Louie – MagicShow.Tips

La Galeria Vanishing Bird Cages

The first vanishing bird cage that I had was a La Galleria and was given to me when I was a teenager. It has broken bars and while I used it for years, the broken bars were a challenge. I eventually had it repaired and it worked great!

Recently one popped up for sale that was in great shape, so I bought it. Here it is on the left next to my old one on the right:

My old one collapses really well, it’s got a nice action to it. The one I just got doesn’t really collapse well. It’s like the hinges that hold the large side bars on it are slightly too big and you almost have to fight the cage to get it to collapse, and when it does it’s not as slim as it could be.

I’m glad I have my original cage as it works much better, and I’m not judging this version of the vanishing bird cage on the recently acquired one. It’s nice to add another to my collection, but that one will be a collection piece and not a working one for me!

-Louie

Magic in Theory – Book

In Portland OR there’s the legendary Powell’s Books. They have new and used books and their magic section always has something of interest to me! Last time I was there I picked up the book Magic in Theory by Peter Lamont and Richard Wiseman.

Magic in Theory by Peter Lamont and Richard Wiseman

This book is interesting in that it breaks down magic to step by step actions and explains those actions. I’m only on about page 50, so that’s what I’m getting so far.

This book isn’t specifically written for magicians, so it’s a bit clunky as they try to not reveal methods. I think the book would be better if it was written for magicians, or for non-magicians, but trying to straddle that line I feel makes the book not quite hit as hard as it could. There’s great information in it that’s dumbed down so low that I think magicians would gloss over some of the authors observations.

It’s a good read and a deal at what I paid for it as a used book. So far, it’s worth a peek if you can find a cheap copy!

-Louie

Magic Collector Expo – Sessions

The Magic Collector Expo had many great sessions! These ranged from peoples experiences in shows, talks about magicians they knew or worked with and even a talk about collecting!

All of the presentations were well thought out and highlight with pictures and video on the projection screen.

If you’re into magic history, you should check out one of these events!

-Louie

Cemetery Tour Guide

When I was in New Orleans with the family and one of the things we did was a cemetery tour. The first thing that he did was tell us about himself and his connection to the city.

That’s something that many magicians miss, they don’t tell the audience about them or their connection to whatever they’re doing onstage. When you start performing on a more national scale, the “where you’re from” becomes a lot more important. It doesn’t need to be a while chunk of your show, sometime it can be a little aside about being from where ever.

The one thing that I didn’t like, but it’s a common tour guide and magician joke was at the end he was asking us to review him. He said, “if you didn’t like the tour my name is Joe, if you did like the tour my name is _____“. There’s a lot wrong with that joke, first of all you shouldn’t use anyone else’s name in your closing remarks if you want the audience to remember your name. The tour guide is a great example, in the hack line above I left his name blank, and that’s because I remember the fake name he said, but not his real one. The line got a laugh, but in the long run it hurt him as I can’t leave him a positive review because I don’t remember his name.

It was a short term win (laugh) with a long term loss (me not remembering his name). If you use this line, you really consider if using that line is worth it the little laugh it gets. If that line gets a huge laugh in your show, you really should reexamine your show to find out why your other lines aren’t getting the same reaction as the stolen line (if you didn’t write it, or have permission from the person who wrote it to use it, it’s stolen).

-Louie

Magic Collector Expo – Show

The last night of the Magic Collector Expo was their dinner and show. For hotel banquet food, the dinner was good!

The show was three acts, and opened with James Dimmare doing his solo act. This was his solo act, not the dove act he does with an assistant. Having seen the dove act several times over the years and it’s fantastic, the solo is just OK compared to the dove act.

There was a big challenge for Dimmare was that he couldn’t use fire and does candles in the act. When it came time for him to light the first candle, he took out the lighter, struck it and verbally said “fire”. He then did the portion of his act that uses candles without fire. The fire on the candles really makes the multiplying candle trick amazing, when they appear lit. Unfortunately it really fell flat without them lit. That said, it was probably a condition that was dropped on him at the last minute and sometimes you just have to do it as best you can.

Next up was John Carney. When I was a teenager in the mid 1990’s it was very difficult to see a magicians show. You had to catch them performing in your area. When I was a teenager I found a VHS tape of John Carney doing his show. I must have watched it hundreds of times.

He did a few routines that were on that VHS tape, they’re his work horse routines!

I got pulled up onstage to help him with a trick.

It was super fun, but also stressful. I knew the trick/routine really well from watching that VHS tape. I’m not a good actor, but I tried to act surprised at all the right spots!

Closing the show was Mac King.

Mac has been consistently working his show in Vegas for years and really shows. He comes out with a big smile and does great, even in a room full of people who have probably seen his show a dozen times!

It was a fun show and a nice slice of three very different styles of performing.
-Louie

Trick Supply in Las Vegas

During a break in the Magic Collector Expo, Brian, Brett, Terry, Chris and I headed over to Trick Supply in Las Vegas. Wolfgang the owner who was running the booth at the expo said it was “10 mins away”, so we hopped in a 20 minute $40 Uber to his shop’s location.

It was worth the trip! The show was run by Doug Conn and it’s a super well stocked magic shop, we all picked up a few things.

Personally I love production items, I’m not sure why, but I do. I was looking at this skull, light bulb and corn.

I ended up buying the light bulb and the corn. I’m not sure how I’m going to use the corn, but I have an idea for the light bulb.

If you’re in the Las Vegas area, it’s a great shop and totally worth a stop!

-Louie

Magic Collector Expo Dealer’s Room

Here’s a little peek at the dealer’s room at the Magic Collector Expo:

There’s more, I just took those pics as the doors opened and not all the dealers were set up yet. Lots of books and posters, as for props there was a lot of smaller things. I didn’t see a lot of bigger props, it could be that many of the dealers and attendees flew in, so it’s harder to move those larger props around.

I picked up a few things (so far):

Nothing super crazy. The main things are the blue 28 foot streamer, which will be in my summer show. I was planning on producing a 36 inch silk, but the streamer will have a bigger impact as a lot of the volume of a square silk is lost.

The other thing I will use is the Ali-Baba box in half dollar size. I have a quarter size and it’s just too small, so the half dollar size is a nice upgrade for the routine that I do.

The other things are for me to mess around with.

-Louie

Magic Collector Expo

The only magic convention I’m going to this year is the Magic Collector Expo. My wife says I’m officially an old man that I’m going to this instead of one that’s got the “latest and greatest” stuff. I do like those conventions, but this one worked with my schedule as most other magic conventions are in the summer that is my busy season.

This convention started yesterday as in at The Orleans casino in Las Vegas. I got into town yesterday just in time for the first session. The sessions here are mostly historical talks or things relevant to collectors.

Personally I really like these types of talks. The speakers were telling personal stories of their relationship with the people and collections. I like that style of presentation more than a totally historical talk about someone that’s been dead for 150 years. I will still watch and enjoy the purely historical talk, I just prefer when the person is telling personal stories.

I really liked Bill Schmeelk’s talk about how he got into working as a machinest and doing that for Owen Magic, John Gaughan, and starting Wellington Enterprises! I really like the stories about the different personalities and what they quirks were and the “conflicts” that different builders had with each other.

I use Rich Marotta’s Rat Trap trick, which is one that Wellington used to make. Unfortunately as far as I know that prop is currently unavailable.

After the sessions I made it to the dealer room. I’ll write about that another time. If you’re into vintage props and the stories behind them, you should check out one of these expos!!

-Louie

Apple Air Tag Saved Me!

AirTag in my wallet saved my butt last week!

Recently I left my wallet on the desk in the motel room. I got 2 blocks away and got the alert on my phone that I left it.

If I didn’t get that alert, I probably would have been 2-3 hours away and noticed that I didn’t have my wallet when I went to get gas!

Something people don’t think about is what would you do if you lost your wallet while performing for multiple days while on the road. I keep an credit card that’s not on me with my gear in case my wallet gets lost, in addition to keeping enough cash to fill my gas tank on hand. For longer distances, I try to keep enough cash on hand for gas to get me home. This is insurance for unplanned things like losing my wallet.

-Louie

Magic Collector Expo

Today I’m travelling from New Orleans, Louisiana to The Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas for the Magic Collector Expo!

I’ve realized that I’m officially an old magician because I’m going to this. It’s also a sign that I’m into the history of the magic tricks and props. I’ve always been into the history, but the props is a more recent thing in the last decade or so. I’ve always been into the old magic props, but having the money and space to collect and display them has only been about the last 10 years.

This should be a fun few days and if you’re at the expo, be sure to say HI!

-Louie