magic books – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Trying to Read More

I’m trying to do a lot more reading in my free time. I have a huge stack of things to go through and I just started reading From Witchcraft to Card Tricks by Stephen Minch.

This is a short paper backed book follows the history of card and close up magic and it’s very interesting! Lots of things that became popular 200 years after they were first invented. It’s a real eye opener, ever you wonder who invented the double lift or at least the first place it appeared in print? This book answers that!

I totally recommend it if you’re a magic nerd like me!

-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

The Fog Machine of War by Matt Disero

On a recent flight I read The Fog Machine of War by Matt Disero. This a great book full of short essays / stories by Matt about his career and experience as a full time comedy magician.

There’s a ton of great stories in the book, but the value of the book is the advice. It goes from everything from working with agents, to using production elements, to trying out new material onstage.

There’s tons to learn from Matt’s failures, which he openly shares. Failures are things that magicians don’t talk about enough, especially in print. With magicians and their egos, most put out the facade that they always crush every show and have never bombed. Matt opens up about bad shows and that’s were the learning happens.

I highly recommend The Fog Machine of War if you’re a comedy magician of any level!

-Louie

Do a Back Flip

My friends that do roving acts like stilt walkers or unicycle have mentioned to me that kids the last year or so ask them to “do a back flip“. I think this is a Tik Tok thing, but I’m not positive. They’ve tried to come up with something witty to say, but really there’s no where to go with that and it’s something completely unrelated to what they do.

It’s never happened to me…until last week. I wanted to come up with something to do, so here’s what I came up with:

@louiefoxx Do a Back Flip! #doabackflip #backflipchallenge #backflip #louiefoxx #magic #magictrick, #surpriseending #old #magician #cardtrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Here’s the problem, by rewarding them saying that, it could simple open the door to them yelling more in the show. Also, I should be clear that I don’t consider a kid asking me to do a back flip a heckle. It’s really not malicious, they’re having fun…but it’s still an interruption in the show and I don’t want to encourage that.

Since I made that card, I haven’t had someone ask me to do a back flip, so I don’t know how it plays, or if it encourages interruptions. The nice thing is that it doesn’t take up any space, so it’s not a big deal to have with me during the show.

If I ever get to use it, I’ll report back on what happens…

-Louie

Packing Small and Playing Big…

Right now I’m reading Doc Dixon’s book The Show is the Mother of Invention. It’s about having a show that you can take as carry on luggage onto a plane and making that stuff play big. I’m about 2/3’s of the way through it right now and I really like it!

The show is the mother of invention by doc dixon

For me this is a very interesting read as I do travel a lot, both by car and by plane. Even when travelling by car, it’s important to try to pack small, or at least efficiently!

I used to be a “Pack as small as your artistic vision will allow you to…” sort of person. That led me to travelling around the country with a four foot metal spoon that required it’s own case! And that prop was used only for a 15 second gag! I’m no longer that person, I still have that spoon and case, and can do the routine whenever I want, but the it’s not currently in my show.

Doc’s book has a lot of strategies for getting more time out of what you already have, and how to make small things play larger. There are many techniques that I already do, that I didn’t know were techniques, like telling stories about what’s happened when you did the trick at another show.

Making a show that I can hand carry onto a plane is something that I’ve been playing with for a while now and you can see my current version at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/tag/carry-on-magic-show/

One thing that’s important to me is texture. I don’t want the show to feel like it was designed to fit into a case…even though it was. For example one of the things that’s in my show is my Applause Please trick, which is an applause sign that’s part of a larger routine. This is technically an “illusionette” in that it’s bigger than a hand held item, yet smaller than a zig zag. This prop has a lot of negative space that I can use to fill with other things when it’s packed up.

In addition to confirming what I was already doing, I’ve learned several new things that make Doc Dixon’s book totally worth buying for me! If packing smaller and getting more mileage out of what you already are doing is something that interests you, I highly recommend getting this book!

Louie

Magic Books for Sale!

I’ve just added some magic books to the Used Magic page on this blog.

I’ll be adding more soon, and there’s only one of each and when it’s gone, it’s gone. So if you need any of these for your collection, order them now!

https://www.magicshow.tips/used-magic-for-sale/

-Louie

Notes From a Fellow Traveller by Derren Brown

A while ago I ordered Derren Brown‘s book Notes From a Fellow Traveller and its finally shipped!

derren brown notes from a fellow traveller

I’m super excited to get this book, I’m a huge fan of Derren’s and from what I’ve heard from people who have already gotten their books, it that it’s a great book.

-Louie

Queen Ace Transpo!

It feels like it’s taking me for ever to get through the Vallarino book!

One of the tricks in the transposition section is an Queen / Ace Transposition. I think JP Vallarino made it a little too complex. Here’s my streamlined version of it:

@louiefoxx Fast Card Trick! #fourqueens #fouraces #cardtrick #magictrick @bicyclecardsofficial #louiefoxx #jpvallarino #vallarino #vanishinginc #magicbook #cardmagic #sleightofhand ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s a super quick swap of the two packets. It’d be a good transition bit, it’s not a full routine on it’s own.

-Louie

Giant Linking Safety Pins

Years ago I built a set of soft pins for the linking pins trick out of giant 5 inch safety pins. These aren’t as easy to make as you’d think. There are a couple of challenges, like the safety pin take a lot of force to open and close. The tension on the spring make getting the pin over the lip a challenge to open and close the soft pin.

My solution was to cut off the lip of the safety pin, so that the the pin had less distance to travel, making it easier to open and close the soft pin.

That partially solved the problem the of opening and closing the soft pin. The final part was to shorten the needle of the pin, so that it was easier to load things on and off of the safety pin.

After that, the final alteration was to bend the pin so that it functioned like a traditional soft pin. I’ve been using these pins for years and they work great. I’ve seen in magic groups on the internet people ask about gimmicking these giant safety pins and other magicians say that you can’t. Those magicians are wrong and I’ve intentionally not really mentioned you could. I liked keeping this thing for me…or so I thought.

Recently while digging through a junk magic bin I found this:

Magic with Giant Pins by jose de la torre

In this book from 1994, Jose De La Torre came to almost the exact same solution as me…but 30 years before me! While I’m disappointed I’m not the first person to solve this problem, I’m also not surprised. Scaling it up in size logical extension of the close up linking safety pins.

-Louie

Vanishing Line

I really liked Ben Harris‘s book Bend it Like Geller! One little note is that my copy is missing a whole line!

There’s a spot for the line, however it looks like somehow it got deleted/removed during the printing process.

Vanishing Inc’s books recently have had some quality control issues like that. I think I’d care less if it was a self published book, and not something put out by one of the bigger magic companies. The JP Vallerino book also had some issues (http://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/hard-to-read/)

Aside from the missing line, Bend it Like Geller is still a fantastic book!

-Louie