One of the things that I try to do when creating magic routines is to think about what they look like. This is important when you perform at places like state and county fairs, where you have a transient audience. Having strong visual hooks that will stop someone that’s walking by is important in that market.
Here’s an example of a visual hook, it’s part of my Body Language Book Test which is in my 2025 PCAM Lecture notes.
In the routine, a guy ends up hitting me in the belly with a tube. It’s a great bit, but more importantly, the routine is visually interesting virtually the whole time!
Three Easy Way To Adding Visual Appeal To Magic Routines
Here are three common, and easy ways to add visuals to magic routines: 1: Props – If you have an interesting prop, that is obviously visually interesting, and of course, the bigger the better! People need to see it from a distance, or they won’t stop. 2: People – More people onstage can create drama. You’ve changed your show from monologue to dialogue. 3: Action – Having motion onstage makes people stop to watch. A bad dance troupe will having an easier time getting a crowd than an amazing stand up comedian.
Ultimately, most things will use more than one of the things above to draw attention.
Also keep in mind that not every single routine needs to be a giant thing, for texture in your show, you should vary things. A great example is Franz Harary in one of his MEGA illusion shows also does silk to egg.
He’s popping up everywhere, and that got me thinking, what magic trick could I do with him.
A Simple First Step To Creating Magic Tricks
The easiest way to create a magic trick quickly is to find the theme, in this case Jimothy and figure out what to do with it. I’m travelling right now, so I’m limited with props, which can be a good thing when trying to create something new. I did have some blank face playing cards, so that gave me a start, it’ll be a card trick, with a picture of Jimothy.
My idea was to do an ace assembly type trick, with Jimothy and things raccoons eat. The challenge was that I didn’t have enough blank face cards to do it in the traditional way with 16 cards. I think this was a good thing, because most ace assemblies are too long and redundant, but you kinda need to have three “traveler” piles because there are four aces. I didn’t have that restraint for this trick.
On my trip to the Bay Area a couple weeks ago, I ended up picking up a great vintage magic prop! It was Buried Treasure Bean Box by Arturo. Here’s what the original ads looked like:
And here’s what mine looks like:
This is a prop that I do plan to use in my show. I have an idea for it, so when the opportunity to buy it popped up, I jumped on it!
I really like the idea of the item being buried in beans (or whatever). The problem with this is visually it’s hard for an audience to see what’s going on because you have to see the beans from the top. With a camera, this would work great!
In my children’s show, I use a mouth coil as the end of my ball manipulation sequence. I use the mouth coil as a production coil, so I don’t use the double loop ones like the David Cressey Mouth Coils, but the ones that are just a coil of paper. The ones I’ve used for years (decades?) are the Bazar de Magia mouth coils.
Recently I noticed that Murphy’s Magic is now making them called Professional Mouth Coils. I was running low on the ones I normally use, so I decided to give the Murphy’s Magic ones a try.
The coils look the same when coiled up, there is a slight texture difference that I can see. The picture below shows both of them inside of the case:
The main difference is that the Murphy’s ones are made from thinner paper than the Bazar de Magia ones. The Murphy’s are also ten feet longer, but both coils are pretty much the same size.
For me, the uncoiling action of the Bazar de Magia mouth coils works better. When the ball turns into the coil in my routine, I start by pulling on the end one long pull, then let gravity do its thing as my other hand catches it. I don’t let it fall on the floor. The main reason is that if kids are sitting on the floor, anyone not in the front row won’t be able to see the coil as it piles up. I think the Murphy’s mouth coils, being a lighter paper, don’t pull themselves out of the coil as well as the Bazar de Magia ones, which makes my catching hand have to do a lot more pulling initially.
For me, and how I use the mouth coils, the Bazar de Magia ones are the winner! They work better as a production coil in my hand. The Murphy’s mouth coils still work fine, but if I have a choice, I’ll grab the Bazar de Magia ones. If you produce them from your mouth, you may be looking for different characteristics than I am.
-Louie PS: The first half of my ball routine is called Sankey’s Balls and in my lecture notes 2 pack. That part is my version of Balls In Net, which doesn’t use a net. The second half of my routine that uses the mouth coil is unpublished, but basically Percy Abbott’s Perpetual Balls with a couple of surprises thrown in.
One of the reasons I think most magicians shouldn’t do a “one off” show with special themed props is that if you don’t know about the prop and how to handle it, you can unintentionally be disrespectful. Yesterday was Independence Day in the USA, which is celebrated as the country’s birthday. In the USA, we have the US Flag Code, which defines what a flag is, how to hang it, and how to handle it. This is a law, but one that has no enforcement mechanism, so it’s basically etiquette.
Many performers slapped flags on their show for Independence Day and didn’t learn the basics of how a flag should be treated. I wrote this little facebook post:
PSA for “Patriotic” Performers
Many magicians and variety acts are posting pics of them doing magic with US Flags.
Please take a minute and read the US Flag Code. About 70% of the pics / video I’ve seen today are disrespectful to the US Flag.
Here’s a few quick pointers:
1: When displaying the flag (in most instances) the blue should in top left from the audience’s view
2: after producing the flag, do not crumple it up and toss it in your prop box. Respectfully fold up and place it whenever it belongs after the trick
3: Do not set things on top of the flag
4: A flag isn’t supposed to be clothes. (it may be too late for this)
5: do not use any “disposable” items with flags printed on them, like napkins or paper plates.
Don’t be a disrespectful to the US flag! A quick search for the “US Flag Code” will give you more in depth info, like if you want to learn more like how to properly display it on your car. Spoiler alert: 99% of pickup trucks with flags on them are in violation of the flag code.
I thought it was basically a pretty straight forward. If you’re going to honor something, learn it about it. Then I got this comment from Zach Dwyer:
I’m not sure what triggered him, being wrong or what, but he immediately jumped to calling me names, instead of admitting he was wrong, or even letting it go.
Yes, the flag code is unenforceable, there are no penalties for violating it, but it is, in fact, a law.
Should You Do Magic Tricks with Symbolic Props?
In a larger context with performing, why would you use a prop or theme you don’t understand the rules for?
For example: doing a gig for a mosque and using a picture of Mohammad?
That’s an example of a trick that there’s no law stopping you from doing; however, it would be considered disrespectful. It’s a basic courtesy to treat the symbol how it is supposed to be treated.
When I get offered a gig, let’s say for Purim, I don’t do a special show for them, or add in a Purim trick, I do my show. The reason is that I don’t know about it and don’t want to offend anyone.
I should add that I’m all for intentional acts of disrespect. When Sinead O’Connor tore up the picture of the Pope, that was an intentional act. Whether I agree with it or not, she was making a statement.
I’ve always said that if I die because of someone else, I want them to have wanted to kill me. I don’t want to be killed because someone didn’t look before they turned and ran me over, and my death was an accident. If someone kills me, I don’t want it to be a “whoops”; I’d like it to have some purpose to at least that person. Also, I should note that in a perfect world, I wouldn’t die because of someone else.
OK, so that’s a long post to say, if you use a prop that has symbolism, learn about how to respectfully handle it!
We’re at the end of the summer and the Summer Reading Library shows are done. Here’s look at the props that I have on my person during the non-themed library magic show:
And here are the props in my prop bin:
This show had a pretty simple set up, it took about 15 mins to set and strike the show. The non-themed show had elements of other shows that I do, so it was like a “greatest hits” and was fun to do!
A topic that comes up every now and then in social media magic groups is what to do when a kid says, “I know that trick”. Most of the advice given views the kid as a heckler and suggests lines like: “There are thousands of tricks, how could you know” “I checked the script, and you don’t have a speaking part” Lines that try to shut down what the kid says.
This happened at a library show recently, here’s what went down:
The kid wasn’t heckling; it was them simply saying that they want to see the trick! In the video, you can hear how excited the kid was when I said I was going to do the trick.
Try not to look at everything a kid says in your show as a heckle, 95% of the time, it’s not, you’re just hearing it that way. You need to step back and really look at the situation.
I picked up the booklet Card Man Stuff by Al Leech recently and I’m digging it!
The stuff in it is older school card magic, and the clunkiness, I think, can be easily fixed. For example, he used the cut deeper force to have a card selected, and that’s a move that I really dislike. I think the problem with that force is that when the cards aren’t in face up and face down clumps, it kinda gives it away. There are better forces that can be done in its place.
The first trick is the production of a four of a kind, and that naturally flows into the second trick, which is a transposition of the two four of a kind sets of cards. I like things in books that can be routines that flow from one to the next to eliminate set up in the second trick, but still work as stand alone magic tricks if needed.
Despite the clunkiness, the tricks are pretty direct, which I like!
Yesterday I wrote a post about doing a Chop Cup with a film can and “weed nugs”. What I was using for fake weed looked really green. It’s probably been over two decades since I’ve seen what they look like in real life, so I had to consult a friend of mine who partakes in that marijuana. He agreed and sent me some pictures of what they should look like.
The one on the right is the bright green one, and the one on the left is one after I gave it a dusting of a couple of colors of paint.
I think the one on the left looks way better, not perfect, but good enough to sell the premise to an audience. Things like getting the color of a nugget of weed is one of the challenges of magic prop building that magicians don’t normally think about. I don’t want the chopped weed nugs to look so bad that it takes people mentally out of the presentation hook of the routine.
I’m not sure where I’ll ever do this routine. I have an idea for the presentation that I think works. I personally don’t smoke marijuana, and am not involved in that culture. When performing, my persona is more clean cut, so pretending this is mine doesn’t work. I needed to come up with a routine that doesn’t feel fake. I’ll probably write a blog post about how I intend to present this sometime in the future.
