The speed of a car is measured in miles per hour, Its gas use is measured in miles per gallon. The speed of a computer printer is measured in pages per minute and its print quality is measured in dots per inch. Comedians judge how good they are by their number of laughs per minute. A good comedian can get four to six laughs per minute. Great comedians like Jerry Seinfeld can get ten laughs per minute. That’s a laugh every five seconds. I have done stand up comedy and the best I could do was three laughs per minute or a laugh every 20 seconds.

We can use a gauge like this to quantify our success at our kid shows. Instead of counting the laughs per minute, count the interactions per minute. Because we want the children in the audience to participate in many ways with the performer, we include many kinds of interactions. Besides laughter, we want the children to point, scream, yell out "turn it around," answer a question, wiggle their fingers to make the magic happen, and say the magic words. In my kids show I get four interactions per minute. That’s one interaction (laugh, call out, wiggle fingers) every 15 seconds. For a forty-five-minute magic show I think that’s pretty good.

Increased interaction with the show increases the involvement and increases the active participation. The children are not passively watching in silence. They are actively participating with all their attention.

Do interactions increase enjoyment? Yes. To prove it we now have to go to an NBA basketball game. Let’s say the game is progressing and your team just scored as huge shot. Now the visiting team has the ball. They are dribbling and moving the ball slowly down court. Lots of passing to slow down your team’s momentum. The game gets sluggish. What does the organist do? He starts playing a chant on the keyboard. And the crowd joins in, "De-Fense! De-Fense! De-fense!" Everyone yells "Charge!" The organist felt a lull in the game and to keep people interested he started them chanting. He increased the interaction to keep the crowd actively participating. The interactions from our seats make the experience of being at this event more fun.

It is now customary to wave white inflated 260 balloons at basketball games to distract the opposing team trying to shoot a free throw. Waving balloons from your seat makes the experience of watching the game more fun.

Have you been to a rap music or hip hop concert? Have you seen this on television? If you have you know that rappers also get their audiences actively involved in the music. Rappers tell their audience to, "Say ho!" and the audience yells "Ho." "Say hey!" and the audience yells "Hey." Rappers yell out to the audience phrases like, "Is Brooklyn in the house?" and the audience cheers. Rappers tell their audiences to, "Put your hands in the air like you just don’t care." And the audience does, waving their hands from side to side. Rappers even go so far as explicitly telling their audience, "Everybody scream!" and the audience does.

The adults at the rap concert and the basketball game are treated the same way we treat the children in our audiences. Before our audience of children gets a chance to lose their focus we bring their attention right back - getting them to chant, "Turn it around! Turn it around!" The interactions from their seats make the experience of being at our shows more fun.

If you increase the number of interactions during your show the audience will have more fun at your show. But how can you increase the number of interactions? By changing the way we think about the structure of the routine.

It’s not the destination, it’s the ride

The best kid show magicians know that in the presentation of any magic trick, it’s not the magical moment that matters most to children, it’s the fun stuff that happens on the way to that magical moment. The "ride" is the part that is most important, not the "destination." (By the way this is true for magic shows for adults as well.)

You magic purists out there are probably cringing thinking about it. But it’s true. And I think that the reason so many ("adult") magicians hate doing kid shows is because they don’t understand this concept. These magicians perform miracles for an audience of children, yet they get absolutely no reaction. Or they get shouts of explanations like, "It was there the whole time." These magicians must learn that "fooling" the audience (especially three to six-year olds) is not the goal. As important, and possibly more important, than fooling the audience is having fun before the magic happens.

What do I mean by having fun? I mean making the kids laugh - either through physical comedy, verbal comedy, or both. Acting silly (e.g. Silly Billy), goofing around, hamming it up, or all of the above. In other words, increasing those interactions per minute. These are the things that an audience of children loves and will enjoy the most. To put another way, the emphasis in my kids show is not on the magic but on the entertainment. This isn't to say that the magic isn't important. But with an audience of children, I go for the laugh, not the "Oooo, how did he do that?"

In the beginning

Every effect has a beginning, and an end. With the Appearing Cane, the beginning is "My hand is empty," and the end is, "Here is a cane." Every routine, on the other hand, has a middle section between the beginning and end.

If you are going to vanish a Nielsen Ketchup bottle the beginning of the routine is "I have a bottle of ketchup and I am going to make it disappear." The end is, "It has disappeared." If you simply showed the ketchup then crushed the bag containing the ketchup you would have no middle. You wouldn’t have much of a routine either. Therefore you should add a middle to the routine. Let’s say you show the ketchup and put it in the bag. You wave your hand over the bag. Then, gripping it from the bottom you turn the bag upside down and announce that you did indeed make the ketchup disappear. The audience doesn’t believe you so you right the bag and pull out the ketchup for a moment, confirming their suspicions. But you wave your hand again and this time snap your fingers. Then you crush the bag proving the ketchup has indeed disappeared. We put a small middle section between the beginning and the end.

Your goal is to make the middle longer. For example, consider the Mis-made Flag. The beginning is, "Three silks will change to a flag." The end is, "And here’s the flag." But there is a middle built in to this routine. The original routine included the flag with the colors in the wrong place - with blue stripes and a red field. It is this middle part that the children enjoy so much. Then in 19--, Warren Stephens saw this flag set and invented another step to make the middle longer - the flag with red stripes with no blue at all. Now there are two joke flags as a middle before we get to the end - the actual flag.

A Cups and Balls routine doesn’t really have a beginning, a middle, and an end in the same way. It is a multi-phase routine with each phase having a beginning, middle, and end. The whole routine is a combination of all the phases. But for children we don’t want to do long, complicated, multi-phase routines. A simple plot is better for children, especially younger children. These are the routines with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Let’s look at Sword Through Neck as an example of putting in a long "middle." The beginning of the routine is "Here is a sword. I am going to stick it through your neck." The end is "There, it is through your neck." If a magician were to perform this effect with that routine it would be a sad day. But luckily we put a middle into the routine. A good Sword Through Neck routine can last ten to fifteen minutes before the magician finally thrusts the sword through the neck of his spectator.

Look at my Crystal Tube routine in chapter ___. The instructions that come with this effect tell you to show your audience three separate silks. Stuff them into the tube and then blow them out of the tube and they are tied together. The beginning is "Three separate silks." The ends is, "They are tied together." If you perform this effect as in the instructions you will have a mighty short routine. But as you will see I have added a middle that is full of fun and interaction. Now the routine is six-minutes long and totally engaging.

But why should we put in a long middle?

The theory "It’s not the destination it’s the ride" is true for all children but for different reasons depending on their age. For children three- to six-years old the middle is most important because they are young and not really sure of what is and is not possible in the natural world. They aren’t sure what qualifies as magic and what does not. Doing miracles for this age group does not impress them too much. They would much rather laugh and have fun. Therefore, emphasize the fun stuff on the way to the climax.

For these children, three- to six-years old, I try to make the effect as fun as possible. In fact, after I finish a routine, the kids often shout, "Let's play that again." (Not "Show me that again.") They see the routines as fun games that we play together. When they see me again at another friend’s birthday party they request tricks they want to see.

For example, let’s put a silly middle into a simple routine. The routine is - make a silk vanish from a change bag. The beginning is "here is a silk." The end is, "It’s gone." If I want to add a middle, I may "accidentally" miss the bag and drop the silk on the floor. I may even do this a few times. And the more times I do it, the funnier it gets. Of course I eventually realize my error and continue with the trick. I tell you, though; the kids enjoy "the part when the handkerchief kept dropping on the floor," more than the fact that I made a silk handkerchief disappear.

You see, the world is full of incredible magic to a young child. A child can lift a plastic handle to his ear and hear grandma, mommy, or daddy coming from it. Or he can push a button on a box and see hundreds of different programs. Therefore, making a silk disappear seems like no big deal to a kid. But having fun and making them laugh, is.

Here’s what I do when I vanish a silk using a thumb tip. First I explain, "I am going to put this handkerchief in my hand and when I open my hand it will be all gone." (I speak using the vocabulary of a child.) I put the silk in my empty fist. I wave my other hand in a magical gesture and raise my closed fist high. I open the fingers of my hand and the silk flutters down to the floor. Moreover, I keep my eyes fixed on my raised hand as I announce, "All gone!" I don’t see that the silk did not disappear. To make matters worse, I continue talking, "And now for my next trick..." As I ramble, the kids are yelling more and more to call my attention to the fact that I did not vanish the silk. When I finally realize what they are trying to tell me, I look down at the floor. I am startled as I discover, to my surprise, that the silk is still here.

To children, this is hilarious. Why? Firstly, the magician said he was going to do magic and he didn’t, with laughable results. And secondly, the magician, naive as he is, doesn’t even realize that he failed.

What is the next step in this routine? I do it all again! Exactly the same way. I place the silk in my empty fist, wave my hand, and open my fingers. The silk flutters to the floor and, ignoring it, I pretend I am so proud of my accomplishment. "For my next trick..." Again the kids yell and scream and try to tell me of my failure. By now the kids are convinced I am an idiot. Good. Because I am going to replicate my actions exactly, only this time I will actually vanish the silk using the thumb tip.

I place the silk into the thumb tip in my fist. The kids expect a third failure. But when I open my hand and the silk is indeed gone, the children are really surprised and thrilled. We achieved our goal. And since I set them up to expect failure, the vanish is even stronger.

So instead of showing off that I can do miracles, I had fun along the way, to everyone’s delight.

This principle: "It’s not the destination, it’s the ride" applies to older children as well, but for a different reason. Children seven- to thirteen-years old do know what is possible in the natural world. All they want to do is catch you. They want to bust you on your methods. They come up with an explanation of the method and insist their method is accurate whether it is or not.

If you emphasize the middle, the ride, rather than fooling these kids, the routine is not only more fun, but it overcomes several problems of performing magic for this age group.

For these older groups I believe you must fool them and fool them bad. But take the emphasis away from the final effect by spending several minutes having a fun routine getting there. On the way to fooling them, if you have fun and make them laugh, you will diffuse their need to expose the method. This way, even if they think they know the secret, it is such a small part of the overall routine that it becomes insignificant. You diffuse their need to catch you and you suck the wind out of their desire to expose you. If you emphasize the fun stuff, you minimize the method. If you build up the fun parts then the act doesn’t depend solely on fooling them.

Look again at my routine for the Crystal Tube. It is a long, funny routine with lots of interaction. Even if the children know that it is done with rubber bands (they don’t, although they do think it is done with Velcro), it isn’t that important because we had so much fun getting to the climax that the method is not very important.

We could also go back to our Sword Through Neck example. Let’s say you perform a ten-minute routine with lots of laughs and interaction, then climax by sticking the sword through your assistants neck. Even if a child yells out from the audience that the sword is really a slap bracelet, it doesn’t matter that much. Everyone had such a good time during the previous ten minutes.

Children here in New York see magicians so often they begin to know the effects even before they are performed. When a magician puts a dove pan on his table here in New York, the children yell out, "Yay, we’re getting candy!" Too bad they know the ending to the trick. But if you proceed to perform a funny, engaging routine prior to producing candy, it minimizes the fact that they knew what was going to happen.

When I perform the Coloring Book sometimes children will call out, "I have that book." But amazingly, when I perform my Coloring Book routine, these same children participate just like the other children. Why? Because my Coloring Book routine is so much fun that they forget about the secret and just have a good time.

We all have experienced older kids who shout out their own explanations for our magic tricks. They insist their method is accurate whether they are correct or not. Therefore, if you emphasize the fun of the ride, not the "how did he do that?" of the destination, you will suck the wind out of their desire to expose you.

Let’s look at another example: the modern classic Farmyard Frolics. Farmyard Frolics and its cousin Who’s Who at the Zoo were manufactured by Supreme and, as of this writing, are no longer available. However, Pet Store Pranks by Jam Magic is currently available. These three tricks have the same basic format. A home base is displayed and described to the children (either a farm, a zoo or a pet shop). Then a series of cards are displayed to the audience one at a time. On each card is a picture of an animal. For each animal card the magician makes a joke or two and has the children make the sounds of that animal. The last animal card is turned face down. The magician attempts to vanish the animal card and have the animal reappear in the home base.

The face down card is placed under a silk. The magician claims to have vanished the animal but the children point out that the card is still under the silk. Upon turning the card face up, the audience discovers the picture of the animal is missing from the card. The magician looks in the home base. The animal is not there. Suddenly the children see the animal sticking his head out from behind home base. The kids are eager to point this out but the magician does not see it. This continues until finally the magician does see the animal and returns him safely to home base.

Distilled down to its bare bones, each of these routines has only one vanish and one reappearance. But instead of presenting this trick as a simple vanish and reappearance of one animal, we laugh our way through four other animal cards that really have nothing to do with the "magic." But this is the fun part of the routine and this is the part that the children like the best. This is the difference between an ordinary magic trick and a classic routine for children.

Entertaining adults with magic is different than entertaining children with magic. A good rope routine is composed of a steady stream of minor miracles spaced throughout, from beginning to end. A good Ambitious Card routine is also made up of a series of minor miracles in quick succession. The same is true of the previously mentioned Cups and Balls routine. In our example of Farmyard Frolics there is only one vanish and one reappearance in the five minute routine. But for an audience of children it’s not the magical moment that the kids like the best, it’s all the fun that they have getting there.