Tricks – Page 4 – MagicShow.Tips

Final Summer Library Show of 2025!

Well, I’m now done with my summer reading shows at libraries for the season. Here’s my case before the final packing of it.

I really liked my show this year and it was a ton of fun to do it. My show was themed around the colors of the rainbow and the show worked for libraries and summer camps. I think this is a show that I may keep around and for kids events. The rainbow themes is a great segue between tricks and a good frame for the show.

The show also got me to use iQpro for visual elements on a screen in the show. The show was mostly images on the screen, but it also had some video elements. I’m really liking this program for the video projection, however I’m struggling with it for audio. Ideally using one program to run the show would be best, however I’m thinking there may be some advantages to using two. Primarily if something happens to one, like the app freezes, I still have the other running. That means I might not have music, but I’ll still have video or vice versa. Having one is better than none!

The other routine that has come out of this that’s a keeper is my expanding card trick warm up. This is a multiphase card trick for kids. It’s probably doubled in time and effects from how I used to do it!

-Louie

Magic Show Review

It’s always great to see what other magicians think of my show. A magician (who I had never met before) was at one of my shows last week. He texted about my show to another performer who I did know and that performer shared a screen of of the text.

It’s always great when magicians like my show. While they’re not my target audience, they are a group that I try to have something in the show for. My show is fairly non-standard, or at least if something is sorta standard, it has a twist on it. I don’t do this specifically for magician audiences, it’s for me. I honestly couldn’t do an “off the shelf” magic show. It’s the difference between a cover band and a band that does originals. A cover band will have much easier early success, but there’s a limit to the level of success they will have. However a band that does originals will have a harder time at first, but the potential level of success is much higher.

Doing standards IS a part of the learning process. You do need to know standard techniques. I did linking rings for a long time, and if you handed me a set I bet I could still flawlessly do my old routine.

-Louie

Showing Process for Mentalism

When I went to a Gerry McCambridge workshop a few years ago, he talked about how it was important for a mentalist to show the process of how they’re reading a mind. A common process shown by mentalists is reading someone’s body language. In the mentalism I do that’s not presented as a coincidence, I try to show a process that’s believable.

I’ve been playing with unbelievable processes. One idea I had was for someone who it thinking of a work, they whisper it into their fist, then the need to get that idea into my head…so they slap me in the face!

That was just an idea, but it lead to a couple other ideas that were more workable. The idea I think I’m going to go with is to have someone think of a word. Then I hand them a paper roll and they are going to swing it like a baseball bat at my belly in a way that feels like their word.

I think there’s a ton of comedy potential that can happen around how the hit me. They can’t hurt me with the paper roll as it just collapses if they swing it hard.

Then after I verbally reveal the word, I can unroll the paper tube and it says the word they are thinking of!

I think this routine has potential.

-Louie

A Tip for Mentalists

A while ago I worked with a mentalist and they did a “psychometry” sort of routine where they matched things with the object’s owner. To do that the objects were put in bags then mixed up before the mentalist returned them to the proper owner. This mentalist (and many others that I’ve seen) put glasses on to do the part where they needed to read the marks and removed them after they read the marks.

DON’T DO THAT!

Sure probably 90% of audiences won’t notice that or make the connection, however many do. It’s like casually looking at an Apple Watch to get information, people notice. A friend of mine who isn’t a magician, but books big events had a mentalist and I asked how they were. My friends response was, “they looked at their watch a lot” and that told me all I needed to know.

Audiences do notice these things. Can you come up with a different way of making the prop?
Sew beads into it’s marked by feel?
Or use something that’s easier to see?
Can you wear glasses your whole show?

Think outside of the prop you bought that will work better with your eyesight!

-Louie

Oil and Water

Awhile ago I found a set of lecture notes called Something From the East by Haruhito Hirata. In the notes there was an oil and water trick that wasn’t for me, but it did have one part that did appeal to me. The cards were dealt out in rows and then the rows were mixed. The cards then separated by color.

The method was fairly complex and involved. I thought the trick could be streamlined a little bit, so I came up with this:

Then I realized that I could get a bonus trick out of it if the cards had different colored backs, so here’s the second version:

I’d like to get a third effect out of it, but not sure what that would be. Maybe it’ll come to me one day…

-Louie

Seance Spirit Hand!

One of the things that I make every now and then are seance/spirit hands. These are hands that tap messages from ghosts. I just make and sell the shell of the hand, it’s up to the buyer to gimmick them or use a gimmicked board wit them. The hands are also unpainted so that they can be decorated for whatever look the buyer wants.

Here’s one of the hands that was decorated and packaged beautifully by someone who bought on of my seance/spirit hand shells!

No one really makes a these hands and if you want one, the hand shells that I make are a good starting point!

-Louie

Jumbo Coins Thru Table

Sometimes I see a trick and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The effect is a coins through table, but with jumbo coins.

Watch the video:

From a magician’s standpoint the jumbo coins add difficulty. From a non-magician standpoint, I’m not sure if it enhances the effect. Sure, everyone knows that doing sleight of hand with a 3 inch diameter coin is much harder than with a 1 inch diameter coin. That difference is something that doesn’t really matter in the moment, unless you sell the trick as a “try to catch me” sort of trick.

Also, why jumbo coins?

I get that it’s a coin trick made bigger, but wouldn’t drink coasters work instead of the jumbo coins. Now you have a trick with a natural object that belongs on a table.

I think the effect in the video is very well done, however not sure how I feel about the trick.

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick – Destiny Deck by Nick Trost

The Destiny Deck by Nick Trost is a fun little routine that has a few effects that happen one after the other. Here’s what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Destiny Deck by Nick Trost! #magictrick #cardtrick #vintagemagic #cardmagic #nicktrost #louiefoxx #dice #closeupmagic #antiquemagic #antique ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What I’d probably do to change the trick is eliminate the dice and have people hold up fingers for their number. That frees up some pocket space and the trick will still work. It’s a fun trick to do, the only problem is the reset and because of that it’s something that I really won’t carry with me. However I did have fun doing it for a couple of days!

Also it looks like Abbott’s Magic has a few left in stock: https://abbottmagic.com/shop/ols/products/nick-trost-destiny-deck

-Louie

Magic Monday in Seattle!

I was up in Seattle on Monday last week, so went and performed at Magic Monday! This show happens on the second Monday of the month and has been running for something like 25 years!

Before the show I met up with Chris Beason for a quick drink at Teddy’s. This bar was one of the places where Cliff Gustafson used to perform when I was a teenager (and not old enough to get in to see him)

The performers were Jim, Evan, Payne and me.

Sorry Jim, somehow I didn’t get a picture of you.

It’s not just the show, a lot of magic happens, like Ruben doing some close up magic for the audience after the show.

I look at this show like a magic open mic. It’s a place to try new stuff for a great audience! It’s also like a magic club meeting as we all get together in the pub downstairs and hang out after the show.

If you’re ever in Seattle on the second monday of the month you should come out to the show!

-Louie

Fixing a Vanishing Birdcage!

A while ago I got a text from a friend who found a vanishing birdcage that was for sale. It was in really rough shape, it was missing a bar, had another bar that was loose and two of the corner bars needed to be fixed.

I bought the cage with an experiment with my bird cage guy to see if he could repair it. It came back and it looks like a totally different cage!

Not only were the bars replaced/fixed he also cleaned the cage. The cage was pretty loose when I got it and he tightened it up a little bit so it’s less like handling a jellyfish!

I’m glad I tried this and it’s good to know that there can be a second life to some of these old broken cages!

-Louie