Tag: floating bill

Close Up Dancing Hank

Last week in Seattle, he had an ice storm where the city got covered in a sheet of ice from freezing rain. That gave me a day off to play around, no shows or emails to return. I used this time to get to some ideas that have been in notebooks for awhile.

Here’s a close up dancing hank style magic trick that I had a while ago:

@louiefoxx Hot damn, the ol' dollar in the swear jar! #magictrick #illusion #dollarbill #iceday2022 ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

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The ending with the smoke in the jar was an idea I had for another trick that didn’t work out, but added something to this trick.

Is this trick better than a standard floating bill? I don’t know, it’s potentially more workable as there’s less issues with the IT being visible. It could work in a parlor type setting. It would take away my biggest issue with using IT and that’s dealing with lighting or having to cut the bit because you can’t make it work with the existing lighting.

I may play with this a bit more, as the jumping action for me works better with my performing persona that the bill floating.

-Louie
PS I’m aware that this is essentially a smaller version of Sean Bogunia’s Extreme Dancing Hank, but with a different, but similar gimmick and a slight variation in method.

Different Hook Up…

One of the effects in magic that I don’t do in my show is a levitation. It doesn’t fit with my character, or at least I haven’t found a way to make it fit. I’ve create a couple different levitation tricks, but they aren’t things that I would do. However this one is my favorite:

Method wise it’s pretty solid, it’s self contained and there’s a redundant system in case the gimmick breaks during the trick. It’s also casually examinable before and after the trick. It solves a lot of the reasons why I don’t from a technical standpoint do any tricks that use this method and that’s that they are fragile.

My method is loosely based on a Ben Harris card trick. The gimmick is very different from Ben’s, if you took his card and swapped it for a bill, the trick wouldn’t work. For me, this floating bill trick is a good example of creating some sort of art that’s pretty much for the sake of creating.

Your Own Versions…

Many years ago I read that Steve Fearson wanted to create his version of classic magic illusions. A quick Google Search and I managed to find the quote: “About 10 years ago I took it upon myself to reinvent 3 of magic’s greatest stage illusions, adapting them so that they could be performed in a … Continue reading “Your Own Versions…”

Many years ago I read that Steve Fearson wanted to create his version of classic magic illusions. A quick Google Search and I managed to find the quote:

“About 10 years ago I took it upon myself to reinvent 3 of magic’s greatest stage illusions, adapting them so that they could be performed in a close up situation. The three illusions were the levitation of a person, the sawing in half illusion and the vanish.”
– Steve Fearson


That’s a quote that stuck with me for some reason. I’ve worked to create my version of tricks that I like. By my version, it’s a reworking of the trick, not simply a different sequence of events. I’ve marketed several of these tricks and am working on a patent for one of them.


I’m writing up my version of the “floating dollar trick”. My main issue with the classic version of the trick, is that if the gimmick breaks, you are toast, the trick doesn’t work…and the gimmick is super fragile. My version has multiple redundant gimmicks. Here’s a demo of it:



I think me not being happy with things how they are, has led me to some interesting solutions to fixing what I don’t like about many magic tricks. In fact some days that’s my creative exercise, taking tricks I don’t like and trying to make a version of them that I do like.


The moral of this post is to customize your magic to fit you and what you need from your gimmicks!