magic show tips – Page 4

The Fortune Teller on TV (again)

On a TV appearance last week I did The Fortune Teller trick from my 2025 lecture notes. You can watch the appearance here:

What I like about this trick is that the moment you bring out the prop, the audience gets a hit of nostalgia. That makes it a trick that instantly connects with the audience.

Then my card routine with it has a three-reveal punch. The card routine I did in this TV spot is different from my stage routine, which wouldn’t work with this setup, with the host standing next to me.

-Louie
PS, if you like the routine, you can learn more about it at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/lecture-notes-2025/

Five Minute Magic Show

Last week, I was at a booking conference and they had a “pitch and perform” event. In this event, each person had 5 minutes to introduce themself, tell what they did, and give a short sample of what they do.

Here’s what I took with me:

There are two routines, one I intended to do is my Stand Up Chop Cup (it’s in my 2025 lecture notes) and the back up routine is a rope routine. Both magic routines would run about three minutes and the other two minutes would be the pitch part. What’s important about these two routines is that there is no set up and no clean up and they have a lot of magic!

I always try to have a back up routine for things like this. It’s only five minutes, but sometimes I’ll see the room and decide my main trick isn’t right, or there will be another magician who may do something similar to what I had planned. That’s why the two tricks I brought were very different visually and in effect.

A little bit of planning can help a lot!

-Louie

Magician Dick Barry!

Recently I was doing a gig at a retirement community and one of the people that lived there was magician Dick Barry!

Dick is retired now; however, he has created many magic tricks that were sold. He was also a performer at the Magic Castle. I had a great time chatting with Dick before the show. This is one of the great things about performing at a retirement community, you never know who you’ll run into!

If you want to learn more about performing at retirement communities, check out my book How to Perform for Seniors.

-Louie

Outdoor Magic Show in the Rain

This month I’m doing a few dates at a Halloween festival that runs 5 weekends. One of the days that I was performing, it was raining, and this was an outdoor festival. The stage was covered, but the audience seating was not covered.

The act before me performed for a few people with umbrellas that were standing behind the wet seats. What I did was move a bunch of seats onto the stage and dry them off.

I managed to fill up the stage seating and had great shows!

When you arrive at a show and the scenario isn’t ideal, consider how to improve it. I’ll usually run the idea by my contact at the gig to ensure there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do that.

-Louie

Portland Society of Magicians Amateur Contest

Recently the Portland Society of Magicians has their amateur magic contest. This was for people who don’t really perform for pay.

What I love about things like this is getting to see all the different styles of magic that are performed. Also, it lets me see the various trends that are going around magic.

One thing I noticed in the contest was that there were two acts where the trick didn’t work, and they ended at that point. That’s something that separates pros from amateurs: how they deal with mistakes. A pro will plow on and figure out a way out of it, whereas the amateur doesn’t necessarily have that “toolbox” to get them out of the situation. How do you get the “toolbox” of outs, simple, you fail a lot! Failure is part of the learning process and a very important part of it!

The more you fail, the better you get!

-Louie

New Sound System for my Magic Show

After probably more than a decade I finally upgraded my sound system. I used to use the Roland Street Cube EX, which is great and after about 10 years it still works great! What I liked about this system is that is has all the inputs that I need, so I don’t need to add a mixer to it. It also runs on AA batteries, so if there is a low battery issue, I just throw new ones into it.

I’m switching to the Bose S1 Pro. The main reason I’m switching to it is for a tour I’m doing in the spring of 2026, and the Bose speaker is much smaller than the Roland Street Cube EX. The Bose S1 Pro also has better sound, but both speakers have enough sound for what I need.

I also bought a carrying case for the Bose speaker.

This case has plenty of pockets and holds all my audio gear, eliminating the need for another case.

I’ve done a few shows with the Bose S1 Pro so far, and it works great!

-Louie

Pay vs Pain Ratio

The Pay vs Pain (in the butt) ratio is a factor in determining if a gig is worth doing. A while ago I was asked to perform in a variety show at a huge event. The pay was basically non existent, what it would cost for me to do the gig in travel expenses exceeded the pay. Why would I take the gig…well I like the people in the show, so it’s an excuse to hang out. That’s a -1 in the pay index. Also I’m not getting paid the day of the show, so that’s another -1 in the pay index.

Now that the pay isn’t the reason to take the gig, the reason to not take the gig is the pain in the butt factor. When I accepted the gig I was told we would get parking passes. Well, that changed and as a 15 person variety show, they only gave us 3 passes. That adds a +1 in the pain in the butt index.

When they scheduled me, asked me to sign up on their website so that they had my details. I went to create an account, which was a pain because it’s primarily a music event and none of the check boxes applied to me, and none had an “other” option. That’s a +1 in the pain in the butt index. What I ended up doing was just checking whatever box, but then the site needed to verify my email by sending me an email to continue to add my personal info. I never got that email, and was never able to complete their registration. That’s another +1 in the pain in the butt index. I had to reach out and argue with them to let me give them my info over the phone because their website didn’t work. that’s another +1 in the pain in the butt index.

Next they said we’d have to check in across the event grounds which are huge and it will be crowded. Why we can’t just have one person check us in as a group instead of everyone individually checking in, I don’t know. That adds another +1 to the pain in the butt index.

The morning of the event one of the producers of the show asked if I could bring my own audio. I said no, that’s not what I agreed to, and that this is a large event who I submitted my tech to weeks ago. If they were unable to accommodate a handheld microphone, they shouldn’t have booked me. That’s another +1 in the pain in the butt index.

So let’s look at the Pay vs Pain results.
Pay -2
Pain +6
That’s not a good ratio.

Shows that are low on pay should be very low on the pain in the butt. Ideally the pay should be at a 0 and the pain should be at a 0 if it’s a gig you’re not doing for the money.

-Louie

Magic Show Tax?

In Washington State where I live they just passed a tax on “live presentations”. The way the new tax is described it’s unclear as to whether I’m supposed to start charging sales tax. Previously, service businesses didn’t have to charge sales tax.

Here’s what the rule looks like on their state’s website:

The state has an email address that you can use to get an official ruling as to what you’re supposed to do. I sent them a question asking them if I have to start charging sales tax and here’s what the state had to say:

That’s great news, as the new rule took effect on 10/1/25, and I had shows scheduled with “all inclusive” pricing long before this new tax was announced. Those shows I’d lose 10% on, so I’m glad that magic shows are exempt (for now) from this new tax!

If you’re in Washington State and do magic shows, you should email the Department of Revenue and get an official, binding ruling for your business.

-Louie

Getting Around With A Magic Show

For my summer gigs that I flew to, I tried to rent cars less this year. It’s mostly because they just kinda sit there all week while I’m performing. Most places I stay within a couple of miles of the venue. That means I can walk or use things like the Lime eScooters to get around.

Normally I’ll take an uber/lyft to load in and out of the venue. However the last fair I did, it the ride share wait time was a lot and was super busy when I left, so I tried putting my case on the lift and zipping up the road to the hotel. Much to my surprise it worked!

I’m going to say that it’s probably fairly dangerous to do this, however in a pinch it worked for me. With that said, DO NOT DO THIS!

-Louie

Portland Juggling Festival

Last week I popped by the Portland Juggling Festival’s public show. The show was a mix of different levels of performing experience, and lots of styles. Like a magic convention there are a lot of acts that were really arty and not really real world acts. They’re acts that I can’t imagine building a show out of, but could work in a variety show. Then there were the working acts, and you could really tell the difference between them and the acts that aren’t out there performing all the time. It’s a tightness in the show that I notice.

The headliner of the show was Jay Gilligan. He did an amazing act that solved what I think is one of the problems with a juggling act. That problem is that most juggling patterns really look the same to someone who doesn’t know juggling. Jay basically juggled 3 balls (he did more than that), but did them in very novel ways there were very different looking, even when it was just a basic 3 ball cascade.

His closer was juggling three balls in a cascade slowly and it was amazing! I don’t want to ruin the ending for you. It an amazing ending!

What Jay did was take something very standard and figure out a way to make it look very different. How can you do that with magic? They guy who invented the sponge bunnies did it when he turned balls into bunnies. Jonathan Burns did it with his cheese card trick. There’s a lot of room out there to reimagine standard magic. Go and do it!

-Louie