🎪 Your first magic show at home

The running order

Magicians have used the same running order for a very long time, because it works. Here it is, with how long each part takes:

• Opener (30 seconds): Quick, visual, no helper. Something that happens before they've settled.
• Hello (30 seconds): Your magician name and your catchphrase. Thirty seconds, no trick.
• Helper trick (2 minutes): Bring someone up. A card trick is perfect here.
• Everyone trick (2 minutes): Something the whole room does at once, in their heads or their hands.
• Wow trick (2 minutes): The most visual thing you've got. People at the back must see it.
• Closer (3 minutes): Your strongest. The one you've practised most.
• Bow and goodbye (20 seconds): Magic word, one second of silence, bow, "Thank you!" Then stop.

A first show can skip a part or two. Opener, helper trick, wow trick and closer is plenty, with the hello at the start and a bow at the end.

Four ready-made shows

Not sure which tricks? Here are the shop's ready-made shows, each with its ages and running time. Every trick in them is on a shelf in the shop.

• The Kitchen Wizard (ages 5 to 7, about 8 minutes): Five tricks, nothing to practise for more than five minutes, and most of it happens in a bowl of water. It runs The Rubber Pencil, Thumb Off, The Arrow Flip, Pepper Scatter, The Water Vanish.
• The Mind Reader (ages 8 to 10, about 12 minutes): Nobody touches a single secret move. It's all maths, and it all works by itself. It runs The Hole in Your Hand, The Answer Is Always 3, The Magic Mind Reader, The X-Ray Dice, The Grey Elephant Prediction, The Spelling Bee.
• The Grand Illusionist (ages 10 to 12, about 15 minutes): A real vanish, a prediction in a sealed envelope, and a finish you walk through. It runs The Jumping Rubber Band, The Coin Fold, The Ace Finder, The Magic Number 1089, Walk Through a Paper.
• The Spooky Show (ages 7 to 11, about 12 minutes): Lights low, and no candles anywhere near it. A torch makes a better spotlight anyway. It runs The Ghost Pencil, Thumb Off, Secret Message Ink, The Water Vanish, The Glowing Potion.

Or tick the tricks you can already do on the show builder, and it puts them in order for you.

Setting up the room

Put the audience on chairs or the sofa, all on one side. Many tricks only work from the front, so nobody sits beside you or behind you. Put your props on a table in the order you need them, and hide the ones you haven't used yet in a box.

Print the running-order card from the printables and keep it on the table where you can see it. Every magician forgets the order once.

The bow

End on your best one, then stop. Say your magic word, hold still for a second, bow, and say thank you. Then stop, while everybody still wants more. The hardest thing in a show is not doing one more trick.