November 2024 – MagicShow.Tips

Magic at Powell’s Books!

Powell’s Books legendary bookstore in Portland Oregon. They have a huge selection of new and more importantly used books. You never know what you’ll find there. I frequently pop in and take a peek at their magic section.

There are a ton of legit magic books there, from Card College, to Max Maven’s PRISM! Since these are used books selling on the normal used book market, there are some deals to be had!

For me the greatest thing was in the shelf there was a magic coloring book!

This was being sold as a magic book, there was not context for it and no instructions. I wonder how many people picked it up and and were confused by it…or possibly amazed if they flipped though it and it was blank. Then wondered why it was blank, and flipped again and it had pictures!

If you visit the Portland OR area, visiting Powell’s books is worth a stop!

-Louie

Portland SAM #59

Last week I visited the Society of American Magicians Assembly #59 in Portland, OR. I love magic clubs, and it’s time for me to formally join this one. I’m currently not a member of the national Society of American Magicians, so I need to do that before I can be a member of the local assembly.

I think that of the barriers to entry with magic clubs is having to join the national and the local magic club. It looks like national SAM dues are $65 and the local club is $35, so it’s $100 to get involved. That’s a lot of money for someone who is just starting out in magic. However I do understand why the money is needed, and there is value to the $100. If someone starting in magic actually read the magazines and went to the meetings there’s more than $100 in value.

Society of American Magicians Assembly #59 in Portland, OR

After the magic club meeting, a few of us went down the street for a beer to keep magic jamming!

I’m a HUGE supporter of magic clubs as they helped me a lot growing up and I want to help them succeed. You should support your local magic club!

-Louie

The Turkey Hand!

Every year I post this trick on Thanksgiving. It’s a good example of adding a theme to a trick that already exists.

The idea for this trick is in a Jim Steinmeyer book. For holidays, look at what you already do and look for logical connections then make the trick!

Another great book with math principles for things like this is Body Mentalism by Juan Pablo Ibañez.

-Louie

Lightbulb Eating Routine

Recently I was in a show with sideshow performer who did glass eating, and that inspired me to write a routine for glass (lightbulb) eating. I should say that I’ve seen this act many times, so I may have accidentally written a line that’s existed before and a couple of the lines are pretty obvious, so might be used by other performers. With that in mind, as far as I know this is an original script for someone eating a light bulb.

To set the scene, let’s the the performer just did a dangerous stunt before this.

That was intense! Let’s do something lighter.
Bring out lightbulb
I’m going to eat this lightbulb and poop out a chandelier! This is a 40 watt bulb, I used to do 100 watt, but I’m on a diet!
Take out spray bottle of glass cleaner and give it a spray and wipe it off with a paper towel.
If anyone wants some after the show, I brought a doggie bag.
Take out paper bag and put the lightbulb into it.
Ladies and gentlepeople, it’s hammer time!
Take out hammer, and break the bulb through the bag.
Mozel Tov!
I remember the first time I did this, I was a kid in my friends basement, listening to ACDC.
What were you expecting me to say…the Electric Light Orchestra?
Take out piece of glass and show it to the audience. Put it into your mouth and dramatically eat it.
Squirt the glass cleaner into your mouth, pause and look at the bottle. Open the bottle of glass cleaner and chug it!
Show your mouth to show it empty!

**DO NOT DRINK REAL GLASS CLEANER** use a safe blue liquid in the spray bottle.
***DO NOT DO THIS ROUTINE, IT’S DANGEROUS*** This was written as a writing exercise for me.

So that’s the routine, it should have a few laughs. It was fun to write and something I’ll never do. I don’t know why, but things like these that aren’t my show are way easier to write for than my actual show.

-Louie

My Favorite Cards!

With all of the specialty decks and different cuts or finishes on cards that are available to magicians now, what’s your favorite deck of cards?

For me, the best will always be a deck of Bicycle playing cards from the Cincinnati factory! You can’t beat them, they’re the best! Unfortunately they moved to Kentucky in 2009, so it’s been 15 years since these were made. You can still find them, and I actively seek them out when I travel.

What I love about the Cincinnati made cards is that they last a lot longer than the current cards. A deck of the current Bicycle cards will last me about an hour, where the older stock will last me days!

I’ve quietly amassed a large box of them. If they’re still sealed, then 98% of the time they’re perfect! Occasionally a sealed box will have some sort of moisture issue, but that’s rare.

I never pay more than $3 a box when I find them in out there in the wild (aka a junk shop). You can find these decks on ebay for about $5 a deck plus shipping, which I think is way to much.

If you find a deck, buy them and you’ll remember why these cards were soo great!

-Louie

Nick Trost’s Gemini Cards

Over on TikTok I post vintage magic tricks and a recent one that I did was Nick Trost’s Gemini Cards. Also, if you’re not following me over there please do, I’m at: https://www.tiktok.com/@louiefoxx

Gemini Cards is an Out of This World style of card trick. Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Will the cards match? #cardtrick #magictrick #cardmagic #shuffle #match #vintagemagic #nicktrost ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The trick is great, and a fooler. I was trying to think of what it could be done with that aren’t playing cards. Here are some ideas:

Cards with pictures of:
-Red/Black socks
-Cats and dogs

However I don’t want to use things that are pictures drawn on playing cards. So other objects that are “card like” in their natural state.

Here are some ideas:
-paint swatches
-number flash cards: evens and odds match each other
-photographs (maybe of my dog and cat)
-postcards: I have custom made “postcards from home” that I use for a torn and restored postcard routine. I could use those and postcards from exotic places.

I think that the Gemini Cards definitely has potential, just not sure how to use it!

-Louie

Flippy Triumph

For years I’ve been playing with flippy thing that I read in the book Underground Man by Lou Gallo. Here’s what it looks like:

Recently I’ve put in some dedicated time to get it pretty consistent. Then the next thing is to figure out what to do with the move. Lou Gallo uses it as part of a two card production. A while ago I came up with a four ace production that uses it, and I’ll write that up sometime.

The other trick I came up with using it is this:

@louiefoxx Always shuffle the cards! #cardtrick #magic #magictrick #shuffle #triumph #cards ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like this routine, it’s not harder than a traditional Triumph…once you learn to do the flip over move. I’ve been out doing this a lot recently and just wrote it up and it’ll be in the December Vanish Magazine!

-Louie

Protecting Your Original Magic!

Once a month I pop into popular online market places like eBay to see if there are any counterfeit or knock off products of mine. It’s been a while since one has been on eBay, but one recently popped up.

This particular eBay listing violated two parts of my registered intellectual property. The first was in the description it used my ad copy, which I registered with the US Copyright office.

Sites like eBay or AliExpress will pull stuff faster and 100% of the time (at least in my experience) when you have a registration number. I filed a copyright claim with eBay, which is super simple and takes less than 5 minutes.

Within about 48 hours I got an email from eBay confirming the item was removed!

Super simple, I’m surprised more magicians don’t file their ad copy and art with the US Copyright Office. It costs about $70 to file it and get your registration number.

Oh, the second way that this listing was violating my intellectual property was that “Louie Foxx” is trademarked, so the listing was violating my trademark. I could have included this violation with the copyright claim but didn’t. I like to save that one in case the item pops back up with different text, but still uses my name in the title or anywhere in the listing. I can get them a second strike for violating IP.

-Louie
PS Another good resource is Sara Crasson’s book Own Your Magic A Magicians Guide to Protecting Your Intellectual Property, which covers patents, trademarks, and copyrights. I highly recommend this book!

Splitting Creamer

While I was a hotel, I accidentally discovered you can split a coffee creamer lid!

How would I use this?

Essentially you could reseal something inside the creamer pod and keep the integrity of the original seal.

Do what you want with this new found knowledge!
-Louie

Go to the Light!

When I was at the a booking conference last week, I took a coupe of pictures of a music duo that was playing. The guy in the center was playing way too far forward, and was in the dark.

In the picture it looks better than it did in person, in person he was totally in the dark! You can see the difference in the next picture when he took a few steps backwards.

Being in the “hot” area makes a huge difference. Many years ago comedian Jim Wiggins (RIP) gave me a talk about making sure that I was in the light and how much of a difference it makes. I do my best to try to stay in the light, and it always helps if there’s an act before you that you can watch were they’re lit and where they’re in the dark!

Stay in the light!
-Louie