magnet – MagicShow.Tips

Harvesting Magnets and Shims

Whenever I get any product that comes in the fancy box that has a magnetic flap in it, I always rip out the magnets and metal shims before I recycle the boxes.

The magnets and shims are very thin, which makes them great for magic!

The round shims are perfect for adding t playing cards or dollar bills!

Look around you at product packaging that you would normally just get rid of. There’s tons of useful things, like clear, rigid plastic. I used that to make the gimmick for my signed cracker routine.
The round shims are perfect for adding t playing cards or dollar bills!

Look around you at product packaging that you would normally just get rid of. There’s tons of useful things, like clear, rigid plastic. I used that to make the gimmick for my signed cracker routine.

Magnets to the Rescue

In the school assembly show that I’m working on, I have a need to steal a FS2 gimmick (modified Sanada Gimmick). The challenge is that it’s going to be loaded, so it can’t open. The solution that I came up with is to put magnets on the bottom of it, and have it stick to other magnets inside of the opened lid of my case.

FS2 gimmick by jay scott berry with magnets

The magnets in the gimmick and the magnets in the case will hold the gimmick closed so that nothing will fall out of it.

I marked my case so that I know exactly where to put the gimmick when setting up the show. This is more to make setting up easier, as I can visually see the gimmick sticking out of the case when I need to steal it.

In the actual routine the gimmick will be stolen when I pick up a book that I had previously set on top of the case.

The book serves a double purpose. It facilitates the steal of the FS2 gimmick and when it put the book back, it allows me to ditch a palmed ball.

One thing that a lot of children’s performers neglect is making the magic technique solid. Sure I could ditch the palmed ball in my pocket, but it’s really not deceptive to do it that way. With kids performers there’s a myth that “it’s about the journey, not the destination” and I totally disagree with that. If you have an awesome trip to disneyland, but turn around when you get to the gate and go home, there’s some disappointment. With magic, you need the journey and destination to be great!

-Louie

Always One More Step…

One of the things I’ve always said about creating magic is that it’s about problem solving. One trick where this is especially true is the spoon and fork transposition that I do. This particular trick has been an engineer nightmare the whole time I’ve really been working on it. It’s a series of challenges to get me to the next step.

One of the recent challenges I’ve had with this trick is that at the end there’s a good chance the spoon and fork will clink in my pocket. While it’s not loud and it only happens once during the routine, I want to eliminate it.

The first attempt was putting a felt covered magnet on my pocket and all that did was change the “clink” to a “clunk”. That took me to the next and final solution, I simply put a piece of felt in my pocket to act as a divider. That solved the problem and it was an easy simply solution! Also if I try to avoid having magnets on my body, as it’s amazing how often you’ll get stuck to things. I’m not against using magnets, I just try to not have them attached to me.

I Hate That It Works…

Right now I’m doing a trick during my run at the airport that uses a magnet. The trick has a clever way to hide the magnet, however because of the gig I can’t use the method that was designed for the trick.

So, what did I do?

I put the magnet on my finger and then put a band aid over it. I really hate that no one has questioned the band aid on my finger, but then I don’t know the last time I asked anyone about a band aid on their finger. It’s a “hidden in plain sight” sort of deal.

This method works great for this gig because I do one trick per set and do it over and over again. The band aid method wouldn’t work if I was to do it as part of a show. As much as I dislike the band aid, it works for this very specific application!