Thanks for the ideas. It is not to dark considering there are flood lights at the campfire. The kids are about 12 years of age. I am in my mid teens and have been performing for six years. So I can present a trick and not only rely on some gimmick. I am quite comfortable performing stage tricks even though I do not own that many props. I was thinking a "this this and that" routine using giant cards or something. Again hope this info helped and thanks for your ideas.
I think a rope routine would work well. There is a great one by Roberto Giobbi in the November 2009 Genii magazine called the Houdini Rope Trick. Its beauty is that you are pretending to teach how Houdini did a rope trick but end up frying the audience because you obviously aren't using the method you are explaining. You can pick up a copy of that magazine at MJM for around $6. Alternatively, check out Richard Sander's Fiber Optics.
Linking Rings are a great effect for this age group because they so want to figure it out and the spectator you select to help you is just unable to put the rings together or, once you put them together, is unable to take them apart. Present it as if you are teaching one of the campers how it is done. I usually follow this with an Invisible Deck routine where the volunteer (who's ego is a little bruised from not being able to put the rings together) uses their mental powers to select a different person (by picking, throwing a Frisbee or a ball, etc) to choose the color, suite and value of a card that I've reversed in the deck.
Also, think mentalism. A campfire just screams for telling stories and legends. A touch of mentalism can make the stories seem more real. Check out Anneman's Practical Mental Magic - there is a whole section on "Dead or Alive" effects. I particularly like More Living than Dead and The Ghost Hand (use baseball hats and napkins). With those effects, do them slowly and build the effect by using a story. You should shoot for the effect to take more than five minutes. Also, check out The Gypsy Mindreader and instructions on using a Center Tear in Mark Wilson's Complete Course. You could come up with an amazing effect just using the center tear (having a campfire is perfect for using a center tear).
To the extent you do other effects, put them into routines. A short two minute effect is not nearly impressive as multiple effects tied together with common patter into a routine.
