Four Ace Production…

Last night I was playing with a deck of cards while I watched the final couple of episodes of Dexter New Blood and came up with a little pop out of a card from the deck. It’s pretty easy to do:

  • Hold the deck in your right hand in biddle grip.
  • Swing cut the top half into your left hand into mechanic’s grip
  • Your left thumb side jogs the top card about half an inch to the right
  • As your righthand approaches the left hand, the back of the right hand’s middle fingertip contacts the side jogged card. The right hand continues moving forward and slightly up. That will cause the side jogged card to flip face up. When that happens, your right hand moves down to put the two halves of the pack together.

That’s it.
It’s not much, and it feels really familiar. I think it’s a mix of a lot of thing that I already know and that’s what makes it feel like it’s something I already know.

After playing with it with one card, I started thinking about producing a second card. That ended up being a four card production:

While not the greatest or flashiest four ace production, it was fun to come up with last night!
-Louie

Trick with Canadian Money…

A couple of days ago I had a Facebook memory pop up that had a video I made while I was on tour in Canada about four years ago. While I travelled I used to do a videos of magic tricks in my hotel room. It’s been a while since I’ve made one, however I think this was a very interesting video as it uses Canadian money. If you’ve never played with them, they are plastic bills, that don’t easily fold and hold a crease, and most Canadian magicians dislike them. Here’s a cool trick I came up with using them:

What I think is really cool about this trick is that it takes advantage of the hologram and clear spot that’s in the Canadian bill. I don’t know how well this would play in Canada as there’s a discrepancy in the trick that virtually no one outside of Canada would notice.

I think this is a fun social media trick, but really wouldn’t make it into an in person show.

-Louie

Triumphant Flip Off

I’ve been facinated by using the old card revelation where you drop the deck on the table and the top card flips to reveal a selected card as a way to correct the deck for a triumph style effect.

Here’s a video demo of one that I’ve been doing lately:

About a month ago I wrote up a quick outline of the working of the effect:

http://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/triumph-clean-up/

One of the challenges was figuring out how to do Daryl’s Triumph Display with the deck in the condition that the deck is in for my routine. It’s basically the same as Daryl’s except the final two blocks of cards are hand hand and you rotate your hands palm up to show the face up and face down blocks.

I’m glad I figured out how to do the final display, it just took sitting around and playing until I worked it out, and the solution was soo simple!

-Louie

Out For Beers – Review

I woke up today to a great review of my Out For Beers trick!

I really love this trick, the play on words gag really works with my personality. I also think the trick works better than most of the Out to Lunch style tricks because it starts as a gag that is motivated. The trick sneaks up on the audience, which make it even more amazing!

This trick has been a huge hit at the booking confrences I’ve been at over the last few months and has driven a lot of traffic to my tradeshow booth and gotten me a lot of work. Get yours now!

Out For Beers $19



-Louie



Tik Tok Magic…

Well…it looks like I’m on Tik Tok now, you can follow me @LouieFoxx. I just put up my first video, or you can watch it here:

@louiefoxx Kitchen Magic with Louie Foxx! #magic #magictrick #egg #whiskey #magician #magicshow #fyp #foryourpage #kitchenmagician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This trick is kinda interesting with the shotglass production kicker. I used Black Fox’s Shot Glass Production, that I don’t think he ever really released, or maybe no one really bought. He gave me one 15-20 years ago and I found it while cleaning up. I used to use it sometimes when I used to do the egg bag.

It’s been sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks, and I finally had an idea for it, and that’s what I did for the Tik Tok video. It was fun to figure out something to do with it!
-Louie

Color Changing Silk Gimmicks…

A couple of days ago a friend of mine sent me a video of the Infection color Changing Silk effect. I’m familiar with the instant color changes which I think are usually more suited to a manipulation act than the “poke and pull” style with a dye tube.

A long time ago when Norm Nielsen sold a color changing hank where you pulled it through your hand and the silk’s color changed. I always thought that would be a great first or last phase of a dye tube color changing silk routine.

I think Norm’s version would be a good beginning and Infection would be a better ending. I’m not sure if using both in the same routine would be better than using just one? Also there’s a lot that would need to be figured out, like how you’re going to transition from one gimmick to the other and ditches so you end semi/totally clean.

It’s an idea…and I don’t know why, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use one of the pull through gimmicks AND the push and pull gimmicks in the same routine. Maybe I’ll get one and give it a try….
-Louie

A Special Card Trick Moment…

magician terry godfrey

One thing I love is seeing people do unusual things. A couple days ago I got to see my friend Terry Godfrey do the Al Goshman’s Cards Thru Newspaper. It’s a great trick and it’s also a fun, special moment when he gets on the floor with the cards. It’s a break from what Terry normally does and when he does it, it feels like he’s showing you something special, and he is!

al goshman card thru newspaper magic trick by terry godfrey

Seeing him do that trick in early 2020 is what inspired me to come up with this trick:

My trick is essentially Cards Thru Newspaper, however it’s changed a lot. Goshman’s trick used a simple gimmick, mine is a little more complex and of course I eliminated the big sheet of newspaper and changed all of the props!

-Louie

Spoon and Fork Transposition

Every now and then I end up with a trick that I like, but it doesn’t have a place in the show. These tricks end up in the preshow section of my show until I either come up with a routine for them, or give up on trying to figure out a way to fit them in show. The spoon and fork transposition is something that’s a great trick, but stayed in the preshow part of the show for years.

I finally fleshed out the routine a little bit, so it was more than a quick trick. It’ s a two phase routine, with an ending. Recently I tried it at a virtual magic open mic and it went well:

One thing I didn’t think about was the “hips gag”, I don’t think it played virtually. One of the problems was I was sitting, which I really should have realized before I started. Sometimes little things slip, that end up being a much larger problem that you’d think they would be. At least I now know for future gigs!

-Louie

Studio Promo Videos…

I’m thinking about updating my promo video and was watching some other magician’s promo videos this morning. One thing I noticed that I don’t like, however I’m not sure if anyone else notices or not are videos that don’t show the performer in front of a crowd. Here’s one I found from a magician named Alfred, who from the video has great technical skills, however there’s no audience:

What that says to me is the person doesn’t do many shows, I could be wrong. I honestly don’t know if that’s what a booker sees?

I also don’t know how I feel about “studio” shots in a promo video. I understand that a lot of the time it can be the only way to get a certain piece of video, like a close up that wouldn’t really be possible without really annoying the audience. I can usually tell when a studio shot is mixed in with live shots, the energy feels different.

I guess my feelings on promo videos that don’t show actual performances clips is that they aren’t for me.
-Louie

Put the Bird in Birdcage…

It seems the Vanishing Birdcage is getting more and more popular right now, and I think it’s because there are some more cage options on the market right now than there were 5 years ago. I personally love the trick and have for years. The thing about the trick that I think easily gets forgotten is that you need to have a bird, or something in the cage.

That’s where Billy McComb‘s routine with the mouse really shines. It gives a purpose for the cage and puts focus on the cage. In the later Tommy Wonder videos of him doing the vanishing birdcage, it’s an empty cage that disappears. There is a video out there of an early version of Tommy doing it where he does it under a see through cloth, however the cage has a “mouse” in it.

In my routine it’s about the bird, here’s the very end of it:

When the bird is the focal point of the routine and not the cage, the take the audiences focus away from the funky looking cage. If all they have to look at is the cage, it’s easy for them to quickly realize it’s a trick cage.

I use a Nielsen Magic Latex Canary, and I’ve kinda been hoarding them. Whenever I see them at a magic swap meet, I buy them, or when I’m ordering some other trick from a place that sells them, I’ll add one into my order. The canaries are pretty cheap at $10, however, they won’t be around forever. I figure as long as I use them, might as well have them around.

-Louioe