Wizard School - Oxfordshire venue confirmed

I am delighted that the venue for Wizard School in Oxfordshire is now confirmed.

We will be at All Saints' Youth and Community Hall, Roman Place, Didcot, OX11 7ER from Monday 29th July - Friday 2nd August. 

Places are limited to 15 children per day, so please do book early to ensure you can get your preferred date.

And if you know anyone around that area - Oxford, Abingdon, Chievely etc. - with children aged 9-11 who are interested in learning magic tricks, do let them know that Wizard School is heading their way!

Click here for full information about Wizard School 2013

New "Learn Magic" 2-DVD set

Firstly, apologies for not blogging more frequently - I was horrified to realise the last blog post I made was in October!! I promise to post here more frequently! 

Many, many things going on in the wonderful (and very busy!) world of The Kids Magician. Here are a few:

  • Wizard School returns in 2013! Running for 1 day in the Easter holiday and 5 days in the Summer holiday, this is going to be fantastic!

  • The Magic of Christmas show will be returning in December! Yes, I know it seems a long way off but put the dates in your diary now - it will be great!

  • My newest Learn Magic DVD is now available to order. This is the last one I will ever do, as it covers everything I could possibly want to cover! Think of it as a mini-Wizard School! It is a 2-DVD set, with over 90-minutes of magic instruction specifically for children aged 4-11. If your child is interested in magic, don't waste your money buying a magic set from a shop - they are usually full of cheap plastic props that either fall apart quickly or never work in the first place! For £20 you can get this fab DVD set that your child is guaranteed to love watching over and over again. :-) 

  • Educational programmes for schools. Along with a colleague of mine based in Scotland, 2013 sees the launch of AmazingSchoolWorkshops.com. Combining entertainment and education, our programmes deliver educationally-significant content to primary school children in the UK. If you are a teacher, involved in your school PTFA or know of someone who would be interested in these programmes, please do get in touch!

I am very aware that this blog post may sound very like a sales catalogue, which really isn't my intention! Let me leave you with this 1-month snapshot in one long sentence: We had a lovely Christmas break, a great New Year (when Naomi and I celebrated our 13-year wedding anniversary!), the typical shock we've come to expect from going back to school after a nice break, and fun and mayhem caused by the recent snow! Here's a picture of our two fab kids taken in the middle of my filming for the Learn Magic DVD. Aren't they cute?!

Nia and John

Nia and John

"Hassle-Free" becomes even MORE hassle-free!

Over the last 8 years, I have developed a reputation among parents and event planners of providing absolutely "hassle-free" entertainment.

To do that, I have:

  • tried to provide as much information as possible on this website (including show details and prices, photos and videos etc.)
  • made the booking process as simple as possible (online, so you can complete the form at a time convenient for you)
  • posted a Party Pack to you upon receipt of your booking, which provides 35 party invitations, balloons and more party-planning tips.
  • provided superb children's entertainment at the party (naturally!) :-)  
  • offered Party Bags delivered directly to your door via courier

In a nutshell, I know how busy life is as a parent and so I have always tried hard to go that extra step and take as much of the pressure off you as possible (yes, I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but it's very true!)

Despite all that though, there has always been one thing left that I know takes up a lot of time and drives many parents to frustration. It pushes them to the very limits of parenthood.

Yes, I am talking about the PARTY FOOD! 

Let's be honest - how many ham, cheese or egg sandwiches can a parent make without beginning to crack up?! 

Fear not, help is finally here! It's taken a while to work out all the details but I am finally delighted to announce the addition of my Party Food option (how's that for an original name?!)

From today, when you book one of my shows for your child's party, you have the option of ordering the party food too. And here's what makes this ultra hassle-free for you - I bring the food with me to the party, when I come to do my show! You don't have to do anything other than tell me how many children to cater for and that's it!

Full details can be found here - http://thekidsmagician.com/party-food/

It's just one more way I'm trying to make your party planning
 as hassle-free as possible!

The End of an Era...

Today marks a new chapter in our family life as our son has started nursery. It feels strange to not have him around the house for those three hours in the morning. I think I was surprised by how emotional I found it!

Mind you, I think the nursery were trying to ensure that all of us parents were emotional as they asked us to bring the children in school uniforms. How can they expect me to keep a tear out of my eye when my son looks like this?!

Our two fab kids - fortunately they inherited their good looks from my wife!

Our two fab kids - fortunately they inherited their good looks from my wife!

It does mean that I have been a flurry of activity this morning catching up on lots of new and exciting projects!

The main one to mention at this point is my Magic of Christmas Show 2012. Yes, I know it's only September and I haven't even thought about Christmas presents etc., but this strange job I have means that I have to start planning my Christmas magic show in the summer!

The show is perfect for primary schools, pre-schools and playgroups and this year involves the children talking directly to Santa via "magical-streaming" on my iPad so if you work with pre-school and school-aged children or are on the PTFA of your local school please do check out THIS PAGE!

In other news, in October I will be announcing the launch of a series of all-new educational programmes specifically for primary schools so do watch out for that as it promises to be VERY beneficial for teachers and students alike!

I hope you all have a fantastic rest of September - have fun, work hard, rest hard and have a blast!

Back to school (almost!)

Gosh! Here we are in September already - where is the year going? I feel fairly sure that we had our summer weather in April and our autumn weather over the summer, so I am waiting to see what weather we experience now in autumn!

I hope you have all had a great summer, whatever the weather has been doing. Our summer was a combination of time with friends and family, a week away in our favourite holiday place in the UK (Cyffdy Farm Cottages), and watching the Olympics. All great fun!

As you may be aware, I also ran Wizard School for two weeks over August. It was something I'd not done before but I loved doing something new, something a bit different to my "normal" type of work!  More importantly, it was very well received by the children and parents! I've put together a short video that gives on overview of what went on at Wizard School 2012:

If you missed Wizard School this year, fear not - it will return in April 2013! 

It will be running on 4 dates in the Easter holidays, April 2nd-5th 2013. The difference is that each day will run from 10am-4pm (that's 6 hours of peace and quiet for parents!)  

Places will be extremely limited and will be allocated on a "first-come, first-served" basis, Registration will be opening in the next few weeks, so if you would like to be given advance notification of registration opening for Wizard School April 2013, go to this page and fill out the short form at the bottom of the page.

As we begin to ease ourselves back into the school routine, the early mornings, the packed lunches, the school run (aaarrrghhh!) I hope that it is not TOO much of a shock to your system. And hey, if you find it too tiring, don't worry - it's not that long until the Christmas break!

Here are a few links for some of the things I have coming up throughout the rest of 2012 in case they are of interest to you:

School Shows - Every year I provide magic shows and educational magic programmes in many, many primary schools throughout Bristol, Bath, Wiltshire, Gloucester and Swindon. If you are a teacher or are involved with your school PTFA, you can find out more details of my Maths and Magic workshop here

Magic of Christmas Family Show - Yes, I know that Christmas seems a long way off, but I know that Sept-Dec always races by in a flash! For one day only in December I am producing a Christmas-themed magic show suitable for the entire family. As you would expect from me, it will include astonishing magic, laugh-out-loud moments, incredible illusions and a brilliant feel-good atmosphere. I'll also be premiering my very latest illusion that will have you scratching your heads in bewilderment and gasping with surprise and wonder - all at the same time! Tickets are limited to just 100 per show, so do book early if you want to experience some real Christmas magic! Full details can be found here.

How I became a magician...

When I was 7 years old, I was given a Paul Daniel's Magic Set for a Christmas present (the modern equivalent would be a Marvin's Magic set.) I loved all the plastic props and the gimmicked cards - I even convinced myself I was fooling my parents with the tricks!

The following year I received a Fisher Price magic set for my birthday. This set was the most amazing magic box I have ever found for children. It still beats all the modern equivalents, which are not even in the same league as this one!

With it, I could do "real" magic - disappear things and make them appear again, change one thing into another - the possibilities were (to my 8 year old thinking) endless!

I used to do little magic shows for my brothers parties as they were growing up. They weren't very good (!!) but with my little Fisher Price Magic Set, I was still able to appear magical to younger children! Over the next few months, I'll be adding some footage of my earliest shows to this blog (as long as you promise not to laugh too loudly - I was a child!!)

Of course, over the years, my magic has got a lot better and I am certainly more entertaining than I was when I was 8 years old! But I still have very fond memories of my first few magic sets. They started me on my journey as a magician.

And so, being the slightly sentimental person that I am, I found a  second hand one on Ebay and purchased it for my kids! (I just checked and there's one for sale on there at the moment - just click here.)

My children love it, and I have really enjoyed watching their excitement when playing with it just as my parents must have enjoyed watching me playing with it when I was a child. Seeing them working out the "secret" and then trying to think of how to make an entertaining trick from it is great fun. As of the time of writing this, the children have worked out the mechanics but still need to work on their presentation!

My daughter Nia (6) wanted to perform a trick to camera using the Fisher Price Magic Set, and so here, for your viewing pleasure (?!) is Magical Nia with her amazing trick!

My all-new Wizard School is beginning in less than two weeks now and I am very excited. In much the same way I loved learning magic tricks as a child, I am looking forward to introducing lots of children to the wonderful world of magic and illusion!

Over the 5 days of each class, we're going to discover ways to make things vanish and re-appear and to seemingly float in the air. We'll also be introducing concepts such as rehearsal, presentation and showmanship!

I'll also be bringing along the Fisher Price Magic Set, so that all the children who attend can have a go with it too!

There are still spaces left on each class, so if you'd like to book your child one on of the classes, just visit http://www.thekidsmagician.com/wizard-school/ for full information!

Don't leave it to the last minute as all places must be booked in advance!

Southmead NICU Fund-Raiser - wow!

This past Saturday I provided some entertainment for a family-friendly event aiming to raise money for Southmead Hospital NICU.  

The event was held at Chipping Sodbury Rugby Club, and it was a HUGE success. Everything seemed to combine to create the perfect event- even the weather played it's part by staying dry and sunny (hooray!)

The event was both really well organised and attended. There were a LOT of people there - and lots of kids which was great for me!

I received a lovely e-mail from the event organiser, which I'll share here:

"Thank you so much for entertaining the children yesterday.  The feedback has been amazing- the kids loved the show and balloons. Many parents commented how they want you for their children's parties :-) At the moment are total is £10,790 with more to come!!!!!!!!! We could not have achieved this without the fantastic help and support from people like you!"
(Katie Higgins, Yate , Bristol)

What a fantastic achievement - raising that amount of money for such a deserving charity. I have huge respect for all the volunteers who worked together to create such a fantastic event.

Of course, I am certain that the charity would be MORE than happy to receive any further donations! If you would like to donate (it's for a great cause), contact me and I will put you in touch with the organisers of the event who will be able to let you know how to donate.

And once again, a HUGE congratulations to the organisers of the event and all the hundreds and hundreds of people who came and supported the event both with their presence and their money!

Summer holiday activities for children

So here we are - the summer holidays at last! If your children are like ours, the break has come at just the right time - they are both exhausted!

Now the fun for us parents begins - what on earth are we supposed to do with them for all those weeks?! Having a home-office, holidays always means a slightly noisier working environment for me!

I imagine that you may be co-ordinating visits with friends and family, and maybe a nice day trip or two. Personally, I always find trying you go to a tourist attraction in the summer a nightmare, as they're always so busy with people (shocking I know!) It's a bit like visiting Cribbs Causeway in December for some last-minute Christmas shopping!

If my children had their way, our summer activities would consist of:

  1. Making an Iron Man costume from random scraps of paper!
  2. Seeing a real mermaid (Barbie movies, you have a lot to answer for!)
  3. Naomi and I waking up as soon as the children come in to our bedroom in the morning, jumping out of bed and cooking them as many pancakes as they can eat (I admit, I don't always find it easy to jump out of bed enthusiastically at 6am!)

Personally, I'm looking forward to taking Nia (6) to see The Lorax in 3D (first time seeing a 3D movie for her!) this coming Sunday and generally spending quality time with the family. We're off once again for a short break to our favourite place in the entire world for a holiday before the fun of Wizard School (see below) begins!

If you're based in Bristol, there are a couple of websites I highly recommend that you visit to check out what is on for kids in the Bristol area:

They are both useful, informative sites with helpful, well presented information.

Without meaning to sound like a completely blatant plug (and failing miserably I know!)...as you may well know I am running magic classes for children aged 6-11 in Stoke Bishop (BS9) for two weeks in August. It is called Wizard School and is going to be great fun. It's been something I've been working on for the last year, and I guarantee that the children attending are going to have an absolutely magical and memorable time! 

And it gives you two and a half hours break every day - now that's real magic!

Currently there are still spaces available for all four of the class options, so if you've been thinking about it and haven't yet registered, please do so soon as once the spaces are filled registration closes for good!

If you are interested in booking a place for your child, full details for Wizard School can be found by clicking here.

Whatever you do this summer, I hope you and your children have a fabulous time with lots of happy memories. And I hope we all get to see a bit of sunshine - just a little bit, that's all I have the courage to ask for!

 

"Magic Mike Makes It In Hollywood..."

The middle of last year I received a phone call from my brother Sam who said, "There's a movie being made in Hollywood about you!"

Being accustomed to the world of showbiz, and being humble I naturally thought to myself, "Finally, someone has taken notice of me - about time!"

My brother then explained that there was a movie being filmed called "Magic Mike" and it was all about entertainment. 

And that is where the similarities with me end!

Because, if you haven't heard already, the "Magic Mike" movie (coming to a cinema near you in July) is all about male strippers.

That's a VERY different style of entertainment to what I provide!

Some of the buses in Bristol are currently carrying adverts for the movie which is quite a sight to see. The words "Magic Mike" in large, glorious gold lettering on the side of a bus...alongside a picture of a half-naked man.

Our friends around Bristol have been enjoying this new version of Magic Mike advertising, sending me messages on Facebook and texting me to ask if this is a new line of work for me.

The Magic Mike bus adverts have even been sighted in Wimbledon (which led to another of my brothers leaving a phone message that was half incredulous at what he'd seen and half trying not to kill himself laughing!) 

So, if you happen to see an advert for this movie and find yourself giggling - please be assured that I am not branching out into this market. I am not sure I could take the laughter and heckles that would undoubtedly ensue (and that's just from my wife!)

Maybe one day Hollywood will make a proper movie about me. Until then, I'll content myself with the knowledge that my form of entertainment is much more suitable for the entire family and my shows cost FAR less than it cost to make this movie!

"When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead"

One of my greatest passions in life is reading great books. I am a speed-reader, and on average I currently read 4 books a week. I also love reading widely, so this week for example I am reading two great business books, a fascinating autobiography, and what I would call an "okay" fiction book ("The Tomb of Hercules" if you must know!)

I have also just finished reading an absolutely brilliant book. It's called "When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead" and was written by Jerry Weintraub. He's lived an amazing life, working with Elvis, Sinatra, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Denver and many, many more. He's produced movies such as The Karate Kid and Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen (Ocean's Eleven was the only one of the Ocean movies I thought was actually any good, but that's another story!)

The reason I loved reading this book is that it is the story of a person who just went out there and did it. He didn't wait around for everything to line up perfectly for him, he took the initiative, took action (often very bold and risky action) and was hugely successful.

From reading the book, you can tell that he is an absolute master storyteller. His anecdotes about Frank Sinatra and Elvis are superb, inspiring and memorable. 

He is also someone who doesn't take himself too seriously. He's able to laugh at himself and his mistakes. Here's an great insight into his approach to life, taken from the last few paragraph of the book:

"I asked if I did not know. I listened when someone else was talking. I sold with joy, so my products were fun to buy. Most important, I was never afraid to fail, which meant I was never afraid to try. I was never afraid to look silly, which meant I was never threatened by a new idea..."

What a great way to live.

If you're looking for a book to read that is very well written, well structured, inspiring and that will make you laugh out loud, you could do much worse than pick up this book.

Happy Half-Term!

So here we (very nearly) are again - a break from school!

If your children are anything like mine, they deny EVERY feeling tired (even when they are yawning and rubbing their eyes!)

Both of our children are very obviously flagging, running on empty and desperately in need of a few chill-out days around the house.

I think the holiday has come at just the right point for them!

This term, as well as entertaining at many, many fantastic parties and events, I have been exceptionally busy working on many new and varied magic-related projects.

You'll hear about them on this website throughout 2012, but two of the main projects I am working on currently are: 

  • Wizard School: 5 days of magic classes in August. Details can be found here
  • Authoring a book: This is an educational "How To..." book for parents and people dealing with children. Further details to follow in due course, publication is planned for July 2012. If you'd like to be notified when the book is available to order, just contact meand I'll let you know as soon as you can order your copy! 

As I write this, I have 6 more shows until a fabulous 5 day break. Four of the shows are for birthday parties, one is a wedding and one is a village Royal Jubilee Party. It's going to be a busy few days, but I love what I do and I know that all the parties are going to be great fun to entertain at!

With the "busy-ness of business", I am really looking forward to the half-term break with my family as it will give us all a chance to re-charge our batteries.

  • I won't miss the school run (do you find it funny how time ALWAYS speeds up between 8am-8:30am Monday to Friday?!)
  • I won't miss making packed lunches for the kids (making sandwiches pre-7am just seems wrong!)

 So what are we up to over the half-term I hear you ask?

 Like many of you, we're going to be catching up with friends and family - and hopefully some sleep!

We're having a Jubilee Celebration Bar-B-Q with family (fortunately for them, I'm not doing the cooking!)

We're planning a trip to London Zoo at some stage next week, which I am sure the children will LOVE.

And we're heading up to Birmingham for a day to visit some fantastic friends (and so that I can provide the entertainment for their son's party!)

It's going to be a busy, fun-packed, relaxing, funny, family-focused, hopefully dry (!!) break, and I can't wait!

Whatever you're up to over the half-term - whether staying at home, visiting friends or family, or maybe even heading off somewhere for a holiday - I hope you have a great time, and come back at the end of the week relaxed, refreshed, rested...and still talking to your children! 

Balancing Work and Family

Like any parent, one of the things I really have to work hard at is striking a good balance between work and family life. It’s difficult to juggle all the different aspects of life without dropping a ball occasionally!

I try very hard to keep my work life separate from our family life (I REALLY don’t want to be one of those people who is always in “show mode”, always doing magic tricks for their children.) For my children, most of the time I just want to be “Dad”!

It can be complicated at times though when all their school friends know me as “Magic Mike”! 

As I work from my home office, I don’t have the natural  separation between “the office” and “home” than most people have. I have to be very, very disciplined to maintain that gap - and I don’t always succeed (as my lovely wife will agree!)

I love my job, I really enjoy what I do, and I count myself incredibly fortunate to have the skill-set and ability to do what I do for a living. 

It has some great advantages too: 

  • I am around in the morning for my kids when they wake up
  • I can do the school run (occasionally it feels like a sprint though!) with them
  • I am (usually) around in the evenings to spend time with them and put them to bed
  • I have a 15-second commute to work!

It does have one major disadvantage though...

As most children’s parties are held at weekends, it naturally means that my busiest work times are weekends. Of course, those are the same times that our friends (who have ‘normal’ jobs!) are around. Which means it is very, very difficult to catch up with friends at weekends. It makes it difficult to go away for a weekend, or to make a day trip on a Saturday or Sunday as a family.

My wife does an amazing job looking after the children at the weekend (she’s the best kept secret of The Kids Magician company!)

This year we decided that I would deliberately block off either a Saturday or a Sunday each month as a family day, to do “normal family things”  - like catching up with friends, visiting a tourist attraction, having a Sunday roast etc.

It felt strange at first taking a Saturday or Sunday off (I was having to turn work away!)  but  it has been absolutely the right decision. We have had four really great family days so far this year, and I’ve enjoyed spending a weekend day every month with my family, pretending to me a normal Dad (I think I’ve almost succeeded too!) 

Currently I am fully booked up with shows nearly every weekend until mid-August, and as the year progresses that booked-up pattern will no doubt continue.

While I count myself incredibly fortunate to have a continual demand for my shows, it is also so nice to have those family days already blocked off for the whole year. It’s what Steven Covey would call “putting the big rocks first.” 

And I’m glad we decided to do it!

The Launch of Wizard School

Today is an exciting day for me, as it marks the launch of a project I have been thinking about, planning and developing for the last 12 months!

With the incredible popularity of the Harry Potter series of books and movies, more and more children nowadays have an interest in learning magic tricks.

For years I have been running my Wizards Workshop at birthday parties, schools and for groups such as Beaver Scouts, Cub Scouts and Brownies.

Then it hit me (eventually - I'm a slow learner!) - why not expand and develop the 1-hr workshop to a week-long series of classes, each building upon the last one so that by the end of the week, the children have a good balanced experience and knowledge of magic, illusion, sleight of hand and magic techniques?

I am really proud to launch Wizard School, and am counting the days down until the first class!

So (and here's my ever-so-subtle sales pitch...!) if you have children aged 7-11 who you think would enjoy learning some great magic tricks over 5 days, please do check out the Wizard School page and book a place soon before they all go! Once the places are gone, they are gone until the next time it is run (December at the very earliest.)

See, I told you it would be a subtle sales pitch...

Now I have said all that, I am going to go and make myself a strong coffee, as I have been up since 4:30am re-tweaking my website in preparation for the launch of Wizard School. How much of a geek does that make me?!