Tricks – Page 27 – MagicShow.Tips

Creating Custom Gimmicks

I just wrapped up building a custom prop for another magician. I don’t know if people know what goes into creating props. Below are the first three attempts at making part of the prop, I forgot to take a picture of the forth and final version.

The first version which is on the left, was kinda my “proof of concept” version and it let me know that the idea was solid.

The middle version was a slight tweak, where the slot is bigger, but that brought me to a second challenge, the top needed to taper in. I also realized I has a little more room to play with with the prop, so I extended the gimmick.

The third version on the right, fit great, but internally I discovered there was a “pinch point”, so I had to go back and to a quick redesign, which led me to the fourth and final version (not pictured).

Looking back, the second version was clunky, but functional. The third version didn’t really work, but the final version worked soo much better than second version. I’m glad I pushed forward to get it to the final version!

If you’ve got a custom prop you are looking to get made, contact me and we can chat about it!

-Louie

Money Paddle!

A while ago I bought a money paddle that was made from wood that was reclaimed from Houdini’s house in New York. I really don’t like the money paddle, but having one got me to play with it a little bit and I came up with a couple of ideas that weren’t standard.

the first uses money on the paddle, but the effect is slightly different:

@louiefoxx Houdini VS Andrew Jackson! #houdini #andrewjackson #magictrick #funfacts #fakefacts #escapeartist #closeupmagic #sleightofhand #louiefoxx #twentybucks ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The second idea is a better and more original idea:

@louiefoxx Spoon Optical Illusion #spoon #opticalillusion #magic #louiefoxx #magician #magictrick #what #surpriseending @seattlekraken #sleightofhand #wtf ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This was a fun to play with and I have a few more ideas for the money paddle that eventually I’ll get around to recording.

-Louie

Valentines Day Magic Trick!

Last night I was trying to come up with some ideas for a Valentine’s Day magic trick for social media. I had some ideas, one was a touch the screen type trick, another was a rose pedal to confetti as well as a couple of other pretty generic ideas.

The one idea that I liked enough to actually record was this:

@louiefoxx Happy Valentines Day! #valentinesday #candyhearts #conversationhearts #sweethearts #magictrick #magic #louiefoxx #magician #closeupmagic #surpriseend ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

There’s not much to it, it’s my Take Out Production Box made from a box of Valentine’s Day candy. The shape of the candy box had a couple of challenges to covert to a production box, but it was fun little challenge!

I frequently say that holidays or national days are great days to be creative and try to come up with new tricks around that theme. Some days you’ll simply put new clothes on something old, and other times you’ll come up with something completely new!

-Louie
PS Follow me on Tik Tok at: https://www.tiktok.com/@louiefoxx

Prestige Mentalism Trick as an Opener

The show I did last month for school assemblies opened with a flash opener, that’s not really a trick, but something visual and exciting. Then the first actual magic trick in the show is the Prestige trick. This is a mentalism trick where you have 5 numbered cards with different things written on them and someone picks one and what’s written on the back of that number is your force.

Here’s what the trick looks like:

How I’m making the trick work for kids is that I’m building a pattern of the same thing on all of the cards, then shattering the pattern with the revelation of something different. This is basically how a joke is structured, you build an assumption (set up) and then you change that assumption (punchline). This is a structure that kids can understand and that’s why it works.

Another thing that makes this effective is how direct it is for the selection of the item, because the number is a free choice. There’s nothing complicated like with the PATEO force or that feels strange like with the hotrod force. The effect how I do it would lose impact if I had a process heavy force, and it definitely wouldn’t work in the opening spot in the show if I had to use a lot of procedure.

I really dig this trick, it works out great for me.

-Louie

Coin Flourish

I’ve always thought Charlie Frye‘s trick Frye’s Chips was a great little flourishy thing. I didn’t like that I was made as a poker chip and not a coin. A little while ago I found a coin that I could do the flourish with and finally put together the gimmick:

@louiefoxx Lazy day got me practicing dumb stuff! #balance #cointrick #magic #numistmatist #practice #closeupmagic ♬ I Can’t Stop (Ekali Tribute) – Flux Pavilion

After trying it out, I do like it with a coin much more than a poker chip!

-Louie

Key and Ring…

The trick “Stirring Silver” by Jay Sankey has always fascinated me. I can do the trick, but really only do it in impromptu situations when I need to bang out something quick. I’m not sure what I don’t like about it, I think that ring spends way too much time on the handle of the spoon in the first phase. I do understand that it needs to be there for how the trick works.

Here’s a version of it that I came up with and I posted a video of it on Tik Tok a bit ago:

@louiefoxx Magic trick while waiting for the store to open… #waiting #ring #key #sleightofhand #magictrick @therealjaysankey #magician #louiefoxx #closeupmagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The method is different from Jay’s routine, but the effect is visually the same. The challenge with a key is with the shaft soo much shorter than a spoon you have less room to hide things, which is why I had to go in a different direction with the method.

I think the trick came out well, but it’s something I’ll probably never do in my actual work.
-Louie

Take Up Reel Question

A question I recently got asked about my Take Up Reel for the vanishing bird cage is how much can you move around with it on. My answers is that it gives you pretty much full range of motion.

For the last month I’ve been performing 2-3 shows a day and my 45 minutes show ends with the vanishing birdcage. I’m pretty physical in the show, and in the middle of the show I do some trick roping with the take up reel on my left wrist with the pull set to the long position.

Right after the trick roping routine, I could reach over, grab the cage and vanish it. I don’t as the cage is about 15 mins later in the show, but in that picture the working end of the take up reel is in my right sleeve.

For me and how I perform, using a take up reel allows me to do the vanishing birdcage. It’d be impossible using just a wrist to wrist pull.

-Louie

Apples and Oranges

One trick that I’m doing in the school assembly is based on Jim Steinmeyer’s Apples and Oranges routine in his book Conjuring. Jim’s trick is the Piano Card Trick, but using apples and oranges, which makes it play on stage. Essentially the trick is an orange disappears from one side of the stage and reappears on the other.

I took Jim’s idea and rewrote the script and changed the props so that it works for the show I was doing. In the first few weeks of doing the show, I felt like the kids holding the nets of fruit were really only there as human props and I needed to give them opportunities to shine. I started by asking them some questions, then giving one of them a line and creating an impossible challenge for the other kid. This made the routine soo much more engaging that it was before.

Also I should add that the trick is good! When the orange ends up on the other side of the stage, the teachers seem more amazed than the kids! That’s an important point about this show and all kids shows, the magic needs to be good. There were (and still are) soo many magic tricks that from an effect standpoint aren’t good that are marketed to children’s performers. This is part of what creates the stereotype that kids magic is cheesy. If you up your game with good tricks, it’s helps take you out of that cheesy magician box.

-Louie

Chop Cup Routine

One magic trick that I’m fascinated by is the Cup and Ball trick. Most of these are “Chop Cup” routines as that reduces a lot of sleight of hand. Unfortunately many of these routines are very similar and use the gimmick in the exact same way. My Cee Lo routine uses the gimmick as a holdout, and not to replace sleight of hand and it’s a great, working cup and ball(s)/chop cup routine.

I’ve had an idea in a notebook for while and finally got around to figuring it out and posted it on Tik Tok. Also if you’re on Tik Tok, give me a follow @LouieFoxx

Here’s the routine:

@louiefoxx Magic trick from my hotel room! #magic #dollarbill #twentydollars #magictrick #dollarbillchallenge #closeupmagic #surpriseending #chopcup #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What’s interesting about it is that it doesn’t have the traditional chop cup move where you shake the ball in the cup. It also has a final load not being a physically larger version of the ball, but the bill changing to a larger denomination bill. I don’t know if that ending is better than producing a bigger item…

It was fun to get another idea out of a notebook!

-Louie

Sponge Tennis Balls…fixing lines

When I was putting together my tennis ball routine for this school assembly tour, I started using Sponge Tennis Balls by Daba Magic. I like these more than the Alan Wong Sponge Tennis Balls as the Daba ones pop open much faster.

After using them for 2-3 shows a day on this tour, I found one thing that I don’t like about the Daba Sponge Tennis Balls. The white line on them is tape or something like that, where on all the other sponge tennis balls I’ve tried, they are painted on. After about a week the tape lines started getting loose, and this week they started falling off.

Here’s what the lines should look like:

And here’s what they looked like this week:

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised that this would happen to them. I didn’t think that tape was good way to make the lines. I went to the store and bought some paint and redid the lines:

It only took a few minutes to paint the lines onto the sponge tennis balls, and this should hold up for a lot longer than the tape lines.

-Louie