Hi,I was invited to performe at a Kindergarten for children.
My background is a closeup magician and a mentalist. I have performed for elementary school children before with great success,
but never perform for Kindergarten age children. Not sure what kind of effect will they understand and enjoy?
Many thanks if some fellow magician could give me advice.

I start off with using the silks and crystal tube routine (based on Silly Billy's routine but customized a bit. Kids love it. I follow up with Daryl's acrobatic knot with Christopher T. Magicians routine about good magic words and bad magic words. I then perform a jumbo coloring book routine with two helpers (based on Danny Orlean's routine, but customized to suit my performance style and adding my own gags to it as well) I then perform Chico, but once again I have changed the routine a little. Chico has become one of my most requested routines. The children go banana's over him.

I keep the children involved at all times, interacting with them, making them laugh and keeping any adults involved as well. This is a 30 minute show, but I have also performed 45 minute shows for kindergarden children. I just finished performing 3 kindergarten shows yesterday based on my 30 minute show. In my 45 minute show I open up with a do as I do dance routine with a helper with a torn and restored napkin trick that results with a mouthcoil ending.

If inside a couple od D,lites

Here's my basic 45 minute show that I do for that age group. Depending upon the kids enthusiasm, I sometimes have to cut a routine out to fit in the 45 minute window..

opening (I use Dave Risley's opening from one of his tapes)
Blooming Bouquet warm up
pizza oven
Cinderella's slipper (this more of an interactive story, using WonderImagery props, but I've added a lot of jokes, music and audience participation)
Bunny Production (I usually use a duck pan and have the children add imaginary ingredients, and produce my rabbit. for Kindergardens, I usually produce the bunny and then have the children pet the bunny on their way back to their classrooms, after the show is over)
Grandmother's Garden (this is an original routine, which keeps the kids perfectly quiet for 3 minutes, after the excitement of the bunny)
coloring book (I use Silly Billy's routine. it really kills)
blendo (I use 13 children in this routine, which is basically a 4 silk blendo, using a change bag, but I get 7-9 minutes out of it.
rufus (a rabbit in the hat puppet. I use Dave Risley's routine, usually)


Hope this helps

Anything colorful. Also, anything that has a "magician in trouble" premise where the kids end up saving the day.

They particularly love the Vanishing Bandana routine as well.

Don't ever do mentalism!

Make sure your magic is collar full and easy to follow. Remember kindergartens are at the beginning of their cognitive development for abstract ideas. Most of them won’t be able to follow anything that involves counting or remembering any abstract ideas or a sequence of events. For the most part children at the beginning of Kindergarten are going to enjoy silly tricks like multiplying wands or dropping a handkerchief 10 times on the floor they mostly want to laugh clap and help the magician. Everything is still amazing to them.

Rodney

Check out Dave Risley's website he does a lot of day care stuff. I saw him at Daytona magics convention way back doing a lecture with children in the audience and he had them laughing the whole time.

All these are great suggestions! Also, sponge balls are timeless and universal among the ages! I've used them for kids as young as 3, and they still pack a huge punch.

I am not experienced in performing for small kids, but from the experiences of performing to my small cousins I would saw just do something really visual, and never do card magic. (I tried)

Card magic can work but it has to be simple and visual. A typical card routine doesn't work for this age. They cannot follow the abstract story line, or follow unfamiliar looking cards and distinguish between suits. Slowly developing card routines don't keep their attention. But there are some card routines that work well. Visual, simple.

Magic should be customized ! Excellent stuff here

I do a routine with a gag bag. In the zipper part of the bag is one of those cards that open up several times into a big card at the end. I force this card to open the trick. I then say I already knew what you would pick and put it in my blue bag (or whatever the first bag color is). I pre-load each part of the gag bag with silly items (sponge carrots, bananas, ice cream cone, mushrooms, etc., fake hand, $50 spring load bills), or any other silly stuff I can think of. Each time I go into the bag I produce a silly item and then say, "oh no, I left it in my red bag", etc. etc. The gag bag allows 5 changes. The fold up card I use has gags on it also like one part of it has the 52 cards in one, another part says "your card", etc. You could always make up your own.
At any rate this routine takes 5 to 7 minutes, takes no skill so it's all showmanship, and has the kids laughing the whole time. It works for me.

Other tricks I have done for kindergarten that work great are:
Coloring book
professors nightmare
Comeback bee (Tommy James)

Hope this helps

I think younger kids want to laugh and have fun more than anything else. I carry a variety of material and lately I've asked during a show: 'do you want to get more silly or more magical?' The kids almost always unanimously answer, 'silly!'

I feel cheap doing it, but sometimes I pull out the breakable wand. It's not magic but the kids just howl with laughter when the child volunteer repeatedly breaks the wand. And adults get a laugh from the volunteer's reactions.

I love funny wands. I like the breakaway wand, rising wand, pop-off wand, Bigger Wands, squeaker wand, etc. I have a routine where I'm looking for the "right wand" for the trick and have fun bringing out various "wrong" wands (including a rubber chicken with some "look, don't see" action).
The magic coloring book is fun to make up your own routine with. I like to show the b/w pictures then kids use their imaginations to color in the pictures. Then at the end I explain that magic coloring books are like Etch-A-Sketch...if you turn it upside down and shake it all around...the pictures just disappear! That's a fun ending because by doing it in this sequence, the vanish is completely unexpected unless they have seen it, and most kids in my area haven't seen it. We have very few kid show magicians left in Central Alabama.

I'm picking up a lot of good vibes here! I'll have to start writing it all down.

Hey Mike - you're right.. "Magician In Trouble" is always an exciting plot-line. After the trouble occurs the magician gets to play the role of the "innocent explorer/student" that has to deal with some form of bad luck. But then, it dawns on the magician that a solution does exist.. and then comes the **DARING DAYLIGHT ESCAPE**...or some variant on that theme. Well it's a great + simple formula -- LOL...if it can work for Houdini + Disney, it'll work for Kindergarten class!

I like Krow's gag bag routine- the multi-staged works for building interest. And Josh's "silly" play. Nice. -thanks!

Chris

Make them laugh! Hit yourself in the head with a soft wand or rubber hammer (I made several wands out of Christmas paper wrapping tubes). Also, Silly Billy's coloring book routine is gold for this age. I also do Forgetfull Freddie, the little ones love it.