magic show tips – MagicShow.Tips

The Handbook for School Assembly Performers by John Abrams

A couple of months ago John Abrams sent me a review copy of his new book The Handbook For School Assembly Performers and it’s fantastic!

I think this is a fantastic book, and as someone who has a done a ton of school assemblies, I learned a lot from the book!

Here’s the blurb I wrote for the book:

Holy cow, I wish I had this book when I started doing school assemblies a couple of decades ago! It would have knocked off about 3+ years from the learning curve.

The book reveals one of the biggest mysteries of school assemblies, “What is a teachers guide and how to I create one”. Then John also covers the nuts and bolts of actually doing the gig from when you wake up to the marketing calendar after the gig is completed.

One huge thing for me, which I’ve never read about is how to deal with “burn out” when you’ve done a ton of shows, and he give you some great strategies to keep it fresh! If you’ve ever thought of going into the school assembly market, this book will take you from 0-60 in no time!

If you are interested in performing in schools, or doing some sort of educational or themed program for kids, this book is a will help you a ton! Even if you’ve already done hundreds of school shows, this book will have a few things or approaches you didn’t think of or don’t do.

I highly recommend The Handbook For School Assembly Performers!

-Louie

Applause Please 2: The Encore

I’m excited that I should have another batch of Applause Please 2: The Encore ready in early November! This is my Object in Lightbulb routine. You get the props for two routines; Liquid in Lightbulb and Silk in Lightbulb, plus a couple of ideas for other routines with it.

The applause boxes are being made by Ackerly Builds (Phil Ackerly) and look great so far! I can’t wait for them to be completely finishes, so that I can add the electronics and a few other parts and start shipping them out!

There are only a dozen available in this batch and you can get them at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/applause-please-2-the-encore/

-Louie

The Big 10 Vanishing Bird Cage

I was chatting with my friend who makes vanishing bird cages and he was showing me picture of his Big 10 vanishing cage. The picture below is a normal full size (Owen) cage on the left and the Big 10 on the right.

What’s crazy is that the Big 10 cage is actually smaller when collapsed!

I use one of his smaller cages in my school assembly show Incredible Idioms® and I love it!! He makes great cages, and if you’re in the market for a vanishing birdcage, shoot me a note and I can get you in touch with him!

-Louie

3d Printing a Vintage Magic Trick

Sometimes I see a picture of a magic trick and try to figure out what it does. Someone posted this picture of a box in a magic group on social media:

It’s a trick where you push the pins though a coin. I thought that this looked like a fun little 3d printing project, so I made a simple version of it. My version had a nested lid instead of a hinged lid.

And if you want to see it work, here’s a demo of it:

@louiefoxx What does it do? #mysterybox #coin #magic #cointrick #magictrick #3dprint #louiefoxx #nails #spike #figureitout #reveal ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is an easy 3d print as it’s only two parts. You just need the coin and four nails. If you’d like a copy of the .stl file to make your own, contact me and ask for it!

-Louie

Shutting Down a Distraction…

Over the summer I did something in a show I regretted. I was performing at a fair and there was a kid that kept coming to the show and was being a distraction. I can handle the 4H kids that come to the show everyday, but this kid would walk up to the front of the stage and block the audience and say things to me. Not things that were remotely relevant, but like, “use my pen” as he tried to hand me one of the novelty shocking pens that a booth at the fair was selling.

After numerous times telling him to “No” and to step away from the stage, it was being a huge distraction for the audiences over multiple shows. One show I took the clock that I use for a trick out of my case as asked him if he could read a clock like this. He said “yes”, and I asked him what time it showed. He told me and I said, “No, it’s time to sit down and shut up”! It got a huge laugh, and worked, the kid sat down and didn’t talk the rest of the show.

The laugh told me that the audience was on my side, but I didn’t feel good about it. The laugh didn’t move the show forward, sure it eliminated a speed bump. On stage that’s not my character, sure I’m edgy and snarky, but not mean. I honestly felt bad about it. However the kid showed up to my shows the rest of the week and sat through them quietly and enjoyed them.

I’m sure there would be a better way to get the kid to behave and in the moment I had to make a choice. I’m not sure what I would do in the future. If I waited till after the show and talked to the kid, the whole audience suffers for that show. The kid was making the show unwatchable.

Maybe that was the only solution? I don’t know. I still feel bad.

-Louie

3d Printing Vintage Magic Parts!

A couple of months ago I got a Leon’s Improved Glass Penetration by Merv Taylor.

Great Leon Glass Penetration by Merv Taylor

It appears it should have a dozen spikes, plus two hooked spikes, and mine only came with six. Five regular spikes and one of the hooked spikes. These are something that was custom made for the trick, so it’s not something I can just go to the hardware store and buy.

This is where my 3D printer comes in handy. I designed a replica of the spike and printed it out!

The test one came out great, now my next step it to print out a full set of them! I do still need to try to create the hooked spike. I’d like the set to match.

-Louie

Late Season Library Shows

Last week I did a run of library shows for an area where the kids were off school for conferences. Here’s my 50 minute show in 64 seconds:

@louiefoxx What a Magic Show at a library looks like! #magicshow #library #magician #wallawalla #LouieFoxx #magic #sizzlereel ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

My whole library shows (aside from the nest of boxes and speaker) fits inside of a “carry on” sized case. For me a pack small show is something that just happened, not a requirement. While it’s nice that the show fits in a small case, I don’t mind travelling with a larger one.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I think the key to a show that packs small is using props that give you show visual textures. The idea is to not have a show that looks like everything was selected because its flat or small. A couple of good example of things that I do that take up little space, but are visually large are the troublewit and the lasso. Both of them when I do the routine take up a lot of psychical space in the performing area.

If one of your goals is a suitcase show or a packs small show, try to avoid everything being a flat card. I’ve seen many suitcase shows where it looks like everything was selected because it was flat!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Blaisdell’s SKP

This vintage magic trick is Blaisdell’s S-K-P, and I can’t find any reference to it online. Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx What were you thinking? #magictrick #rubberband #vintage #whatwereyouthinking #magic #rubberband #louiefoxx #vintagemagictrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The problem with the trick is there’s soo many props and soo much process to make a rubber band go through a shoelace. There had to be ring on string techniques that could accomplish the same effect in a much clearer manner. One of the challenges of the trick is the audience needs to understand how the line segments that the rubber band make work. If they don’t understand that, the trick will fall flat.

I will say the move that accomplishes the trick is kinda interesting, but not enough to put out a physical trick. I think this trick would be a good magazine item, but not a full release.

-Louie

Production Totes

When making deliveries, Amazon uses these totes to haul packages:

I don’t know if they’re common enough for people to recognize what they are. They collapse flat and I think they could be converted to a magic prop. It wouldn’t be hard to make one into a tip over trunk. You would also simply put a panel that flips up on the bottom and put it on a mirror base and you’re good to go.

The challenge is that I don’t think they’re quite super common knowledge like a milk crate was. Maybe in a couple of years…

-Louie