"The Alpha Male..."

Almost always in children's performing, you have the alpha. That's the child that takes the leadership role.

Generally, the leadership role means, making your life as hard as possible, "Let's throw things at the clown..."

It's pretty easy to spot this child. Usually a boy, almost always a boy, in the upper 6 year old range and has to be won over as you enter. Sometimes a girl but girls are smarter and the approach is a bit different.

The ideal situation is to win the child over. The energy they are putting into your show to harass you, they can put that energy to be your cheerleader.

You should have a routine or two that are not magic tricks or will be funny no matter how messed up they become. I have a routine where I show the kids how to juggle with scarves. Scarves are easy, so it doesn't matter if they run around with them, if the throw them at me, in the end, I have them throw them all up in the air and they are jugglers. It's colorful, visual, no juggling skill. Can't do it outdoors though.

I do a needle through balloon trick, I just keep hitting them over the head with the balloon each time I'm giving them instruction. Big laughs, they eat it up.

The alpha needs lots of attention. I'm not a fan of rewarding anti-social behavior, so I make a comment like, "this guy needs some attention". I'm always looking for ways of giving kids hero status, so no matter how the alpha goes nuts, they get big cheers.

Kids just need some direction, being an audience is not foreign (they do circle time in preschool or see the circus or an ice show) but interactive shows break a lot of rules. Getting the alpha on your side is the goal.

And sometimes, mom has to come in and sit with them. That works too!