How To Put on a Show: Top Ten {Tuesday}

Today I took my kids and my niece {<—tomorrow’s post. stay tuned!} to a puppet show at the library. Every summer our library has tons of cool stuff lined up: from knitting classes to movies to jugglers. And of course, I love me some puppets. So, instead of letting 3 kids run around my house like wild hyenas, we headed to the library.

When we walked in, I didn’t see a puppet stage. I saw a table. And some hula hoops. And a bag of playground balls. Still, I’m an obedient, supportive person so we sat right down and waited for the show to begin. I tried to hold off on judgement until the show got underway. I tried to be excited and a good participant when it was 20 minutes in. Alas, I tweeted this instead:

So, here it is. My Top Ten {Tuesday} post scribbled on the back of a postcard I fished out of my purse…

THE TOP TEN TIPS FOR PUTTING ON A {PUPPET} SHOW AT THE LIBRARY FOR KIDS {OR ANYWHERE FOR ANYONE}

1. Consider Your Appearance

I mean, I get it. You’re doing a puppet show with kids. You need to be comfy. But seriously? Holes in your shoes? Too big grungy t-shirt? And do you have to look like a ped*phile, too?

2. Puppetry Skills

Puppetry really is a skill that needs to be learned and practiced. It’s not just something just anyone can do. Putting a puppet on your hand does not make you Elmo. And if you are doing a puppet show with a giant broccoli puppet at a library? Well, try using a stage. And maybe even a different voice from your own. I don’t expect you to be a ventriloquist, but man, it would be nice.

3. Be Heard!

I learned this while interning in the children’s ministry at a church: The loudest WINS. If you can be louder than 100 preschoolers and their parents in a room, then don’t worry about a mic. But for all you mere mortals–GET A MICROPHONE.

4. Consider Your Audience & Size

When planning your program, consider the size of your crowd and the age of your audience. For example, PLAYING PROTEIN SCATTERGORIES WITH 100 PRESCHOOLERS DIVIDED INTO FOUR TEAMS ALL OF WHOM CANNOT READ OR WRITE is not a great idea. And yes, it was “protein” scattergories because we were writing down as many different foods that had protein in them. Because preschoolers totally know what protein is.

5. Give Good Information

People come to the library to learn new things. To be informed. Educated. If you are doing an educational show about, I don’t know, the food groups and you play, oh, I don’t know, a game where you have to choose between REAL fruit and FAKE fruit, don’t make the two choices be a Little Debbie Strawberry Shortcake Roll and a Strawberry Nutrigrain Bar. (In case you were wondering, they said Nutrigrain Bars were REAL fruit.) It might be a good idea to show REAL FRUIT.

6. Prizes!

Kids love prizes. A good prize can be anything from a sticker to a t-shirt. But a playground ball for a prize? IN THE LIBRARY? Not very well thought out…

7. Time Limit

The rule of thumb is that kids have a minute of attention span for every year of age. So, a 5 year old can easily pay attention for 5 minutes. The average age of the kids watching the puppet show today was about 3. And in a 45 minute show, they did exactly 3 segments. That means FIFTEEN MINUTES of games like Protein Scattergories and FAKE FRUIT Challenge. The kids were literally reading library books instead of playing the games.

8. Advertise Correctly

I’ll admit, this puppet show was just a fill-in for the real puppet show that was supposed to be at the library today. But, they were a “troupe” that does educational puppet shows for a very large insurance company. And the large broccoli puppet was the only puppet in the show. Asa kept asking, “Where are the puppets? Are there going to be 2 puppets? Or 3 puppets? Are they sleeping?” So, if you’re gonna be a puppet show. Be a puppet show. If you’re going to do strange games, advertise that. {Don’t you know everyone would come to, BORING AND AGE-INAPPROPRIATE GAME SHOW FOR KIDS!}

9. {I’m gonna skip this one because wow, I’ve already been pretty critical…}

10. Hire me.

Seriously. Wouldn’t it have been more fun if Vicki had been at the show?

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Link up your Top Ten list and join in the Top Ten {Tuesday} fun! All you have to do is WRITE a top ten list, PASTE it  below, LINK back to me in your post & then start LOVIN’ on the rest of the participants with facebook likes, stumbles, comments and tweets (#toptentues) ! For better and more succinct guidelines see my Top Ten {Tuesday} page!