Tricks – Page 3 – MagicShow.Tips

Charles T. Jordan Collected Tricks

A few weeks ago at the Potter and Potter auction of Kreskin’s stuff, I picked up a copy of Charles T. Jordan Collected Tricks! I think that it was the cheapest thing that sold at the auction, and luckily I didn’t pay too much more that the going rate for the book, and this one has Kreskin’s autograph on the inside cover!

This book starts with the “controversy” about the tricks published under Jordan’s name. You can read a little bit about it here: https://www.conjuringcredits.com/doku.php?id=misc:charles_jordan_controversy

I’m only a few tricks into the book and the third trick involves a deck of cards and a rubber band. This is one of the tricks where the method is way better than the trick. It’s fun to do, but the trick is just OK. It’s a card that disappears from half the deck that’s got a rubber band wrapped around it and it appears in the other half of the deck. There are better ways to do this, but they aren’t as much fun to do!

Also this book covers much more than the Dover book of Jordan’s card tricks. I’m excited to have this book and to work through it!

-Louie

Making a Snake Basket…

In the past I’ve tried to learn to use an Arduino to control motors, servos, etc. It was challenging as I never learned to do any programming in high school. None of the books really helped me figure it out. I was working with Greg Tarlin (juggler/puppeter) in the summer of 2024 and we were chatting about it. We worked together again a few months ago and he talked me through the very basics of it, but having a human tell me stuck more than a book.

I took a basic Arduino project kit on the road with me and have been working through the projects, and I’m understanding the code more and more.

The first real project I want to make is a snake basket. I want to combine the two “modern” snake baskets from my teenage years which were Terry Lunceford’s Viper Pro and Collector’s Workshop’s Khyber Kobra.

Here are videos of both of them:

What I want to do is have the snake rise out with the wrong card, then go back into the basket. Then a few cards shoot out of the basket a couple of times, and finally the snake jumps out.

I’m not sure that I want to do it with a snake, I was thinking of having an octopus or Kracken in the container. It sticks out a tentacle or two and at the end doesn’t jump out, but the tentacle reaches out quickly. Not sure if that will work, but it’s not a snake….

-Louie

The Crated Coin by Mark Strivings

Recently I came across The Crated Coin by Mark Strivings. This is a coin flip routine where you play “heads and tails” with the whole audience.

I’ve been playing with this premise as part of a larger routine. I’ve played with several other versions of the trick, however the main problem I have is dropping the coin. Mark’s solution, which he says is based on a Gaeton Bloom thing is to have the token put in a case and shaken. That makes it incredibly difficult to drop the coin. You are in 100% control of the result of the flip.

This also has the bonus of the sound factor of the token being shook inside the case. I’m a fan of this method!

-Louie

Magic Show Script Writing…

Every year in my library show I try to have at least one trick that has a life larger than that show. Something that I’ll try to put into my main show. One of the new routines that I have been doing in my library shows uses a Cootie Catcher/Paper Fortune Teller.

This routine has been doing well, and it’s a great little solo routine that’s compact a trick that packs flat, but because it’s a three dimensional trick that moves, it has a bit more visual texture than a flat prop.

There’s not a ton to the routine that I’m working on. It’ll hopefully have 6 laughs in two minutes. I’m always looking for solo tricks that I can do without someone from the audience onstage.

-Louie

Vintage Magic!

Magicians always ask me where I get a lot of the vintage magic props. I seek them out while I’m travelling. When I was performing in Napa, CA I found someone with a box of magic from the 1970’s. Here’s a quick video of it:

@louiefoxx Hunting for Vintage Magic Tricks #magictricks #magic #treasure ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Honestly, this box was just “meh” for me. There’s one thing that I want for my personal collection.

I am kinda excited to try to 3d print the gimmicks the two die boxes. It shouldn’t be too hard and they’re not complex shapes. The challenge will be making the hinge for the yellow die, but even that shouldn’t be too difficult.

For fun, I had AI make me a painting of the magic props on the desk of my hotel room.

Both Sides of a Magic Trick

I was playing around with some ideas of tricks to record with my Ray Ban Meta Glasses. One of the neat things is that if I do a magic trick to a mirror, you can record both sides of the trick simultaneously.

Here’s my attempt at doing that:

@louiefoxx Backstage at the magic show #cardtrick #magic #mirrior ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I think it came out well and is a good choice of trick as both sides of the card change, so there’s a good reason to show both sides of the cards!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s Cardcentration

Today’s vintage magic trick is Nick Trost’s Cardcentration. The effect is a prediction of which card out of 8 that someone will pick, then there’s a kicker ending.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s Cardcentration! #cardtrick #magic #magictrick #vintage #cardmagic #louiefoxx #nicktrost #closeupmagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The effect of this trick is great, the method is garbage. There’s no reason for the envelope, you put a card into it, then immediately take it out. This trick would be equally as strong if you did the hot rod force, Quinta force, or the PATEO force. Sure, there’s nothing to sell if you don’t have a gimmick, but those would be superior methods.

I will say that of the three times I did this trick, only once no one asked to look at the envelope after the trick. That confirms to me that it’s the weak spot in the trick. Sure I could have come up with a reason or way to justify the envelope, but I try to do these tricks as written up in the original instructions to preserve what the creator intended.

-Louie

Evaporation – Milk!

In my show the Evaporation gimmick that I use in a milk bottle. Really it’s a Sunny D bottle that has a milk label that I printed out on it. Recently while I was performing in Wyoming I found this milk bottle:

This is my dream bottle for a milk bottle for my Evaporation trick. The only problem is that it’s a unicorn. What makes this bottle perfect for milk is that it’s smooth, which makes it easy to clean and it’s clear, so the liquid is very visible. Unfortunately I’ve spend too much time trying to track down more of these bottles and all the ones I can find are frosted and not clear. With a frosted bottle it’s hard to see the liquid inside.

Normally milk is in a frosted or opaque bottle as light isn’t good for milk. That convinces me that these were an error at the place that makes the bottles. Unfortunately I won’t be able to offer these for sale to magicians as there’s only two and I’m going to be using them. However if you want my standard Evaporation that’s gimmicked for milk, shoot me a note and I can make you one.

-Louie

It’s a Wrap on Library Shows for 2025

Well, I’m doing doing library shows for the summer. When I was putting together the show, one of the goals was that it was one trip in and one trip out of the library. I also wanted that to be only one thing in each hand. Here’s what the show looked liked when packed up.

What’s pictured above is everything for the show. The show was was expandable from it’s most basic form which was the prop box on the table to set up that filled a larger space.

The other goal was for the show was that is played big. It didn’t feel like a suitcase magic show where everything is flat. The show had a lot of textures and I really liked doing this show.

I’m proud of this show and I think I may keep it to cycle back into the rotation for kid shows in the future. The more important thing was that I used this show to learn to do things that will have a life outside of this show. I learned to use and get confident with the iQpro app to run video for my show and I using ankle switches for my show.

One of the goals for my summer library show is that I work on something that I can use outside of that specific show. Whether it’s a routine that I can use in another show or in this case, production stuff.

Always look for a second life for things!

-Louie

Comedy Mentalism Routines!

Last week has been a HUGE week for me creatively. I’ve come up with three ideas for stage routines. One of them I actually had what I needed to try out and got to do about eight times onstage!

All three of them are comedy mentalism. Two of the three of them focus on the process of what the audience perceives is happening and the other is fairly generic mentalism.

You can read a little bit about one of them here:
https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/showing-process-for-mentalism/

The second one is a lock trick where someone picks a key and that’s the only one out of six keys that opens the lock. Fairly standard, but and some process to it and it’s more of a stand out trick.

The premise of the trick is luck.

I get someone who says they’re lucky onstage. The try out all of the keys and confirm that only one will unlock a lock. What’s cool about the lock I’m using is that I don’t need to touch any of this!

They are now locked by their beltloop to a folding chair with short piece of chain.

Now to test their luck, I’ll flip a coin and for every correct flip they get a key to try to free themself. For each flip, they get it wrong…However on the last flip, when the call it and it’s wrong, I openly flip the coin to what they called to so that the get one key.

They select the key, it opens the lock and it frees them!

I’m going to try this out later this week to see how it plays. When I am trying new things, I want to get them onstage as quick as possible. I want to get a sense for how it actually plays with my personality. If it feels right, I’ll start working on writing up a more complete script for it. If it doesn’t, I need to reevaluate whether I should try a different angle, or stop doing it.

Louie