Adding Adult Humor to Kids Shows

Many magicians say they want their shows to be enjoyed by all ages.

It’s an admirable thing to do. But many of these same magicians do it badly…or in offensive ways.

Sometimes a performer will go for puns. The kids in the audience don’t get the humor, but the adults do.

There is nothing wrong with that, and it’s preferable to the second method many use.

It’s sexual innuendo and/or insult-based humor. Drives me crazy.

I recall watching a performer at Kidabra’s Gala show a number of years ago…

For context, if you’re not familiar with it, Kidabra is a convention for children’s entertainers.

Remember, kids’ entertainers.

The Gala show, open to the public, features a half dozen or so performers each doing around 15 minutes of material.

Back to the performer who shan’t be named. He calls a woman onstage and proceeds to do a marionette routine with her. The routine was good, the puppet adorable.

But he ruined his act by making all kinds of lewd comments toward this lady. It was disgusting.

I’m not a prude. I used to love watching The Amazing Johnathon. But at a kids’ show conference? With children in the audience?

Just wrong.

But let’s say you are a kids’ entertainer, and you want to inject some humor into the show for the grown-ups watching.

There are definitely ways to do it. My preferred way of adding adult humor to a kids’ show is to start with something zany and funny to kids. Then I branch off, making a comment aimed toward the adults.

That way, the comment seems to spring from and serve as an extension to the zany moment, instead of just a random comment completely disconnected to the routne.

It’s kind of hard to explain, so I’ll outline a few examples from my own work.

Like many performers, I perform Airhead Rudy and similar effects. In the routine, a wooden figure is shown.

The figure’s head is removed and vanished. To replace the head, the performer blows up a balloon and draws a face on it.

They then fasten the balloon to the figure. Suddenly, the balloon pops, and the figure is seen with its head restored.

Great effect, and a perennial favorite of kids show workers. I have Airhead Rudy (by Steve Taylor, a Fairchild Magic version with a snowman, and others.

To stretch the routine, many performers (me included) perform several balloon gags, causing the kids to laugh. You likely know some of them, like blowing up the balloon only to ‘forget’ to tie it, so the balloon instantly deflates.

Here’s where the adult humor comes in.

After I struggle with the balloon for a while, I look at the adults and say, “I’m sorry. I grew up under power lines.”

This always gets a nice laugh from the adults. It stems from my problem with the balloon, so it feels organic. Best of all, it’s safe and appropriate for kids.

Here’s one I developed this summer during the Summer Reading Program. It uses 13 Rings by Phil Ackerly.

During the presentation, 13 different colored rings are shown. They are each keychain rings, to give context to their size.

Anyway, the rings are gathered together using a magic wand. The rings are then dumped en masse into a silk or cloth that a volunteer is holding.

After some magic words or whatever, the rings are shown to have magically linked together in one long chain.

Very nice effect. I didn’t care for Phil’s routine as it didn’t fit me. So I had to workshop my own presentation.

What I came up with sprang from an old movie I saw on RiffTrax. If you’re not familiar with it, RiffTrax is a group of performers who watch bad movies and make fun of them. The company is an offshoot of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

If you love comedy, please, for the good of all humanity, go watch RiffTrax. It’s hilarious!

One of the movies they riffed is called “Manos: The Hands of Fate. In it, an odd man named Torgo is the caretaker at a motel that a wayward family encounters in their travels.

It’s supposed to be a horror movie, but it’s just…bad.

At one point, Torgo is trying to clumsily flirt with the wife in the family. Torgo’s oversized jacket sleeve briefly obscures his outstretched hand from view.

At that moment, one of the riffers shouts, “Where’s my hand? Where’s my HAND?”

I laugh hysterically every time I see the scene and hear that line. It’s like Torgo has the intellect of a toddler who is baffled that their hand ‘disappeared.’

That was my inspiration for 13 Rings. Back to the routine.

I have two volunteers come to the stage. I prattle about the 13 rings and explain we are going to make them disappear.

I ask each child to face the other. Each holds their hands out, palms up, as though they are going to support something.

I drape a black cloth over one child’s hand as I turn to explain to the other what we are going to do.

I turn back to the first child and, upon seeing their hands have ‘disappeared,’ start screaming, “Where’s your hands? WHERE’S YOUR HANDS?” I then frantically yank the cloth away, revealing the child’s hands.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I turn to the other kid saying, “ That was close. I thought her hands disappeared. This time we’ll start with you.”

I then repeat the sequence, this time with the second kid, once again culminating with me frantically yanking away the cloth, revealing the ‘recovered’ hands once more.

The third time (remember the rule of threes), I cover both pairs of hands. Immediately, I frantically start squeezing their hands through the cloth to make sure they are all still there.

Here comes the adult humor: I look up at the adults and say, “I’m sorry, folks. I never developed object permanence.”

Big laugh. Good clean fun for the adults, is safe for the kids, and seemed to spring naturally from the situation at hand (no pun intended this time, I swear.)

Next time you decide to add adult humor to your family shows, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the joke safe and G-rated for kids?
2. Does the joke seem to come organically from the situation you’re in at the moment?

Until next time, have a great week!

--Cris

 
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