You don’t have to be a Houdini to make a magician appear at your child’s birthday party. Magic is one of the best ideas for children’s parties, but not all magicians are the same. Just like with any other performing art, there are great magicians and lousy ones. Some Remote Magician know lots of tricks but they’re boring to watch. Others may be very funny for one type of audience and dreadful for another.
For example, we’ve seen some magicians who are hilarious in front of adult audiences but put them in front of a group of children and the show just falls apart. Why? Children have a much shorter attention span than adults and they can’t relate to many abstract concepts. An adult audience may be thrilled to watch a magician read the mind of a volunteer who is thinking of a playing card, but to children it’s not impressive. The abstract concept of mind-reading is amazing to them. It doesn’t seem impossible to younger children. Playing cards are too unfamiliar for young kids to understand.
A good children’s magician understands that children have cognitive limits and the show is customized to those limits. Remember, children are usually much less inhibited than adults. They say what is on their minds with little prompting. If they figure out how a trick is done, they’re quick to shout out the secret. If they feel bored, they’ll shout it out as well.
Many comedians and magicians refuse to perform for children and drunks. Drunks share the same limits. They too have a short attention span and low inhibitions. For the inexperience entertainer, drunks and children are very difficult to entertain. Likewise, drunk children are doubly so.
In short, you want to hire a magician who has plenty of experience at entertaining children. While looking at websites can be helpful, the best way to select a magician for your child’s party is by seeing them perform live in front of a group of children. Watch and see how well they interact with the children.
If it is not possible to see the magician performing live, ask your friends and family to refer you to someone they’ve seen perform live. Failing this, ask a local catering hall manager or county club manager to recommend someone to you.