Happy Halloween, and be safe out there to everyone performing tonight! I won’t be doing any shows tonight and that’s by choice. Years ago I decided I didn’t enjoy Halloween shows, so I don’t really do them. Sure, there are reasons that I would still do them, like an insane paycheck, but for the most part I say no.
I decided I don’t like them because people act strange when they’re in costume. Whether it’s kids or adults. And people aren’t necessarily comfortable when they’re in costume watching a show. The amount of people that will watch a show wearing a giant mask with limited vision is very high. However they won’t take the mask off.
Speaking of masks, that’s a challenge, as an audience you want to see people’s faces. As a performer you want the audience to see the face of anyone onstage and how they react. The amount of times in the past, where I would ask a kid to come onstage specifically because they weren’t wearing a mask, only to have them stand up, put a mask on and walk onstage it staggering! Or people who act the character of how they’re dressed. I don’t want to do a trick for Darth Vader, I want to do it for a human.
I think that having an audience in costume makes my show not be as could as it could be because of elements out of my control. My solution is to turn them down.
I wasn’t having fun, and there’s plenty of other things to do.
-Louie
Month: October 2024
EDC for TV spot
Yesterday morning I headed down to the local TV station to promote National Magic Week. I was on their morning “lifestyle” show and it was a lot of fun. One of the challenges of doing TV is that you don’t know how much time you have, they tell you about how much time, but you never really know for sure.
Here’s what I had in my pockets right before the start of the segment:
These props would keep me covered for most situations that I could encounter. You may also notice the deck of cards isn’t a bicycle deck, it’s the Penguin Marked Deck. When I do TV spots, I try to always use a marked deck. That can potentially bail me out of some situations, like when the weatherman grabs a card and tell me to name it.
The other thing that I threw in my backpack was my vanishing birdcage.
Sometimes they ask you to do a quick trick as part of a teaser segment. These are usually a 5 – 10 second bit where you don’t talk, the host is introducing your segment. You need a very visual bit to be able to do in the background.
What I ended up doing for the show was my close up card set. I didn’t do the whole thing, but the reason I chose that was that it’s a modular trick. I can take things away from in to shorten it and it has multiple points that feel like the end. That makes that routine very useful for TV spots!
-Louie
The Jigsaw Puzzle Coin
About a year ago my buddy Rolando Medina started selling jigsaw puzzle coins. It’s a coin that’s been cut into a little 16 piece jigsaw puzzle. He sells the coin as a novelty, but I thought there’d be a cool trick in there.
When I first got mine, I posted a few ideas of things that could be done with it. You can read them here. The coin has been sitting on my desk for a year and I finally took it out and made a video with it!
@louiefoxx Most puzzling magic trick ever! #puzzle #magictrick #wtf #puzzling #coin #magic #cointrick #louiefoxx #crazy #wow @RM🐇💀🐇 #redmond #magiciansoftiktok #nocameratricks ♬ Believer – Imagine Dragons
I think this coin makes a great little social media video. Doing it in a normal roving close up setting wouldn’t be practical. It’s just the reset of putting it back together takes too much time when going from group to group. It would work in a formal close up magic show.
You can get these and a ton of other cool stuff from Rolando at: https://rolandomedinamagic.com/
-Louie
The Family Card Trick
One of the things that I do for fun is learn old packet tricks. One of the tricks that I as messing with was Karl Fulves Mexican IV. This is a three card monte style trick, then has a “surprise” ending. When I go through the packet tricks that use playing cards, I try to think of how I could theme them as if they were an Emerson and West packet trick. Then when I go through Emerson and West packet tricks, I try to figure out if I could turn them into tricks with normal looking playing cards.
With Mexican IV, I think I got a fun them out of the trick:
@louiefoxx All about the famiily! #family #dog #wife #magic #baby #cardtrick #magician #louiefoxx #car #surprisebaby #story ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
The trick came out well, and it’s a fun creative exercise!
-Louie
Doing Shows in the Rain and Wind
I don’t really perform Halloween shows, normally I turn them down. However I got a call for a unique one that I thought was just weird enough that it’d be fun. It was a glow in the dark Easter egg hunt at a Christmas tree farm for Halloween! It’s all the holidays crammed into one, and so I said sure!
The show was outdoors and my show was after dark and that particular night it was windy and raining, so the show had a lot of challenges. The big challenge was that the wind was blowing from behind and it kept wanting to knock my case over. Luckily I was doing my nest of boxes that night. I use the David Charvet No Assistant Nest of Boxes, and they’re HEAVY, so I put it in front of my case and that solved the problem.
The other problem is the weather turned from summer to late fall temperatures this week. It as tshirt and shorts weather a few days ago, and for the gig, it definitely wasn’t! Luckily in the trunk of my car, I have travel emergency supplies. One of the things I travel with is a bulk pack of hand warmers and they really saved me that night!
The final challenge was selecting material. I looked at what I had and saw what definitely wouldn’t work because it was really windy. I’ve worked in the wind before, and can do my normal show in average wind. I’ve also done my show with 40-50 mile per hour gusts, I just wasn’t expecting that at this particular show. I was only doing 30 mins and packed the 45 min show, so having that buffer of being able to select the 2/3’s of the show that would work best with the conditions was a nice luxury to have.
Despite all of the challenges the show was a lot of fun! I love it when interesting gigs pop up!
-Louie
Psychic Medium
A couple of weeks ago I did a show at a retirement community and this post isn’t about that, it’s about the other act that the had follow me. They had a “Psychic Medium”!!!
Before I write anymore, I will say that I was only there for about the first 5 minutes of her presentation, so that’s all I’m basing this on.
She started he presentation by introducing herself as a psychic medium. She then defined it as “I talk to spirits and people in heaven“. Then two people immediately started heckling her, yelling out that she’s a fraud! It got pretty bad, and the activity director had to get up and tell them to be quiet and that they needed to approach this with an open mind. The psychic medium continued her presentation, and there was still some rumbles from the audience, but nothing as crazy as it was before.
Then I left, so I have no idea how the rest of it went.
One thing is that the psychic medium was a “shut eye”, which means she believes that what she’s doing is real. A better way to do it is how Sheila Lyon did it in her book on roving fortune telling. She does group palm reading and it’s fun and doesn’t have nearly as much of a reason to be heckled.
I give a lot of kudos to the Activity Director for trying something different and sticking up for the psychic medium when she got heckled.
-Louie
PS if you’d like to learn more about performing for seniors check out my book; How to Perform for Seniors
It’s a Warren Simms Vanishing Bird Cage!
A couple of days ago I posted about a new vanishing birdcage. It was sold to me as a Sherms Vanishing Bird Cage. It turns out it’s a Warren Simms Vanishing Bird Cage!
Thanks to the super knowledgeable Doug Edwards!
He also informed me that the “T” stamped on mine meant it was sold through Tannen’s Magic in New York.
It’s always great to learn new things!!!
-Louie
New Cage for the Collection!
Another Vanishing Bird Cage has been added to my collection. This is (probably) a Sherms Vanishing Bird Cage. This is the original design that Milson Worth used for their Silver Meteor Vanishing Bird Cage, but the Milson Worth Cage was smaller.
This has an “S&” stamped on one side near the clip and a “T” on the other side.
The reason I’m not positive that this is a Sherms is that there’s one on eBay listed as a Warren Simms Vanishing Bird Cage and it has the same “S&” stamp on it, and it has brass bars.
No matter who made it, it’s a cool cage!
If you have positive info on the maker, let me know!
-Louie
Birthday Party Magic Show
It’s been years since I’ve done an in home kids birthday party magic show, and recently I did two of them back to back! Let me say, I’m not above doing them, they just don’t work with my performing schedule. I did these two to help out a friend who booked them, but had to leave town to go to a funeral, so I stepped in and did them for him.
One thing that was interesting to me was that ALL of the adults watched the show with the kids. They stood in the back and watched the show and the kids sat on the floor.
One thing I read in magic groups on social media is that magicians complain that the adults won’t stop talking during their show. I didn’t have that problem for either of the shows, in fact I had a parent say, “This is the most fun birthday party I’ve been to“. I think the problem is that many magicians do a children’s show, and not a family show. There’s a huge difference between the two. If you look at your audience and there’s a lot of adults, you should be doing a family show and not a kids show.
I think of my show as a show for grown up that kids like. My style is very different from a lot of people who perform for families, there are not colorful props. It’s basically me with handheld props that are pretty basic looking. However I fill the stage with the kids personalities. I talk to them, and with my style of play, it works. I like it when the kids fight back with me in a routine when I say or do something dumb, but I also call them out when they do!
I also have jokes that are not just for the kids, one of my opening bits with my rope line is an insurance joke. Doing that early on, it teaches the parents that this is a show also for them.
For someone starting out doing birthday parties, simply saying, “you gotta engage the adults” isn’t a magic pill that will solve the problem. Your job is to entertain the kids, get good at that. However while you are getting good at that, slowly start working at figuring out how to engage the adults. Maybe adding a line here or there, or making sure the magic in your show is STRONG! The only way to learn to do this is do A LOT of birthday parties and over time you’ll get better.
Keep working!
-Louie
Justin Willman – The Illusionati Tour
Ove the weekend my wife and I went out to check out Justin Willman’s Illusionati show in Portland. I’ll start with saying that I think his live show is great! He probably has one of the best opening tricks that I’ve seen. It wins over the audience and sets up his personality perfectly!
The other thing that Justin does really well is his use of the “close up camera”. All of the stuff that he does with it are enhanced by the camera, and not reliant on the camera. It’s all sorta interactive, it’s not just a close up on his hands while he does tricks. It’s all part of larger things. If you’re thinking of using a camera in your show, you really should go see Justin’s show.
The other thing that he does really well is letting spontaneous things happen. He’s the star of the show, but he doesn’t mind sharing that spotlight. That’s a huge contrast from a lot of “comedy magicians” where the second someone from the audience does something funny or interesting, they shut them down. It’s these spontaneous things that make a live show fun!
If Justin Willman in your town, be sure to check him out!
-Louie