Tricks – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Beast’s Transformation!

When I was at Tokyo Disneyland one of their new attractions is the Beauty and the Beast ride. At one point in it the Beast turns into a human and it was one of the most magical things that I’ve seen in person with my eyes!

It’s super cool, however something like this would be unrealistic in 99.99999% of any magic shows as the staging/lighting it would take to do it wouldn’t travel well…or handle being moved very well. That said, I think the bar of what magic tricks can be is being raised by things that aren’t presented in magic shows. There’s soo much amazing stuff that’s just out there for the general public that it proves Arthur Clarke’s third law.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

We’re leaving the days of having a bad trick with a good presentation being acceptable, and entering a world where you need a good trick with a good presentation. Honestly, I would argue that we’ve been in that world for at least a decade and most magicians have just been unwilling to accept it!

-Louie

New Vanishing Birdcage

It’s always fun to get to test a magic product. I recently got a chance to play with a birdcage that someone is taking to market…or planning to.

This one has a nice action and I gave some notes to the maker. Hopefully it will fill the gap between what’s currently available. Right now for a new cage your options are basically the $40 India cage or $1,500-$2,000 for the cages made by Daniel Summers. There’s really no mid range cage, just cheap or super nice.

-Louie

Der Kleine Zauberer Magic Set

I’m always hunting out unusual things and recently came across a magic kit without a box. I immediately recognized the style of the props as Der Kleine Zauberer magic set from Germany. This set is from around 1900, so it’s 125 years old!

It has most of the instructions which are written in German, French and English.

This set is almost complete, it’s missing the box and a couple of small props. I really wish it had the box as that’s where the value would be. However the props look cool on a shelf without the box. I’m glad to have rescued this magic set!

-Louie

Jason Bishop at the Comedy and Magic Club

A couple of weeks ago when I was in Hermosa Beach performing at the theater there, I had a night off and I got to finally visit the Comedy and Magic Club!

The night I went was the night they have 10 comics and each does about 10 minutes.

It’s an interesting format, there’s no MC. Each act intros the act after them and when only doing 10 mins, it’s a super punchy show!

The night I was there magician Jason Bishop was performing. I got to know him a little bit when we were recording Masters of Illusion in 2019. Jason’s got a great style that fit well into a show with a bunch of comics. He did a great job addressing the change from comedians telling to jokes to him doing magic. He had a quick remark about it and got into the magic.

He opened with Balance (Joshua Jay) and had a great routine for it. I’d only seen it done on internet videos previously and wasn’t impressed by it. However after seeing it live, I like the trick a lot more. I feel like there was a middle trick, but I don’t remember it. He closed with doing a bit with his dog that began with a few comedy bits with it and ended with the vanish of the dog!

I’m glad I had a night off in Hermosa Beach and spent it at the Comedy and Magic Club!

-Louie

Custom Made Vanishing Birdcage!

I just had my first custom made birdcage arrive! It’s the cage in the middle in the picture below:

It’s the pretty much right in between an Owen Vanishing Birdcage and the Summers/Riser Baby Lindy Vanishing Birdcage.

The middle size is great so far (I’ve only practiced with it). I like that it’s visually larger. I like the size of the Owen cage, however it’s just a tad too long for my sleeve and I need to ditch it really quickly after the vanish. Where the smaller Summers/Riser cage can live in my sleeve for a while. The new middle size is just short enough so I don’t feel like I need to ditch it right away!

I can’t wait to use it for an audience!

-Louie

Painting a Magic Prop…

One of the tricks I’m working on uses a fake lime slice. The one on the left is how I get them. It looks good, however the white rubs off fairly quickly and from a short distance it’s not obviously a lime.

For the one on the right I went to an art store and the lady there helped me pick out a paint to use that should be more permanent. So far the new white paint is holding up a lot better than the original paint.

Sometimes it’s the little things like white paint on a fake lime that makes a huge difference in the trick!

-Louie

Reducing Magic Clutter!

One of the things I’m trying to do is carry around less stuff. For example, for a 45 mins show, I used to travel with 60+ mins of material. That’s a habit from when I was younger and the time it took to do routines would vary wildly show to how. With years and thousands of shows under my belt, I’m much more consistent with the minimum time that routines take.

Here’s my set up from a recent show at a comedy club:

In the past, my table top bin would be filled with soo much extra crap that I never used. That’s just extra weight I’m lugging around. Now there are only two extra tricks that I’m travelling with.

Here’s the what my two prop bins look like:

The two extra routines I have are the gypsy thread and my ACAAN with a jumbo deck and I rarely use those. Frequently I’m finding myself cutting a planned routine out of the show because I’m running long!

Having less clutter in my gear is super helpful for reducing set up and tear down times and having less stuff onstage makes everything much more efficient!

-Louie

Pi Day Magic Trick

One of the things I do to try to keep creative is come up with tricks for holidays. While Pi Day 3.14 isn’t a traditional holiday, it’s a theme that I can create a trick for. Here’s a counting trick using Pi Day as the theme.

“We’ll the first 5 digits of Pi which are 3.1415, without the decimal, so we’re using: 31415”

“Let’s start on the first digit, so touch the three. Now you’ll spell “Pi Day” jumping one number per letter. You can move forward, or backwards for each jump, you just can’t jump from end to end. Go ahead and start jumping now.”

“Pi is a number that never ends and I’m going to guess you’re not on either end, so eliminate the 3 and 5. That leaves us with the 1, 4, and 1.”

“Using the number you’re touching, jump that many times, forward or backwards.”

“I’m guessing you’re not on the first number one. That leaves us with a 4 and 1.”

“Using the number you’re not touching, jump that may times.”

“You’re on the number one!”

There you to a simple trick that could be used as a social media video or as newsletter content!

-Louie

Brass Magic tricks!

Recently I acquired a whole bunch of brass magic tricks. This appears to be all stuff from the early 2000’s and a lot of it was really tarnished.

I spent some time and elbow grease to clean them up a little bit. Below is a comparison of the two cups from a set of Flying Coins, one before and one after cleaning.

I like a nice patina on things, but sometimes patina just look funky. These look a lot better after a quick cleaning!

-Louie

Finger Off Extreme

I love fun little sight gags and Finger Off Extreme by Luca Bono is FANTASTIC! It’s a silly little gag where you pull you finger off.

@louiefoxx Sleight of hand!! #sleightofhand #magic #magictrick #pinky #degloved #louiefoxx #brokenbone #ouch #wtf ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What’s great is the visual of the bone is soo unexpected. The trick isn’t hard to do, you do need to palm the piece, but that’s really not a big deal. The props are well made, the packaging is fun (if that’s important to you).

I highly recommend Finger Off Extreme!

You can get it at: https://kranzomagic.myshopify.com/products/finger-off-extreme-by-luca-bono

-Louie