Month: February 2023

About the Vanishing Birdcage

I recently got an email asking questions about the Vanishing Birdcage and I figured it might be helpful to more than just the person who emailed me, so here it is:

I see that you have a lot of knowledge about the vanishing bird cage. My dad used to do a little stage magic and this was my favorite! My son is now an aspiring young magician and I’d like to get him this trick. He’s been working on his technique for several years but is still only 11. I know this trick takes a lot of practice. I do not want to spend the thousands to get him a professional cage, but I also don’t want him to be discouraged (or cut!) by an inexpensive and poorly made cage while he learns. I’ve read through several threads on Magic Cafe and it seems most of the Indian cages can be dangerous, although there might be one or two that are ok. It also looks like I need to avoid any with loops?

I am writing to ask if you can recommend any websites, manufacturers, things to look for, things to avoid- any advice at all?

Let’s start with the safety of cages. Yes, they can cut you, but I honestly don’t think that’s really a huge concern. Anything that can cut you can also snag in your sleeve, so you should be inspecting your cage and finding those spots and eliminating them. I check my cages how Billy McComb did, by running a silk over them to find any thing that would snag in my sleeve. Tommy wonder did something similar with a piece of string. I have a couple of the Indian vanishing cages from various eras in my collection and I never really noticed any of them having any wires sticking out (that doesn’t mean that they don’t have any). The bigger concern with the newer Indian cages is that they are super heavy, and this makes the vanish more difficult. If getting cut is a concern go for an Abbott’s style cage with the red ribbon on it. I don’t think Abbotts is making them right now, but they frequently pop up used and should run about $100ish. There’s one on ebay right now for $275, and I DO NOT recommend paying that much for it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/394381494169

There are some totally usable vanishing cages with the loops on the bars. The Milson Worth Vanishing Birdcages with the brass bars work fine and that’s the cage that the Indian Vanishing Birdcages are modelled after. A Milson Worth cage will run about $100-$150. There’s one on ebay right now for $95 and looks decent: https://www.ebay.com/itm/314214210186

The bigger issue is size. I’m 5’8, so average height, but to pull full size cage like the Owen Vanishing Cage or even a full size Abbott cage up your sleeve may be the biggest challenge for an 11 year old. I’d recommend trying to find a small Abbotts cage or the Milson Worth cage as they’re smaller than the “standard” cages. Personally I used a National Magic and Owen Cage and were a bit too big for me, and about a year ago I switched to a Riser/Summers Baby Lindy Cage which is smaller and it works a lot better for me! However the price tag on the baby lindy cage is a lot, and it’s not really what I would recommend for a first cage.

With all of that information, I would lean towards the $95 one that’s on ebay if it was a purchase that you wanted to make now. If you are willing to wait an hunt around a bit, then a small Abbotts vanishing cage.

Hope that helps

-Louie

Creating Custom Gimmicks

I just wrapped up building a custom prop for another magician. I don’t know if people know what goes into creating props. Below are the first three attempts at making part of the prop, I forgot to take a picture of the forth and final version.

The first version which is on the left, was kinda my “proof of concept” version and it let me know that the idea was solid.

The middle version was a slight tweak, where the slot is bigger, but that brought me to a second challenge, the top needed to taper in. I also realized I has a little more room to play with with the prop, so I extended the gimmick.

The third version on the right, fit great, but internally I discovered there was a “pinch point”, so I had to go back and to a quick redesign, which led me to the fourth and final version (not pictured).

Looking back, the second version was clunky, but functional. The third version didn’t really work, but the final version worked soo much better than second version. I’m glad I pushed forward to get it to the final version!

If you’ve got a custom prop you are looking to get made, contact me and we can chat about it!

-Louie

Money Paddle!

A while ago I bought a money paddle that was made from wood that was reclaimed from Houdini’s house in New York. I really don’t like the money paddle, but having one got me to play with it a little bit and I came up with a couple of ideas that weren’t standard.

the first uses money on the paddle, but the effect is slightly different:

@louiefoxx Houdini VS Andrew Jackson! #houdini #andrewjackson #magictrick #funfacts #fakefacts #escapeartist #closeupmagic #sleightofhand #louiefoxx #twentybucks ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The second idea is a better and more original idea:

@louiefoxx Spoon Optical Illusion #spoon #opticalillusion #magic #louiefoxx #magician #magictrick #what #surpriseending @seattlekraken #sleightofhand #wtf ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This was a fun to play with and I have a few more ideas for the money paddle that eventually I’ll get around to recording.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Paul Draper

The Moisture Festival is proud to introduce Paul Draper to the Moisture Festival family! This will be Paul’s first year with us and we’re excited to have him!

In this episode we learn what a house magician is, the ins and outs of hosting a séance and even touch on Paul hanging out with cannibals! This is an enlightening and fun episode!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Valentines Day Magic Trick!

Last night I was trying to come up with some ideas for a Valentine’s Day magic trick for social media. I had some ideas, one was a touch the screen type trick, another was a rose pedal to confetti as well as a couple of other pretty generic ideas.

The one idea that I liked enough to actually record was this:

@louiefoxx Happy Valentines Day! #valentinesday #candyhearts #conversationhearts #sweethearts #magictrick #magic #louiefoxx #magician #closeupmagic #surpriseend ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

There’s not much to it, it’s my Take Out Production Box made from a box of Valentine’s Day candy. The shape of the candy box had a couple of challenges to covert to a production box, but it was fun little challenge!

I frequently say that holidays or national days are great days to be creative and try to come up with new tricks around that theme. Some days you’ll simply put new clothes on something old, and other times you’ll come up with something completely new!

-Louie
PS Follow me on Tik Tok at: https://www.tiktok.com/@louiefoxx

Gotta Keep Inspired

On Saturday night I headlined a bar gig with a few comedians. The feature act was Morgan Colis and she had written a whole chunk of material about magicians because she was working with me. She went as far as to borrow a coat from her grandma for one of the jokes.

Things like that remind me that I’m not working as hard as I used to. Years ago when I was younger, I’d research all of the other acts I was working with, write venue, city, act specific jokes or bits for the gig. I don’t do that very often anymore, especially for a one off gig.

Working with younger acts (by younger I mean performers who are newer) reminds me that I need to work harder to keep up with the “kids”. There are many performers that phone it in the back half of their career, and it’s passable, then there are acts that keep working on their show.

I want to be one that keeps working on their show…

-Louie

Always Learning…

When I was on vacation in Australia in November, we visited Sydney’s Chinatown. There was a guy there cutting silhouette portraits, and I had mine done. In the past and still occasionally I’ve cut portraits at gigs, it’s a great little skill to have, but to be totally honest, I have no idea how to sell it.

OK, back to the guy in Sydney, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of his sign, but it was $2 Australian dollars for a portrait, or just about $1.10 US.

He cut it quick, and his display looked nice and he did it really quick.

The silhouette doesn’t really look like me, but it was fun to get it done and totally worth about a dollar!

I’ve always said you can learn a lot from simply watching people who do what do, no matter their skill level or what you view as their skill level. Here’s what I learned from him:

1: He had a great display that clearly said what he did, how much it cost and how long it would take.

2: He cut on a vinyl with and adhesive back and stuck it to the card at the end.

The adhesive backed vinyl is very smart, it eliminates the need for glue, which then eliminates the need for a table. It also saves times. If I ever try to sell the silhouette portraits again, I’ll probably experiment with using something with an adhesive back.

-Louie

Prestige Mentalism Trick as an Opener

The show I did last month for school assemblies opened with a flash opener, that’s not really a trick, but something visual and exciting. Then the first actual magic trick in the show is the Prestige trick. This is a mentalism trick where you have 5 numbered cards with different things written on them and someone picks one and what’s written on the back of that number is your force.

Here’s what the trick looks like:

How I’m making the trick work for kids is that I’m building a pattern of the same thing on all of the cards, then shattering the pattern with the revelation of something different. This is basically how a joke is structured, you build an assumption (set up) and then you change that assumption (punchline). This is a structure that kids can understand and that’s why it works.

Another thing that makes this effective is how direct it is for the selection of the item, because the number is a free choice. There’s nothing complicated like with the PATEO force or that feels strange like with the hotrod force. The effect how I do it would lose impact if I had a process heavy force, and it definitely wouldn’t work in the opening spot in the show if I had to use a lot of procedure.

I really dig this trick, it works out great for me.

-Louie

Asking Questions…

One of the huge lesson I learned last month on the school assembly tour that I was on was how to get more our of the people who helped me onstage. Basically I just asked a lot of questions. The questions aren’t random, and I have preplanned joke responses for some answers, but I’m looking for thing that I can use to create a real live moment.

The other thing I learned is not to jump in too quickly with my response, especially if I already have a joke answer to what the kid says. You need to let the kid’s answer land with the audience, then hit your response. If you reply too quickly, the audience doesn’t have time to process, but I think it also feels less real and in the moment.

Take your time.

-Louie

Coin Flourish

I’ve always thought Charlie Frye‘s trick Frye’s Chips was a great little flourishy thing. I didn’t like that I was made as a poker chip and not a coin. A little while ago I found a coin that I could do the flourish with and finally put together the gimmick:

@louiefoxx Lazy day got me practicing dumb stuff! #balance #cointrick #magic #numistmatist #practice #closeupmagic ♬ I Can’t Stop (Ekali Tribute) – Flux Pavilion

After trying it out, I do like it with a coin much more than a poker chip!

-Louie