(I originally posted this in New to Magoc, but didn't get much response, so I'm repeating it here.)

I'm looking ahead to November where I will be performing at a City-sponsored "fair". I'll be in my EZ Up for maybe 8-10 hours, doing 15-minute mini-shows. This is all freebie - I pay nothing for the space, they pay nothing for the entertainment. I'm not the only one; the whole "fair" is like that.

I wouldn't even bring that up except for the next part. Older kids roam this annual fair without supervision in their little rat packs - it's a no-cost playground. I plan on finding my niche market doing whole-family shows, so kids in the 11-16 age bracket are an expected part of my audience. But at this age, some of them get their prestige and jollies from ruining things - like performances. The "free-ness" of this whole event means little security, except for the occasional roaming policeman.

I'd like to do routines that play to the older kids in my shows - no sense having them drug along to a family magic show and be bored by change bags and coloring books. But I fear playing to an innocent-looking tween with the devious mindset of "The guys will love it if I make this magician look like an idiot!"

How have y'all handled these situations? I'd like to practice my routines at this "fair" (that's whay I'm staying all day and doing mini-shows), but I wonder if I'm going to end up practicing how to hold myself back from drop-kicking some little brat!

Ed

"Magic is what happens when ordinary life intersects the unknown and connects with the impossible."

I could see why your response would be very low. This would be a tough venue with a widely varied audience. What works good for one age wouldn't necessarily for another.
Might be time to become a strolling magician with a variety of different tricks to pull out depending on your audience. Changing up tricks would keep people coming back for each show and stop the occasional smart alack ruining a trick.

Can I ask why you're doing this for free? Most of us on here love to entertain and have the occasional show we do for charity but this will be a lot of work to do for free. What about having someone or company sponsor your show?

Brad

Admittedly a difficult situation.

My advice would be to always open with strong visual magic. Perhaps a 3-minute, high energy routine to music. This will send a signal to all ages that this is going to be an interesting show and if they are going to be fooling around they are going to miss something cool. If you get their respect in the beginning the tweens are more likely to put up with a silly routine geared for the younger kids later in your show. In short, just do the best, strongest, high energy show you can do and hope for the best.

Also, I know that you have to be careful not to make the audience feel stupid or wrong when using sucker tricks, but sometimes I think the sucker technique was invented for tweens. This age needs to humbled at times.

A 10, 11, or 12 year old kid needs powerful magic to be impressed. I like to pick on the one with the biggest mouth and knock his socks off. This will get the respect of the rest of the kids.

Why are you working so hard for free?

I agree with Al. Whenever I do teen audiences I hit them with something very strong very quickly. That gets their respect. Once they decide they can respect me and my magic they are as willing as any other audience to sit back and enjoy themselves.
I relish the opportunity to perform for this age group, and as I am about the only one in my area willing, it gives me a small commercial edge. I normally come on high-energy, and ask who is the most sceptical and clever guy here? Once I identify the loud-mouth I normally blow him away with something quick and spectacular. Then I can slow it down and enjoy the show.
And to set your mind at ease that age are no more likely than any other age to try and catch you out and embarass you. I normally find drunk men and awkward women are a lot more likely than teens to try and belittle you. Teens, if they respect you, are far more likely to enjoy what you do and move on. Don't be scared of them; enjoy them.
Cards across, ambitious card, card to mouth, strong mentalism, all work well for this age.

TonyB
Great post.

I do CMH for this age group, and the more times I do it the more I baffel them.

Also, if you're doing a stand up show one of the best effects to do for this age group and older is the Growing/Shrinking Head Illusion from Bruce Kalver. It's available through Hocus-Pocus and it is wonderful. You need to mix up your effects so you have tricks that play for little guys and tricks that play for tweens to adults. Here are some suggested stand up routines that I've used regularly.

Growing/Shrinking Head Illusion
Mouth Coil Routine
Professor's Nightmare
Card on Forehead
Devin Knight's Baby Gag
In and Out Rope Escape - I just added this and it's awesome
Cards Across
Sucker Silk to Egg
Half Dyed Silk
Pro Viper Snake Basket
Signed Bill in Lemon
Steve Spill's Needle Swallow

I'll post more later if I think of them. These are effects I've used regularly and always play well to an older crowd.

I will sometimes run into kids like this when working festivals and markets. I usually do a bit of one-on-one, in-their-hand warm-up stuff to draw a crowd before my show. If I spot them then, I'll hit them with something geared to their age and explain that my show is geared to younger kids...but if they stick around after, I'll teach them a trick or two.

If they show up during the show and begin to heckle, I'll quietly ask them to do me a favor and not disrupt the show for the little kids and after the show, I'll repay the favor by teaching them a trick or two.

After the show, I take 5 minutes to teach them a simple card or coin sleight they can impress their friends with. Word quickly spreads that I'm one of the good guys.

Works 90% of the time. The other 10% just don't get it, so I either crush them as hecklers or flash my badge and tell them to move on. I prefer making friends over enemies, though.

Thanks to all who responded. I don't know that I _have_ any "high-power knock-the-socks-off" magic yet. I'm sure I can find an instant-Criss-Angel kit on the internet somewhere - *just kidding*!! So I think I'll be trying Skip's approach - they're trying to be cool, right? why not give 'em a bit of magic to "help" with that?

In the meantime, this gig isn't until November, so maybe I _can_ work up something that will play better for the older kids. I'm thinking of maybe a spoon bend or a mental-magic routine.

As for why do all this for free: This is a city-sponsored whole-community event. No one is getting paid. The only people allowed to sell anything are the food vendors. I'm doing this because I can get 3-4 different audiences an hour for about 8 hours, maybe longer. I used to do this for pay and didn't realize how bad I was - now I want to be sure I'm worth it when I ask a fee! What better way than to work everything out iin front of live audiences? If it really gets bad, I can pack up and leave anytime I want.

Ed

I've worked a lot with Middle School kids, both as a magician
and as a Sunday School Teacher. It actually can be a very
fun age -- if you recognize that they are just as likely to
engage you in a serious, philosophical discussion followed up
with a "who can snarf the biggest booger?!" contest.

The biggest horror for anyone in this age is to be embarrassed.
They do NOT want to be embarrassed, so any routine that would
cause one of them to suffer any embarrassment is not a good choice.
This is also an age where sexual tension / dynamics really start
coming into play, so recognize that when you bring up volunteers
to work together.

You definitely have to work hard to earn their respect
and attention. But hey, that's the same with any audience.
So respect them and expect respect in return.

Stay away from the little kiddie stuff, but don't be afraid
to be funny, because they definitely like funny. And as the others
said, knock their socks off with great magic -- and keep going if
you have a wise guy in the audience, because more than likely they
don't know what you're doing, they just want to hear their own voice.

Just keep it moving along fast and fun. If YOU have fun, and you
do fun, solid, adult-quality routines, you will do fine.

--Jack

Everyone is giving great advice on this thread. Wouldn't disagree with a bit of it.

Just one thing to add, my experience has been that the more free events that you do the LESS people think you are worth. I will do everything in my power to get paid except on a minor few occasions. Al is right that you're working way too hard to not make something. Even if you can get a grocery store to sponsor you for the day and hang there banner behind you. Then when you tell them this program was sponsored by such and such Grocery it will present a 'Working Pro' to the crowd and not a 'closet amateur magician'. Not saying that you are such but perception is reality to your audience.

Wish you well!

Brad

Great advice...I asked this in the other thread and didn't hear back. Have you tried using sponge balls? The "one in my hand one in your hand" is incredibly powerful, quick, and easy to do. Here's a few suggestions:

1) Sponge to cube and black ball (goshman)
2) Multiplying rabbits (good for kids or adults...with a nice finale)
3) Growing sponge ball
5) a pack of 2 inch sponges

If you're interested in this, you may want to learn the gary darwin rentention vanish, its a very easy and effective vanish, looks good too. PM me if you want anymore information on this stuff..I can send you a video to teach it to you if you want.

For small crowds of teens and walk around ... I use 3 card monte and a bit of mentalism.... they go nuts for good easy to follow mentalism ....

I can understand if you are doing it for free to help gain experience and recondition. But one good tip is to have business cards ready to pass out when requested. It can help get you paid shows. Another tip is to use it as a promo. Have some friend or family member take plenty of pictures of you performing. Try recording with a video too.

Professors Nightmare is a good trick to do in that kind of situation, if you are good at it.

Get your back to something (a wall, a tree, anything) - don't leave your back uncovered.

I perform for about 15,000 'tweens' a year.here are my suggestions:

Do not be a goof ball. Treat them, magic, and yourself with respect. Be yourself. Do magic they have not seen at ever bar mitzvah they have attended, and do it more than competently - do it with excellence, and you will have no problem.

Oh, and don't 'try' to be cool. If you need to try, then you aren't. A middle school/teenager would rather see an honest person being themselves with all their flaws than an overweight adult trying to 'keep it real.'.

Finally, play to the smartest person in the room. If they are catching you out, the problem isn't with the audience, its with you. You just happen to be in front of a group that has no issue telling everyone what your normal audience is thinking anyway.

These kids want to be impressed. They want something they will tell their friends about. Deliver it and you are their hero. Fail and they will register their disapointment.

Brad Henderson

I just did a similar show last Satuday.
It was a back to school fair. It ended up raining, so it was moved inside the church that was putting it on. Because of that there were less kids and more adults ...so it's not quite what your looking at. Still there about 30-40 kids mixed 8-17 years old.
I was worried, but it went great. I opened with ...a coloring book! Yes a coloring and it was wonderful. I used Docc Hilfords warm-up and simply present it as an imagination test. Even older kids used to color in books when they were little. This group was hard to warm-u, but once they were it was so much fun.
I also used my rabbit in the hat puppet, it was hilarious, and they all liked it.
My main strategy was to use very funny routines, that do not make fun of anyone or put anyone the spot (which is my normal strategy anyways). Then warm them up and show them that it's just about having fun. I acknowledge older kids and adults in the show and get them involved too, Once you can get them saying silly magic word and doin finger shtick your OK. Also, if it's primarily families and older kids are actually trying to be jerks, then the families will be on your side if you have to ask them to stop.
One more thought. The coloring book and the rabbitt in the hat puppett were the routines I was worried about being to young; so I brought back up routines. If the crowd was to old, or not into it, I would have done fiber-optic and if I decided not to use Bernard (my puppet) I would have done Paul Potassey's newspaper tear. The other stuff was good for all ages (misers dream, rings, die box(non-scuker trick routine)).

If you have a good act, material that doesn't talk-down to your audience, aren't a goofball (unless you're genuinely funny), look and act the part, then you need fear no audience.

Even tweens.

If you play to the older kids/adults and they like what you do, the younger kids will follow suit. The reverse is not true.

There is never an excuse to do magic that is less than perfectly deceptive to EVERYONE in the audience, and there is never a reason to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Truthteller,
I may be wrong, but I wonder if your talking to me, as I'm the only who has mentioned "little kid" magic in this thread. If that is the case (and I apologize if I'm being defensive), I have to emphasize that it did and always does go over wonderfully.
I think "perfectly deceptive" is illusory to an extent, because there is a lot of amazing magic that is obvious if you know the secret. Same with the coloring book. I have blown away teenagers and adults with my version of Docc's routine, in fact I would put it my adult shows if adults weren't hesitant to yell and participate in that way. Most people don't know how it works. Some do, and they yell just as much as anyone else in my routine, because it's so much fun and so interactive.
I actually agree with you, I just think (maybe incorrectly) that you take the mention of coloring books and puppets as appealing to the lowest common denominator. If this is so, then I respectfully disagree.