I've been slowly building up a repertoire of tricks which I find fascinating. They are however mostly adult tricks... cards, rubber bands etc.

I going to present a magic “show” to about 10 cub-scouts (about 7 yeads old)and will want to teach them 1 or 2. Any suggestions?

Thanks
-Ed

What do you mean by teach? Are you going to teach them the trick as such, or are you just asking for recommendations as to what you should include within the performance?

Are you going to be doing this frequently, or just this time as a one-off?

I would browse through the children's forum here; and if children's magic is something you will find yourself doing more frequently, I would highly recommend looking for a copy of Silly Billy's children's magic book ("Seriously Silly") - it has great info on what makes kids tick, what gets reactions, the psychology and effect structure, etc. Great stuff.

In particular his handling of the Magic Coloring Book is great. This effect is only about $12~$20 and with his handling, can run about 5-8 minutes long.

Get a copy of the Scout Manual and teach them one or two of the tricks contained therein. That way you aren't exposing tricks that haven't already been exposed by being included in the Scout Manual.

The problem with doing card magic for kids is that large numbers of kids don't know one card from another. However effects that do not require them to "pick a card and remember it" can be used. Six Card Repeat, for example, or Card Warp.

Spellbinder is right. The cub scouts have a small section of magic in their manuals. I don't remember if it is the cub, bear or wolf manual but you can look or hopefully borrow a manual. Some real simple stuff but you could show them how to do it and then go beyond that. If I remember one thing has the folding dollar bill where it ends up reversed from the front to back. After you show them that, do a dollar bill switch for them. You don't have to teach them how you did that but just show them something else to do with a dollar. Another thing they have is putting a silk over a tape mesure and making the silk rise up. Again show them that but after that take a silk and slip an appearing candle under yours and do the magic. Don't be surprised if some of them have tried those tricks in the book already and will want to show you a thing or two. Teach then or demonstrate what is in thier manual and then get their attention with something not in the book and keep them wondering how you did that.

Soory I was not more clear. Thanks for all the advice. yes, I did mean that I'd like to teach the kids how to do one or two tricks. I'll look in a scout manual though I don't expect those to be "stimulating". I'll look up Silly Billy's book though... that sounds interesting.

-Ed

There is a Cub Scout Magic book. It is excellent for teaching magic to children of this age. It contains some tricks that are very simple and some that require a fair amount of preparation.

Enjoy,

Mike

For card workers who want to be able to use their skills with Elmsley Counts and Hamman moves when they perform for kids, check out Magicbob's new book "Kards For Kids" on my site. He has already released 3 of the forthcoming effects and as long as the size of the group is small enough to see what you are doing, you can continue double lifting and passing out to your hearts content... or whatever it is you card workers do!

The Cub Scout Magic Book is on line at: http://wtsmith.com/rt/magic.html

If you like it buy a copy. I cetainly will.

Another option is Sammy Smith's book about running a magic club. (I'm getting this in the Summer to bring back here.)

Lots of common beginners tricks including rubber bands, mobius band, pick a card etc. And think about involving the boys by making their own magic wands (by rolling black-coloured paper)or the props like the mobius band. Ok been involved with Scouting for 30+ years so did much of this before becoming a magician. (Maybe it rubbed off on me.)