Video – Page 6 – MagicShow.Tips

Embracing the Real Moments

Last week when I was performing at a comedy club, I had a drop during the Hoop and Cup. When it happened, a kid from the audience said something. Here’s what happened:

When someone says something in the show, I try to lean into it. It’s a real moment and something that makes that show unique. Many magicians would shut the kid down with a hack line like, “I checked, and you don’t have a speaking part in the show,” or whatever. Personally, I hate lines like that, and I think 99% of shows could benefit by embracing real, spontaneous things that happen. Yes, there are times you need to shut it down because it’s going now where, however, you usually should explore it first.

The Stop Trick

In my collection of old magic stuff, I had a pack of FAKO cards. This is a deck of gaffed cards and novelty cards.

The pack I had was just the cards without the booklet, so I’m not 100% positive as to what tricks the cards do. One of the cards has a big stop sign on it, and here’s what I’ve been doing with it:

It’s just a second deal until they say stop, and then a timing force for the second time. Every time I do it, the person has a great reaction when they see the card!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick from Glen!

My buddy Glen knows that I love old magic tricks. He brought one to show me in Reno, so here’s The Farmer’s Daughter:

It’s a great little packet trick with a story that’s consistent with the time it was created. Thanks Glen for sharing it with me!

-Louie

Music and Senior Gigs

There are a lot of misconceptions about performing for seniors at retirement communities. One questionable piece of advice is to use big band music. That kind of music is the music that the parents of the people currently in retirement homes listened to. Simple math will show that if someone is 80 now, that means when they were in their 20s, music like the Rolling Stones was popular.

Here’s the music playing in the dining room at a senior gig. Ignore the piano, that’s a resident playing it at the other end of the room.

When the retirement community doesn’t play music from the resident’s childhood, that should tell you something. The community won’t play music they don’t like.

-Louie
PS You can get my book How To Perform For Seniors at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/how-to-perform-for-seniors-book/

Topsy Turvy Cards

There’s a great little card trick that I think is a George Sands thing and more recently popularized by David Williamson. You and the audience have four cards each. They follow along with you, turning cards over, and you always end up with all your cards facing the same way, and theirs don’t.

The instructions that I learned from said to give them the cards to do the last phase. The problem I had with this is that you’re handing them a packet that secretly has a card reversed. Most of the time, the spectator would expose that reversed card. My solution to this was for me to hold the cards in one hand and they perform the action. That keeps the cards squared, and the secretly reversed card a secret!

Here’s what it looks like:

This is a trick that isn’t part of my normal work, but it’s a fun thing you can do for a group that they all get to do. What I don’t like about it is that the spectator doesn’t “win” and I haven’t figured out a way to make that happen. In David Williamson’s version they do win and it’s great!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Props

A little while ago I picked up a magic box with props from the 1960s. Here’s what was in it:

One of the interesting things was the Joseph Silk Gun:

Here’s a video of one of them in action:

The Joseph Silk Gun isn’t something that I’d use in a show, but it’s a very cool prop!

-Louie

Louie Foxx Magic Lecture!

Saturday night, I did my magic lecture for the Portland Society of Magicians. This was the same lecture that I did for the PCAM magic convention a few months ago.

This lecture is mostly platform/stage material, however there is a lot of stuff of use to close up performers. In the lecture I talk about how I create original magic, and ways to make magic your own. It’s always fun to share my “art” with other magicians!

-Louie
PS You an get the lecture notes at: https://www.magicshow.tips/lecture-notes-2025/

Prop Management

Recently, I acquired a 60+ year old box of magic tricks. I’m guessing this belonged to Portland, OR magicians Duane Duvall. One of the things I think is interesting is looking inside the working cases of magicians. How did they keep their props in the case during their show?

Here’s a look at the case from the 1960s:

Simple solutions to holding things on the lid and around the inside of the case.

-Louie

1943’s Color Changing Toothpick

In the first volume of The Bat magic magazine there’s a fun little close up trick. It’s the Color Changing Toothpick by Jack Vosburgh.

It’s a nice, simple little trick. The plot is clear, and it’s not hard to do. It’s something that I’m going to file in the back of my head for impromptu situations. In the video above, I colored the toothpicks with markers, so that’s something that could easily be made at a restaurant with a Sharpie marker.

This is what I love about going through old books or magazines, there are little tricks like this that people should still be doing.

-Louie

Pool Ball and Cue Trick

Years ago, I wrote down an idea for a variation of an old juggler’s trick. The original trick was to balance a golf ball between two golf clubs, so that it makes a sort of T shape.

My idea was to do it with pool balls and a pool cue. Here’s what it looks like in my garage:

It seems like jugglers aren’t as into changing props for tricks as magicians are. No juggler has done this (as far as I know), and to me it seems like a logical variation of the golf club trick.

I got to try it out at a show the other day and it went great!

I think this is something that I’m going to work more on. The trick is there, now it just needs a routine.

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!