Performing Magic For Kids
By J.L. Siefers, Fri Dec 9th

You have just discovered the wonderful world of magic. Tripafter trip to the magic shop has added to your ever growingarsenal of magic tricks. Thirty-three days later the credit cardbills arrive to remind your wife that this IS an expensivehobby.

No problem! You will make back all of the money you’ve spent andmore by becoming a part-time professional magician. Lookingaround for places to hone your craft, you suddenly remember thatyou niece has a seventh birthday coming up. You call you sisterand offer your services in lieu of a gift.

Two weeks later the performance time arrives. You pack all ofyour “A” material into two large cardboard boxes. You start theshow for sixteen first graders and all of your relatives. Theshow goes well. Everybody is laughing and having a good time.You take some theatrical pauses to build suspense as you searchyour boxes for the next great trick. Finally, your fifteenminute show concludes after fifty-three minutes. You neverrealized you had that much great magic. The kids cheer andapplaud for your debut magic show. Even your sister, wiping thetears from her eyes, says, “I have never had more fun than I didwatching your magic show. It was great. John got it all on tape.”

This is how many part-time professional magicians attempt tobegin their career. They look around and decided that doing kidshows is the best way to start. Performing magic for kids is oneof the most difficult areas of magic to do well. This articleexplores some of the challenges of performing children’s magic.

--You are training children--

Children don’t understand many of the common cues in a liveperformance. Most children are raised in the age of television.Not a bad thing, except the laugh tracks prompt the childrenwhen to laugh. No laugh tracks and the children are left out inthe cold. They are quick and will get up to speed in no time.But they need your help.

The same issue is even more problematic with applause. Childrenare not used to clapping. They don’t understand applause cues.Those wonderfully timed applause cues will leave you and youraudience with a lot of uncomfortable silence.

What can be done? Everything. One of your most important tasksas a children’s magician is your opening. The beginning of yourshow must do four things:

•Establish audience control •Teach the children to react toapplause cues •Set the tone for the show •Introduce yourperforming personality

The audience needs to be warmed up prior to your magic show. Itseems hokey and a waste of time, but it can make the differencebetween a great magic show and a horrible one.

Children love to have fun. Even in school children are taught toobey those in authority. For some reason, many magicians forgetto establish authority early in the show. The result resembles asaloon brawl in the wild west.

When you step out for the start of your show, you have theperfect opportunity to establish the ground rules for the show.I don’t mean that you should bring out a list of house rules forthe show. Instead come out with confidence and warm up youraudience.

After you welcome everyone to the show, look out over theaudience and say, ”This looks like a really great crowd. Let’ssee how loud you can clap. On the count of three ONE. . . TWO .. THREE . .Not bad! Let’s try

Ce fil va disparaitre !
Les nouveaux fils RSS de Joueb.com sont a l'adresse http://nomdujoueb.joueb.com/index.rdf

it again. On three . . .” Aftersome byplay conclude by saying, ”What do we do when we like themagic? (pause) What do we do when we LOVE the magic?” (pause andreact strongly to the crowd)

Four things are being done by that warm up. You have taught thechildren to clap when they like the magic. It also trains themto react to the applause cues in the rest of the show. The warmup establishes that you are in control for this show. Finally,it sets a fun tone for the show. This is the first time youraudience gets a sense of your performing personality.

--You are not performing for the kids--

You will learn quickly that the most difficult task facing thechildren’s performer is to design the show to appeal to childrenand adults at the same time and at different levels. No I don’tmean filling your performance with phrases that have sexualdouble meanings. Nothing is more pathetic and unprofessionalthan the performer that gets a child on stage and slyly eyes theadults in the crowd and says “Do I have a big magic wand orwhat? “

Children’s cartoons provide the best examples of the point I amtrying to make. Take Loony Toons or Spongebob Squarepants forexample. These cartoons work for children and adults ondifferent levels at the same time. This is what you must achieveto be a successful children’s magician

This is very difficult thing to pull off. This is one of themain reasons that doing children’s magic is so difficult. Youmust DESIGN your show for both audiences. One key to the showdesign is your performing personality.

--You are not yourself today--

When you perform magic for children, you must have a distinctiveand appealing performing personality. Long gone are the dayswhen the children’s magician can come out on stage in a secondhand tux and wow his audience with a formal magic show. Look atSilly Billy, one of the most successful children’s magicians.His performing personality is fun and engaging. His show tone isfast paced and humorous.

Even beyond children’s magic, examine the performingpersonalities of children’s television. Captain Kangaroo, Mr.Rodgers, and Peewee Herman are examples of compelling performingpersonalities. Each one was successful, yet, had very differentperforming personalities. The common factor was that eachperformer engaged children through fun.

Your performing personality must engage you audience, childrenand adults, with fun and wonderment. You must draw your audienceinto the show by your performing personality, but you must wowthem with a well designed show that delivers great magic. Thisis why doing children’s magic is so tough.

If you want to start your career in magic as a children’smagician, think again. Kids are brutally honest. There isnothing tougher or more satisfying than have a great children’smagic show. Being a children’s magician is not the best way tobecome a part-time professional magician.

Find out more about perfroming for kids at Learn-Great-Magic-Tricks

About the author:------------------------------------------------------------J.L. Siefers has been performing great magic for years. He hasshown hundreds of people how to successfully learn to do greatmagic tricks. Learn-Great-Magic-Tricks.com Click now to get your FREE magic tricks!------------------------------------------------------------