Why You Should Pack Your Gear Carefully!

Earlier this week, I flew to Columbus, Ohio, to start twelve days of performing at the Ohio State Fair. I’m not performing magic, but doing my Vintage Organ. This is a hand crank organ that’s fairly fragile.

I wrote a post about it’s new case and how I’m packing it to be helpful to TSA to inspect it.

Well, it’s definitely an oversized case; here’s what it looked like at the oversized luggage drop off in Seattle:

magician with show props

The case is about the size of THREE Pelican Air 1615s, which always come out at the oversized luggage area at the airport. Well, when I got into Columbus, I waited for it with the oversize luggage. Two smaller Pelican cases were delivered to that area, and I asked if there were any more, and was told that was all the oversize luggage from my flight. I then turned around to see this:

That is why you pack stuff that is fragile carefully!!!!

You’ll Never Believe What Happened Next!

Ok, so the Vintage Organ survived the luggage carousel at the airport, the next challenge was getting it into the rental car. Luckily it exactly fit into the trunk!

That was a small victory after it getting dropped on the luggage carousel!

But then less than 5 miles from the airport, I got rear ended!

My packing of the Vintage Organ helped it survive the car crash! I was able to start the twelve day gig!

I’m going to write a post a bit later about the whole “Show must go on” mindset. I used to have that thinking, but as I get older and am more financially secure, my thinking has changed. I’ll probably write it in a couple of days.

The moral of the story is, if it’s fragile, pack it well!

-Louie

How To Create New Ideas

Sometimes an idea becomes a reality when you just notice something. Recently, I was on a flight having a Bloody Mary, and the cap was sitting on the tray table.

creativity for magicians on an airplane

The idea that popped into my head was to use it for the three shell game. In the shell game, there are a lot of phases where you put something on top of the shell to create the illusion that you can’t get at the pea. There’s very few where you put things under the shell to make it more difficult.

Here’s one with a finger ring that I came up with a long time ago:

The idea with the tiny bottle cap is to cover the pea with that, then put a shell on top of it.

The first thing I had to do to make it work was file off the little metal nubs at the bottom of the bottle cap. Once it was smooth, it worked perfectly!

This is an easy to carry thing, and could be used in conjunction with a shot glass to have three things over the pea!

-Louie

Workshops for Variety Acts

Whenever I’m performing at a multi-day event with other variety acts, I try to put together a workshop night. This is where performers try something new, talk about an idea, or do some troubleshooting about a problem. Then we all brainstorm ideas or solutions for them!

Workshop for variety acts

These are a great way to get thinking that’s outside your normal box. It’s even better when you have acts that aren’t all magicians, or whatever you are. Everyone brings a different experience and backstory which will give you ideas that you may not have thought of.

You can be very creative when you create by yourself, but I think most of the time, when you create with others, you get more ideas faster!

-Louie

Performing on a Difficult Stage

Sometimes there are stages that are more challenging to work than other stages. This stage and audience configuration is a good example of that.

stage for magic show

First, let’s tackle the obvious: there’s a walkway between the benches and the bleachers. Unfortunately, that’s just how it is, and there’s not really anything you can do about that.

The bigger issue is getting on and off stage; it’s a high stage, so a lot of stairs, and the stairs are off to the side. It’s good that they are on the side; if they were on the front of the stage, the handrails would be a visual distraction. It just takes a lot of time for me or someone from the audience to get on and off stage.

I have a spot in the show, right after my introduction, where I need to hand something to someone in the audience. That’s dead time while I walk on and off stage.

Here’s what I did:

Opening bit, then walk into the audience to give the thing to someone in the audience.

2nd trick happens on the floor in front of the stage.

After the second trick, I bring someone from the audience to the stage with me for the third trick.

For the fourth trick, it happens on the floor in front of the stage. This trick needs access to people so they can hold things at different points.

When the fourth trick is done, I bring someone from the audience back to the stage with me and send them back to their seat when the fifth trick is done.

The final trick happens with me solo onstage.

There are a lot of ways to deal with the “long walk to the stage“, however for this situation, moving my show between the floor and stage worked great; it reduced the dead time a lot. This makes the show feel tighter!

-Louie

Magibank by Tony Chaudhuri and Johnson Products

A few weeks ago I got this cool coin box set when I bought a box of vintage magic tricks.

Magibank by Tony Chaudhuri and Johnson Products

This is a really cool and rare coin box set. I can’t find any reference to it online, aside from a couple of old sites that offered only the instructions.

There’s not one main effect, but several that you can do and a lot of cool moves to switch the boxes!

I just listed this for sale on my Vintage Magic page.

-Louie

How To Make a Magic Video Go Viral!

When you talk to people who are big on social media, they all tend to give similar advice:
1: Post consistantly
2: If something works, repeat that

I’m not huge on social media; I really post stuff that I think is interesting. My average Instagram post right now is between 2k and 20k views. However, recently this one hit 300k views:

That is an outlier for me, so I went to the advice of repeating what you did. The video from above is part of my shell game routine, and I have more of the same clip that I could use, so I made a second one:

This one is currently at 1.8 million views!

instagram magician
Screenshot

So when that one popped, I decided to follow the format again and use a third chunk from the video.

This one is sitting at just over 8k views. The formula worked spectacularly for the second video! I do have another phase or two from the original video, I might put them up to see what happens.

I guess I’m going to parrot the advice, that if something works, do it again and repeat until it stops working!

-Louie

What Do You Do When A Magic Prop Breaks?

When a magic prop breaks, what is your plan? I’m not talking about if it breaks during a show, but while you’re on the road traveling. Recently, I got to a gig and was setting up, and the prop wasn’t working. It’s an electronic prop, and if you’ve read this blog, you know that I try to use analog methods whenever possible. However, there are times when an electronic prop is the best way to do it. I’ve planned what to do if they fail during the show.

Here’s an example of my “out” when something goes weird with my Promystic Inception prop. I should note that when things haven’t worked with this particular prop during a show, I’m 99% sure that it’s not the prop, but the person from the audience.

Here’s What Happened Recently

At the show recently, I was setting up and noticed that I had left my Inception unit on, so it needed to be charged. After charging it, I got this screen:

Magic trick failure

That’s not good. That’s where my backup plan kicks in. I have a Blackbox Magic Mental Voice in my case. This is my emergency backup unit, as my routine is an 8 minute chunk of my show, so a large part of the show.

I really don’t like the Mental Voice, when compared to Inception, you can read my comparison of the two here!

I’ve had the Inception since it came out; I was part of the preorder, so I’ve had this for a long time! I sent it back for a repair once because I managed to crack the screen. I have a feeling that it may be time to buy a new unit. This one has served me well for YEARS! I’ve contacted ProMystic’s customer support, so we’ll see what my options are for repair. They do a good job supporting their product after the sale, unlike many magic companies!

-Louie

How to Deal With Kids That Follow You During Roving Magic

When you perform at a smaller county fair, you’ll have kids who are there all week. They’re usually 4H/FFA kids, or the children of vendors. One of the challenges is that since they’re there the full run of the fair, they’ll follow you around if you’re doing roving magic. That can lead to a challenge of them saying what’s going to happen in the trick before the ending.

I’ve got a new technique that I’m using, and it’s working out great. After I do my close up set, I say, “If you’re here the rest of the fair, each day you see me say “Hey Louie, show me the trick of the day!” “

This does a couple of things; it tells them that you’ll gladly show them more tricks…tomorrow! This lets them know that the you’re done with them for the day. I didn’t have any kids follow me around last week. The other thing that it does, is create excitement about you when you’re walking cross the fairgrounds. Kids will yell to you to show them the trick of the day!

When I do roving magic at fairs, I work out of my pockets, so I don’t have a lot of room to carry a ton of extra stuff. I do have room for one trick of the day!

You can watch a sample of my roving magic show here:
https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/roving-close-up-magic/

Aside from my table, here’s a sample of the props I travel with:
https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/roving-magic-at-fairs/

After a week of offering a trick of the day, I’m a fan!

-Louie

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

How to Travel With Fragile Show Props!

Travelling with show props is a challenge, it’s even more stressful when they’re fragile!

Magician travelling with large props

I’m heading out for a gig with my Vintage Organ, and normally, when I fly to the gig, I ship it there, so it travels independently of me. However I have a gig coming up where shipping it ahead isn’t an option, so I have to fly with it.

The first step in flying with anything unusual is to call the airline. Since it’s technically a musical instrument, there are some exceptions to some rules that could apply. After chatting with the airline, none did. I did learn the parameters of what oversize is and the limits to that. This case fits the definition of oversize without exceeding it to a size that I wouldn’t be able to take. I also learned that I needed to put a fragile sticker on each of the six sides of the case.

The other thing that I did was a suggestion from the person at the airline that I talked to. That was put in step by step instructions on how to unpack and repack it if they need to take it out of the foam to screen it.

busker organ in case for flying

The other thing that I’ve asked about and haven’t gotten a clear answer about is whether I can be present when it’s screened. I’ve seen that you can request it for a musical instrument, but it’s not guaranteed and not an option at every airport. I won’t know until the day of. I’m writing this post from the airport I’ll be flying out with the case in a couple of weeks, and couldn’t get a clear answer.

We’ll see how it plays out…

-Louie