What do you do with a kid that has out of control ADHD (not the birthday child) and is literally saying loudly any and everything that pop into his head. Parents have checked out in the way back of the room and refuse to do anything with their kids in the form of discipline.
I mean, this kid had children's tourettes (not swearing but just yelling things out every 5 or 10 seconds) and just ruined the show for everyone. Suggestions?

Pretty hard to gauge without knowing the particulars of a child in any given circumstance as their are many learning disorders that affect children differently. You could perhaps offer to use them as a volunteer or give them a prize if they can sit quietly for 1-3 tricks ect. Using them in the act or giving them a prize will give them something to focus on. Also, look for opportunities to give them verbal praise instead of asking them to be quiet ("wow, everyone look how quietly little Johnny is sitting at the moment! Keep it up Johnny!").

I always try to remember in these circumstances that this isn't a poorly behaved child I am dealing with, it's a child battling with a disorder.

All the best!

You could always stop the show until the parents do something about it. That is what I would do. It's not seen as unprofessional to do this if it's whats needed to be done to save the show and possibly your reputation as an entertainer. Why go on with this ruining your show?

Close your ears, and keep talking.

I have to agree with Al on this one. If a child has a behavior disorder like ADHD or is mentally challenged, and a parent does not step up, its very hard to single out that child due to their disability. In most instances the child cannot help it, that is the way they are.

If it was just a child mis behaving and no parent steps up, I would address the child myself ie; "Mr.and Mrs Jones have asked me to perform my magic show at David's party and I'm not going to let you ruin it for everybody, so I'm going to give you a second chance and if you keep yelling and disrupting my show I'm going to have you sit in the back of the room. " Hey, what else can you do if a parent doesn't step up? It doesn't happen often, but once in awhile you have to address a child in your show, just as a teacher has to keep control of his/her classroom.

Sometimes I will motion to the parents or make eye contact and without saying anything, they know what I am thinking. But if nobody takes action, it is MY show and I'm not going to let one child ruin it for the rest of them. You HAVE to keep control of your show.

I have done shows at schools for special needs kids where half of the people in the room were trying to distract me in one way or another. You have to just put your blinders on and keep on going.

I've never had this experience exactly, so take this with a grain of salt but;

Most interruptions I've had I just ignore, or make part of the show (a lot of times a comment is funny and gets a great laugh if you call attention to it).

If it's really to the point where you just can't do the show, then I think you need to first ask the child politely, then a little more seriously, then the parents nicely and lastly (very lastly) stop the show and politely explain that you just won't be able to do the show unless something is worked out. This would be really "sub-optimal" but if you had to...

Also, I may be nitpicking so forgive me, but is ADHD being used here to describe an overactive kid or is this a clinical assessment that you are/were privy to. I don't have any problems calling a hyperactive kid ADHD to make a point, but I think they are two different things and dealing with them may well be different as well.

Chances are the children attending (who have mostly met him before) are used to this sort of behavior, and can enjoy themselves in spite of it. I think I'd try to work with that premise in mind first, and if the behavior proved too disruptive (in other words, if my first assessment was incorrect) I'd try just one time to ask the parents to deal with it. Finally, failing that, I think it would be time to "just say your lines, take the money and go home."

My dad's has passed even worse... once he had a very rough audience. I mean, 7 year old saying ALL kind of words. One kid even went kamikaze onto him by throwing a plastic cup filled with juice just to get attention! And the parents were enjoying that!

"there only kids". "look at my boy, he's so smart".. etc.

He told me 3 things (my dad, not the parents). For ADHD, hecklers, superheroes, analfabets, etc.

1-Turn up your mic volume, he will get tired of screaming. or;
2-Bring him to the stage and make him a hero, or;
3-Tell him that the anniversariant invited him, you and everybody else to have fun, not to spoil the party.

I wouldnt reccomend any kind of vendetta, altough some rich kids think they own everything, including you... You'll get that feeling of wanting to perform sawing a kid in half, and leave him like that... just kidding.


Still, choice number 1 is the best thing. Just ignore him, I mean really ignore him. He'll get the point.

Dante D.

Just keep repeating a calming mantra to yourself...

'the cheque is coming...the cheque is coming...the cheque is coming...'

:)

Yeah. Tune it out (as will the rest of the kids, if they know he has an issue), do your show the best you can, get paid, and drive to the next one.

They all can't be perfect.

Stopping the show to "deal" with the kid as someone suggested above, right or wrong, will just make you look bad. Go read "Maximum Entertainment".

To answer a question from earlier...It was not a medical assessment that he had ADHD as much as a personal diagnosis from being in childrens magic for 16 years and knowing it when I see it. I realized later that I didn't mention the other 2 boys at the party who were trying to pour water on the other kids during the show and being encouraged by the first boy's outbursts. Found out later the other 2 boys were the children of school principals! Talk about not practicing what you preach...

Yes, I agree that most of the time if you ignore the verbal kid or try to deal with him with some funny one-liners, the situation will hopefully subside.
But sometimes . . . SOMETIMES . . . if a parent isn't stepping up and the child is out of control (These are rare instances) you HAVE to deal with the situation or ignore it if that is your style

Yea, I like the idea of just thinking "The check is coming, the check is coming" and I have taken that approach myself at times. But as a professional entertainer sometimes you must nip it in the bud and keep control of your show. One child yelling out may lead to two, three or four kids tagging along with the first kid and then you have a situation on your hands.

Futureal, I agree, Maximum Entertainment is a great book and I highly recommend it to any inspiring Magician. I've read it two times and I love the book. But I feel there is no "One way" to handle any situation. Last month I was performing a birthday party where I did indeed have to stop my show because one child (not the birthday child) was out of control and yelling anything he could to disrupt my show. I handled it as in my post above. In the rare instances that I handle a situation like this, I always speak to the host at the end of the party about how I handled it and I have never gotten a bad response and I have been thanked for handling the situation like I did. I am not saying my approach is for everyone, like I said, there is no "one way" of handling a situation like this, but I am not going to let a 6 or 7 year old child (OR ADULT) walk over me during my performance.

TommyJ has the right attitude.
And the more shows you do, the better you get at handling it.

Most importantly, no matter what happens, never make it personal.
Be in control, be assertive, be direct, be funny if you can and don't get upset.

AND ALWAYS USE FRANK'S "CAR TEST": (as follows):
When I get in the car on the way home, if I'm fuming and swearing about a kid, and pantomiming the use of weaponry, I DID NOT handle it as well as I could have.

As a professional, those incidents need to be non-incidents, almost forgotten by the time the smell of the cash payment reaches your nose. When your key touches the ignition you're already thinking of what you want to eat for lunch and new bits for your act; while the misdeeds of some kid, typically the result of poor parenting, are long gone.

I also always make sure that the adults know they need to stay in the room. I use them in th show which the kids love and it helps when an odd situation arises in which its best to have them there.

Frank: 100% serious here: this is a real "life lesson", and it's going in my personal list of "wise stuff to pass on to my kids as needed".

Brian, I do the same thing. The parents ARE part of my show. And if I don't mind saying so, they WANT to be there because it's a good show.


Think of your show as a glass. You fill it with your tricks. Now it's 1/3 full. Only 1/3 full. Over the years you fill it up more with bits of business, running gags, callbacks, jokes, one-liners, insults, entertainment, energy, sight gags, physical comedy, surprises, disgusting stuff, etc.

When your show (the glass) is so full of great things like this there is very little room left for a member of the audience to put anything else in the glass, and in essensce, to affect your show in any meaningful way.

By that time the show is just too big, too good, too entertaining.
It's like an entertaining bulldozer with the words "magic show" painted on the side.
Ain't nothin' stopping it.

Don't fool yourself that this happens overnight. And don't fool yourself that you can fill your glass above 1/3 full by buying the latest expensive fad box tricks. No matter what tricks you buy, 1/3 full from the tricks alone is all you're going to get.

Success like this (your glass is full) comes ONLY after years and years of performing shows.

Hi there Frank, I also like having more adults in the room as I try to get them to book me for events they are having. Its a win win all around. If you have a good show then pack them in because your show is your advertisement for others.
I will say that I recently had a kid that was a know it all and quite loud when they came into the room. I do a little pre-show chat with the group before the show starts. I asked the birthday girl if her friend was always like this and she answered yes. I then asked her if she wanted her friend to be like this during the show and she answered no...problem solved. Her friend kept quite for the show and everyone had a great time. I think if you noticed something that could be a problem you need to address it in order to have a smooth show. I also had a show that I had a boy who slightly mentally handicapped and was very difficult when being seated...I simply when up to the adults and chatted with them about my show and some of the rules and asked them if any of the kids were problematic. The person I spoke with pointed out the little boy and said he is a good kid but can try to be the center of attention. I asked her to please keep a close eye on him as I didn't want the birthday boys experience to be diminished by any distractions. The adult actually sat down next to him and helped me out through the show...again problem solved. This is just my take on subject as I know that their is many ways people can handle issues. B

Great ideas brian.

Most of the responses seem to miss the OP's statement that this noisy kid is noisy because of ADD or something similar - it is likely that his control over the behavior is minimal or even no control at all.