Prop Building – MagicShow.Tips

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

Weed Chop Cup

Since I released my Film Can Dice Force, I have a ton of film cans kicking around and have been playing on a chop cup with a film can and “weed nugs”.

I’m trying to work out the most efficient way to arrange everything for what I want to do:
1: The magnet is in the film can, and the weed nug has a shim
2: The film can has a shim, and a magnet is in the weed nug
3: The film can and nug both have a magnet

These props are kinda unique, as the fake weed nugs have really no weight to them. So it’s hard to build inertia to dislodge them. The little bit of weight that a traditional ball has really makes a huge difference in how hard you have to set down the film can.

These little challenges make prop building much harder than people think.

-Louie

Where Evaporation Began!

When I created the Evaporation trick, I was out on the road performing. I tried many different methods of making liquid disappear, however it was a trip to this Menards hardware store in Minot, ND where it all came together!

Whenever I’m in the area, I always stop and walk through the store. This hardware store has a special place in my heart! It’s what put me on the map as a magic trick creator.

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Postcard Magic Trick

I’m working on a trick where I need to make a postcard disappear from one stack and reappear in another stack. Here’s what I came up with:

The reason I’m going with a gravity flap instead of an elastic flap is that I don’t need a visual change of the card. Also, with gravity, there’s less to break. There’s nothing worse than restringing an elastic flap card has broken right before a show!

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Die Box

In a box of old magic that I bought, there were a couple of Die Boxes without the dies. Here’s one of them:

Instead of throwing them away, I tried to 3d print the die and shell. Here’s what I made:

For the inside of the shell, I used black adhesive fabric. Here’s the everything:

The end result was great and works! I’m glad I could give this prop some more life!

-Louie
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White Board Onstage

I started using a handheld whiteboard in my show last summer. I never really thought much about it, it’s just a prop I used. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw a picture of me performing with it.

The backside of it looked like garbage. The backside was just cardboard, and it’d gotten dinged up over months of use. I went for a simple fix and just covered the back with some stick on black velvet that I had

It looks way better now! I’m glad I noticed that in the picture, it’s a small thing I could do to make my show look a little bit classier.

-Louie
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Freshening Up The Magic Show

In the off season I spend time replacing worn out parts of my show. The fish bowl on the left is the one I’ve used in the show for the last year, and the one one the right is the new one.

It always amazes me how things can get beaten up slowly, and because it happens over time, I don’t notice till it’s really bad. It’s always good to check your props and clean or replace them regularly!

You might not notice the wear, but people do.

-Louie
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Pool Ball and Cue Trick

Years ago, I wrote down an idea for a variation of an old juggler’s trick. The original trick was to balance a golf ball between two golf clubs, so that it makes a sort of T shape.

My idea was to do it with pool balls and a pool cue. Here’s what it looks like in my garage:

It seems like jugglers aren’t as into changing props for tricks as magicians are. No juggler has done this (as far as I know), and to me it seems like a logical variation of the golf club trick.

I got to try it out at a show the other day and it went great!

I think this is something that I’m going to work more on. The trick is there, now it just needs a routine.

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Magnet Ankle Switch

I have a prop that I altered to run off of an ankle switch. I made a simple holder for the straps to hold the magnet and the switch. These are the tops of an old pair of socks that I cut off.

I simply folded them in half upwards to make a little pocket. Then I sewed them to make the pocket hold the magnet or button. Simple solution, however if I keep the prop running this way, I’m going to make a better version.

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Magic Show Prop Box

For my show this summer that I’ll be doing at libraries and summer camps, I wanted to dedicated prop box for it. I found this old RC Cola box at a junk shop. The guy wanted way too much for it, but I talked him down to where it made sense as I didn’t want it as an advertising collectible, I just wanted it as a box.

Once I got the box home I covered it with black fabric, added metal corners and changed the hinges. Here’s what it looks like now:

This was a quick, easy way to make a prop box for the summer magic show. It doesn’t need to last for years, just 3 months!

-Louie
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