I hate the saying that “everything has been done before” when talking about creating magic tricks. A few years ago when Watch This, which is a card to watch came out that was sort of a “new” thing!
I just stumbled across this trick from 1910 that’s basically the same trick! It’s Card to Baby!
It’s basically the same thing, but instead of a watch, it’s a freaking baby!!!!
I guess there really isn’t anything new under the sun!
-Louie
I was playing with Joe Berg’s Nickel to Half Dollar and it’s an interesting gimmicked coin. Essentially it’s a coin that turns from a nickel into a half dollar. What I like about it is that the coin expands to the larger size. What I don’t like about it is the strange two handed grip you have to have on the nickel and that there are better ways to turn a nickel into a half dollar.
I came up with little transposition routine that uses the coin.
@louiefoxx Easy magic trick! #magictrick #cointrick #magic #nickel #halfdollar #coins #louiefoxx #switch #how #magiciansoftiktok ♬ Money – Pink Floyd
It’s not much, however I think the clean up at the end where I steal the the half shell off of the card is interesting and then allows me to show “both sides” of the Nickel to Half Dollar gimmick.
This is a video only trick, it really wouldn’t play in the real world as the Nickel To Half Dollar isn’t really practical to set and then properly hold with people watching you.
It’s a fun gimmick to play with!
-Louie
Last week I did a TV spot to promote National Magic Week and here’s the video of the spot:
Here’s where I could have improved:
It was a decent media spot, not great but not bad either.
-Louie
About a year ago my buddy Rolando Medina started selling jigsaw puzzle coins. It’s a coin that’s been cut into a little 16 piece jigsaw puzzle. He sells the coin as a novelty, but I thought there’d be a cool trick in there.
When I first got mine, I posted a few ideas of things that could be done with it. You can read them here. The coin has been sitting on my desk for a year and I finally took it out and made a video with it!
@louiefoxx Most puzzling magic trick ever! #puzzle #magictrick #wtf #puzzling #coin #magic #cointrick #louiefoxx #crazy #wow @RM🐇💀🐇 #redmond #magiciansoftiktok #nocameratricks ♬ Believer – Imagine Dragons
I think this coin makes a great little social media video. Doing it in a normal roving close up setting wouldn’t be practical. It’s just the reset of putting it back together takes too much time when going from group to group. It would work in a formal close up magic show.
You can get these and a ton of other cool stuff from Rolando at: https://rolandomedinamagic.com/
-Louie
One of the things that I do for fun is learn old packet tricks. One of the tricks that I as messing with was Karl Fulves Mexican IV. This is a three card monte style trick, then has a “surprise” ending. When I go through the packet tricks that use playing cards, I try to think of how I could theme them as if they were an Emerson and West packet trick. Then when I go through Emerson and West packet tricks, I try to figure out if I could turn them into tricks with normal looking playing cards.
With Mexican IV, I think I got a fun them out of the trick:
@louiefoxx All about the famiily! #family #dog #wife #magic #baby #cardtrick #magician #louiefoxx #car #surprisebaby #story ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
The trick came out well, and it’s a fun creative exercise!
-Louie
One of the things that I’ve noticed when going through old packet tricks from the 1970’s and 1980’s is that a lot of them will have a strange point where an extra card just appears. A good example of this is Mexican IV by Karl Fulves.
Here’s what the trick looks like:
@louiefoxx Bet you can’t follow the card! #game #gambling #betyoucant #magic #cardmagic #magcian #threecardmonte #louiefoxx #karlfulves #amazing #waitforit #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
It’s strange when 3 cards turn into 4 cards, I don’t know how I feel about that. I was trying to give the trick some context and make the appearance of the fourth card make some sense, so here’s what I came up with:
@louiefoxx All about the famiily! #family #dog #wife #magic #baby #cardtrick #magician #louiefoxx #car #surprisebaby #story ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
Having the baby appear gives the fourth card appear some context, instead of a four turning into two aces. Another thing that I added was the change of the dog card to the dog and cat card, so there’s a little bonus effect in there!
If you’re learning a trick and something doesn’t make sense, figure out a way for it to make sense!
-Louie
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before magic became a global market, it was harder to get a trick that was made in a different country. What would happen is magicians would bring things back when they travelled to another country. One magician that did this was Howard Schwarzman and he would write instructions in English and sell the tricks as “Howard Schwarzman Presents…”.
One of these tricks was called Babushka. Here’s the what the trick looks like:
@louiefoxx What the heck is this thing? #whatisit #russiandoll #wow #gone #magictrick #vintage #louiefoxx #howardscharzman #1992 #magic #where ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
This is a trick where the method is fairly “Rube Goldberg” in that’s it’s probably way more involved than it needs to be, but it’s fun to do! It reminds me of 1990’s Tenyo magic, it’s a super clever method!
Now for a little Howie Schwarzman story. I never met him in person, but I did sell him a couple of collectable tricks on eBay. After he won the auction he told me he wanted me to send him the items THEN he’d send me a check. I didn’t accept checks as a form of payment and reminded him of that. He said, “Do you know who I am? I’m Howie Schwarzman”. I told him I didn’t care who he is. I did let him mail me a check, but I held it for two weeks for it to clear, he wasn’t happy with that. That’s was my only interaction with Howie.
If you can find a Babushka, it’s totally worth tracking down to play with!
-Louie
Over on TikTok I post a lot of videos of vintage magic trick and a recent one was of my Milson Worth Silk Cabby. There are two ways I do these videos. The first is EXACTLY how the instructions say, then if I don’t have the original instructions, I try to add a little bit to the the basic function of the trick.
Here’s what I came up with for the Silk Cabby:
@louiefoxx A look back at the 1980’s #magic #1980s #magictrick #scarf #silk #milsonworth #vintage #magician #how #what #theend #louiefoxx #illusion #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
So the trick has a little bit of a routine, besides the standing production. It’s got three vanishes and then the kicker ending. I was trying to maximize how much I could get out of the Silk Cabby beyond just a production of a lot of silks.
I think it came out well.
Also if you’re on TikTok, follow me at: https://www.tiktok.com/@louiefoxx
-Louie
Sometimes I see a picture of a magic trick and try to figure out what it does. Someone posted this picture of a box in a magic group on social media:
It’s a trick where you push the pins though a coin. I thought that this looked like a fun little 3d printing project, so I made a simple version of it. My version had a nested lid instead of a hinged lid.
And if you want to see it work, here’s a demo of it:
@louiefoxx What does it do? #mysterybox #coin #magic #cointrick #magictrick #3dprint #louiefoxx #nails #spike #figureitout #reveal ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
This is an easy 3d print as it’s only two parts. You just need the coin and four nails. If you’d like a copy of the .stl file to make your own, contact me and ask for it!
-Louie
A little while ago I was helping a friend with her promo video and all of the videos she sent me were wide shots. They had the whole stage, including unusable parts where speakers were. That wide shot makes cropping in the video to get clear footage of what you’re doing or more importantly your face almost impossible, even when recorded in 4k!
Here’s an example of the framing of the video:
The video could have been zoomed into the blue line and that would have gotten all of her props adn set pieces. However it really could have been framed to the red line and that would have gotten 95% of the action in her show and if I needed to crop it, it would still be nice and crisp!
When you’re recording your show on a tripod in the back, record it at 4K as that allows some cropping and you can still end up with a high definition video. Also starting with a tighter shot helps a lot with the cropping!
-Louie
