The Art of Entertaining Children
The skill of Entertaining Children
Entertaining children is excellent fun provided you love dealing with cheeky hecklers who are completely unpredictable, and will do anything to get attention. It is important to remember is that if you attempt to impress them, however brilliant you are as a magician, acrobat, stilt walker, or juggler, they will quickly lose interest, because all they see is an adult doing something clever they can’t do, and there is nothing unusual about this. However there are two things that children really enjoy: the first is stories, and the other is clowning.
Storytellyer
Children reside in a world of imagination where everything is believable, and anything can happen, and they love wild imaginative stories about pirates and tropical islands, ghosts, trolls, witches, knights, cowboys, heroes, princesses, warlocks and dragons.
And they love slapstick. Any situation in which an adult falls flat on his face, arrives at his bum, or gets a custard pie in the face is just hilarious when you are six years old.
When you combine the 2, then you have a piece of children’s theatre that will enthral and excite children of all ages, so start with a good narrative; it doesn’t matter if it uses a traditional theme, and all pantomime is based on fairy stories. Now include some slapstick. It doesn’t matter how silly, and also the more predictable the greater. If the audience can easily see that a pompous fool is about to fall over and land inside a pool of muddy water, it's even more enjoyable if this happens.
Now include some magic. Allow it to be look casual or accidental so the performer looks unmanageable, despite the fact that he is carefully governing the situation. Let the children upstage you, make sure they are feel like they are in charge of the situation, and they will laugh and don't forget the show for a long time.
Children's Entertainer
© Mike Rawlinson 2011-07-30
http://www.professorparadox.co.uk
Entertaining children is excellent fun provided you love dealing with cheeky hecklers who are completely unpredictable, and will do anything to get attention. It is important to remember is that if you attempt to impress them, however brilliant you are as a magician, acrobat, stilt walker, or juggler, they will quickly lose interest, because all they see is an adult doing something clever they can’t do, and there is nothing unusual about this. However there are two things that children really enjoy: the first is stories, and the other is clowning.
Storytellyer
Children reside in a world of imagination where everything is believable, and anything can happen, and they love wild imaginative stories about pirates and tropical islands, ghosts, trolls, witches, knights, cowboys, heroes, princesses, warlocks and dragons.
And they love slapstick. Any situation in which an adult falls flat on his face, arrives at his bum, or gets a custard pie in the face is just hilarious when you are six years old.
When you combine the 2, then you have a piece of children’s theatre that will enthral and excite children of all ages, so start with a good narrative; it doesn’t matter if it uses a traditional theme, and all pantomime is based on fairy stories. Now include some slapstick. It doesn’t matter how silly, and also the more predictable the greater. If the audience can easily see that a pompous fool is about to fall over and land inside a pool of muddy water, it's even more enjoyable if this happens.
Now include some magic. Allow it to be look casual or accidental so the performer looks unmanageable, despite the fact that he is carefully governing the situation. Let the children upstage you, make sure they are feel like they are in charge of the situation, and they will laugh and don't forget the show for a long time.
Children's Entertainer
© Mike Rawlinson 2011-07-30
http://www.professorparadox.co.uk
