yep, that went well.

The kids festival this year was every it as good as the last. I again started preparing far too many effect and then made myself scale things down and also to make myself last all day I decided to have two sets so I could swap props half way through the day.
My main set consisted of :
Vanilla prepped with Wee Wee Mentalist
Vanilla preped with Here then There (which could be used for mind reading
Invisible deck
Elastic bands for Elastic trickery

The second set had a TT, and a change back with two sizes of red cloth.
Vanilla deck but intended for ambitious card.

And for the performance tent
Cup and Balls
Fly Stick
and One Upon A time.

The new elastic band magic went down VERY well with the kids. My first attempt fell flat but my Girlfriend suggested changing y patter, emphasising the where the band was (the ban flies into the hand of the spectator). I attributed the effect to the innate magical ability of the child I was performing to. again this went down VERY well. Empowering children, Silly Billy (David Kaye) has made the fee of his book and Essential Magic Conference worth the cost already there. One note however. I joked that the young boy (about 8) may find a use for controlling elastic by being able to control the elastic in his underwear from no on and magically dress himself. He laughed, his sister laughed his mum looked at me as if I was a terrible fiend. It seams in the prudish United States of America you can make underwear jokes to kids but here in the UK making such a joke has you branded as a pervert.

Wee Wee mentalist as ever rocked. as did Here then There. The change bag I combined with the TT and some cloth. I explained what happens to naughty children and placed the large cloth in the bag, waved my hands and turned the bag inside out to reveal a tiny piece of cloth, I then picked it up and vanished it with the TT. Two quite hard nosed 10 year olds suddenly exploded with excitement, and when I brought the cloth bag it was noted that I could not have just dropped the cloth on the floor and that my sleeves were rolled up and my hands empty. It didn't just baffle or amaze them it enchanted them!

Ambitious card got a look in using specially printed cards made by my good friend Darren Gooding which advertise his lecture on the mysterious Leopold Thorn . This was even filmed by a camera man, I fluffed one bit but made a joke of it being eddied out, even if it isn't I think it will come across as deliberate and the tricks flow remained.

All of this time I was telling people where the story tent was, explaining about the wonderful Willow maze and the story quests! I also told them when I was on. Part of me was almost wishing I wasn't as I was nervous about Once Upon a Time. BUT I don't want to get into the habit of 'Bottling out' and so dutifully informed people where and when I would be performing even though a cowardly part of me was almost hopping for an empty tent (this part is now well and trying dead I might add)

The story Tent is probably the most interesting pat of the day. I planned to show off the Fun Fly Stick and let the kids play with it (accepting that the Mylar component would get trashed). I also planned to perform 'One Upon A Time' by Guy Hollingworth. I may have blogged of this before, it's a way of telling fairy tales with a special deck of cards with pictures. Pumpkins become carriages and bowls of porridge become emptied as if by magic. I moved EVERYTHING I had to the tent, including my magic case and change of costume. I was initially dressed as a generic Cyborg Alien

I took the name Darth Dean fully expecting the kids to call me Daft Dean. I was not disappointed (thanks again to David Kaye's Seriously Silly) but in the tent changed into my normal more comfortable clothing

I got to the tent half an hour early planning to run through "Once Upon A time". whilst using basic slights the number of slights and having to remember where and when they are done makes this effect even more of a pitfall than the ambitious card. However after only being in the tent for a few minutes I had company in the form of a group of young children. I had a few choices.
Send them outside
Continue a silent run through with them in the tent
Quickly re-order the deck and just live without a final practise
I decided to take the last option. If I needed to practise again right before the gig then I should have practised more before hand. as nervous as I was I had to man up. I give the kids the Fun Fly Toy whilst trying to mentally prepare for a moment. Soon the tent was packed and it was time to begin. I was worried about nothing it seams. The kids were literally over awed at one point. One girl trying to understand how a puff of smoke turns into a fairy, or how the rats turned into the coachmen, a young boy exasperatedly yells "Because he's a magician, he can do magic!" Once Upon a Time almost took me to the 30 minute slot I wanted to fill. I could have ended it there but the kids wanted more magic and I planed to deliver. I explained how the cups and balls was the oldest trick in the world (A matter hotly disputed actually), They watched the effect with a genuine air of reverence, asking questions polity and seemingly flattered that I was willing to show them such a grown up and respected trick. I finished by putting one gaffed cup away and letting them play with the two remaining cups. They asked why I only had the two out and I just explained I only needed two for the next effect. They passed the cups around before handing them back. At this point I performed Solid Penetration and lets the cups fall through each other. They FREAKED out. They wanted more magic, in fact they wanted REPEAT magic. Wee Wee Mentalist is back in fashion it seams, that poor fellow deserves a raise.Out came the change bag again and the TT and hankies were shrunk and vanished. I then performed some more Elastic Band Magic before teaching a very simple band trick. As I was leaving a young lady asked for one final card trick, out came Cheek To Cheek. again, it performed very well.

And then a very tired magician clashed his outfits, his neodandy waistcoat and top hat blended with his cyborg hit-man jacket and he left the festival knowing his work was indeed done.

So what did I learn.
Practise is worth it, keep it up.
I am very good at handling kids and magic to any audience is rewarding.
MAKE A LIST of what I need,I left props at home that required a friend to nip home and pick things up for me (I owe him many beers)