I currently have an hour of children's material which I put into a 30-45 minute show. I was hoping to add in a few more routines so, potentially, I can do two completely different 45 minute shows. My style is very clown-like, though I am clearly a magician.

I have a few ideas of routines I wanted to do and was looking for people's opinions of them, etc.

Monkey in a Box:
Using Kandu's Crazy Carton, a yellow "banana flavoured" silk jumps out of a box, falls through the bottom and vanishes, etc., because of my naughty monkey. The child helps me make the monkey show himself using magic but the silk just seems to grow. Finally, I spread out the silk to reveal the child is a monkey (using one of Karrel Fox's Headless Cartoon Silks)

Can O' Carrots:
I pull out some canned carrots for my rabbit. I open the lid and reach in and my hand goes right through the bottom. Unbeknownst to me, I pick up things from the table and act surprised that they are in the can (rope, scissors, wands, maybe even my other hand etc.). I put all the things back in the can and they fall straight through. Finally, I reach the previously empty can and pull out a bunch of carrots.

<<<<<<<<I pull out some canned carrots for my rabbit. I open the lid and reach in and my hand goes right through the bottom. Unbeknowst to me, I pick up things from the table and act surprised that they are in the can (rope, scissors, wands, maybe even my other hand etc.). >>>>>>>>>>>

I used to use a change bag that had a hole with a zip on one side, as I introduced it into a routine I'd show it empty then as a joke I used to reach down through the hole and into my pocket and then magically pull out a silk. The idea was they'd laugh, I'd find the hole, do the zip up and carry on with the routine.

Instead of finding it funny the joke went right over the kid's heads. As far as they were concerned I was a cheater: "That's not magic - you pulled it out your pocket" was all they used to say. I tried several different approaches to get them to treat it as a joke but in never seemed to work. In the end I dropped the gag.

I hope you get better success Nicholas.

Maybe with the hand through-the-bottom bit it will work a little better using the table rather than a pocket. If your hand goes into your pocket, then since it's hidden, and the objects weren't previously in view - it looks a lot more like cheating, whereas picking them off the table is (hopefully) so obvious it has to be a joke. Maybe?

I'm not sure, maybe they'll still miss the joke and call it cheating.

Let us know how it goes, Nicholas.

I like the banana flavoured silks routine.

George

Recently for me, I've been developing a character similar to what Nick is describing. A little absent-minded and the Magician-in-trouble sort of mix. It's been getting great reactions so far.

I think it's possible to pull off the bottomless can type effect if your character is suitable to the effect. As a clown type character I would definitely give it a try.

Like Emazdad mentioned, it's hard to tell unless you give it a try. One can never tell how the kids are going to react unless you try.

I'd be very interested to know though. At least in Australia a can of carrots is a common thing. Here in Asia I've never even seen such a thing in over 16 years.

JoJo

<<<<,One can never tell how the kids are going to react unless you try.>>>>>

Too true - you can come up with a gem of an idea that you think will have them in hysterics and they barely titter, and then they wet themselves over some incidental little thing you only threw in as a filler.

All you can do is trial it over 3-4 shows (don't just rely on the first lot of kids) and then decide whether to keep it or drop it.

Nicholas

I liked your ideas very much! You have started me thinking!

Have you tried using Kandu's Crazy carton with sponge bananas (like those used in Terry Herberts DVD)? One gimmick could be attached to one "banana flavoured silk" and the other to the sponge banana. You could have them flying all over the place.

Cliff

Heheheh! Nice!

I was thinking of adding a reel to a blendo bag and making the bag (with flying bananas) turn into a headless cartoon silk so the bananana vanish and the child becomes a monkey!

Cool! Then you will be paid to Monkey around!

Nicholas:

I also used to do this type of a thing using a change bag. I found that when I stick my hand all the way through.. I would then pause and act very surprised as if there was a person inside the bag that must be messing up with my magic.

I would start to whisper to the kids (get them to calm down) then say to them that I will solve the problem by getting the guy out of this bag. a little pantomime of me grabbing my own hand and trying to pull it through the bag, always got a lot of laughter from the childen. of course I realize in the end that it was me all along.

This bit of business does not take up much time, but is a very funny site in the minds of the kids watching.

Just a suggestion to try.