Hey guys I have been asked to do a party for a company about this time next year. This would be my first paid show. I have been doing magic for about a year now and I am 13 almost 14 years old. This show is mainly aimed at kids. Though I am a kid I am not that great at coming up with things like this and need a little help.

First of all I have seen some magicians perform a 30 min routine with just a thumb tip a shoe a silk and toilet paper. It amazed me how you can have just 1 simple thing and stretch it out to make it like your whole routine.

Could you guys help me figure out a decent kid friendly comedy routine. The stage tricks that I have is cups and balls, sponge balls, change bag, magic silk blendo, magic coloring book, a trick where you have an empty bag and pull out 3 boxes with flowers from it, thumb tips, silk, a trick where you have 3 giant cards ace of spades ace of diamonds and ace of hearts. I have a cloth thing and say I will make the ace of diamonds disappear and pull out the other 2 aces. So then I say it disappeared but you can still see a card hanging out. I pull it out and says wrong. Turn it around and it says wrong again. And any additional household props. Your help would be greatly appreciated and a congratulations on my first paid show would be nice too! I have seen cards used for stage magic before. But I don't know if that's the greatest.

Thanks for all your help, Shaun

Posted: Jun 7, 2009 11:20pm
Also, for those people that use sponge balls, do you dampen the balls before use for better performance?

It is a matter of preference, some prefer them to be totally dry, others dampen them slightly and squeeze them out very well. I always prefer dry ones. I used damp ones for a while, but then I realized when I put them in other peoples hands and they were even just slightly damp they always gave a bad facial reaction.

Okay thanks

When it comes to wet sponge balls, I would never use one in a show. The real reason for wetting sponge balls is to cause them to return to their proper shape after being crushed in storage.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

I would agree with Bob here, this is the only time I have done this. Sponge balls of different quality tend to hold their shape better than others. But is usually your older sets that are in your pocket that will eventually lose their shape.) A small amount of water usually make them look nice. Jay Scott Berry (spelling? recommended a small spritzer bottle you keep on you and lightly spray them to bring them back to shape. I would never put a wet sponge in someone else's hand through.

As far as material for your show, you have a full year to prepare which is awesome, but you should post this in the "Little Darlings" section where it focused on this type of show. It looks like you have the props to do some stuff but I will wait for the pro's to chime in...

Try to get Jozo Bozo's DVD or Terry Herbert - The herbert way, you will see some very nice examples of using change bag