UnPlanned Rising Card Routine

A long time ago I had an idea for a rising card routine.  Most of the rising card routines that I have seen have either a singular rise, which is the whole routine, or it’s multiple rises. The thing I have against multiple rises is that it’s essentially the same trick over and over, you just may add conditions each time to make it more impossible.  I understand it gives it a sense of build, but why wouldn’t you just do it the “hardest” way the first time if you could, the previous ones were wasting the audience’s time? 

In the idea for my rising card routine, three cards are selected and the deck is put in a glass.  An interesting point is that the cards never leave the glass after they are put in.  This is one of the interesting parts of this trick, the hands off nature of the trick.  I do touch the cards, but only the top card to show it’s not a selected card.  So the deck is in the glass, and first two cards appear one at a time to the front of the pack. Then for the finale the final card rises up from the middle of the pack.

It’s a good one, two, three set of reveals.  It’s also done with me solo onstage, so no one physically has to come up on stage and it ends with a nice applause pose.

There are some challenges with the original routine.  The placements of the gimmick in the deck and best way to hide the lock that I built into my rising card gimmick are some of the more major challenges. I took my props for this routine to the green room of the fair I’m working at and was showing it to Mickey O’Connor and Bri Crabtree for their thoughts.  While messing around with a different idea, I came up with a way to use a someone from the audience as a way to “lock” the rising card in the down position.  It was a real “break through” for the routine…also it marked a complete change of the routine.  It’s now a two card revelation with someone onstage, and that person does the magic.  It is a better routine after the changes, and this is a great example of how bouncing around ideas with other people can make a huge difference!

-Louie

Breaking It In…

One of the fun things about performing on the road is when you get to perform with your friends. This week in Wyoming I’m performing with my buddy Matt Baker. Matt does a comedy stunt show and we both co-host the Odd and Offbeat Podcast. Besides hanging out, we both are working on a ton … Continue reading “Breaking It In…”

One of the fun things about performing on the road is when you get to perform with your friends. This week in Wyoming I’m performing with my buddy Matt Baker. Matt does a comedy stunt show and we both co-host the Odd and Offbeat Podcast. Besides hanging out, we both are working on a ton of new material for our shows.


We made a mutual pact to do no “A” material this week. We’re working on building up new material and maybe moving some routines from B to A status. Not having your best material as a crutch to get you through a show. It makes you focus on getting a couple more laughs and selling the trick a little bit harder.


I’ve had a routine that’s been a preshow trick that really had no routine. It now runs about 4 mins and has a lot of laughs. The nice thing is that I’m working with a buddy who is watching my show and giving me ideas, and I’m watching his and giving him ideas, so we both win and create much faster!