Nebraska Magic Jam!

Last week when I was performing in Grand Island, Nebraska I met up with Nate Myers who is magician who lives there. We met up at the Perkins, and while I love jamming with magicians I prefer doing it at bars over restaurants. The main reason is that bars have a more casual feel and it’s less intrusive if someone has an idea they want to try on someone. Walking up to and chatting with random people is more common in a bar than in a restaurant.

That said, I’ll take jamming in a restaurant over not jamming any day!

As we were leaving the waitress asked to show her a magic trick. I grabbed 4 pennies out of the “need an penny” dish and did a quick trick:

@louiefoxx Coin Trick at the Perkins! #cointick #perkins #sleightofhand #coinmagic #magic #louiefoxx #grandisland #nebraska #magician #penny #coinsacross ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I learned this trick as a kid from the Klutz Book of Magic. It’s a great impromptu coins across that can be done with pretty much any for small items that look the same. If you don’t know the trick, it’s totally worth tracking down that book and learning it, it’s a great trick to have in your brain for an impromptu situation.

-Louie

Milk Caps Across Routine…

Yesterday I posted a video of me trying out a routine using cardboard milk caps in place of coins for a Three Fly style coins across routine. I sat down and wrote out a little routine for it.

These are milk caps, if you were a child of the 90’s they’re POGs and if you’re an alcoholic they’re coasters for your shot glass.

These were used in the early 1900’s to seal glass milk bottles to keep flies out and tuberculosis in.

There are three of them.

They switch hands faster than cooking a rare steak!

The news one goes hand to hand faster than milk goes through someone that’s lactose intolerant!

The last one disappears faster than a vegan in an ice cream parlor!

All three of them move hand to hand faster than you can applaud!

I feel like there should be a joke for the line, “There are three of them”. It could be something silly, like “Three milk caps, one for each of my twins“. That might be what is needed there.

I also don’t know how I feel about the tuberculosis line. It’s an interesting historical line about milk giving people tuberculosis in the 1800’s (read about it here). I don’t think it will get a laugh, and I try to not joke about illnesses. It’s not a dig at anyone who has tuberculosis, it’s a historical joke. People don’t process things with what was in my head when I wrote it, they hear a “trigger word” and there’s nothing you can do to convince them otherwise.

-Louie

Complete Cheapo Copentro

I’ve written about my fascination with the coins to glass magic effect. One version that I’ve always likes is the Jack Hughes Visible Coins To Glass, or in the USA we tend to call it Bob Kline’s Copentro. That’s the version where the coins visually appear in a shot glass that’s covered by a larger glass.

There are other version of the trick where the glass held mouth up with your hand above the opening of the glass. The coins then “drop” into the glass from your hand. Here’s an example of this version of the trick:

The problem with the version with the handheld glass is that it’s pretty obvious to anyone that the coin came from your hand. The glass doesn’t really isolate where the coins are appearing. The glass does add a fun sound when the coin arrives and adds a prop which may make the trick play a little bit bigger. Both of those a great additions, but they are really aren’t additions to the magic effect. They don’t make it more amazing or really any different from a coins across that happens in the hands.

That’s why I think I really like the Hughes/Kline version where the cup is isolated. It is something more than an in the hands coins across.

Over the last 18ish months I’ve worked on several versions of the trick. One that I will probably never use is this one:

The video above is the more complete version of the one I posted back in January (see it here). I wanted to figure out not just how to get the coin into the shot glass, but how to make the whole thing work start to finish. I’m glad I did that and have that version of the trick out of my mind now…until I try to start to work on how to make multiple coins appear in the shotglass…

Easy Magic Content Generator…

Today is Valentines Day and an easy day to generate social media content for. Think of a trick using a paper heart, a flower, or a valentine and you’ve got good content for you social sites. You aren’t limited to Valentines Day, you can do this for any of the wacky national holidays. You can … Continue reading “Easy Magic Content Generator…”

Today is Valentines Day and an easy day to generate social media content for. Think of a trick using a paper heart, a flower, or a valentine and you’ve got good content for you social sites. You aren’t limited to Valentines Day, you can do this for any of the wacky national holidays. You can find a list at: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/


In the past I’ve done tricks for things like National Light Bulb Day. If you simply visit the list once a month and look for days the next month you’ll have plenty of chances for an idea for a trick. I just took a peek at March and here’s some ideas:

  • National Pig Day: Get 4 small toy pigs and do a Coins Across
  • National Cheese Doodle Day: Broken and restored cheese doodle
  • National Cold Cuts Day: Card to sandwich
  • National Oreo Day: Do Bizarro’s Over Stuft trick

Those are just a few ides, and I didn’t go deep into the month. Take a peek and start generating ideas!