born to perform.

Within seconds, I thought about professional kids show magician Evan Reynolds. I've been fortunate enough to see him live on a few occasions, and his kids show skills were some of the BEST I had ever seen. I called Evan and was lucky enough to sit down with him for an interview. 

I fell into the market accidentally. I was doing restaurant magic, and people kept asking me if I did birthday parties. I didn’t and said no, and one day it occurred to me that I really needed to get a birthday party show together. So I did.

I then found that I love performing for kids. I liked kids a lot, then I had them and now I just think kids are wonderful. So I don’t mind it when they are yelling out or talking to me, I just learned to focus that and to control it – and I also genuinely like it, I like interacting with them and I love making kids laugh.  People often remark how patient I am with kids, it really impresses parents, but I’m patient with the kids because I just enjoy it.

With adults, you can build up to an effect. You can have a slow start, explain some setup, have things written down, put them in certain places, include some acting, and then have it climax in a cool way. With kids, that approach will have them wandering into the kitchen to get a snack and they’ll come back when you’re doing something interesting. So you need to keep things moving. I’m not saying you can’t tell a story – I’m saying you need to tell it in a way that actually holds the attention of a six year old child.

With adults, if you do a move and someone sees it, they’ll usually stay quiet. With kids, if one child even THINKS he sees something, he’s going to scream it out. He may also run up to grab the prop, depending on his self-control that day. So you have to be bulletproof and you have to watch what’s happening constantly. That being said, I’ve found it best to not have routines that leave them watching for me to do something. If they are really being entertained, they forget to try to bust you.

There are also kids who know some magic and they are ready to rumble even before the show starts. But they usually announce themselves. If you get one of these kids, just remember that they know some magic – which means they LIKE this stuff. I talk to them, show them a little something special, and ask them not to yell out how things are done as we don’t want to spoil the show for everyone else. And I tell them if they don’t I will show them something else special after the show, which I do. It’s very easy to turn those kids into solid allies, and it goes WAY better than trying to keep them quiet throughout the show. And while it doesn’t always work, it usually does and it works way better than anything else I’ve done.

Also … kids can throw you curveballs. Adults usually don’t. But kids will yell things out, ask you to do things, attempt to run up and grab props, etc. I have fairly good control over the kids, but they ARE kids – and kids sometimes do what they’re gonna do. Go with it. Have fun with the kids, a kid’s show to me is all about having a really nice time and entertaining the heck out of ‘em. That’s way more important than getting every move and line wedged in.

Love kids. If you don’t genuinely like kids, then you’re just in it for a check and it will show.

Kids LOVE to volunteer. So … I try to have as many help as possible. It’s surprisingly important. This was brought home to me when packing up one day after a large show and I heard a child sorrowfully telling his father that he wanted to volunteer, and the father explaining that not everyone can in a large show. That was when I set a goal of having everyone help at least once if they want to.

Which leads to a side note … if a kid comes up and suddenly gets cold feet, don’t force them to help. Letting them sit back down and someone else come up will go WAY better and avoids a bunch of unpleasant moments. Remember, it’s about having fun – and a kid that gets scared and just wants to sit down isn’t having fun. Go with the curveballs!

No cards!

I’m hesitant to recommend against any particular effect. But watch the kids during your show. If they aren’t paying attention during a routine, then you need to rework that routine or ditch it, even if you like it. And ACTUALLY pay attention. I’ve seen magicians completely lose a crowd but honestly believe they did great.

My only general belief is that at someone’s home, you should clean up after yourself and not make a mess for the parents to clean up afterwards. So whatever you do – clean it up!

If someone hires you for a show, yes it’s important for you to have a good show and entertain every kid there. But don’t forget you aren’t being hired to entertain everyone equally. You’re being hired to give the birthday child a very special day. So … make sure you do. The person paying your check and hopefully recommending you is very focused on one child. Every other person who might hire you wants to see what you do to the birthday child because that’s what you would do for THEIR child. I have the birthday child do something at the beginning, middle and end of the show for that reason.

Find out who the siblings are, and make sure each of them gets to do something cool.

Have children. Throw a birthday party for YOUR children. Hire a magician buddy that your kids like to do a show. (Hopefully your kids will love magic.) Then pay VERY careful attention to how you feel and what you want for your child. Odds are very good that is a good approximation of what your clients are feeling and what they want. So make sure you give it to them. Admittedly that’s an approach that takes time and effort, but it worked well for me.

To find out more about Evan, please check out:

http://blog.penguinmagic.com/evan-reynolds-is-born-to-perform

and

http://www.evan.org/