September 2024 – Page 3 – MagicShow.Tips

Unique Vintage Circus Poster

Magic collectors always ask me where I the stuff for my collection. I do most of it old school style and hunt for it in person. This is a cool find (non-magic) that I found in person by going to a flea market.

vintage Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey circus poster

It’s a circus poster that was in a tube with RBB&B label on it from April of 1978. I’m guessing this was a going away present for the person who the poster was shipped to. He was a Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey circus promotions person. Since it was sent in 1978, I’m guessing it’s that year’s cast that signed it.

Here’s a close up of the signatures:

This is the sort of thing that I seek out, a unique circus poster! It’s the thrill of the hunt that’s fun for me, not simply googling something and buying what comes up.

-Louie

Silk in Selected Balloon

Last summer I started working on a trick where a silk appears in a selected balloon. It worked alright and got decent Reponses from the audience, but it was lacking a lot. Like the point in the routine where the silk disappeared never really figured itself out.

The bigger challenge was that sometimes you could see the silk through the balloon. I tried doubling up the balloon, and that cut down the instances of people being able to see the silk through the balloon by about half, but it was still too frequent. Then I had other things to work on and I really haven’t messed with the routine until almost a year later.

The solution for hiding the silk in the balloon was very simple, I used a black balloon inside a colored one, instead of using two of the same color. Then next challenge was how to suspend the silk inside of the balloon as I didn’t want the silk to fall to the floor. This was very simple, I just used a bit of fishline tied to the end of the silk. This fishline was tied into the knot at the top of the balloon.

Now with most of the technical problems solved, I can get back to work with the routine.
-Louie

Hanging Out

Yesterday I mentioned supporting shows when they are in your area. Another thing that I do is I hang out with magicians that are passing through my area. I hang out with magicians who are in town to hop on/off a cruise ship or have a long layover.

Recently I hung out with Christopher Weed who runs Showtime Magic (in addition to a lot of other things) when he was in Seattle doing a Foam Event.

It was a blast hanging out with him and Cesar. If you see on social media that someone you know is in your area, shoot them a note and offer to meet up. This is how community gets built.

-Louie

Supporting Live Magic

I’m amazed at how many magicians don’t go out and support live magic shows when they’re in their area. Personally, I try to go out and support as many people out there doing their craft.

A couple of weeks ago I had a bunch of magicians come out to visit me at the fair that I was performing at. I was bad at taking pictures, so I only have a pics of a few of the people that swung by.

If you have a magician passing through your area, buy a ticket and go out and see them or shoot them a note and offer to hang out with them!

-Louie

New Opening Bit For My Card Set!

Last week when I was playing with a idea for a trick where a card changes to a selected color, I hit upon a new bit for the beginning of my main card set. The first phase is a multiple card force, so they keep picking the same card.

It begins by asking the person picking the card their name. As they are picking the card, I say, “People named _____ always pick the five of spades.” Then they look at the card and that’s what they pick. We repeat this and they pick the same card again and I say, “See…people named ___ always pick that.” Then I have someone else pick a card, and I repeat the same bit with the their name and the same force card. This is fun, and it get’s me using their names.

I’m really liking this!

– Louie

Packet Trick in Spanish

Earlier this summer I started doing a packet trick in Spanish. The trick is Emerson and West’s Gourmet Mouse. What I like about this trick is that it’s very simple and I can do it for kids. The plot is easy to follow, you have three cards. One has a picture of a mouse, one cheese and one a slice of cheesecake. The cheese ends up disappearing and the mouse ends up changing to a picture of a cat (that ate the mouse).

The trick is pretty simple to speak in Spanish and that’s helping me connect with audiences that I’ve struggled with in the past due to language barriers.

Here’s what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Help me learn spanish! #spanish #learnspanish #helpme #magictrick #rat #gato #cat #cheese #cardtrick #louiefoxx #learnalanguage ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

To learn Spanish, I’m using DuoLingo and asking for help from people I work with who speak Spanish. I’m getting better, nowhere near conversational, but getting better.

-Louie

Color Changing Card!

Here’s what I’m started doing with the Bicycle NERTZ cards. There’s every color of the rainbow, except for orange, and there’s also black. What I’m doing is that I took out all of five of spades and put them in rainbow order in my pocket. This is my pocket index of the colors. I’m not using the black card. I’m also using a blue backed deck with the five of spades on top. The blue card that came with the NERTZ card set is a different blue than the standard bicycle card blue deck color.

When I start my card routine, I ask what the person’s favorite color of the rainbow is. I then force them the five of spades that on top of the deck as they are picking the card, I say, “People who like yellow (or whatever color they say) always pick the five of spades.” Then I proceed with my multiple force routine and my three locations of a card routine. During the three locations, I’ll pull the yellow backed fived of spades from the middle of the stack in my pocket and move it to the top.

After the three locations routine, it feels like the trick is done. The deck is on the the table and the selected card is face up next to it. I’m stealing the yellow five of spades from my pocket and loading it face up six cards from the top of the deck.

I show the tabled blue backed five of spades, put it into the deck and side steal in into my right hand as I hand the deck to the person who said “yellow”. I ask them what color they said, and they’ll repeat “yellow”. I have them deal down cards spelling yellow, dealing one card per letter. When they hit the W, their card will be face up! I use the time when they’re dealing cards to ditch the palmed card in my pocket.

Now all that’s left is to turn the card over to show that it’s back is now their named color!

A couple of notes about this, first of all, obviously use whatever color they say, not just yellow. I have yet to have someone name orange, if they did, I’d just use that as the premise for the multiple force. Next, it’s easy to know the letters. If they name any color except for red or blue, put the card in the 6th position. If they name red or blue, put the card into the fourth position. That will have the selected card end up face up at either the last card of the deal, or sitting face up after the deal.

Hope you enjoy it, it’s a lot of fun to day, the only downside is the pocket space it takes up.

-Louie

The Unconquered Card!

When I was a kid, I remember there were two different (gimmicked) three card montes being done. There was Michael Skinner’s and the one put out by Mike Rogers. Both were virtually identical, except that Skinner’s has a snappy flip over. It appears that Roger’s was the first and he had been doing it since the early 1960’s. Here’s what the Roger’s routine looks like:

@louiefoxx Does anyone ever win this game? #gambling #win #cardgame #magictrick #cardtrick #shellgame #threecardmonte #louiefoxx #explained #monte ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

At the end, I show how I would change the count. His shuffle sequence doesn’t make sense with how the cards ended up after the shuffle. So I changed the shuffle sequence, so that your pull a double, to the bottom, then a single to the bottom and finally another single to the bottom. That shuffle sequence leaves the cards in the sequence that they should be in after the shuffle. Where the original sequence the ace shouldn’t be back in the middle.

It’s a little thing, and honestly I don’t know how much of a difference it makes.

-Louie

Bicycle NERTZ Playing Cards

I finally broke down and bought a box of the NERTZ game playing cards that Bicycle puts out.

They’re $24.97 and you get six deck of cards, each is a different color.

What I don’t like about these is they’re jumbo index and not regular index cards.

I’m going to try to come up with a trick that uses these cards. I’m trying to avoid coming up with a packet trick where the payoff is the cards aren’t red or blue.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Harry Levine

On this episode we welcome in the amazing Harry Levine. We talk about his early days being a college radio station DJ and how he was amazed by a fellow moisture festival performers music.

We talk about his journey west and how he ended up staying in in the Northwest for the last 40 years. We also discuss how he became a member of the Mud Bay Jugglers and the Flying Karamozov Brothers. A great interview with the booking guru of the fest.

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