I want to educate myself on making up some good School Shows. I would like to do something with an anti-drug message, or possibly nutrition. I see a need for it in this area, and I believe I am the clown for the job.

My problem is, I need some good materials, books, websites, programs, ect. to educate myself on how to make an effective show, and do's and don'ts.

Any advice, comments, or suggetions?
Thanks ahead of time!
Flip :D

I think that you should go with the anti-drugs on this one. Its becoming a big problem even in Ireland. If you could juggle, you could could use A very big Pill (maybe about the size of your hand), a doll, a book and an old fashioned alarm clock.

You could start by juggling the doll (to repersent peer pressure), a book (to repersent your schoolwork) and the alarm clock (to repersent time). Pretend your having a hard time just juggling three things and then get someone to throw the huge Pill at you.

After everything has dropped you can start to explain how drugs only mix your life up furter.

Just a thought. I think that this could be the new angle for teaching small children about the dangers of bigger schools.

Hope I helped someway :D

Now thats pretty good

Heya Jamz **Big Wave**

Just wanted to say that if you try to juggle a book you may want to tape it firmly closed so that the front page doesn't bend. You could even paper it all around, like wrapping a present, so that the book isn't damaged. Then, write in big Block Captials (just like a parent does) :

Your Clown name
Year ??
MATHS BOOK

To give it a school-y feel.

This could really start something...........

Google David Ginn, He is a magician, but has a series called kid biz. You migth be able to glean some things from him. Also bubba sikes, has some good routines at his website www.bubbasikes.com.
Hopefully, Ashes will chime in here. I believe he does fire saftey shows. He might have some things to say.
Make yourself at home. Sample the buffet :D

Welcome Flip, there are several simple tricks that you can use to focus on chooices a person makes, I have one card trick dealing with Drug and drinking call something like "fast freddy"
when I have a large enough group we do a skit called color blind which can be used to focus on acceptance, a person with a handicap, desease , race, religion, etc. but it requires a mim of 6 to be good.

I like the juggling idea, that has a good theme to it. Thanks!!

I also thought about making some sort of "mascot" of sorts. Something called "the drug bug". This could be a bug puppet, that I would teach the kids to boo and hiss at whenever he came out. Kinda like a Snidely Whiplash character.
He would represent Drugs. And whenever I do a magic trick, I could try to do it correctly, but when the drug bug shows up, I would mess up the trick. Which could throw a little humor in there but also deliver the message, you can't do things right when the drug bug is in your life.

I thought I could gear a bunch of tricks to different aspects of life, friends, money, school, your job, ect. And fool around with the drug bug idea.

But I really like the juggling message!

And Jamz, a big shout out to Chicopee! The birthplace of Flip!!

Flip, I think it's a good idea! Write a few scripts,and plan the tricks you want to use.
I think you've got a winner.

I think the drug bug is great it can be used to do a lot of different things

Sorry for the delay in posting - been on a business trip, and then to a Life And Fire Safety Clown Conference.

The juggling routine is right on the money. Decide what your message is to be about (and
we pick between 4 and 5 safety messages per show).
Find out what the official stance is and make sure you present your actions inline with
the official stance. We want to present a unified front.

That's the easy part -- now you have to work up a clown's way to present the safety
messages.

We like to teach using all the senses we can - laughter, song, repetition, visual, etc.

We try to always be a good role model. In other words, we don't demonstrate something
we don't want the kids doing. The kids might forget that we said DON'T DO THIS.
Instead, they saw the clown do it...so it must be OK.

If you have help, use them as puppeteers, and let them play multiple characters.

Write catchy lyrics to a song (Keep It Simple) - record it or if you want, play guitar
and perform it live. If the song is simple and catchy the kids will love it and will sing
it for days. Don't do 15 verses, just two or three and a nice chorus in between.

Hopefully these are some ideas that will springboard you off to a good start.

Ashes

I know that peachy keene makes some nice fire and safety foam props you might want to look into i think they have some good ideas

i have a friend who teaches kids about nutrition and I frequently introduce her--making use of the GROWING RED BALL

I feel that it is essential to get the kids very involved answering questions etc. so while holding the small red ball in my hand where they can see

i ask them--we are about to make this ball grow magically

does anybody here grow?? (they all start saying "me!" )

What helps you to grow?

The answers they start giving will provide you with material for 10 shows

The kids start saying--"water" "love" and then you start getting the answers like "fruit"
"food" "protein"

Tell the kids how smart they are for all the answers,then let them know they are going to learn about what foods are smart to eat and will help them grow

Then--do the trick your favorite way--you could say magic words like "candy soda" and it doesn't grow

ask the kids to think of food that will help you grow--"carrots! apples!"

Then of course the ball grows

ps-when doing any school show be sure and work some jumping anddancing into it somewhere as this helps keep their attention--"shaking out the sillies' so to speak