Could anyone suggest some catchy chemistry experiments or demonstrations, to be performed in front of a young audience?
To talk to kids about chemistry I don't think you just need some exotic experiments. 

I visited the Sterling Hill Mining Museum and one of founders had a neat gimmick that got kids attention. He asked them to name some product that had nothing to do with mining. He'd then rattle off a number of things that are mined to make that product. So for a truck the oil and gas are from an oil well. The steel comes from an iron mine and the copper in the electrical wires comes from a copper mine. So have the kids try to name a product that doesn't use chemistry. 

Another thing that has always bugged me is the perception of the general public about "chemicals." It seems that the public believes that only things created in some chemical processing plant are chemicals. Well table salt is a chemical. Sugar is a chemical. A strawberry is a bag of water with a zillion chemicals in it. Take a vitamin tablet? The tablet is full of chemicals that our bodies need. Our bodies run on chemistry. So chemicals are all around us.