One of the things I’m playing with in my Tik Tik videos is not bumping the edge of the screen to ditch things. Here’s an example of a ditch where my hands are in full view the whole time:
I’m essentially using my forearm to block the drop of the fork. It’s a good clean up, that honestly I think only magicians will notice or appreciate that I didn’t take the lazy route of just dipping my hand to the edge of the screen. It’s not always possible to do it this way, but I think whenever possible using slightly more creative ditches are better.
Many years ago on a John Cornelius VHS tape he did a quick bit that wasn’t explained that I always thought was cool. He took a flower off his lapel and it turned into a silk. The silk then turned back into a flower. The flower disappeared and was back on his lapel. The whole thing took about 15 seconds, but was visually really cool and went full circle.
Here’s a trick that was inspired by John Cornelius’s trick:
As I get older, my up close vision has started to go. Reading had gotten difficult and when I realized that during my morning writing, I couldn’t read what I had just written I knew it was time to go to the eye doctor. He prescribed me glasses for reading and what a difference it makes!
Having a new view on the world…as long as it’s about 12 inches from my face got me thinking about a trick that has to do with vision. My first idea was to have blurry writing on a notecard that then changed to in focus writing that was readable. The problem with that idea is that it’s small, it wouldn’t really play for many people, unless it was a social media video.
The next idea is better, it’d be a picture of the Mona Lisa, or whatever, but blurry. Then it changes to in focus.
This could easily be accomplished by making it like a flap card.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever do this, but I think it is a good idea!
I’ve always been interested in Tommy Wonder’s Cups and Balls routine. I finally plunked down the cash and picked up this set:
Right out the gate, I think the bag is a little bit too small (not long enough) for the cups. You need to be able to tie it shut with the string with the cups in the bag. I really had to force/stretch the bag to get the cups into it and tie it shut. This isn’t a huge deal, as over time I imagine it will stretch and get easier (I hope).
I started by reading the routine in The Books of Wonder Vol 2 and working it out. The routine didn’t feel right, so I then watched some videos of Tommy performing the routine. There’s a lot of flow that’s missing from the book and it really would have benefitted from having a bullet point list of the effects that happen in the routine.
Here’s one of the videos I watched:
One thing that I noticed about the routine is that it’s not a show stopper like when you see Gazzo, Ammar or Bob Read do the cups. At the end of those, there’s a punctuation at the end, a definite end. Tommy’s routine is more of a middle piece than a closer.
In Tommy’s book he mentions that he’s known to magicians for his cups and balls. There’s a clue there, I don’t think he thought it was the best for non-magicians. It’s certainly innovative in how the loads were done, with none from the body/pockets, and resets instantly, but I’m not sure that translates to non magicians as much as it appeals to magicians.
I’m going to learn the routine, and give it a try, hopefully I can get it down in about a month for a week long run of shows I’ll be doing next month.
A while ago I bought a money paddle that was made from wood that was reclaimed from Houdini’s house in New York. I really don’t like the money paddle, but having one got me to play with it a little bit and I came up with a couple of ideas that weren’t standard.
the first uses money on the paddle, but the effect is slightly different:
Last night I was trying to come up with some ideas for a Valentine’s Day magic trick for social media. I had some ideas, one was a touch the screen type trick, another was a rose pedal to confetti as well as a couple of other pretty generic ideas.
The one idea that I liked enough to actually record was this:
There’s not much to it, it’s my Take Out Production Box made from a box of Valentine’s Day candy. The shape of the candy box had a couple of challenges to covert to a production box, but it was fun little challenge!
I frequently say that holidays or national days are great days to be creative and try to come up with new tricks around that theme. Some days you’ll simply put new clothes on something old, and other times you’ll come up with something completely new!
The trick “Stirring Silver” by Jay Sankey has always fascinated me. I can do the trick, but really only do it in impromptu situations when I need to bang out something quick. I’m not sure what I don’t like about it, I think that ring spends way too much time on the handle of the spoon in the first phase. I do understand that it needs to be there for how the trick works.
Here’s a version of it that I came up with and I posted a video of it on Tik Tok a bit ago:
The method is different from Jay’s routine, but the effect is visually the same. The challenge with a key is with the shaft soo much shorter than a spoon you have less room to hide things, which is why I had to go in a different direction with the method.
I think the trick came out well, but it’s something I’ll probably never do in my actual work. -Louie
One magic trick that I’m fascinated by is the Cup and Ball trick. Most of these are “Chop Cup” routines as that reduces a lot of sleight of hand. Unfortunately many of these routines are very similar and use the gimmick in the exact same way. My Cee Lo routine uses the gimmick as a holdout, and not to replace sleight of hand and it’s a great, working cup and ball(s)/chop cup routine.
I’ve had an idea in a notebook for while and finally got around to figuring it out and posted it on Tik Tok. Also if you’re on Tik Tok, give me a follow @LouieFoxx
What’s interesting about it is that it doesn’t have the traditional chop cup move where you shake the ball in the cup. It also has a final load not being a physically larger version of the ball, but the bill changing to a larger denomination bill. I don’t know if that ending is better than producing a bigger item…
I was messing around with an idea in my hotel room. It’s pretty simple, change a packet of sugar to a packet of something else. I came up with several ways, and this is probably the best one:
It’s very direct, the packet of Splenda turns to a packet of sugar. No crazy moves, just cover it with a cup. I’m pretty proud of this, and I don’t think this technique has been used yet (but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had)
I’ve recently started posting on Tik Tok, and you can follow me there @LouieFoxx. When I post magic trick videos, I have some criteria. The trick has to have something original about it. I’m not just buying a trick like the card to watch trick and doing it.
It could be in method, presentation, or prop. For example, I do a trick that was popular on instagram in 2020 where you make a pen float and pass a hoop over it. The original angle is that I’m doing it with a chicken wing. Then there’s some tricks that are 100% original like this one:
My goal is to use Tik Tok as an outlet for ideas that I have, and ones that I’ll probably never do in my show, but I think still has some sort of merit. My goal is to publish a trick every 2-3 days, which is a lot!
