, they may have enjoyed themselves, but they may not think much about you when they call for an actual magician.

I use to really milk the production of a rabbit, trying to squeeze as much laughter out of it as possible, but after hearing several kids on several occasions say something to the effect of "Hurry up and make a rabbit!", I discovered, for many, they like comedy...but they really WANT the magic.

There is blend somewhere in there...a happy medium.

Hi Ashley!

Magic must entertain and it must mystify. It either components is missing then at the end of the day you have failed.

MagicSanta has hit the the nail on the head!

"Magic must entertain and it must mystify. Ir either components is missing then at the end of the day you have failed."

If your magic fails to entertain you are a bad magician.
If you magic fails to mystify, you are not a magician at all!

Mr Riddle is right in his suggestion that often very young children have no concept of magic. However, a good magician can create the framework for them to enjoy the show on a magical level.

Often, these children are too young for any type of show (2 and 3 year olds who wander around about during the show). These children are a lost cause in terms of magic. I wouldn't perform a magic show for them because they would not be able to appreciate it.

For older children (5-6 years) you often need to set the preconditions of the effect to make it amazing. I have a hankie which changes colour from red to blue. The children can potentially see this as unamazing and unmagical. To them, it might just be a silk that changes colour. They are learning new things everyday and this might be one of those things.

Therefore, we need to cement the idea of the silks colour in the children's mind first. I introduce a red silk and say "this is a BLUE silk" the children disagree and shout that it is red. This can be entertaining, fun and silly. However, it also makes it VERY clear that the silk is RED. The children have invested in the silk being red. They believe it is red, they KNOW it is red and they would bet their playstation that it is RED!

I then take the red silk and turn it blue using a dye tube. (NOT a change bag!)

The children's rock solid idea of colour has been challenged.

At this point, I could be seen as a clever, smarty pants magician showing off his skills. However, if I am as amazed as the children at the colour change, they will not feel cheated or made to feel stupid. They will feel that they have shared something wonderful.

So a simple dye tube routine has been funny, amazing and wonderful all at once. No one has been made to feel stupid.

The only problem with the routine is this. To do it, you have to put away your one handed change bag and learn the more difficult yet far more amazing method for changing the colour of the silk.

And here we find the real reason that a large number performers shout "I'm an entertainer first and a magician second". It is hard to learn how to handle a dye tube. A change bag is easy. Yet by "focusing on the entertainment" magicians don't need to work at their craft.

They can make excuses.

If your show is not amazing then you are NOT a magician.

At the end of the day it only comes down to one thing - do the parents pick up the phone and ring you to book from one party to the next. If you have to advertise then you are doing something wrong. If you diary is not full every day of the week you are doing something wrong. If you are fully booked and the phone does not stop ringing then whatever you are doing as a childrens entertainer doesn't matter. I'd much rather have a full diary doing 'entertainment' than having a half empty diary doing 'amazing magic'. That's not being ruthless or mercanary that's just plain business sense,

Only my opinion

Matthew

One more thing! Why do magicians believe they have a god given right to perform at children's birthday parties. Do plumbers go to parties and perform their latest "push fit" linking pipes routine.

If you are a magician then you are NOT a children's entertainer.

Only my opinion

Matthew

Great topic, Nick.

I can see why people both strongly agree and disagree.

I suppose when you suggest using amazing effects, for some, it conjures up the image of the non-kids magician doing "his sit down, shut up and look at my amazing stuff" thing or someone trying to desprately shoe-horn there latest close-up effect into a kid's show.

As you say, it shouldn't be an either/or situation. If you can have as much fun as you do with regular childrens props but also have a strong magical finish then I think you're unto a winner.

I've seen clips of both Kimmo and Nick doing what could be described as 'non-kids' effects and they are both HIGHLY entertaining and the children seem to be having a lot more fun than I've seen some magicians get out of the classic children's effects.

On the other hand, it is possible to be a great children's entertainer and do no magic whatsoever but then you obviously shouldn't bill yourself as a magician.

Am I the only person who thinks a change bag is very magical? I think we assume it isn't because it's very common and easy to use.

George

I haven't used a change bag in a while but I think the good thing about it is that it allows the child to do the magic. The one handed variety is also very useful for puppet work!

I agree that there are many wonderful children's entertainers who aren't magicians, but I don't think that was Nick's point. If you are booked as a magician, you should perform some MAGIC! Entertainment and strong magic are NOT mutually exclusive!

I did four shows last Saturday - a 4th birthday, a 9th birthday, a family show in a library and an adults-only show for a combined 40th birthday / wedding anniversary.
At each show I used THE SAME ACT! Only the presentation needed to change. That's another advantage of having some strong magic in your case that will play right accross the board.

Mr. Marvel, I must disagree with you. There are childrens entertainers who are not magicians. If you are a magician and performing for children over the age of four there must be a magical application or you should not refer to yourself as a magician. I had a neighbor who was a very successful childrens entertainer and he would do the magic coloring book and things like that. At no time did he ever claim to be a magician. Because I am a magician I do magical effects using presentations that the children find funny. Could I just goof ball it and not do real magic? Sure I could. Would I? Absolutely not. Because when the parents recommend me I want them to say "The kids loved him and he was a good magician" not "The kids loved him".