family magic show – MagicShow.Tips

The Good News Magic Show

Last week I had an ad pop up on my social media for The Good News Magic Show. While there’s no mention of religion in the ad, I did have a feeling that this was going to be a “gospel” magic show.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a gospel magic show, I’ve read about them and maybe seen a magic lecture that had a gospel element to a trick or two, but I’ve never seen a full show out there in its element.

When I arrived it was at a church, so that confirmed what I thought I was going to see. The show was a family show (not strictly a kid show). The format was interesting. The show’s first maybe 15-20 minutes was just magic, then there was a quick bible message. After that each trick had a talking point that carried into the bible message that followed after the trick and tied the two together. For example one of the tricks themes was that a mess was made, then the message was “if your life is a mess, Jesus can help clean it up“. It’s a format that’s similar to what I use in a themed school assembly, except I do the content first, then the trick, so they can see the content in action.

From a show perspective, it was a pretty standard magic show. It was fine, but I’m not the target audience for this show and the audience seemed to like it and ultimately that’s what matters.

After the show we (Luke hammer and me) chatted with Greg for a bit.

The other performer (Tony) in the show mentioned to us he’s more of a “balloon guy” and does magic for the show.

Here’s what I liked and what magicians can learn from shows like this. When Tony and Greg were doing the message part of the show they told personal stories and those were things the audience could connect to. In my opinion that’s what’s missing from most magic shows.

-Louie

Making Remote Control Chattering Teeth!

I just finished up making a batch of Remote Control Chattering Teeth. There were two reasons for this batch, the first is that I was out and needed more in stock. The second reason, which to me is the more important reason, I wanted to make a new version of them. I made a batch of six sets of Remote Control Chattering Teeth: Four normal and two experimental!

The thing I’m going to start to test is having them run by an ankle/magnetic switch, instead of a traditional push button remote control.

I’ve already learned a huge lesson when making these teeth. The magnet switches that I had on hand were cased in glass and they broke fairly easily while assembling them. I just ordered a batch of plastic cased magnet switched and will give them a try and see if they work as well as the glass ones!

I’ll be using these in my family/kid shows in December to see how they hold up. If they work well, I’ll probably offer these as an option.

-Louie
PS: If you’re interested in the standard Remote Control Chattering Teeth, you can get them here: https://www.magicshow.tips/remote-control-chattering-teeth/

Late Season Library Shows

Last week I did a run of library shows for an area where the kids were off school for conferences. Here’s my 50 minute show in 64 seconds:

@louiefoxx What a Magic Show at a library looks like! #magicshow #library #magician #wallawalla #LouieFoxx #magic #sizzlereel ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

My whole library shows (aside from the nest of boxes and speaker) fits inside of a “carry on” sized case. For me a pack small show is something that just happened, not a requirement. While it’s nice that the show fits in a small case, I don’t mind travelling with a larger one.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I think the key to a show that packs small is using props that give you show visual textures. The idea is to not have a show that looks like everything was selected because its flat or small. A couple of good example of things that I do that take up little space, but are visually large are the troublewit and the lasso. Both of them when I do the routine take up a lot of psychical space in the performing area.

If one of your goals is a suitcase show or a packs small show, try to avoid everything being a flat card. I’ve seen many suitcase shows where it looks like everything was selected because it was flat!

-Louie

Show Structure from the Globetrotters

This is my final post about the Harlem Globetrotters…but seriously, if you’re a family, comedy magician, you can learn a lot from watching this show. Like how many of the players have defined characters, and how the “game” is structured.

They have a lot of audience participation bits, but they aren’t done in a row. They’re separated by bits without audience participation.

In your show, is it a constant stream of people coming up and down from the stage. Are you only interesting when you’re interreacting with people from the audience?

-Louie

Nothing is Ever Finished!

One thing is that my show and everything in it are always a work in progress. While I do have A material, I still am looking for ways to improve them.

The other day I was thinking about my Straight Suit routine which is a comedy escape. You can watch it below:

I had an idea to simplify the wiring which would eliminate about 4 feet of cords inside of the suit! While this isn’t a huge thing, it definitely is an small improvement. Usually the simpler solution the better!

I just made a new straight suit with the new wiring and am going to take it out on the road to see if it works!

-Louie

The (W)hole Thing for Kids

The routine I’m working on for The (W)hole Thing by Emerson and West is intended for for family/adult audiences. The other day I threw it in my case when I went out to do some summer camp shows:

I thought the concept of the whole/hole wouldn’t hit with kids. Much to my surprise the kids liked the trick and got the idea of the verbal concept behind the routine. For the trick to work, the kids need to be able to read, so I probably wouldn’t do it for kids much younger than second grade.

Now I’m just waiting for my custom cards to arrive from the printer, so that I have a fancier set that what I made for myself.

-Louie

Applause Please 2: The Encore

It’s a lot of work putting out a magic trick for sale! A lot of little things go into it that aren’t trick related. Things like writing ad copy and titles are things that I personally really don’t like doing.

After some brainstorming with friends we settled on Applause Please 2: The Encore. Personally I dislike tricks that use the 2.0 in the title, and really didn’t want to use the 2 in the title, but in this case it really made sense and it’s a HUGE upgrade from the original one.

I’m still doing the video editing of the instructions and the trailer for the props. There’s a lot more here than just the liquid in lightbulb, there will be two routines and possibly a third routine if I can find useable video of it from years ago.

Keep an eye out at Hocus-Pocus.com as the first batch is only 5 units and they’re getting all 5 of them, I’ll have none.

-Louie

School Assembly Tour Day 1

Today is the first day of the school assembly tour and the first full performances of my new show called Incredible Idioms. This show is themed about the language we use and it’s been a lot of fun to work on.

The whole show fits inside one case and here’s what it looks like:

Unfortunately it doesn’t really travel set up. It’d be nice to just open the case and go, but there’s a lot of crushable things in there AND that picture doesn’t show things like my mics and audio cables which need to travel in the case.

The show is going to probably go through a lot of changes over the month of performing it on this tour. This is where the work comes in. I need to record, at least audio record and hopefully video record as many shows as possible and review them as often as possible. This is how a show gets good in a short amount of time.

Well, off to the first gig…

-Louie

Theater Show Highlights…

Here’s the sizzle from my show at the theater the other day:

I was messing around with more “epic” music. I’m not sure I like it, but it sure gives the video a different tone from what I normally use. It’s crazy how much the music can change the feel of the video!

Think about that when using music in your show, song selection can dramatically change the feel of the trick you’re doing.

-Louie

Remote Control Alarm Clock as a Running Gag!

When I made a remote control alarm clock a few weeks ago, my intent was to use it with my Vanishing Alarm Clock stand. This summer for the kid shows I’m doing, I put in the remote control alarm clock in the place of my Remote Control Chattering teeth as a running gag in the show.

At the beginning of the show I take out the alarm clock and say “It’s time to start the show” and the alarm clock rings. Then throughout the show whenever I say the word “time” the alarm clock rings. I don’t call attention to the connection of the word time and the ringing of the alarm clock. I let the audience discover that, and the do fairly quickly.

This gag definitely has it’s roots in Pee Wee’s Playhouse with their use of a secret word and when it’s said everyone screams. I like the gag because it’s not exactly a look don’t see as it’s an action that’s triggered by something else happening, so it’s funny, but the kids don’t feel a need to explain anything to you after the connection of the word and action are established.

I have a feeling this is going to be a great lead into the vanishing alarm clock once I have finished making the couple of extra props that I need for it.

-Louie