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The Tin WhistleNotes on the craft of entertaining children.

A compartment of the valise

The Parlour

the living-room show, the birthday routine and the table of tricks

4 notes · latest note 1 August 2026

  • A child's empty chair at the front of a party row, a magician's wand resting on the seat.

    When the birthday child won't sit

    The note every parlour performer keeps: what to do when the guest of honour will not sit, will not help, or wants to be somewhere else.

    6 min

  • Children seated on a village-hall floor watching an empty performing space, party plates stacked on a side table.

    The running order of a birthday

    How a working birthday show is ordered: the gathering opener, the middle where helpers come up, and the trick the party is remembered by.

    6 min

  • A close view of a magician's side table with a velvet top, a wand and a closed box on it, party bunting behind.

    The trick table and what it holds

    The small table at the front of the parlour show: what a working magician keeps on it, in it and behind it.

    6 min

  • A folding magician's table on a cleared living-room rug, a row of small chairs waiting in front of it.

    The forty-minute parlour show

    Why the working birthday magic show settles near forty minutes, what the shape of those minutes looks like, and who decided the length.

    6 min