Know Your Audience

[Brett H]

Back again with another question:

What Tenyo do you/have you used that work better with a particular audience than others?

For example, do any particular tricks work better with adults than they do kids? Teens? Vice versa.

[SimonC]

Im a teacher in the UK of students aged between 11 and 18. performing a trick surrounded by 30 of them is the single best way ive ever found to check your angles! plus they aren't as forgiving as adults, if they spot ANYTHING dodgy, they will shout it out as they see a magic trick more as a challenge than something to watch. adults tend to be more polite though I find drunk men tend to revert back to school boy mode and delight in loudly pointing out anything they think they've noticed. If a trick passes my form groups close scrutiny I know I can perform it to pretty much anyone

[Brett H]

Im a teacher in the UK of students aged between 11 and 18. performing a trick surrounded by 30 of them is the single best way ive ever found to check your angles! plus they aren't as forgiving as adults, if they spot ANYTHING dodgy, they will shout it out as they see a magic trick more as a challenge than something to watch. adults tend to be more polite though I find drunk men tend to revert back to school boy mode and delight in loudly pointing out anything they think they've noticed. If a trick passes my form groups close scrutiny I know I can perform it to pretty much anyone

I remember your post saying you use Dragons Altar to put people in their place.

What would you say are your top favorites to perform for kids? Are there any tricks that and unexpectedly well received or weren't received well as planned?

I know a lot comes down to performance, but I'm stuck on thinking that the trick needs to be bold and colorful to be payed attention to (thinking of Trisector and Confined Cubes).

[SimonC]

For kids, anything that requires you to add/remove anything via slight of hand etc are a no no for me because they actively look for that and shout it out loud. This in turn makes my performance a bit shaky. So anything self contained and self working is good. Crystal cleaver obviously is always a winner, plus if you have a group of spectators you can get them all to say a magic word at the point where there's the suspicious "clunk" this seals it up and makes it perfect.
Off the top of my head...
Infinitum
Eye of the idol (massive impact and one of my favourites, as close to actual magic as I've ever seen)
Anti gravity rock
Blue crystal (the trick, not the meth from breaking bad)
CUBIO
Fortune Sticks (or planetary sticks for a more mature audience)
Geometrick
Ghost Pet (not totally "clean" but a killer for kids and you can put sweet in it for a volunteer)
Invisible zone (easy to find on eBay)
Magicians Matchbox (another of my all time favourites)
Moonspinner (I do have one mooncatcher left too)
Mystery triangle
Parabox
Prison box
Soft coins
Ultraslice (mazza had a great idea to replace the cigarettes with crayons, I use this at school as my crayon case and for impromptu magic)
Zig zag cig

Some of these are hard to find but a few are often in eBay and mazza has some bargains on the sister site.
Hope that's helps
Si

[Jaime C.]

At my workplace, since we are always busy at the restaurant but if i have a time to perform some tricks, Vault Vision, Flash Dice, Clear Surprise, Lucky Rabbit and Bird Watcher Too are always ready in my small pouch.

I perform these tricks with the families and they love it

[Brett H]

Awesome ideas! I'm trying to amass a small collection of Tenyo to use for performing in a few hospitals. So now I have an idea what to use for the children's hospital, as well as a good wag to use for strolling as well as how many to use (instead of doing the rookie thing and bring about 8 or 9).

Unfortunately for my wallet, a few more Tenyos are now on my list.

Are there any Tenyo tricks cheaper than Dragon's Altar that use a ball besides Burglar Ball?

[David DeTenyo]

Magic Pop Up, 4 D-trunk and Vanishing Point all use a ball and are still available so not expensive.

[SimonC]

Magic Pop Up, 4 D-trunk and Vanishing Point all use a ball and are still available so not expensive.

Check out the "printables" thread, I posted a free printable kit that helps you combine 4-d trunk and vanishing point. If you don't have 4d trunk magic pop up is a great way to make the ball reappear, you just has eye envelope out in full view all through the trick. You could even do all three.
1.ball is produced from a magic pop up
2. Vanished using vanishing point
3. Reappears in the 4-d trunk

It helps if you have a duplicate ball for the last phase.