Watching magic in Sendai with children — daytime shows and how to enjoy them

Most magic venues here are evening bars

There are several places in Kokubuncho, Sendai’s nightlife district, where you can watch magic. But as soon as you start looking you will notice that most of them operate as bars, late in the evening. They exist so that adults can watch close-up magic at arm’s length over a drink.

It is a genuine and well-developed form of the art. It is simply not built around bringing children. Search for magic in Sendai, book the first place you find, and you may arrive to an awkward conversation.

This site is published by Magic Lumiere, so we do not review other magic venues individually (see About this site). Check their official sites when choosing. The only claim made here is a factual one: most of them trade in the evening.

So there is really only one thing to check

If you want to watch with children, before comparing venues, ask one question.

What time does that show start, and what is the minimum age?

Minimum age, start time, door time. If those three work, the rest is a matter of taste. If they do not, no amount of reputation will rescue the evening.

Daytime shows are the dividing line

Where there is a show in the daytime at weekends, younger children can come without difficulty. A daytime show has advantages an evening one cannot have:

• It leaves the daily rhythm intact. You are home by evening and the next day is not written off
• It falls when children can actually concentrate. Nobody under seven is awake for a 21:00 show
• It fits inside a day out. Something active in the morning, magic in the afternoon, dinner after

Watching with children

The front row is not automatically the best seat

Stage magic often reads more clearly from slightly further back, where you can see the whole picture and understand what just happened. Very young children can also find being close to the performer more intimidating than exciting. Mention that you are bringing children when you book and the venue can advise.

Do not go looking for the method

This is a trap adults fall into more than children. Watch while hunting for the mechanism and you will miss the thing happening in front of you. Not knowing how it was done is the luxury, not the failure.

When a child asks “how did they do that?”, you will get more out of the rest of the evening by answering “I have no idea — where do you think it went?” than by trying to work it out.

Knowing a little beforehand changes what you see

Magic has several centuries of history behind it, and the pieces performed today have lineages. Knowing some of that background makes the same show look quite different.

Our sister site, the Magician Registry, covers that history and the great performers of the world. It never explains how any trick is done.