I'm primarily a children's/family show magician (as if the avatar wasn't a dead giveaway!). But I've been getting more into performing for middle school classrooms (grades 6 - 8, ages 11-13), where I use mostly mentalism/mental magic. I find the kids in this age group may not yet be ready to simply relax and become involved - they're still into "playing", and they're also into challenging, not because they really think they've caught you but because being contrary is another game of "king of the hill".

I did a spoon bend that had the teacher almost screaming, and the kids are just murmuring "Hmm .. that's cool." Or Twisted Sisters (as a mentalism piece, not a card trick), and there's no sense of "What just happened?"

Okay - I'm not the greatest performer yet, so maybe it's not *all* the kid's fault. But do you have any advice for performing for either this age group or for a similar audience? (I hear a "well lubricated" crowd can be very similar to kids.) Is there any hope for setting a "less playful" tone in this kind of setting? Or do you just learn to flow with whatever crowd you get?

Ed

When I started including mental magic in my classroom work, the students loved it but there were an important of difference between my situation and yours: I was the teacher and I was offering the magic instead of some other, less interesting, way of getting a point across. They were willing to listen, if they didn't, the workbooks came back out. In your situation, when working with such an audience , what I think would be useful is to to go to where they are with something that catches their imagination immediately and then carefully lead them to where you want to show to go. With that in mind, consider performing less effects and include more storytelling, using the effects to illustrate the stories. As for catching their attention, they like "WIERD; consider using the stories to add a subtle but distinct element of the Bizarre to the show. Once you have them hooked, lead on.

Christopher

Thank you!! I'll keep that advice in front of me as I work out what to do next time. A friend is a substitute with an excellent rapport with the kids. Certain teachers will give him the liberty to bring me along to "enhance the lesson". Don't know when the next opportunity will come along, but I will use this.

Cheers!
Ed