spring snake – MagicShow.Tips

Play-Duh!

I love updating old things to make them modern and more relevant. A great example of this and something that I wish I thought of is Play-Duh. This is the old spring snake in a can, but instead of a peanut brittle or chip can, it’s a “Play-Doh” style can.

Simply putting a spring snake into Play-Doh can won’t work, the lid won’t reliably stay on. This has an adjusted lid to make it stay on.

I’ve been using this in my test shows for my summer library show and it’s a HIT!

The national theme for libraries this summer in the USA is Color Your World, so this fits right into the theme!

Here’s how I use it in my kid show:

Effect: Five container of Play-Doh are shown, each has a different colored lid. One is selected (purple). The other four are opened and they contain a ball of purple Play-Doh. When the selected one is opened, and two purple spring snake jumps out.

This is a really simple routine, all you need to do is to put purple Play-Doh in the four containers that aren’t purple. Two spring snakes go into the one with the purple lid and you’re all set.

All you need to do is force the purple one, I use Phil Smith’s Quinta Force, but the PATEO Force or Magician’s Choice force would also work.

It’s a fun routine, especially when you add in all the Bev Bergeron style bits of trying to put the spring snake back into the can and having them pop back out.

This isn’t a product that I put or make anything on, it’s just something that I think is really cool idea.

You can get more info about them at:

https://hocus-pocus.com/product/play-duh-by-hocus-pocus-magic-deluxe-pack-in-stock-now/

-Louie

Snake Wand Surprise – Comedy Magic Wand

The magic show that I do for summer camps and libraries changes and material cycles in and out. I try to cycle material out and back in about every three years, especially for things that are memorable. One of those things is my Snake Wand Surprise. It’s something the kids remember, and doing it every year would lessen it’s impact. If the kids are anticipating the ending, it’s not as much fun.

Here’s what the routine looks like:

I’m making a batch of them right now so that I have ones for my show and some in stock for sale. One of the things that I do with my personal set is make three sets of “double snakes”. I take two snakes and sew them together and do this with a total of six snakes, giving me three snakes that are double long.

This makes clean up slightly faster as there are only 11 individual snakes to pick up instead of 14. I can repack the fourteen snakes into the wand in less than 2 minutes, so the time saving is negligible. It also gives the snakes more visual “texture” as they fly out.

I don’t do this for the ones that I sell as many people like the individual snakes. This is something that’s really easy to do and you can hand sew them together really quickly if you wanted your set like that.

The batch of Snake Wand Surprises that I’m working on will be ready and available for sale later today. I’m trying to have a bunch ready for this summer as my travel schedule won’t allow me time to make them once my summer performing schedule gets busy in a about a week.

If you want a Snake Wand Surprise, put your order in NOW!

-Louie

Fan Art…

It always amazes me that some of the magic tricks that I create end up featured in other magician’s shows. Recently someone posted a picture that their kid drew of them doing a virtual magic show.

The trick that the kid decided to feature was my Snake Wand Surprise! This is a gag that has a magical production of a dozen spring snakes at the end. It’s a lot of fun to do, and something that had sat in a notebook for years before I finally made one. Then a few years after I had started using it myself, I started selling them and it was an instant hit!

I just want to say “THANKS” to any magician that uses anything I’ve invented!