Tricks – Page 101 – MagicShow.Tips

One of the tricks I’ve always loved is the Haunted Deck. It’s an amazing trick, the first one I ever bought as a kid was horrible, half the deck was gimmicked, and you were attached to it, so it wasn’t the most practical version of the trick. It worked, but it could be better.

This is where innovating comes through, there’s are better ways to do the Haunted Deck, and it’s a good thing we didn’t stop at the version I bought as a kid. A similar version is the one popularized by Eugene Burger, which while similar in method, allowed you to use the deck after the trick. This is a huge leap in the method.

Then you have a version using Loops, which allows you to use a borrowed deck, but can be unreliable as the gimmick is fragile. A few years ago I discovered Haunted 2.0, which fit the bill for me. 100% reliable, allowed me to use the deck before and after the trick, it’s great and the version of the trick that I do. However last week at a magic session a friend of mine showed me an impromptu version. It’s at about the 37 second mark of this video:

I think this version looks amazing and the only reason I haven’t switched to it is that in Haunted 2.0 you don’t have to touch the deck, which is one of the strong points of that version.

If we stopped innovating with “good enough” the Haunted Deck would be a trick that I wouldn’t be doing now. So go out there and make good tricks better!

There are tricks that I’ve wanted in my show because I like the idea of them. Many of these classic tricks are very briefly in the show as they don’t work with me and how I work. One of these tricks is the Three Ball Routine. I’ve put it in and taken it out of the show probably a dozen times.

Recently a company called The Hands of Magic put out a set of silicone balls for the trick. I just picked up a set, and while I haven’t used them in a show, they work great when I practice with them.

These balls are a bit different from the bouncy balls you’d get at the two store. They less dense and have a bit of give to them. This is helpful when you accidentally drop them, they don’t go as far as super balls.

These balls also have a nice gloss on them, that hopefully won’t wear off. The gloss will make them look a little bit bigger and will make them play a bit bigger than a matte ball.

So far I like these balls and would recommend them…now to find a spot in my show for them.

Ripping Routine Part V

The additions to the base script are in bold. EFFECT 1: “Take a card, and don’t let me see it.” “And you’re going to grab one, don’t let me see it.” “On the count of three say your card out loud. If you say the same thing, that’s amazing and it means you’re married in Uruguay. … Continue reading “Ripping Routine Part V”

The additions to the base script are in bold.

EFFECT 1:
“Take a card, and don’t let me see it.”
“And you’re going to grab one, don’t let me see it.”
“On the count of three say your card out loud. If you say the same thing, that’s amazing and it means you’re married in Uruguay. Ready…One, Two Three.”
EFFECT 2:
“We’re going to make it a little bit harder. We’re going to cut the cards”

“I learned to do rip a deck when I was younger. One of my roomates was a circus strongman. He could do things like rip a phone book in half, take a cast iron frying pan and roll it up like a burrito, open a pickle jar on the first try “

“The wrist strength to do this is common in every circus strongman and teenage boy.“
“You’re going to take a card and you’re going to take a card. Hopefully your cards will match each other and my card.”
“ Like two turtles, your cards match on the back …”
“The odds of them matching the first time were one in fifty two. Now that there are double the cards, it’s one in fifty two times fifty two. Or one in two thousand, seven hundred and four. There’s also a one hundred percent odd that my math is wrong. ”

“On the front…They match about as much as my mom and my ex-step dad”

“Oh, wait. I put my card here, hopefully it matches one of your cards.”

“Like a half Hawaiian, half pepperoni pizza, this end perfectly!”

The ripping routine is now off to a start. It’s brand new, so it’s not the best routine that it can be yet. There is still a lot of work, audience testing and workshopping it.

Ripping Routine Part IV

Today we’ll start writing the meat of the deck tearing routine. Basically I’m going to write a narrative script. This is going to be the essential things that I need to say for the trick to work, or to make sense. I’m also going to write the accompanying action with the trick.

There are essentially two tricks in the routine. The first is where they both pick and card and it’s the same card. The second is where you rip the deck, they both pick an card and they don’t match, but do match your half and half prediction

Here’s the bare bones script:

EFFECT 1:
“Take a card, and don’t let me see it.”
Have a card selected and returned to the deck.

“And you’re going to grab one, don’t let me see it.”
Have a second person select a card and return it to the deck.

“On the count of three say your card out loud. One, Two Three.”
They both say the same card.

EFFECT 2:

“We’re going to make it a little bit harder. We’re going to cut the cards”
Rip the deck in half

“You’re going to take a card and you’re going to take a card. Hopefully your cards will match each other and my card.”
Set your prediction card on the table and have a card selected from each half of the torn deck.

“The cards match perfectly on the back…”
Line up the tear on the face down selected cards.

“On the front…”
Flip the cards face up to show they don’t match, and react.

“Oh, wait. I put my card here, hopefully it matches one of your cards.”
Flip the card over to show it matches the halves they picked and react.

Currently we’ve got three things done. We have a presentation hook, we have a few random jokes and we have a bare bones script. Tomorrow we’ll start working on putting those together and punching it up.

Ripping a Deck of Cards…

A few days ago I wrote a post about figuring out trying out my little routine for ripping a deck of cards in half. Now that I’ve done it once and confirmed that people like the bare bones of the trick, I can start to expand up it and work on a routine. Here’s the … Continue reading “Ripping a Deck of Cards…”

A few days ago I wrote a post about figuring out trying out my little routine for ripping a deck of cards in half. Now that I’ve done it once and confirmed that people like the bare bones of the trick, I can start to expand up it and work on a routine.

Here’s the bare bones (the deck ripping trick starts about halfway through):

First thing with a routine is what is it going to reveal about “me”. I used the word me in quotes, because it doesn’t have to be the literal me, it can be what I want to portray on stage as “me”. It’s going to reveal that I hang out with some unusual people. My idea for the opening/hook is:

“When I was younger one of my roomates was a circus strongman. He could do things like rip a phone book in half, take a cast iron frying pan and roll it up like a burrito, open a pickle jar on the first try.
While I lived with him, he helped train me to rip a deck of cards in half”

Another idea for an opening/hook would be:

“I’m always amazed at how many people come up to me to show me a trick they can do. What other profession does this happen in? Imagine after open heart surgery, you wake up and ask the doctor if you can borrow his scalpel to show him that you do a mean amateur appendectomy.”

Both are decent approaches to the presentation of the trick. I think I prefer the first one. I think learning stuff from an old roommate is more relatable than people wanting to show you a card trick. If working at a magic convention, then the second one is probably good.

Ok, so we’ve got the hook, now where to go from there? Tomorrow we’ll start to build the meat of the routine.

Split Deck…

In a post a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was learning to rip a deck of cards in half. I’m up to consistently being able to rip about half a deck of bicycle cards, but and able to rip a whole deck of cheap cards about 95% of the time. Every now and then I’ll hit a pack that for whatever reason just gives me a hell of a time ripping.

Last night in Seattle we had a magic jam and I threw a few decks of cheap cards in my bag. My routine is basically the “Split Deck” but without any gimmicked cards (aside from the cheap deck). It played well for the magicians, and then later we ended up doing some magic for the table next to us it played for them as well.

In between the two times I did the trick, a little bit more framework had developed in my head. The trick started with two people each looking at a card and they end up having picked the same card. Next I put out a prediction card, and I rip the deck in half. I say that they both will pick a card that matches my prediction and they both take a card (from different halves of the deck). They compare their cards and they aren’t the same card…but then we look at my prediction and the front is two ripped cards glued together and they halves match the selection.

This played pretty well, and I think it’s going to be something that I start to explore as a routine bit more in the future.

Another Day, Another Shell Game Move

A while ago I posted a picture of some newly acquired three shell games sets for my collection of them. Michael of Wack-O-Magic offered me a set of clear walnut shells he had made, but never figured out a use for. He sent me the only two sets he had made. This isn’t the first … Continue reading “Another Day, Another Shell Game Move”

Posted by Louie Foxx on Tuesday, February 19, 2019

This isn’t the first set of clear shells, I also have a set of La Maggiore Cristallina shells, which are beautiful! I never really used them much as they don’t fit into the routine that I do.

With Michael sending me two sets, one set went into the collection and the other set sat on my desk for me to play with. Here’s what I came up with:

Staring at the shells led me to some out of the box thinking that gave me another unique shell game move! I think Terry Seabrooke mentioned how he creates with a prop on an old VHS tape. He said, he puts the prop somewhere where he’ll see it all the time, a place where he’ll basically trip over it every day. That makes him think about the prop in short chunks all day.

I think Terry’s method is a good one, it makes you think about the prop, but you aren’t sitting at a desk having a staring contest with it. I know I’ve come up with many tricks simply using stuff that’s within eyesight of my desk.

Plan B Set List…

Yesterday’s blog post had a back up show set list that I would easily fit in my carry on luggage on an airplane. The next step is going to be to put those tricks into a set list for the show. There are a couple of tricks that are similar in effect, so I’ll have to make sure I don’t put those back to back.

Here’s the list of the tricks from yesterday:

-ACAAN
-Card to Pocket
-Card Memorization
-Blindfold drawing duplication
-Book Test
-Cue Card Confabulation
-Coin Under Watch
-Mismade bill
-Color Changing Hank
-Rubik’s Cube trick
-Torn and Restored Newspaper

Right now I know by looking at this list, I’m going to open with ACAAN and close with Torn and Restored Newspaper. ACAAN is an amazing trick, and there’s a decent amount of action right out of the gate, and it uses person, but they don’t have to be on stage…they could be, but don’t have to. I’ve used the Torn and Restored Newspaper as a closer in the past, so I know it will work there.

Right after ACAAN I’m going to do the Book Test, followed by the Rubik’s Cube Trick. These are both tricks I’ve done in that order in the past as warm up for my show at Fairs, and they are a great combo back to back.

Next I’m going to do Coin Under Watch. It uses a person from the audience, and while I coin trick, I can make it play big. After that I’ll do a solo piece, which will be the Color Changing Hank. This has a lot of action, and a lot of jokes.

Now we’re going to get into a mentalism block. I’m going to do the Blindfold followed by my Cue Card Confabulation. The Blindfold routine I do let’s me play with the person from the audience and it’s a longer piece that hits hard! The Cue Card Confabulation is my own creation and it’s just me on stage talking to people in the audience, and it’s joke will build off the strength of the Blindfold routine. The confabulation routine ends with a great surprise!

Next up I’ll do Card to Pocket, the set up to the Card Memorization, the Mismade Bill and then the final part of the Card Memorization. I’m going to use the time during the Mismade Bill for the two people who will help me with the Card Memorization to sort the cards. That will eliminate some dead time.

I’ll play the Card Memorization as the end of the show, and do the Torn and Restored Newspaper as the forced encore with a, “you want to see one more” line. Here’s the set list:

ACAAN
Book Test
Rubik’s Cube
Coin Under Watch
Color Changing Handkerchief
Blindfold
Cue Card Confabulation
Card To Pocket
Card Memorization part 1
Mismade Bill
Card Memorization part 2
Torn and Restored Newspaper

It’s a decent show, not the show I want to do, but it does look solid for an emergency show.

What’s Your Plan B?

Recently I worked with an act and the airline lost his luggage, and he had to perform for two days without gear. He’s a pro, and was really flustered, I think more at how the airline handled the situation than specifically about his missing gear. His shows were great, but it got me thinking about what my backup plan is.

Sure we all can go to the Walmart and put together a show, and I hear performers say that’s their back up plan all time. That’s all good, but whatever is in your “Walmart Show” is material you really need to practice. It should be your “B” show, meaning you do it every now and then. You have jokes and bits, not just do tricks.

This made me think of what I can carry onto a plane, that’s will play big. I’m putting together a list of things so I’m prepared for when this does happen. I also want to do it on my terms, meaning, I have a plan and I’m not scrounging.

The easy starting point is to figure out what card tricks would play big on stage.

1: ACAAN
2: Card to Pocket
3: Card Memorization

These are tricks that have already been in my stage show in the past, so I have good routines for them. These also are very different in texture, they don’t feel like the same trick. Those three tricks are about 12-15 mins. Right away I’m 1/3 of the way to a 45 mins show.

Now to build upon the card tricks to fill in the show. I could add some mentalism:

1: Blindfold drawing duplication
2: Impromptu Book Test
3: Cue Card Confabulation

These three tricks also have different textures and will bring the show to about 30 mins. I can make the the cue cards with the pad of paper from the drawing duplication and I will have the coins from the blindfold, I can use them for a coin trick:

1: Coin Under Watch

I’m going to have to be careful to space out coin under watch and card to pocket as they are both “transportation” tricks. This is not a big deal, I just need to be aware of it. This is going to bring the show to about 33 mins.

There will be room for some small gimmicks, so I can add these tricks:

1: Thumb Tip with mismade bill
2: Dye Tube

Now that I’ve added these two tricks, that puts my show length at about 39 mins. That’s almost a show. Let’s add a couple of small props to the carry on bag:

1: Rubik’s Cube trick
2: Torn and Restored Newspaper

That’s going to bring the whole show to 45 mins.

This show’s carry on list would be:
1: Jumbo deck of cards
2: Regular deck of cards
3: 2 pads of paper
4: Roll of duct tape
5: 2 Coins
6: Book
7: Thumb Tip
8: Mismade bill
9: Dye Tube
10: 2 handkerchiefs
11: Newspaper
12: 2 Rubik’s Cubes

The pack list isn’t very long, and all the props when put together don’t take up much space, and would play well on a stage. All of these are things that have been in my show in the past, so I know the material and have routines for them.

Is this my dream show to do? Nope, but it’ll work in a pinch, and I think it’s a better option than buying some junk at the hardware store and trying to figure out what to do with it!

Nothing New Under The Sun…

One of the things that frustrates me is when people say that they aren’t creative, or that all the good ideas have been had (for a specific trick). Those are both excuses for being lazy. Creativity takes work, it’s not something that magically pops into your head.

Here’s a good example of something new within something old. Bob Sheets has a great move he uses in the Three Shell Game. That’s a trick that’s virtually unchanged since it was created. However, Bob created the “Sheets Aquitment” which I think is revolutionary.

Many years ago I came up with a move for the shell game that uses a finger ring:

While not as earthshaking as Bob’s move, it is still something new for the shell game. My advice is to keep plugging away with whatever trick you love and you’ll eventually leave your mark on it!