unique magic – MagicShow.Tips

How To Create a Visual Hook For Magic Routines

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.

A good example is my Straight Suit routine, which you can see here. It combines a interesting prop, the inflatable suit with action.

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.

-Louie

Vanishing Birdcage Instructions!

I have a fairly large collection of vanishing birdcages, and one of the things that I don’t have are a lot of instructions. I’ve rarely come across cages with the original instructions.

I recently came across a few sets of instructions from some older vanishing birdcages to add to my collection!

The set on the left are instructions for the Secondus vanishing birdcage that was put out by Harry Stanley’s Unique Magic in England! This cage was made by YIMKA, and I have one in my collection, so it’s great to pair those two up!

The set of instructions on the right belong to an unknown (to me) cage.

I’m happy to have these in my collection!

-Louie
Click here to learn more about the Vanishing Birdcage!

Dino Card Trick!

Sometimes things pop up on my Facebook Memories and I forget how long ago they happened. I just had this picture show up:

This was from the debut of a new trick. Essentially it’s a card sword, but instead of using a sword, it uses an inflatable dinosaur costume! This picture was taken 3 years ago, it doesn’t feel like I started doing it that long ago. I created this trick for a library tour and did it over a hundred times that summer. Then the trick made it into my school assembly show, and I’ve even done it on TV!

This particular trick is a great example of taking an existing trick and altering it soo much that it’s no longer recognizable. I could do this trick in the same show that someone does a tradition card sword in without a feeling of duplication.

That’s my end goal, to be able to be in any show with other magicians and not have to worry about duplication. Sure a vanish is a vanish, but they don’t have to be done the same way.

Unique Visuals…

One of the things that I try to do with my show is to give it unique visuals. I think I’m starting to really achieve that in my show. It’s a lot of work, and commitment, but in the long run it’s the way to go. When someone describes my show to another magician, I want the magician to know it’s me by the description.

Sure a card trick looks like a card trick, however there are some ways to make them look different. For example the Card Stab trick. In my main show I use a Rat Trap, this is a less common version of the trick. I also do a unique card stab using a dinosaur costume!

In my local market, if someone describes either of these version of the card stab to a magician, they will know it’s me. I wouldn’t say either is my “signature” trick, but both are associated with me locally.

What tricks are associated with you? Are they tricks that no one else can buy? That’s the goal with the dinosaur card stab, it’s something I created, you can’t buy it, it’s 100% mine.