David Ginn first covered the topic of comedy warm ups over 3 decades ago. Many children's entertainers like Ken Scott and Silly Billy have covered this topic on their DVD's, and it has been covered in here sporadically but not with much detail during the past 6 years.

I would love to hear some fresh new ideas from many of you out there not so much about warm ups in general, but specifically your favorite comedy warm ups.

Warm ups in general are the easy part. That's initializing interaction while setting the stage with ground rules to establish control. Let's skip to the more fun step. What is your favorite routine or dialogue you use with consistent success to warm up the crowd while generating immediate laughter to jump start your party with lots of humor?

- Gary

One of my favorites is found in Duane Laflin's book "Warm-Ups & Wake-Ups book called touch "Touch Your Chin". It works great for family audiences. This book is a great source of information, http://www.laflinmagicstore.com/ProductD......de=BWuWu

Mark

My favorite is a variation from Danny Orleans art of children. The silent finger warm up.

As with many things it depends on venue and age.

Example- 7th graders -1st hour drama class

A. Intro by drama teacher

1. How many of you have like comedy
Group Response
2. Can anybody name your favorite comedian
Group Response
3. Who is your favorite ventriloquist
Group response. (Thank you Jeff Dunham )
4. Pet phrases and call backs are important in comedy
Group response. HUH????
5. What does Achmed say
Group response in their voice tone
6. How does Jeff have him say it
Group response in Achmeds dialect

ShaZam ....
28 or so twelve year olds become one audience. And off
Nigel goes - praising Dunham, while disrespecting me.

Other groups have things like

A. Getting out the right pair of glasses
B. Floor juggling to balls rolled to and from a kid
C. ABC's --- front and backwards and said while brushing my teeth
D. Making a puppet from a sock And ....
With the right age / two quarters are used for eyes. The puppets name---Fifty Cent -the Wrapper , of course ???

Generally, as I am a packs small type of performer, I drive up and the kids are looking out the window at me. I walk into the house and the mother points me to the room I will be performing in. I put my brief case down on and sit on a chair as the kids pile in. I pull faces at them as they come in, comment on what they are wearing, call them bananaheads, whatever gets a laugh.

Sometimes I begin fidgeting with my hat. It pops off my head, falls behind me, flies across the room, or whatever comes to me at the time.

My opening routine is generally very light on magic, but heavy on laughs - eating a balloon, or my hanky routine. Then into the magic.

I like this one.... http://www.barrymitchellproducts.com/sto......_u_red_e

https://www.tommyjamesmagic.com/store/in......uctId=28
I think that Tommy James' Flash Card Opener is a more "magical" version of the R U Ready warmup. He also has another version for Reading shows.

I use Bob Markwood's warm up from hi Poof You're a Frog. I've rewritten it to suit myself and style while retaining the structure. I get plenty of laughs, but they wouldn't really work for anyone else the way they work for me.

My warm up is 15 minutes long.....

I do my own warm-up, a funny silk routine performed to music. There are a lot of "mishaps", each of which is timed to a comedic musical "hit." Kids love it, and it lets them know right away that I'm going to be someone they'll have fun with.

If I am in the mood, I tell a story as the warm-up. Those are my favourite gigs.

LOL - My Wife,

My Wife will sing and dance with the kids while I setup the show. About 10 min,
After the show She holds the rabbit and lets the kids pet him while I pack up.

Then we do balloon animals, and get the heck out of there......

I recently got Tommy's Flash Card Opener but to date have only used it once. It's nicely made and is a cute opening effect. I suspect it will last a long long time. My favorite is the blooming bouquet ala Trevor Lewis. It's killer, and I use a really cheap India bouquet. That last one finally wore out after 20+ years, so I broke down and spent another $18 on a new one.

I still like Silver Sceptre to set the tone. Lots of silliness and tons of laughter!

I never do a warm-up and never will. I do my act.

Has anyone tried massaging their opener to have a warm-up type vibe, if necessary, instead of having an actual specific
kiddy "warm-up" ?

That is what I try to do, at least I think so. Lately I have been starting my show with "Sketch-o-magic". I use three volunteers, the volunteers and audience gets to make a lot of funny faces, and funny laughs. The audience gets to cheer and clap for each of the three volunteers and finally the volunteers get to help make the magic with the "sketch-o-magic". It helps set a great tone of laughter, cheering/clapping, audience participation, interaction with the audience, volunteers, and expectations (ie.. "the volunteers I pick need to be sitting in place and paying attention") I started using this opener this year and it has worked great so far, especially after some adjustments.