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Wavy Arm Guy Magic Trick Video

Yesterday I wrote about working on a trick with a wavy arm guy. I don’t have a routine written yet, I’m just seeing if it works.

Here’s a practice video.

One of the things is the explanation with the mic stand. While it shouldn’t be necessary, I’ve been in the audience where similar penetration tricks are performed and they fall flat because not everyone is really spatially aware.

A good example of this is Andrew Mayne’s Razorwire. Here’s the effect:

Unless you show the audience that you can’t simply walk around the barrier, the trick isn’t going to land. Not everyone will understand that you can’t just by looking.

With my trick, it works, the next step will be writing for it.

-Louie

Wavy Arm Guy Magic Trick

In my show, I use an inflatable wavy arm guy as part of a trick. Really, it’s there to add some umph to the ending. It’s a large prop to carry around, but worth it for the trick. It’s only used for like 10 seconds at the end of the trick, but it really makes a difference in audience reaction.

Since I’m already lugging this thing around, I should have something else to do with it, for a second show. I’ve written a lot of ideas down over the years, but never really taken action on them.

I finally started working on one of the ideas that I like the most. The premise is that my arms are handcuffed together with the wavy arm guy inside the circle created by my arms. I then pass through the wavy arm guy, so I’m standing next to him with my arms free from him.

It’s one of those tricks, like walking thru a sheet of steel, where I don’t think it initially hits the audience very hard. It’s a good trick, but it’s more of a thinker, than something visual like popping a balloon and having a wine bottle appear.

One of the challenges with this will be selling the effect. I’m not 100% sure how to do that yet.

-Louie

Magic Special from 1978!

Growing up in magic in the 1990’s there wasn’t a lot of ways to watch performances of magicians. You either had to go to a show, or catch one on a TV show when it aired. That really limited me to watching modern performers, or older performers who were past their prime at a magic convention.

This is a great video from 1978 of many performers who I had read about while they are still in their prime!

This was a lot of fun to watch and I’m glad I stumbled across it!

-Louie

Porter Case and 45 Min Show

A while ago, I posted about getting and finally using a Porter Case. I ordered a second one as a backup, and when it arrived, I learned there were two sizes. My second one was a larger size, but still airplane carryon size.

At the end of October I did some senior shows for National Magic Week and to knock the dust off of my second 45 min show that I do on cruise ships. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, so the senior shows were a great chance to perform it as a full show.

I took it as a challenge to see if I could fit the full show into the larger porter case, and it fit! This was a great revelation, as now I have a full show that I can carry onto the plane, and in a way that makes traveling way easier!

Here’s the Porter Case with the show and my sound system (Bose s1 pro) on top of it.

My drop cloth, which is sitting on top of everything, will fit into the case. I didn’t put it in the case because it’s a prop used in two different shows, so when I get home, it’s going into a different case.

I’m really loving the Porter Cases, I wish they still made them.

-Louie
PS: If you want to learn more about doing shows for retirement communities, check out my book How To Perform For Seniors.

The Best Sign Ever!

When I see this sign, I know it’s going to be a good show!

The simple fact that they thought to put out a sign let’s me know that they have thought about other things that are needed to make the show happen. Things like reading my tech requirements, etc.

-Louie

Five Minute Magic Show

Last week, I was at a booking conference and they had a “pitch and perform” event. In this event, each person had 5 minutes to introduce themself, tell what they did, and give a short sample of what they do.

Here’s what I took with me:

There are two routines, one I intended to do is my Stand Up Chop Cup (it’s in my 2025 lecture notes) and the back up routine is a rope routine. Both magic routines would run about three minutes and the other two minutes would be the pitch part. What’s important about these two routines is that there is no set up and no clean up and they have a lot of magic!

I always try to have a back up routine for things like this. It’s only five minutes, but sometimes I’ll see the room and decide my main trick isn’t right, or there will be another magician who may do something similar to what I had planned. That’s why the two tricks I brought were very different visually and in effect.

A little bit of planning can help a lot!

-Louie

Magician Dick Barry!

Recently I was doing a gig at a retirement community and one of the people that lived there was magician Dick Barry!

Dick is retired now; however, he has created many magic tricks that were sold. He was also a performer at the Magic Castle. I had a great time chatting with Dick before the show. This is one of the great things about performing at a retirement community, you never know who you’ll run into!

If you want to learn more about performing at retirement communities, check out my book How to Perform for Seniors.

-Louie

Outdoor Magic Show in the Rain

This month I’m doing a few dates at a Halloween festival that runs 5 weekends. One of the days that I was performing, it was raining, and this was an outdoor festival. The stage was covered, but the audience seating was not covered.

The act before me performed for a few people with umbrellas that were standing behind the wet seats. What I did was move a bunch of seats onto the stage and dry them off.

I managed to fill up the stage seating and had great shows!

When you arrive at a show and the scenario isn’t ideal, consider how to improve it. I’ll usually run the idea by my contact at the gig to ensure there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do that.

-Louie

Portland Society of Magicians Amateur Contest

Recently the Portland Society of Magicians has their amateur magic contest. This was for people who don’t really perform for pay.

What I love about things like this is getting to see all the different styles of magic that are performed. Also, it lets me see the various trends that are going around magic.

One thing I noticed in the contest was that there were two acts where the trick didn’t work, and they ended at that point. That’s something that separates pros from amateurs: how they deal with mistakes. A pro will plow on and figure out a way out of it, whereas the amateur doesn’t necessarily have that “toolbox” to get them out of the situation. How do you get the “toolbox” of outs, simple, you fail a lot! Failure is part of the learning process and a very important part of it!

The more you fail, the better you get!

-Louie

New Sound System for my Magic Show

After probably more than a decade I finally upgraded my sound system. I used to use the Roland Street Cube EX, which is great and after about 10 years it still works great! What I liked about this system is that is has all the inputs that I need, so I don’t need to add a mixer to it. It also runs on AA batteries, so if there is a low battery issue, I just throw new ones into it.

I’m switching to the Bose S1 Pro. The main reason I’m switching to it is for a tour I’m doing in the spring of 2026, and the Bose speaker is much smaller than the Roland Street Cube EX. The Bose S1 Pro also has better sound, but both speakers have enough sound for what I need.

I also bought a carrying case for the Bose speaker.

This case has plenty of pockets and holds all my audio gear, eliminating the need for another case.

I’ve done a few shows with the Bose S1 Pro so far, and it works great!

-Louie