Your sister is vacationing in Rome. At 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, you get a phone call. She excitedly tells you that she is calling from her cell phone in the restaurant where she has just had dinner with Luciano Pavarotti, her favorite opera star. She took a photo of herself and her idol with the camera in her cell phone, and she is eager to share this experience with you. She emails the photo to you and you download it onto your computer. You clean it up in Photoshop, print it out, and hang it on your wall by 3:00. Then you email it to the rest of your family for them to see as well.

As amazing as this sequence of events seems, it is still more magical when a magician pulls a playing card out of thin air.

Years ago, this cell phone scenario might have appeared to be a magic trick. But today, we know the capabilities of technology, and so we know it is not magic. In 1960, if you put a frozen meal in a box, pushed some buttons and removed it two minutes later fully cooked, that might have been a magic trick. But now we understand it to be the normal use of a microwave oven.

Do you doubt this? Then take the example of the Light and Heavy Chest. In the 1850's Robert-Houdin used a little known principle called electricity to seemingly sap all the strength from a large man. We now know the method for achieving this feat was electromagnetism.

When a bird flies, it is normal. But when David Copperfield flies, it is magic. (When David Blaine flies, it's a camera trick.) We know that birds can fly, and that people can't. That's how we define what is magic and what is not magic. Just like our technology story, when we witness something that we understand to be common, we place it into the category of a normal experience. And when we witness something that breaks the laws of nature as we understand them to be, it is magic.

I just bought a great new effect. It consists of a black box, two feet long on each side. One side of the black box is made of glass. This effect is remote controlled. Using the remote control from anywhere in the room, the magician can make a picture appear on the glass. Not just any picture, but a moving image with accompanying sound. Then, by pushing the remote control, the magician can make that moving picture change into another moving picture. The image can be changed more than 50 times. Each time the magician can create a completely different image on the glass.

The name of this magical machine is, of course, a television. But this oblique description was to make a point. We experience many magical things in our world, but we accept them as ordinary. We don't have to understand exactly how things work for us to treat these experiences as ordinary. For a child this phenomenon is magnified. There are many things about our world that a child does not understand. For the child these new experiences are very magical. But since these experiences are presented to the child as being normal, he automatically and without questioning, interprets the experience as ordinary, not magic.

Have you performed close up magic for an adult and a child together? The adult often says to the child, "Hey Jesse, did you see that!" This adult is pointing out to the child that what they just saw was not ordinary but was instead magic.

Every new experience for a child could be classified as magic. From mixing blue paint with yellow paint to make green paint, to popping corn, to helium balloons. So what's the point of doing a magic trick for children using props they don't recognize or experiences they don't understand?

For example, a magician displays a box that is painted yellow with red Chinese letters on it. He shows the box empty. He closes it, then opens it again and inside is a bag of candy. Why wouldn't a child interpret this box as a "candy-making box?" After all, this is the only time he has seen this box in operation. Since he has been conditioned to accept things as ordinary when he sees something he doesn't recognize, the child assumes the device "can do" whatever you tell him it "can do." He accepts the cell phone as a talking device without wires, the microwave oven as a cooking device without heat, and he has seen a cotton candy machine, which actually does make candy appear from nowhere.

However, if you showed a child an empty plastic box, the kind his crayons and toy soldiers are in, and made a bag of candy instantly appear in that, this would be magic. This is because the child is very familiar with this plastic bin and he understands its traits. He has never opened his crayon tub to discover candy before.

While a Dove Pan is a common object at children's magic shows, it isn't really anything that kids recognize. It was once. Originally the Dove Pan came with a handle, just like a pan on the stove. Fill the pan with ingredients and, oh no there's a fire in the pan! Put it out by covering it with the lid. Lift the lid and magic happens!

But today when a magician puts a Dove Pan on his table, the children react with, "Oh goody, we're getting candy!" Or "Oh boy, a bird is gonna be in that thing." The children have been conditioned to understand that this unique-looking round, silver container, which they only see at magic shows, is in fact nothing more than a "make things appear inside pan."

The best magic for adult audiences uses props that are familiar to adults. That's why trick decks and trick coins are made from real decks and real coins. This is why mentalists use books for book tests that look exactly like actual books that people have read. It is why the floating table looks like a regular table. Approach your kid shows in the same way. Use props that the children recognize. Items such as a coloring book, an American flag, and a pitcher of milk.

Going back to the child's experiences, though presented as normal, most of what a child witnesses is not fully comprehended by him. He doesn't have to understand it to accept it as normal. However, there are some things that even a very young child understands completely. The best magic for children relates to these kinds of concepts; simple ideas that the child understands completely.

This is perhaps why pulling a coin from a child's ear is so deeply magical. Kids have had ears for their whole lives (2 or 3 years!). At a very young age a baby learns that the ear is where sounds are heard. As he grows the child feels he knows all the natural qualities of an ear. He knows for sure that producing money is not one of it's characteristics. So when a coin is pulled from a child's ear, it is magic. Even though you have a closet full of miracles, your four-year old is blown away by the quarter from the ear.

This is why the Needle Through Balloon trick is also effective with children. Children learn early, and probably by accident, that balloons can pop easily. They know also that if you push a needle into a balloon the balloon will pop. "Be careful the balloon could pop," is a phrase they hear often at parties. So, when a needle is inserted into a balloon and the balloon doesn't pop, it appears to be magic. This contradicts a simple, natural law that the child understands completely.

Here are some other simple ideas that children understand completely. A child knows that if you pick up a crayon and rub it against a surface, it leaves a mark. A child also knows that if you hold a cup of water, and turn it upside down, the water spills out. And a child knows that if you put small items into a container, and carry the container from point A to point B, the items will still be inside when you get to point B. If we look at these examples of the simple concepts that children understand completely, we discover that there are in fact magic tricks that tap into this very basic knowledge.

Drawing with a crayon -- A child knows that when you press a crayon to a surface and move it, the crayon leaves a mark. This very basic understanding is what makes the Magic Drawing Board such an effective trick for children. The effect of the Magic Drawing Board, by Steve Axtell, is that the magician draws a face on a large board. Suddenly, the eyes start moving, the mouth opens and closes, and the face becomes animated. This face then has a conversation with the magician. This experience breaks the natural laws that a child knows deeply which relate to drawing with a crayon.

Spilling a cup of water -- Children know that when you turn a cup of water upside down, the water spills out onto the floor. This principle is what makes Slush Powder such a powerful trick for children. A magician pours water in to a Styrofoam cup. Then turns the cup upside down, and the water has vanished. The same knowledge about spilling is what makes the Milk Pitcher so effective for children as well. The magician makes a cone out of a newspaper, and pours milk into it. After he says the magic words, he unfurls the newspaper and the milk has disappeared.

Items placed in a container will be in the container later -- But when a magician places an object in a Change Bag and says the magic words, suddenly the object is no longer in the bag.

All three of these magic tricks break a law of nature that even very young children understand completely. When performing magic for children, the best tricks will relate to, or challenge, a simple, natural fact that children understand completely, using props that the children recognize. Effects like these will be more powerful and more magical to children.