I am going to volunteer the performance of a show for the local Boys and Girls Club. It will last about 40 minutes and the audience will be made of kids between 9 and 16. Any suggestion about the type of effect / the structure of the show / presentation in general? It is going to be the first time I perform for such a young crowd.

My draft for now is to warm up with a book test (using a f***e book to direct 2-3 kids to f***e pages of age-appropriate books); then Cinema Verite, coupled with an effect tailored to the collection of video tapes of the Club (volunteer picks up any movie from the shelf, I mind-read which one using a p*********e a******m based on the catalog); Predic-Torn Animal version; Sneak Thief without the DD, just as a "personality test", returning the drawings made on dry erase boards to them; maybe Chess Gambit and/or Psign, and grand finale with Color Match.

Your opener needs to be quick and visual and fun. I made the mistake in my last show for this age group of making them wait too long to see something magical. I know that sounds more like "kids magic" than mentalism, but you have to face reality: they *are* just kids. As such, they are not real interested in following involved plots right at first. Yes, they will follow plots with video games and such, but only with a lot of action thrown in. And there has to be a very quick "buy-in", or they'll be texting each other and tweeting how boring you are.

What I've done in the past is an invisible deck routine - not the whole thing, just asking for a color, a number, and a suit from that color. What I plan for my next show is Healed and Sealed while I give an intro, and then ask for a phone number from somebody's contacts, which I show written on my business card. Hopefully, that will pique the interest enough to engage them to follow me into the next routine.

Ed

I give presentations to children on the power of the mind (usually as pertains to sports) but keeping their attention is TOUGH (I did one a few days ago to a room full of high school freshmen). I like to start out with an imagination exercise like the heavy/light arm and something for comic relief like the fast alphabet. Then they are engaged and it's easier to keep their attention. Oh, and I really work the crowd to keep things interactive.

I was thinking of opening with Redunkulous... loud, visual, messy and interactive... hope it works!