I always felt that a great thing to do at a children's magic show is to show them magic, then teach all the children a trick that they could take home in a "goody Bag" and use on their parents, friends,etc..

in order to answer this question properly, you must first look at your target audience. You can\'t just say kids. 4 & 5 year olds just like silly and bright colors. They are just starting to understand what magic is.

6-8 year olds have it together a little more, but still like silly as well. As David (Silliy Billy) says, this is where they start liking FARTS! Although adults may not care for it, the kids love bodily functions.

8-12 You have to PROVE more than usual. Eliminate all possible explinations as this is the hardest group to win over.

13-up Although this group is \"Too cool\" to be impressed with kiddy magic, they will sit in the back of their siblings party and really get into it. If the show is ofr them, then you should treat them as adults. Now this does not mean blue material. It means you would do the same effects with the same basic presentation that you would use for an adult audience.

Keeping this all in mind, select your effects and your routines accordingly. You should be able to use many of the same effects no matter what group you are performing for. Just using a different presentation. Dave shows this in his lecture using a TT, and three different age groups with three different presentations of the same effect.

I tend to stay away from sucker effects such as Hippity hop. This is a good effect, especially for the \"Know it all\" in the audience. This can be used to great effect to quiet him or her down, but it also imbarasses them, and this is NOT GOOD in the eyes of the host or hostess. If you use it in a way that YOU are the butt of the joke, then I say go for it. I used to carry HH in my case for the longest time, and found that over time, I didn\'t NEED it as often. Eventually not at all, and it came out of the case.

I still however still do silk to egg and the sucker torn and restored.

Find what works for you, develope original presentations (PLURAL) for these effects, and get them DOWN so that all you have to think about is interacting and having fun with with the audience, and you will do fine.