stage magic – MagicShow.Tips

THE ROCKET Card Fountain – Review

I’ve been using The Rocket Card Fountain for about 9 months now and I still like it.

I have learned recently that with it being 3d printed, it doesn’t handle sitting in the sun with no shade at 108 degrees during a 45 minute show very well. This is a very extreme situation for it to be in and knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn’t use it if I was in that situation again. What happened is that part that holds the cards warped in the heat and no longer holds the poker size playing cards.

I was able to get it to sort of work by putting it back in the sun and then trying to reshape it. However the fix was simply to cut a deck of cards narrow.

Worked like a charm and the cards shoot out just fine! I’m still happy with The Rocket Card Fountain, but it’s good to know it doesn’t handle extreme temperatures very well.

-Louie

Karl Germain

The next two weeks I’m performing at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, OH. On my day off yesterday I drove two hours up to Cleveland, OH to do some touristy stuff. While I was up there I decided to try to find Karl Germain‘s grave at the Riverside Cemetery.

When I got there I did a lot of wandering in the section where it should be, but couldn’t find his grave and then it started raining. Normally I’ll wander until I find the grave, but the weather was bad, so I went to the office to ask for assistance.

While I was in the office I was chatting with one lady and about what I did and the other lady overheard part of the conversation where I mentioned I was a magician. When she heard that she said I should try to find Karl Germain’s grave!

She told me that originally his headstone didn’t have his death date, just the birth year. It was years after his death that the year was added.

The office workers at the cemetery were also amazed at how much some of his props have sold for, like the blooming bush that went for $132,000!

On Saturday I have an appointment at the mausoleum in Columbus to see Howard Thurston!

-Louie

A Peek Into My Library Show

Each year my library show is different from the previous summer’s show. I try to keep things out of the show for 2-3 years before anything can cycle back into the show.

My set list is pretty simple:

Nest of Boxes (warm up)
Eggbag / ball manipulation
Rat trap
cut and restored rope
Dad Jokes (or three shell game if the performing area has a screen)
Rising Card
Silk vanish (with snake wand surprise)
Troublewit
Nest of Boxes (reveal)

This is a solid show and while I never plan for my show to be a pack small, play big type of show, it’s always a bonus when it ends up that way!

-Louie

Magic Monday in Seattle

Last week I popped by Magic Monday in Seattle. This is a fun magic show, that I think of as a magic open mic. It’s a place for me to work on new material, or knock the dust off of old routines that I haven’t done for a while. One of the fun things about the show is that there’s a huge mix in performance styles, and experience levels of the magicians.

The nice thing about this is after the show we all go downstairs to the pub and it’s a fun little magic jam! I have an idea for the Cards Across trick and I had Ruben Barron show me the one that he does (Las Vegas Leaper), which was helpful to me!

-Louie

Evaporation + FREE Out For Beers

Rice, Vase, and Checkers by MagicCrafter

I love hunting down magic vintage magic, and in my hunt I recently came across a more modern trick from about 2013, but it is highly collectable. It’s Rice, Vase, and Checkers by MagicCrafter (Brian Cook and Master Payne).

This one was in Florida and the auction house and I managed to get a crazy deal on it! I’m hoping it’s complete, I should have it in about a week. Luckily I’m friends with Brian Cook over at MagicCrafter and I can have him take a look at it and hopefully repair anything that needs fixing.

This is a cool looking prop, but not the style that I personally collect. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it or sell it. I’m just glad I saved this from it from probably being bought by someone who doesn’t know what it is and it end up in the garbage!

If you’re interested in buying this, send me an email and we can chat!

-Louie

Straitjacket and chains escape

For a few gigs this summer I’m going to be doing the straitjacket wrapped in 50+ feet of chain escape. One thing I started doing about a 8 years ago when I first started playing with the straitjacket and chains was take off the crotch strap.

Here’s before and after pictures of the straight jacket:

I realized that no one knows the crotch strap is missing if it’s not there. I discovered this when I was visiting the Oregon State Museum of Mental Health about 10 years ago. There was a straitjacket on display and it didn’t have a crotch strap and the information placard said that they weren’t used as a restraint, but to keep people from unconsciously doing self harm, Like thru scratching themselves.

Most people rely on the crotch strap as the main point of humor in their routine. I decided I didn’t want to do any crotch strap jokes, so there’s no loss there. Sure my routine may be funnier, but it’s not what I want to put out there as my art.

-Louie

New Sound System

Earlier this month my decade old Sennheiser wireless mics died and I needed to replace them. I ordered the Sennheiser AVX system, but sent that back as it didn’t work for what I needed. The AVX has an auto gain level, which tries to keep your sound level. While in theory this is a good idea, it ends up ducking and messing with my voice too much to where I keep cutting out. I sent the AVX back for a refund.

I ended up ordering the Sennheiser G4, which is the current version of the Sennheiser G3’s that I had previously had.

This bonus is this set came with the “brick” which can be plugged into a handheld mic to turn it into a wireless handheld mic. I guess if I really wanted to buy another receiver, I could run my music through the brick.

There’s a reason why the Sennheiser G3/G4 are the standard for variety acts. They’re reliable, they’re easy to use and they’re durable!

-Louie

Moving to a National Act

Years ago when I wanted to become a more “national” act, one of the things that I did was try to do something nationally newsworthy to send to agents twice a year. Twice a year turned into doing it quarterly and then monthly.

What exactly the definition of “nationally newsworthy” is, I’m not sure. Roughly it’s things that I can tell agents about and it raises my status from local Seattle magician to something bigger.

That’s where doing things like writing an article for a mainstream magazine comes in. It’s makes me an “expert” on magic, not just a local magician. Do things like this make the quality of my show better?

Nope.

Things like this raise the perception of the quality of my show. For getting work from a new agent or work at another level that’s something important!

-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