This is another 'Harry Potter' spell -- that opens locked doors (or anything else that is locked).

Any suggestions for working this into my upcoming kids show? The 1st thing that comes to mind is some sort of escape trick -- but I don't know any. (I do mostly close up work for adults)

I'm sure some great mind can help me come up with a use for this spell in my show.

Any of the effects that are, or emmulate,
"The Seven Keys of Baldplate".

Or the very simple Siberian Chain Escape.

What is the Seven Keys of Baldplate?

Oh -- I forgot to mention. The show is for 5 year olds.

Traditionally, there is a tiny door. Several keys are presented and only one opens the door. The keys are mixed and handed out. Each key is tried but fails to open the door. The last key which the magician ended up with works... big surprise there

Are 5 year olds really into Potter? I thought the average reader of Harry Potter was 8 and up. As someone who wants to become a childrens Magician, 5 year olds have to be the hardest. They can't sit still long enough for card and coin tricks and most other tricks are above their mental capacity.
With kids stick to the comedy, and trick like Rocky the Racccoon or the Coloring book Trick. Any thing Bright and colorful. Chande bag tricks are also a

Slo is right; 5 years old is too young for Harry Potter.
For this age group, David, you'll want short, flashy, and colorful effects (productions, silks, flowers, etc.) and very simple plots.
A half-hour magic show at this age is about the limit of their attention span.
cheers,
Peter Marucci
showtimecol@aol.com

Actually, my own son (who is 4 1/2) is really into Harry Potter -- and this is a birthday show for his best friend's party (so the Harry Potter theme is sorta pre-arranged). My son is going to dress up like Potter and we're going to do some 'spells' throughout the show.

The effects I'm considering are my usual little kids show (I used to do them all the time, about 10 years ago): I start by popping out my top hat (really gets their attention); then appearing cane - to go with my top hat; coloring book (flashy and gets everyone involved), glorpy (also very visual, and allows the b-day boy to come up and use a big net to catch the ghost); floating dollar (I might float a silk instead - what do they care about some dumb dollar bill?); sponge balls/sponge rabbits (great audience participation), die box (I might drop this out if they're getting antsy); and finish with a square circle - to produce candy and grab bags for the kids. Show should run about 25-30 minutes.

I'm going to use the Potter Spell "Wingardium Leviosa" to float the bill or silk.

Oh -- at the end of my sponge ball routine, a large coin appears in my hand. I use the folding half dollar and then "demonstrate" to the kids why they should never, ever put money in their mouths. I proceed to bite off a portion of the half dollar (at this point, they usually yell out, "it's chocolate!") and then blow the portion back onto the coin (they usually stop yelling "chocolate" right away!); I then take another bite and after making some funny faces, proceed to pull a mouth coil out of my mouth. The kids go absolutely bananas! And at the end, I always finish by saying, again -- "and that's why you should NEVER EVER put money in your mouth" (I usually get a smile from the parents in the back at this line).

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I do an average of 12 childrens shows each week at Schools, Libraries and private Birthday parties and make a point of making each show as colourful and as funny as possible.

David Ginn told me many years ago, the secret of entertaining kids was to "Play with them" ...as he said, when the children are at home they are bombarded with orders - do your homework, brush your teeth, eat your food, tidy your room, etc, etc, etc... and at School they are also given orders to, stop talking, do your lessons, finish your test, etc, etc, etc...

But, as a magician you make a point of playing with them and having fun. I get them laughing before I start and keep them gigling all through the programme... I act the fool, do magic which involves storytelling and lots of fun for the 45 minute performance, which often goes on longer when I get a good reaction.

I'll be happy to enlarge on my routines if members care to contact me.
funmagic@iinet.net.au

I do not know if you do any ballooning, but Bruce Kalver, a member of this list has a pretty cool video on making Harry Potter balloons.

Float a feather, it is in the movie.

I myself would pass on a Harry Potter party for 5 year olds, but that is just me. If you wanted to do some productions Dan Harlen's tapes has some things that could work... as I think about this, his tape could work rather well, if you have read the books and want to change a few things around.

Kevin

Actually, "Alohamora!" can be used quite successfully for almost any age -- we are all curious to what's beyond any door. The old Fantastic Frame trick -- where you can open the door to a nothingness space, vanish some silks, say " alohamora! open the door and the silks have reappeared is quite stunning and, the spell makes it very logical...

When I was performing Harry Potter magic in my Wizard persona, my Alohamora effect was based on a locked door plaque and silks on which I had traced the recognizable heads of the three main friends, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger using a Sharpie pen and some silk dye for the colors.

The effect was that I would open up the hinged plaque ( painted doors on the outsides and plain black on the inside) and show it contained nothing inside because I hadn't opened it "magically." I then closed it and handed it to one of my helpers from the audience. I asked the audience how they would open the door magically, had them try their method and asked the helper to open the doors. They were locked tight and would not open. Then I showed them how they had to wave the magic wand "just so" and say "Alohamora!"

Now the helper opened the plaque and inside found the Ron Weasley silk handkerchief, whom all the kids recognized at once (they were Harry Potter fans of all ages).

Once again the plaque doors were closed and I had someone from the audience come up and try the Alohamora spell. It didn't work and the doors wouldn't open because they didn't wave the wand "just so." I would wave the wand "just so" while they all practiced saying Alohamora, and now the doors opened up to reveal the Hermione Granger handkerchief.

Determined to find someone who could wave the wand "just so" I handed it to the youngest child in the group. He waved the wand and the kids chanted Alohamora. He always waved the wand "just so" no matter what he did because the doors opened up and revealed the Harry Potter handkerchief.

I then used the three handkerchiefs in a 20th century silk effect, but that's another story. Easy to make, easy to do, and comprehensible to even the youngest person, as long as they dig Harry Potter and his friends.

Lookcat the Wild Columbini web-site http://www.wildcolombini.com/cart/index.......f47c96cb - they have a section for Harry Potter with a book and dvd presentation plus tricks for sale. They use common magic items including dove pan (cauldron), light up fands, magic drawing boards(Daily Prophet) etc. I've also made up my own version of the card games using A-5 laminated card sandwiches.

After six films, and the next to be released on November 19th and July 2011, most kids are HP fans. Many haven't read the books but know the characters. Just look at the range of Lego toys or the items that are HP-themed in Walmart for under 5s. It's going to be big in the UK and USA this Autumn/Fall and as the eighth film is out in July it's worth having a few props ready that can have a HP theme. ie wands, spell books that don't have a specific logo on them but your PATTER can include them.

Opening door - I do opening of a padlocked spell book. One key works, the others they've tried haven't. At this age I'd only have two that didn't work then the next one does(David Ginn - work in threes with kids.)

For older kids I would highly recommend the haunted key. If you wanted to make a big story produciton you could combine the haunted key and kellar rope tie escape, or (as Docc Hilford does in Uncle Kilnk) combine 7 keys to baldpate and the kellar tie.

I think a chain escape with a story could go over well with younger kids, and being all tied up in chains would be a particularly good time to know the "alohamora" spell.