Doing Magic for Kids

I have to have a certain amount of respect for magicians who can do magic for kids. Especially the ones who do kids shows professionally.

I'm not really kid compatible. I have a show this evening for a very small group of teenagers, which is fine (just barely) because I happen to know that they are theater kids and can appreciate a theatrical style show. But if it weren't for that I would have turned it down.

It bugs me a lot that people automatically assume that because I am a magician I must do magic for childrens Birthday parties. No. I don't. I entertain adults in Corporate Events, and Weddings and other large scale formal gatherings. Magic for Kids is not the same as Magic for Adults.

Which is not to say that I'm not developing entertainment projects which are going to be more strongly kid oriented. When I get my flea circus soon I know I'll be getting many more kids shows.

But I just don't like doing Kids Magic. It doesn't interest me enough to make me work on it, which means I wouldn't give the best show I can give.

Jeff McBride talks about "doing the show you want to do" anyway, but I think I don't entirely agree. I know he basically says to mix in what you want to do with what they expect. Logically I can follow that, but when I start looking at what I want to do I realize that in my case at least, it's not practical.

The stuff I want to do requires a greater attention span then most kids have. So it just doesn't mix well as a result and I'm still looking, in the end, to present a show that is totally appropriate to what they want.

So those magicians who can do a kid show, and do it well, I am impressed by.

There is, however, another class of magician. An evil little jerk who is really screwing things up. And he's screwing it up for both the Kids Show Magicians and us Corporate and Theatrical Guys.

He has no real identity, but you can see from his website or promo materials that he "does magic for any occasion."

Trust me when I say, "No, you can't."

Somehow this guy thinks that "Sponge Bunnies" and "Rubber Ding Dongs" are going to get the same giggles from business suited adults as they do from 5 year olds. And no one is going to save you if you ask Mr. Business Exec to hold up "the clean hand."

So please do me a favor and stay away from my gigs. I'll tell you right now, the magic your doing for little Billy isn't making an impression on the CEO of Widget Tech Industries and the next time his secretary looks to book someone she is going to pass right by me because of the poor job you did.

Santiago
Enter a World of Elegant Magic
Santiago's Magic