I am new to this forum.

What are some of the best books/DVDs on doing magic for children?


Bato William

Bato
Terry Herbert, Magic for under 5s DVD
Silly Billys Book and DVD. Seriously Silly
John Breeds Book.
Old copy of Open sesame.
Jimbo's DVD, Kid-Ability.
Jimbo's DVD, Games-Ability.
Ken Scott, Making the Birthday Dough
Jim Kleefeld got a couple of DVDs
Chris Capehart, Kiddin Around
Jozo Bozo, Milking
Pat Fallon, Magic for older kids
Magic Dave, Partytime DVD
Andy Clockwise Smelly Jelly
David Ginns got loads
Bill Abbot stand up for kids
Barry Mitchell got a few out.

This is just a few of the many Kids DVDs out there

Thank you, JimbosMagic, very nice of you to respond so quickly, as well.

Bato William

Jimbo, how good is Open Seseme? I have the book, but I haven't had the chance to read it yet.

Should be Open Sesame...... sorry

The books / DVDs you want really depend on what type of magician you want to be.

Open Sesame is more of an instruction manual to those classic 1980's Supreme tricks. They are old effects. That's not to say they are not useful as there are many magicians performing them today. And for general birthday parties, you can't go wrong with the self-working tried-and-tested effects.
But, you also don't want to be caught in a category that gets the kids shouting out 'Uncle Billy did that same trick!'
So its about choosing the effects that are not used by other magicians in your town.
If this is the root you wish to go, I recommend Silly Billy's book which has some great classics with nice laid out routines. I also recommend you check out the next magic auction near you, and get ready to spend a lot of cash.

But if you want to be the more newer magician, with the latest tricks that the kids won't have seen before, then you could look at some of my material, or look at the numerous Kidabra DVDs. They are a mix of new / old effects and the principles can be adapted to make any effect you want. So a quick trip to the local Car Boot Sale / Garage Sale and you can be inspired to build your own routines / magic.

There is no right or wrong answer with the best source material. But I would find my next nearest magic auction and wait until then, as you are most likely to find all the tricks / books / DVDs you are after at a fraction of the price.

Steve

Anything David Ginn. He gives you a lots of routines that you can adapt for your personality. He has a cheap demo DVD where he shows LOTS of effects - well worth looking into. You can also see the same stuff by going to YouTube and typing in David Ginn

Open Sesame should be in every serious kidshow magician's library...but, it is not the be-all-end-all of kid magic. Along with Jimbo's excellent list above, I would include Julian Franklin's book Kid Control.

Personally, if you're new to kidshow magic I'd recommend David Ginn, Jimbo, Julian Franklin and Silly Billy as viable starting points.

Dave Risley. His tapes are great as is his "Rabbit in Hat" puppet routine.

--Jack

I agree, Dave Risley has some great material.

It is? Very clever of them to write it over 30 years before the 80s and 7 years before Supreme Magic opened their doors then..

You could also try Trevor Lewis' party Pieces. Lots of effects in there.

George

Thank you, one and all, for your excellent advice.

Bato William

My mistake, I never knew it was even older than I thought. I also thought Supreme were going for years, but I admit I never did the research to find out.
So I'll rephrase 'Open Sesame is a good book for the classics of children's magic'.

All I can say is if you see a DVD, Book, Lecture notes of any childrens magic get it. If you pay £20 for a DVD, £30 for a book or £10 for lecture notes and get 1 good routine or even a piece of advise or gag then that was money well worth spending, as it will stay with you forever.

I think Seriously Silly is the way to go if you don't have it yet. skip the dvd (or get it second), but Silly Billy is AWESOME!!!!

Everything else is great and worth having, but with Silly Billy you can do great children's magic with any routine you want, even "adult" magic.

Also, since they weren't on the list, I like "Big laughs for little people" book, and companion dvds kidology and the magic ingredient and "kids think it's funny," but again these are routines that work...Silly Billy shows you why.

This is just my opinion, but if you want to perform for older kids, don't get "Pat Fallon, Magic for older kids."

I got it and feel burned.

Your opinion is noted but you should back it up with a reason. Otherwise its not very persuasive at all. Such negativity is rather discouraging to read.

I bought the same DVD several months ago and got a lot out of it. He shows some very solid routines for kids aged 8-11 - including a great one called Houdini's Seance. Pat Fallon has a good rapport and gets solid reactions from a difficult age group to work for. He treats them respectfully and is in control throughout the show and that's important when performing for a challenging age group like this.

The tricks and routines mostly use equipment you have, except a few props that you can pick up form most dealers (esp Practiccal Magic in the UK).

"Your opinion is noted but you should back it up with a reason. Otherwise its not very persuasive at all. Such negativity is rather discouraging to read."

fair enough. I will try to give a bit of a review, however I'm not sure how impartial it will be. Magic magazine had a review of it that seemed vary fair.

So, keeping my bias in mind, some of the things I did and did not like.
Firstly I don't consider 8-11 year olds to be older kids. In general I love working for 8 and 9 year olds. It does say 8-11 year olds on the box, so that's my fault, but nevertheless I found the title misleading.
Secondly I didn't feel there was very good rapport at all. There were a lot of jokes and ideas that seemed to be meant for "older kids" that simply did not work in practice; including his 'cool' look his 'logical' explanation for twentieth century silks. (for what it's worth a co-worker of mine, a children's librarian of many years, with a lot of experience performing for children and working with performers, was much harsher than I on the lack of rapport).
That leaves the tricks, the explanation of the vast majority of these was, "this is a dealer item" ie. there were no explanations.
To attempt to balance this out I will say that I did like the houdini seance and the fantasy crystal blendo. In fact I may want to do them sometime, but the first is a general concept that doesn't have anything particularly to do with older kids, and the second is a dealer item.
It goes without saying that part of this is style, and in other regards maybe I'm just wrong. It's happened plenty of times before . I would be interested to hear any detailed glowing reviews of the dvd

Yes seadog we all have different ideas of DVDs and yours are valid points. Myself, I liked the topsy turvy bottle routine, and the Houdini seance. After watching Pat I found mine out and added them back into my show.
As I have said before on other threads. If you can get one trick, bit of business, or a routine or idea from any ones DVD then that is knowledge you will have for the rest of your life, so the purchase was worth it.

Jimbo