This summer, I’ve really been trying to speak Spanish more when performing close up magic for groups where that is their native language. I perform in California a lot, so I encounter groups that don’t really speak English frequently. I’ve been working on my Spanish for the last few years using Duolingo, and I can safely say that I’m not conversational; however, I can communicate!
When I approach a group, I can tell them why I’m talking to them, what I do, and I can tell them what I need them to do during the trick. In close up magic, I don’t really have any jokes in Spanish, I do have a couple in my stage show.
The trick that got my into close up in Spanish was Emerson and West’s Gourmet Mouse! This can be easily narrated, and the picture cards help tell the story. I kept working and I can do my normal close up set (mostly)!
With things like Duolingo, or whatever, you really don’t have an excuse not to know a bit of a second language. Even when you don’t speak it well, it shows that you’re trying and I think audiences really appreciate that!
-Louie
Category: patter
Magic Trick Tip for the Fourth of July
One of the reasons I think most magicians shouldn’t do a “one off” show with special themed props is that if you don’t know about the prop and how to handle it, you can unintentionally be disrespectful. Yesterday was Independence Day in the USA, which is celebrated as the country’s birthday. In the USA, we have the US Flag Code, which defines what a flag is, how to hang it, and how to handle it. This is a law, but one that has no enforcement mechanism, so it’s basically etiquette.
Many performers slapped flags on their show for Independence Day and didn’t learn the basics of how a flag should be treated. I wrote this little facebook post:
PSA for “Patriotic” Performers
Many magicians and variety acts are posting pics of them doing magic with US Flags.
Please take a minute and read the US Flag Code. About 70% of the pics / video I’ve seen today are disrespectful to the US Flag.
Here’s a few quick pointers:
1: When displaying the flag (in most instances) the blue should in top left from the audience’s view
2: after producing the flag, do not crumple it up and toss it in your prop box. Respectfully fold up and place it whenever it belongs after the trick
3: Do not set things on top of the flag
4: A flag isn’t supposed to be clothes. (it may be too late for this)
5: do not use any “disposable” items with flags printed on them, like napkins or paper plates.
Don’t be a disrespectful to the US flag! A quick search for the “US Flag Code” will give you more in depth info, like if you want to learn more like how to properly display it on your car. Spoiler alert: 99% of pickup trucks with flags on them are in violation of the flag code.
I thought it was basically a pretty straight forward. If you’re going to honor something, learn it about it. Then I got this comment from Zach Dwyer:
I’m not sure what triggered him, being wrong or what, but he immediately jumped to calling me names, instead of admitting he was wrong, or even letting it go.
Yes, the flag code is unenforceable, there are no penalties for violating it, but it is, in fact, a law.
Should You Do Magic Tricks with Symbolic Props?
In a larger context with performing, why would you use a prop or theme you don’t understand the rules for?
For example: doing a gig for a mosque and using a picture of Mohammad?
That’s an example of a trick that there’s no law stopping you from doing; however, it would be considered disrespectful. It’s a basic courtesy to treat the symbol how it is supposed to be treated.
When I get offered a gig, let’s say for Purim, I don’t do a special show for them, or add in a Purim trick, I do my show. The reason is that I don’t know about it and don’t want to offend anyone.
Great examples of a themed shows are Jack Spareribs Pirate Show or Master Payne’s Ren Faire show.
I should add that I’m all for intentional acts of disrespect. When Sinead O’Connor tore up the picture of the Pope, that was an intentional act. Whether I agree with it or not, she was making a statement.
I’ve always said that if I die because of someone else, I want them to have wanted to kill me. I don’t want to be killed because someone didn’t look before they turned and ran me over, and my death was an accident. If someone kills me, I don’t want it to be a “whoops”; I’d like it to have some purpose to at least that person. Also, I should note that in a perfect world, I wouldn’t die because of someone else.
OK, so that’s a long post to say, if you use a prop that has symbolism, learn about how to respectfully handle it!
-Louie
Chopped Weed Nugs
Yesterday I wrote a post about doing a Chop Cup with a film can and “weed nugs”. What I was using for fake weed looked really green. It’s probably been over two decades since I’ve seen what they look like in real life, so I had to consult a friend of mine who partakes in that marijuana. He agreed and sent me some pictures of what they should look like.
The one on the right is the bright green one, and the one on the left is one after I gave it a dusting of a couple of colors of paint.
I think the one on the left looks way better, not perfect, but good enough to sell the premise to an audience. Things like getting the color of a nugget of weed is one of the challenges of magic prop building that magicians don’t normally think about. I don’t want the chopped weed nugs to look so bad that it takes people mentally out of the presentation hook of the routine.
I’m not sure where I’ll ever do this routine. I have an idea for the presentation that I think works. I personally don’t smoke marijuana, and am not involved in that culture. When performing, my persona is more clean cut, so pretending this is mine doesn’t work. I needed to come up with a routine that doesn’t feel fake. I’ll probably write a blog post about how I intend to present this sometime in the future.
-Louie
Magic Lecture in Canada!
Yesterday and today I was performing up near the USA/Canadian border and I saw that Nathan Coe Marsh was doing a lecture at Hidden Wonders (Shawn Farquhar‘s magic theater) in New Westminster, BC. That was only about 40 minutes from my hotel, so I dusted off my NEXUS card and drove across the border to see the lecture.
The first surprise came when I was doing some work at a coffee shop before the lecture and I happened to look up right as Paul Romhany walked by!
That turned my working a little bit on my laptop into chatting with Paul, who is also the editor of Vanish Magazine, where I publish a monthly magic trick.
It was great to briefly say “hi” to all the Vancouver BC area magicians!
Nathan’s lecture is great and I highly recommend it!
In the lecture Nathan did a great job of showing all the work that goes into creating a routine, not just how to do the routines. He talked about his vision for the pieces he shared and how many of his routines are collaborations with other performers. This is something that I think is important and most magicians don’t do, that’s work with other people.
If Nathan is doing a lecture in your area, go see it!
-Louie
Ditching the Invisible Deck!
The idea of using a Nest of Envelopes as a running gag with a magical payoff is taking shape. In the first version of the trick, the magic trick was going to be card prediction. Playing cards are uniquely grouped to allow several choices of groups to get to a single card that nothing else I could think of can. Ideally, this trick wouldn’t be a card trick, but it’s looking like it will.
When I first came up with the idea, as a placeholder for the trick, I used an invisible deck. The goal is to have something more original or less common than an invisible deck. Also, the invisible deck is less punchy of a reveal. It takes time and steps to get to the reveal.
What I want is a single card in the envelope. That’s it, the card is chosen (in 3-4 steps), the last envelope is opened, and that’s the card in the envelope! I didn’t have a method, but with the re-release of Phil Goldstein’s trick Shinkansen, that jogged my memory.
A few years ago I made a vintage magic trick video of that trick:
@louiefoxx Is a magic trick from 2002 vintage? #vintage #magictrick #cardtrick #shinkansen #magic #packettrick #cardsacross #maxmaven #wow #louiefoxx #philgoldstein ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
I also made a jumbo version of the trick and did it onstage as a filler piece. Part of the method of the Shinkansen led me to the method I’m going to start to use to do the prediction in Nest of Envelopes!
If you’re a magic creator, this is why having a broad knowledge of magic tricks and methods is a huge help! Part of the method for cards across got me closer to my vision for a playing card prediction!
-Louie
The Nest of Envelopes Trick
For the Nest of Envelopes, I need to figure out what is going to end up inside the envelopes. I’m thinking that a choice will be made as each envelope is opened. And those choices will narrow it down to a single thing. Then that single thing or representation (i.e., picture of it) will be in the innermost envelope.
While I hate for this to end up being a card trick, it looks like it will be. A deck of cards lends itself to being a group of items that can be grouped in a lot of different ways that are easily remembered. You can give people choices like: color, suit, letter or number, odd or even, male or female, exact value (i.e., four). A performer friend and I sat down and tried to brainstorm different things that could be grouped in different ways, hopefully four or five groups. We didn’t come up with anything that was good or easy for a person to understand.
If the trick is going to end up being a playing card prediction, then the obvious choice is an invisible deck. I travel with Rough Stick, so I quickly made an invisible deck:
I don’t know if this will be the final method, but it’s nice because it’s self-contained. The deck can go into the smallest envelope, and I don’t need to add or alter anything. Just open the envelopes, and when we get to the invisible deck, spread it to reveal the selection.
-Louie
BEKOS Smiley Face FTW!!
Right now, the only trick left in the school assembly that I didn’t really create is Jeff McBride’s BEKOS (Smiley Face Version). It’s the closing trick for the show, and it hasn’t been hitting all week, and I was going to cut it.
I rewrote the routine and took it from a different direction from the previous script, and it worked really well yesterday! The routine before was stuck with the theme and a loose “goodbye,” and I rewrote it as a heartfelt message. It isn’t a BS message that’s written to get a reaction; it’s something I truly believe in.
In one of the first shows that I did, the kids were seated in bleachers, and at the end of the trick, about 25 kids spontaneously stood up and cheered! It got an unprompted standing ovation from elementary school-aged kids!
I’m a fan of BEKOS (smiley face version)!
-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!
Portland Magic Jam – Day 1
The first day of the Portland Magic Jam started with the registration and dealer room being open. Then, a bit later David Kaye did a pre-lecture about what to look for in the show he was going to do the next day, which then would be followed by a post show breakdown of what we just saw.
I think that’s a great format if you’re going to do a show and then talk about it. One thing that I noticed is how much David knows about comedy. He’s a kid show guy, but all of the principles he talked about are for any age group!
Next was John Shyrock who also did a show/lecture. He did a 20 min close up show and then talked about it.
John does some really strong magic, and there’s a lot to learn from his use of music (even in a close up show). He brings a lot of bigger theatrical techniques to close up magic!
Then it was the evening show which was just three acts. I was the MC and did a spot along with Paul Draper and Richard Turner.
It’s had to do an MC spot on a small stage with no curtain, where a lot of equipment is being moved around. The spot I did was kind of a hybrid MC filling time and a scheduled spot.
The closing spot was Richard Turner doing close up tabled card magic.
To be 100% honest, I’m not sure how I felt about Richard Turner’s show. The card magic is great, but to me (this is my opinion), he really came off as a dirty old man the way he interacted with the two people onstage. The card magic was amazing, but his patter is from a different era, that’s not a modern style, especially for a town like Portland.
After the show, it was hang out time!
The late-night stuff is where all of the fun, weird, amazing magic happens! Also with this convention taking place at an airport hotel, there were some people who missed a connection at the airport and ended seeing some crazy magic tricks! I think it made their delay much more fun!
-Louie
Chinese Laundry Ticket
I found a stack of Chinese Laundry Ticket papers in a box of old magic from the early 1960s. This is a torn and restored paper effect with a strip of paper. The theme of this trick is a ticket from a Chinese laundry that’s torn and restored, and this routine is typically filled with offensive (racist) patter lines. A better themed version would be Arnold Furst’s Fresh Fish paper tear.
Anyway, I have these Chinese laundry ticket papers, and I was curious what they actually said, so I ran them through Google Translate and here’s what they say:
This is one of the things that’s problematic with these older magic tricks, is that what’s actually written on them isn’t what it’s supposed to be in the trick. This trick, if it actually had numbers on it instead of talking about rice, would be slightly less offensive. The simple fact that the trick is taking something from another culture, but not taking the most basic step of making sure it’s correct, is just one of the reasons I dislike this trick.
Go out there and be a better human.
-Louie
The Hoop and Knots Trick
Yesterday, I posted about the Chefalo Knot and that I created a routine for it. Here’s the routine and a walkthrough of the knots you need to know:
It was fun to put this together and figure out how it all works!
-Louie