September 2023 – MagicShow.Tips

Coin Transposition Routine

I’m still tweaking my routine with the Craig Petty’s Apparition Coin set. I was trying to eliminate the phases that use the coin purse. I ended up with a three phase routine, however it lacked the punch of the four phase routine that had the coin purse. Once I put the coin purse back in, it immediately was getting better reactions.

Here’s what the routine looks like:

I think the first phase is like a “flash opener” to a stage act. It’s a great visual moment, and sets people up for the transpositions that they are about to see. I’m glad I tested it both ways and have found the best way to do the routine!

-Louie

Larger Size Evaporation Magic Trick Available Again!

I’m excited to say that the old, larger size of the Evaporation trick will be available again soon! The original 16 oz bottles haven’t been available for a long time, but I’ve just found a bunch of them, so I’m making up a batch of about a hundred of them soon!

I should have these bottles gimmicked in the next couple of days and they’ll be available on my website and shipped out to Murphy’s Magic, so available at your favorite dealer soon!

-Louie

Scripting Magic Vol 2

I just started reading Scripting Magic Vol 2 by Pete McCabe on a flight recently. One interesting thing that he does in the book is lays out a trick and asks how you would turn it into a performance piece, or what you would do with it.

One of the tricks he does this with is a mathematical trick using matches. Essentially you can control the number of matches in the middle pile of three piles where you don’t know how many total matches there are and don’t need to look at the matches. There’s only a few steps to the math, and they aren’t that complex.

Following the exercise, before I read the routine I wrote out a little routine of my own for the trick. Here it is:

My wife says I can gamble on anything. Duh, I’m Chinese, we gamble, squat and smoke.

The greatest bet I ever lost was to my bok bok… uncle Frank.

He’d gamble on anything…the lottery, the horse track eating at a BBQ restaurant in a white neighborhood.

I’m going to show you our final bet and my last memory of him.

Here grab that pack of matches off the hostess stand, or first full of Pennies from the jar at the counter.

He wrote on the dinner bill the 3 moves he’d make. He’d committed to those

(Take out old receipt)

The rules are simple, if we tie he wins. Anything other than a tie and I win.

Make three equal piles…I have no idea how many there are, so if there’s a remainder, put it in your pocket, so you have something to show for it.

No matter what he gets the middle pile.

Give me a number 1-9

(Nail write adjustment)

Wow, that’s the same number I said!

His middle pile will be a tie with your number, not more, not less.

(Follow instructions on reciept)

We tied and all I have to show for it was this receipt for dinner…and over 40 years of memories

That’s the routine that I wrote, keep in mind I wrote it in the notes app on my phone on the flight, so it’s probably got some errors. The point is to not just read the book, but to actually do the work.

-Louie

Apparition Coin Set

When I was at Stevens Magic Emporium a few weeks ago and picked up Craig Petty’s Apparition coin set, it got me doing coin magic again. For some reason I had stopped doing it in my close up set. One of the reasons that I had stopped was pocket space, there’s not a neat way to keep four silver dollars and a shell in your pocket along with everything else I need in my pockets.

The thing that getting the Apparition set got me to do was use a coin purse. Honestly, I’m against using a coin purse, as it’s not something that people see anymore. It might as well be a change bag, it resembles something older people see.

Think about it, when was the last time you saw someone use a coin purse that wasn’t a magician?

The Apparition coin set is a neat little bundle in my pocket, so I needed to figure out how to justify the coin purse. Then it hit me, it was one simple line, “This is my Nana’s coin purse, can you guess what’s inside?”

That’s it.

That line solved the problem, now it’s not a strange prop.

I will say that as I’ve been using the gaffed coins, I’ve really phased out using the coin purse as a gimmick and it’s simply a holder for the coins. I think I’m going to go out and find a cool, vintage coin purse for my current coin routine to give it a bit more character.

-Louie

Four Nightmares DX – Rope Routine

One of the tricks that I’ve always wanted in my show is a rope trick but I’ve have trouble making them work in my show. I think part of why rope tricks don’t fit is partially my performing style and part trying to find the framework for the trick. I have trouble finding the “why” I’m sharing a rope trick with the audience.

Recently I was playing with Daryl’s Rope Routine and while it’s a great routine for Daryl, it really doesn’t fit me AND one it has a Professor’s Nightmare phase. While I think that Professor’s Nightmare is a good trick, it’s way too overdone and I don’t want visuals that are common in my show. Unfortunately not doing the Professor’s Nightmare phase in Daryl’s Rope Routine cuts the routine in half and the routine lacks something…which is a second half!

A couple of years ago I remember Ken Scott doing a rope routine called Four Nightmares DX at a virtual magic convention. There’s a video of Ken doing it on his website, and here’s the video of it that I could find on YouTube:

What I like about this routine is that it can be done solo onstage, so you don’t need to bring someone onstage to help you like in most cut and restored rope routines. It’s also has a lot of effects that are pretty visual and fairly different. Lots of effects using the knot, but they are different effects with the knots!

My fear with this trick is that its’ something that I will end up liking, but then it will become unavailable. Also keeping the rope clean and white. If I end up liking this routine, I’ll have to learn to make my own gimmicked rope.

-Louie

Giant Dice Hat Load

A couple weeks ago when I was roving I threw a giant die into my bag. I was going to play with a hat load to produce it. I’ve done hat loads in the past and familiar with many techniques to get the giant die into my hat. I didn’t have a plan for the load, I just used the appropriate technique at the right time and if that opportunity didn’t present itself.

Here’s a highlight reel of some close up and the giant die production is in it:

I don’t know if this is something that I’ll actually add to my show, but it was fun to play with for a few days!

-Louie

Learning to Perform in Spanish

Recently I’ve been and will be working a lot in Arizona and California. There’s huge Hispanic population down here and I’ve been trying to work on doing parts of my show in Spanish. I’m not good at it, but showing that I’m trying goes a long way endear myself to audiences that may not speak English well.

It’s not a bad idea to learn bits of your show in another language, it makes you a lot more versatile if you’re a talking act. I’m getting to the point where I can communicate ideas in Spanish, not really do the full routines, but can get the point across.

It’s also fun when I say things wrong or when the audience corrects my pronunciation. It shows that what’s happening is real and opens the show up to some unexpected moments.

Awhile ago a juggler friend of mine said, “If you don’t know two languages, you’re lazy” and I agree with him. It’s soo easy to learn a little bit of a second language and you don’t need much to start putting bits into your show!

-Louie

ProMystic 50/50

ProMystic just put out a new trick called 50/50 and it’s great! It’s basically a location of someone holding a stack of your money.

The base routine is someone out of a group holds some money of yours. You say you’re betting your money that you can find it. You then narrow down the group until you have one person left and they have your money.

What I like about the routine is that it really fills the stage with a few bills. It also has a feeling of a chance of failure and while the method isn’t 100% is is 99.9% surefire. There is a strange scenario that I can imagine where it could fail, but it’s very unlikely.

I’ve done this three times as preshow and it’s worked great! I need to do some writing and hopefully can move it into the show soon!

-Louie

Obedient Walnut

A few months ago I found some Obedient Walnut tricks in a bin of junk magic at a magic shop. This is a version of a classic trick where you have an object with a string running through it, in this case it’s a plastic walnut. As the walnut slides down the string, it stops whenever you want it to.

Honestly, from a magic perspective, it’s not really a good trick, it’s pretty obvious how it works. I did pick up three of them out of the junk bin as I had an idea for a routine with them. The routine is an interesting idea, but still a bad trick.

I did it once, it confirmed it’s not the best idea or trick and now I can throw away the Obedient Walnuts.

-Louie

No 25 Gilbert Mysto Magic Show Set!

Recently when I was travelling, I came across this magic set in a junk shop

And here’s the picture of the lower tray

They really don’t make magic sets like this anymore. Everything has it’s own neat package, there’s some glass props, if I had the space to properly display it, it’d probably be more interested in it. However I think a bit overpriced at $795! I’m not a magic kit collector, but based on the people I talked to it priced about double what it’s worth.

-Louie