MagicShow.Tips – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

Lucky Penny Magic Trick

A trick I’ve been doing as part of my EDC magic is signed penny to key fob. The effect is a signed coin ends up permanently sealed inside of a “lucky coin” holder on your keychain. The nice thing about this is that it’s almost 100% self contained. I have everything I need to do the trick on my keychain, except a marker.

I’ve been using my original first design for a little bit and spent a little bit of time other day tweaking the design. The colors are just what was in the printer and have nothing to do with the design, besides making it easier to tell them apart.

The first redesign was good, the second was better and the third was a huge step backwards. I went back to the second redesign and it was the best of the three. That’s the great thing about 3D printing, it’s easy to tweak designs to get them where you want them!

-Louie

Stage Illusion in Furniture!

The other night I was staying in a hotel and as I was leaving the room I noticed a stage illusion inspired night stand!

I’m not sure why the feet needed the false space, they’re not hiding a lady in there, but the black art is there to hide the lack of gap between the feet. My guess why they have that is a solid base is cheaper to make and more durable.

It’s a great mainstream use of a magic principle!

-Louie

Super Psychic: The Incredible Dr. Hoy

I took the book Super Psychic: The Incredible Dr. Hoy with me on a trip and read it on the plane. I’m not sure what this book was trying to be, was it a self help book, a biography or something else.

The book as a biography isn’t a compelling one, it’s basically David Hoy was born awesome and nothing bad happened to his life. He’s a perfect human who never messed up. To me, that’s not a good biography, I want to read about peoples challenges and how they overcame them.

Later in the book it tells you how to use ESP to meet women, be a better salesman, stop smoking, etc. The stop smoking was the funny one to me as it said David didn’t smoke, so it’s not something he used. Anyway, this part of the book feels like a self help book, except there’s really not much to it.

I have a feeling this was a book that was intended to be a pitch book to sell after speaking engagements. But it also had to look like a mass market book to give him status, which would boost his speaking/show fee.

If you’re really bored and can find the book for a few bucks, I guess pick it up. However I really didn’t think it was remotely an interesting read. It did kill time on the airplane, so there’s that.

-Louie

Looking Sharp!

Last week when I was performing on a ship, my first show on my arrival day. That doesn’t give a lot of time to hang my clothes and get some wrinkles out of them.

That’s where wrinkle release spray comes in! This stuff is like magic, you spray it on your clothes, straighten out the wrinkles and the wrinkles are gone.

I’m sure there are other brands that make it, and I bet they all work pretty much the same. This is great to have with your stuff when you fly, it’ll keep you looking sharp…or at least not wrinkled!

The other thing that really helps is learning how to correctly fold a shirt for travel. Starting of with a shirt that’s folded and won’t get many wrinkles is also a huge help!

-Louie

Driving vs Flying to a gig

Recently I posted a picture of my gear for a 90 minute theater show that I drove to:

and now here’s two 45 minute theater shows AND a week of my personal stuff (clothes, laptop, etc):

When flying to a gig, there’s a lot of things that I don’t bring. For example all of my stuff that has a base can use a microphone stand for a base which the venue can provide. I also have versions of a couple of bulkier props that pack smaller, and that saves a lot of space. Also the flying version of the show is a lot more organized, as space is the most important thing.

-Louie

A Shuffle and a Cut to Order!

I’ve been playing with some shuffle sequences. You can see one of them at this blog post from a few days ago called Red / Black Separation. In a natural extension of that shuffle sequence I came up with what I’m calling A Shuffle and a Cut to Order.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Shuffle and a cut to order! #cardtrick #magictrick #shuffle #cards #poker #magic #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like the progressive nature of this routine where the cards go from shuffled, to separated by color to finally them all in new deck order! The trick has three different beats to it (but not three effects) which I like and each builds upon the previous. The other night thing about this over the previous Red/Black Separation is that this is much easier to do!

I’m glad I kept playing with this!

-Louie

Penny Assembly

Many years ago there were several matrix effects using pennies. I think Bruce Kalver and Steve Duschek both sold versions. If I’m remembering correctly, both used steel pennies. I was cleaning up and found some copper plated steel pennies and wanted to put together a little coin assembly. I don’t think it’s technically a matrix as the coins aren’t in a square.

@louiefoxx Almost Worth a Nickel! #magictrick #magic #coins #nickel #coinmagic #cards #pennies #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What I like about this is that it has an ending, while the ending isn’t very magical, it’s an ending and it has a tag line. As for method, there’s really nothing new here.

It was fun to work out a routine for this!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Tony Steinbach

In this episode we welcome in juggler and funny man Tony Steinbach. We learn about Tony’s first exposure to juggling and how his dad used juggling in his work training. Tony talks about his development as an artist and how his collaborations with other artists have helped pave the way to what he is doing now.

He tells about the Renaissance fair circuit and the adaptations he makes to his show to make it work in such a specific environment. A fun conversation with another 2025 moisture festival newcomer.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Why Jrod Illusion is an A-hole

Sometimes “working” magicians are pieces of sh*t. I posted a video of a trick with bills on TikTok, and Joe Rodiguez (Jrod Illusions) decides to post how he thinks it works. That’s part of TikTok’s game with magic videos for amateur magicians and I understand that and am OK with that. But when a supposed working magician exposes stuff, it’s makes me want to post on all of their videos how they do stuff. I won’t because that gives them engagement, which is TikTok gold.

OK, so here’s the video:

@louiefoxx The Eighty Dollar Trick! #magictrick #money #twenty #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Ok, you’ve seen the video, now here’s his comment:

Here’s the problem with his comment…he’s 100% wrong. Like a beginner magician should know there are no magnets involved in the trick…and he calls himself a professional. It really makes me wonder about the quality of the material of his show based on the lack of knowledge displayed in that comment. While I haven’t seen his show, I would suspect it’s pretty much garbage tricks done poorly by someone who doesn’t understand magic. I could be wrong, and that’s just my opinion.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Joe Rodiguez (Jrod Illusions).

-Louie

Red / Black Separation

I’ve always like red / black separation card effects. I think it’s because when I was a teenager I saw a John Mendoza VHS tape where he did a routine called “the squeeze” or something like that. The effect was a deck was shuffled and kept going back to red/black order.

Over the years I’ve done several versions of this in my close up magic. The other night I was playing with a version that I had come up with as an offshoot of something else I was working on.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Two shuffles, that’s all. #cardtrick #magic #cardmagic #magictrick #cards #shuffle ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Then ending where they separate into suits I like, but not sure that to non-magicians that payoff is any better than just red/black. Also I think it needs three phases. The first two could simply be shuffles into red/black. Maybe the second shuffle is a zarrow and up the ladder cut?

I’ll play with it more and actually try it on someone this week to see if it plays well.

– Louie