Hey All,

An odd question for you experienced childrens' performers. My wife is studying for the preisthood and is working this summer for a charity that helps young single motehrs develop life-skills. Most of these women have very young children, pre-school and below.

My wife was wondering if I'd come and do a magic show for them. I'm a bit concerned though because I've read about studies where they showed babies magic tricks and it just upset them because what they saw violated their very limited understanding of how the world "should" work.

So, how young is too young for magic? And do you have any advice as to illusions/patter for the younger set? I'm pretty good with school-age, particualrly 10+, but this is new territory for me.

Thanks

JK

Priest? Interesting....

You didn't give enough info to be exact but the answer is pretty simple. Four and above no problems. Three years old depends on the child but they typically, and those younger, just like the colors and movement. I'd like to see these studies that show that magic violates the limited understanding of how the world works and thus upsets them because it is complete nonsense. They don't comprehend that it is a magic trick because they have not developed their little brains yet. Who ever wrote that should be flogged. In other words your concerns are unfounded as to the adverse effect on the kids (as if the adverse effect of parents who need to develope life skills wasn't bad enough) and your concern should be knowing what works for ten year olds won't work for lil' guys.

I agree with Santa 4 and above will understand magic, and below 4 they won't care. There is no age that will think that magic defies the laws of God, or nature. Kids are a lot less complicated than that.

Thanks guys, you've eased my concerns immensely.

The experiments in question really had more to do with breaking very simple expectations of causal chains then what we'd think of really as "magic." I have a feeling they don't really apply to the real world but I wanted a confirmation.

I know they were featured on an episode of Nat Geographic Explorer... I'll try to hunt down a reference and post it if I find it.

You are perhaps referring to the Expectation Experiments where the stick figure of a person vanishes behind a decoration? In any event the studies I know of (I have 30 credits in developmental psych and 80 in Psychology/Psychiatry in total.. a long time ago , a very long time) do not show very many children becoming distressed except for those who have attachment issues.

Children are not logical until about 6 years of age but that's not to say they don't like magic.... or to be more precise, watching colourful objects & movement that changes in it's timing, tempo and pacing - especially if accompanied by melodic tones or music that's compatible with the culture. I consistently hear, from early learning centers, that I have no trouble keeping the 2 year olds occupied for the first 30 minutes and sometimes through the entire hour.

Just remember that if you're performing magic tricks, you'll loose them but if you're engaging them in a theatrical manner you have them. To put it in easy terms, keep it moving without being scarry. Mentalism..... is out, the Pom Pom Pole is in.

I certainly would not do a full show for her, but my 11 month old daughter enjoys seeing some of my magic tricks.
She really giggle when I do the flipstick move and make a pen disappear and come out of my ear. Even at 11 months she know that it's funny because pens don't usually disappear or come out of people's ear's. Most stuff she just doesn't get, but she's never been upset by anything I've shown her. Same with my 3 year old when she was an infant.

Here is the important thing with real lil' children, act like you are playing with them and they'll love you.

No offense to my brutha from the North East Bay but do not do anything where you put objects in your ears, nose, or mouth because they may try it. Even if they don't some moms freak out.

OH, good reminder on that last, thanks.

When I was in grade school I remember making the mistake of doing the "bent spoon" improvisationally at a friends house for dinner.

He had a little brother who was developmentally challenged on top of it, and poor David (the little brother) couldn't comprehend why people didn't want him imitating what he just saw me do...

Important lesson in that which you have reminded me of

Dress up like a cartoon and they should watch for an hour or so.

The main thing with the little ones is to not force yourself on them too soon.
Some will want to just sit back and watch until they size you up. That may take
the length of the show for some. Others may be on your back biting your ear before it's over.

It's very hard to predict kids you don't know, but given the opportunity,
they all seem to be good at having fun. Like MagicSanta said, make it playtime.

Doesn't matter that they haven't seen a magician before, you can show
them what one does. Be a teacher as well as an entertainer.

Tom

I want to point out that Tom has excellent insight due to his having a preschool. My wife taught at a preschool for 20 years, her degree was child development, and I learned a lot from watching her work with kids.

This is all teriffic advice, guys, thanks again!

Kids of any age can be engaged, but perhaps not by what we think of as "magic". If you can sing and even play an instrument, you can engage the youngest babies. Music is the greatest magic of all! For the newly-born, songs need to be very, very simple - even nursery rhymes are a bit too much, in my opinion. Once the kids are 6 months old, you can engage them with colour and movement, as Santa says, though really this is akin to the type of child play that moms would engage in. From this age, puppets work very well. Then after about a year, you'll find that some kids have developed sufficiently to enjoy simple performance and interaction, whilst others haven't. At 18 months, kids can understand pretty much anything, but don't have the attention span. I have had an 18-month old child on stage with me, and she got a HUGE laugh, as well as being incredibly outgoing, with a BIG voice.
After 2 years, they can and will enjoy magic, but keep it simple, and puppets are a better bet (puppets can be used from a very young age, as I mentioned). 2 1/2 and they're ready to watch a full 45 minute show, as long as it's engaging enough. Some will likely wander off if you have more than a very small group. From 3 onwards, they will pretty much be ready to engage in a show as a group, without any of them losing interest. This age can easily watch a one-hour show - IF (and only if) you provide the right material.
Potty

Doug
You are correct. Three years onwards and they will enjoy the show, always provided that no aspect of any effect takes more than say a minute, then change approach/direction. Concentration levels are not great at that age.

One proviso. You and I are talking about the situation here in the UK. It may be different in other countries. Our educational systems are different. Our formal educational system begins at three years and several countries leave it as late as seven years. This might make a difference.

Many children here - the majority probably - go into private structured nursery care by the time they are twelve months old allowing the mother to go to work. Some nurseries employ entertainers from time to time - Christmas being the most common - whilst others do not. So you can certainly be approached to entertain a wide cross-section of ages at private nurseries ranging from six months through to close on three years.

Everything there depends on the ability of the older children and the quality of the nursery. You have a chance with the two years plus age range and less chance with the younger ones.

It's a big potential market but sadly the better nurseries with the brighter children tend not to buy in entertainment. The less good nurseries with duller children are often the ones which will book you. Not easy, even limiting it to 40 minutes. As Doug says, you need variety.

At three years of age children will generally move on and attend a proper educational nursery where they stay for one year. The local educational department provides free nursery education for one year. There are also private nurseries sometimes attached to private schools usually offering a service to parents whose children will be attending that school as they get older. Private education is expensive but popular as it is perceived as being superior to the free, state education system.

So, at the three years old stage children are in nursery education, learning to read and write and all manner of other subjects including maths and science, albeit at a very basic and fun hands on level. The point is, these children have already learned to sit and concentrate and provided you engage the children with questions and their answers plus some simple decision making (even though the decisions are fixed!) they will sit easily through 45 minutes. The groups may be large - 50 or 60 is quite common. Several normal classes of 15+ watch your show together.

In richer areas these children are easy to entertain - they are quick, bright and with good vocabularies. They come from educated homes where there are books to read and family conversations around the dinner table.

Sadly, in poorer areas those three year olds are hard work, they are slow, unresponsive, dull and find conversation difficult. They come from homes where education is not high on the agenda, there are few if any books and little conversation or discussion. There is rarely a dinner table to sit around.

The children only stay at this nursery school for one year. At the age of four children move on to main stream school where they enter a special preparation class known as Reception Year. This is to familiarise the children with the very different world of 'proper' school which they enter at five years old. They are taken into the main school several times a week to join in activities.

When you show to the Junior school - traditionally 5 to 7 years - you will find a front row of 4 year olds from the Reception Year. That's when you recognise the differences a year makes. You have to take account of this in your timing.

And the rest of that school - aged 8 to 11+ - are a separate group for entertaining.

Finally, at 11 they move onto secondary education - usually a different school elsewhere - and there you will generally lose them. These schools do not tend to use entertainers for 11 to 17 year olds.

So, what all this means is that there are opportunities at two and two and a half years though the show will need to be quite slow, very simple and direct and colourful and as Doug mentioned, the youngest ones will follow colour, movement and music and rhythm.

At three years, you should be fine and thereafter the children will make great audiences.

But that's only the UK where children learn to be disciplined from a very early age.

Just write a puppet show. Even one-year olds love to WATCH talking animals.
You should also learn some balloon animals. With those two skills, you can entertain most 1 year olds, which I have on many occasions.

If you want trick suggestions - they understand messy. So bake a cake in a dove-pan. Blow your nose on a hanky and vanish it in a thumb tip. Use colourful props and dress colourful. 1-4 year olds also like to wear hats, so if you have a hat collection take it with you and let them choose a hat to wear. They also like stories so use a third hand gimmick and a large story book. You then change your hat for each character in the story with your spare hand. (Then put on glasses and mustache etc.)
The children will appreciate the story, the adults the comedy.

Even children understand basic principles. But more importantly, they just want someone to play with and talk to, so make yourself like-able and they will be happy no-matter what you do.

Its not as tough as everyone is making out.

Tony, some very good points about child development - and yes, it won't be the same in differing cultures.
Understanding the educational structure in your country/province would be a great help in gaining a better understanding of entertaining younger kids.

I don't take shows for kids that are 4 and under.
I have no interest and my show would not suit them.

I could do it if I have to with props I have "just in case"
but I'd rather not take the gig.

The "easy" gigs are for 5/6 year-olds. You can probably get away with standard dealer effects, though even with this age, you could be struggling if you get out the colouring book and "Run Rabbit Run". 7 and 8 years are also fairly straightforward, you just need "cool" tricks, and some clever stuff. Your patter (sorry, Frank......"script") needs to be MUCH snappier, you will need sharp ripostes, and anti-heckler lines. Gags and comedy that isn't silly, but caustic. The next easiest group is 3-year olds......you must learn to be sympathetic to them, to be able to adapt your show as it progresses, if they are particularly timid. Then comes the 8-10 year-old group, who will demand "proper" magic....and I don't mean the "Rings" or "Cups and Balls", though I'm sure these routines can work in the hands of certain folk.
After ten, you have reached a very difficult age. Some kids by this age, have become so jaded with seeing poor entertainers delivering the same old stuff, that you really need a unique act, one which doesn't even try to be "magical". Because the very word "magic" is "uncool" to a lot of these youngsters. Now you must be an "entertainer". Your show can take many guises, and you CAN include magic tricks, just make sure they're couched in a highly entertaining way.
Once the're teenagers, you really have a battle. Now, I am talking about groups of kids who are ALL the same age, not mixed age groups, that is something different again.
I was recently aboard a ship, and we had 700 14-year-olds aboard. It was like "Animal House". They were tearing around the ship like wild things, and to actually get them all into one room to watch a "show" would have been impossible. At this age, kids en masse are only interested in their peers. The solution was to provide an "entertainment disco", where they were encouraged to dance along to "Chocolatee", "Old Macdonald", "Macarena", etc. this worked well, and several kids started to show off their breakdancing, and all that good stuff. These kids need to show off, and will simply not be interested in anyone who expects them to sit down and "watch a show", it really doesn't matter how good the show is - there will always be a good number of them who will not take part.
Whilst the dancing was going on, I worked the back of the room (those kids who didn't want to dance), with close-up magic. The kids surrounded me, cramped me, and made my job very difficult, but all was fine, and together, our entertainment team pulled it off.
Of course, reaching 16 years, you're now looking at young adults, and everything changes again.....your approach can be calmer, and your material just needs to be adult, but a little innocent.
Personally, I'd prefer not to work with the teenagers, but now and then it's a neccessity, and it's always good to know how to deal with ANY audience.
Potty

The younger they are the more the emphasis needs to be on entertaining, not on magic. As many have said, kids under three really don't understand that something is magic, but they do enjoy puppets, slap-stick, songs and audience participation. Keep everything short and snappy with exaggerated facial expressions. You can have a puppet do the magic or help you do the magic, but the interaction between you and the puppet is what the kids will most enjoy--particularly if the puppet gives you a hard time.

I'd rather work for teenagers anytime.
The more wise-a$$e$ the better, the cockier the better.

To me it makes for a much more interactive , gritty, entertaining show.

Challenge situations add tension and fun. I love it.

There is nothing like seeing the smug look on some teens face change to disbelief as you hit 'em between the eyes with an effect.