What is the maximum amount of Sucker Tricks you think is recommended for a one hour kids party?

Done well - 1. Not done well - 0.

A Sucker trick, is not a sucker trick if presented in a funny way.

One sucker effect is the best choice, and right after a very lively bit of business with lots of audience participation.

I agree Dennis. One only and it should be well into the show so as to establish the fact that you are not out to make the child look foolish. As your show goes on, they can get a sense of your personality and know you are not out to make a fool of anyone. Done right much in the style of Ginn or S. Smith, it can be a great laugh getter and the kids will enjoy it.

In Ginn’s format (from his latest book) he always includes one sucker routine, but quite early on, usually the 3rd routine in a kind of post warm up warm up.

You have to be a bit careful with them & I agree one is enough. Even when the trick goes okay I still find they can alienate you a bit or encourage aggressive behaviour from the children afterwards. Where you have got a mixed age group of children & you are playing more to the younger ones it is very easy for an ‘out to get you’ attitude to develop among the older children especially if you throw in the sucker trick for their benefit.

Most of my effects involve the children screaming that one thing is happening right before another thing does. e.g. the dice is the box...then it's not. The rope has a knot in it...then it doesn't.

However, because I am often as surpised as the children, it's not viewed as a 'sucker' effect and no one feels bad.

Ultimatey, as magicians we want people to believe one thing is happening when another thing happens. Does that mean that all magic is 'sucker' effects? Of course.

You can have as many 'sucker' tricks as you like so long as:

a) the kid's believe what is going on because each effect seems different. Don't follow the die box with run rabbit run!

b) no one is made to feel like an idiot.

The best time to use it is right after using multiple assistants. The kids are screaming pick-me, pick-me, so using a sucker trick "turn-it-around" type would fit at this time.

I have Sucker Sliding Die plus Peanut Butter and Jelly. I have been using SSD near the beginning and P&J near the end.

The peanut Butter and Jelly, if done right is not a sucker trick. Same with Die box.

I use a sucker trick at the end of my show. That allows me to close my show on a high-decibel note.

Ben Benjay
Manila, Philippines

How would you define a sucker effect?

To me a sucker trick is a trick where the asistance/audience is led to believe something is going to happen and in the end it doesn't. The torn and restored napkin routine where you do it, then teach an assistant how to do it by teaching them to hide a napkin in their hands and switch it for the torn napkin. They finish with a restored napkin and the torn bits hidden in their hand, you finish with a restored napkin and then at the end you show them that your "ripped" pieces are restored as well.

I agree with Dennis, Run rabbit run and the die box aren't sucker tricks. They're just tricks designed to get the maximum amount of fun and audience participation.

I also think that even a sucker trick can be performed in such a way that the joke is played towards you and not the children or the helper you have on stage with you. It really allows you to get the same reaction from the audience without making any child feel bad.

I agree Kyle. You can usually simply reverse the gag and put it on yourself easily. Just think of the gag in... let's say PP & J. The gag is usually where the children think you really cannot think you can switch them but at the end you really can.

This could be reversed by simply actually switching the PP and J but then switching it back before you have a chance to see it. This way, the kids know they are right but you think they are all wrong. At the very end you could do some kind of finale where you actually switch them... but into completly different things for example.

Just some thoughts,

Evan

I hate the term sucker trick. I use tricks that fall in that category (Fraidy Cat Rabbit etc) but the ending is always as much a surprise to me as to them.

There is really no "Gotcha"

The term "Sucker Trick" is very old and comes from a kinder and gentler day when the root word "Suck" did not have the negative conotations it does today.

Reference "Never give a Sucker an Even Break" W.C. Fields, and "There's a sucker born every minute" P.T. Barnum.

I think despite the term sounding bad the premise is fine as long as the fall guy is the magician and not the child. Kids like that kind of humor and are happy to participate as long as they sense you have respect for them and not just trying to make them "look stupid".

I actually do two in my show. (1 hr.) the first is with some jumbo cards which these days have a Poke'mon theme to them (in the past Snooppy and the Peanuts gang, and later the Simpson family). The second is the vanishing Coke bottle.

To me a sucker trick is a trick where the asistance/audience is led to believe something is going to happen and in the end it doesn't

Hi,
But surley that applies to the Die box?
They are led to believe that you are simply moving the die around within the box. but then it dissapears
Phillip

Phillip,

In my book the Die Box has to be one of the biggest sucker tricks in the book! You are 100% correct.

I think so-called “Sucker Tricks” can be very effective with children—especially when they’re NOT used as “Sucker Tricks.” By this I mean that the audience is not victimized by the effect. Instead, the magician invokes the “Look Don’t See” principle, wherein the magic “happens” in spite of the magician, and the kids go nuts trying to tell him.

The Die Box can be used in this way, with the Magi (after much by-play) finally admitting that he really can’t vanish the cube—but the kids see that it has really vanished. PB&J can be used in the same way.

I just LOVE to see kids go wild over this kind of thing. The classic idea of a “sucker” effect would only squash this same potential by insisting that the kids were “fooled” by the clever performer.

Tim

Do you consider Acrobatic Silks and What's Next a sucker trick? I use both in my birthday party shows and they always go over very well. I don't feel like I am embarrasing anyone, because it's performed before the entire audience without anyone on stage. Your thoughts?