Tips & Tricks Online

Four Critical Keys to Performing Magic for Kids

Children don’t understand many of the common cues in a live performance.
Most children are raised in the age of television. Not a bad thing,
except the laugh tracks prompt the children when to laugh. No laugh
tracks and the children are left out in the 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. Children are not
used to clapping. They don’t understand applause cues. Those wonderfully
timed applause cues will leave you and your audience with a lot of
uncomfortable silence.

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

• Establish audience control
• Teach the children to react to applause cues
• Set the tone for the show
• Introduce your performing personality

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

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

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

After you welcome everyone to the show, look out over the audience and
say, “This looks like a really great crowd. Let’s see how loud you can
clap. On the count of three ONE. . . TWO . . THREE . .Not bad! Let’s try
it again. On three . .” After some byplay conclude by saying, “What do
we do when we like the magic? (pause) What do we do when we LOVE the
magic?” (pause and react strongly to the crowd)

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

The next article explains how your performing personality can put your magic show over the top with the kids.

Copyright © 2005 J.L. Siefers, All rights reserved.

J.L. Siefers has been performing great magic for years. He has written extensively on many topics in magic. He has shown hundreds of people how to successfully learn to do great magic tricks.

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