Last month I popped by an open mic to try a new idea. That idea was for the second phase of my card to pocket to have smoke come out of my pocket before the card is pulled out. I’ve only done it at open mics, and decided to try it at a show and IT WENT GREAT!
The smoke coming out of the pocket adds a nice magical and funny moment to the show. I think I may add something else for the third/final phase, like smoke AND a laser to try to take it over the top in stupidness!
This reminds me of a Mel Brooks quote, “…go past crowd pleasing and into real comedy!” It’s great advice for performing. Go past crowd pleasing and into real magic. How do you take your magic to the next level? Sponge balls are crowd pleasing, but how to you take it to the next level?
-Louie
Month: January 2025
Ali Baba Box!
Inside a box of old magic I bought I came across an strange coin box which I later learned was called the Ali Baba Box and it appears it was originally created/made by Eddie Gibson in the UK. The one I found was made by Paul Diamond and was originally part of a larger set.
The basic effect is you open the box and take out a sponge sponge ball, then close the box and when you reopen it, it’s full of coins. There really was no context to the sponge ball aside from filling the space inside the box. Here’s my attempt to give the box some sort of context:
@louiefoxx Tooth fairy doesn’t always have cash! #toothfairy #cointrick #magictrick #coins #quarter #payday #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
The tooth fairy theme with the sponge tooth kinda makes sense to tie it all together. I’m sure if I thought a bit more I could come up with something better…
-Louie
Magic in Seattle
Last week I took the train into Seattle, and I haven’t ridden an Amtrak train in about 30 years! It was great and way better than driving as I could read and practice a card trick I was working on!
I was up in Seattle for lunch with my family, but then I had a little bit of a magic jam while I was in town. The first wave had Chris Beason and Johnathan Friedman!
When Johnathan had to go, he was shortly replaced by Clive Hayward!
It was a blast having some laughs with them and messing around with some magic!
On my way back to the train I walked by the old location of the Mickey Hades Seattle Magic Shop!
When I was a teenager Mickey Hades taught me how to back palm produce single cards the old way where you bring the whole block to the front pull one card off, then put the whole block back behind your hand! That’s also where I inadvertently saw Michael Starr do a one handed top palm and reverse engineered the mechanics of it on the bus ride home!
It was a fun trip up to Seattle!
-Louie
Dice Sequence
I was relearning Giovanni Livera’s Shell Shocked routine. This is a three shell game routine and at the end of it you have two dice on the table. Looking at the two dice, I realized that this is a natural transition to the Sachs Dice Routine. I originally learned this as a teenager from the book Routined Manipulation Vol 1 by Lewis Ganson.
If you’re not familiar with the trick, the effect is that you hold two dice in your hand and the numbers on the dice change as you turn your hand over. It’s a great effect and one that Steve Dobson did a lot in his working repertoire. I dug out his lecture notes and grabbed some dice!
The move isn’t hard to do, but Steve does it backwards from how my hands remember it from when I was a teenager. The move is better the way Steve describes it in his lecture notes.
You can learn Steve’s routine from the notes pictured above (if you can track them down) or it’s the basis for the routine taught in Reed McClintok’s Ivory Connection video.
-Louie
White Gel Pens!
Whenever I’m at a store that has gel pens I always buy some!
I use these for marking cards. The Gelly Roll pens I use for finer marks, like putting writing on the cards for stack number or card value. The Uniball pen has a wider tip and I use it for things like whiting out the faces on the angels or wheels on the bikes.
These are super handy to have around. Usually I have one on my desk, one in my car, and one in my backpack.
-Louie
Coin Tray Updated!
The original version of the Bodega Coin Tray didn’t have the letting colored in. That was intentional as I personally wanted mine to look like it’s been on a counter for a while, so I only colored mine in lightly. However I’ve had a lot of people ask me for one that’s colored in so they don’t have to do that.
If you want one colored it, simply shoot me a note before ordering and I’ll make yours that way.
– Louie
PS Click here for more info, or to order the Bodega Coin Tray!
Mailbag Escape Bar
Years ago I read in one of John Novak’s Art of Escapes books about altering the gimmick for a mail bag escape to be a handcuff sort of thing. It was the bar from the mailbag escape and it hand either chains or handcuffs attached to the ends where the locks would be. The premise is the bar was a “spreader bar” to keep your hands separate so that you couldn’t reach the other side.
For some reason I liked this as a prop and have picked up a couple of the bars, but never made them into a the prop with the restraints on the ends. They’re just sitting around collecting dust.
This morning while I was doing my morning writing, I had an idea! What if they bar held a small bag. The bag was on the bar and there were still restraints on the ends of the bars.
This idea is that you would try to get whatever you put into the bag out while chained up.
Then it hit me, that maybe the bag could be mesh with a canvas or leather top:
That would work, but I think the presentation/routine would decide if a solid or mesh bag would be used.
If it was a mesh bag, it could be a laundry bag, and a selected item could be removed? There could be a few items or items of different colors and the item called out by the audience is what is removed. If it’s a laundry bag, they you wouldn’t necessarily need to be chained to the bar.
I like this idea of using the bar from the Mailbag Escape for something it’s not really intended for!
-Louie
Shell Shocked – Three Shell Game Routine
Currently I’m playing with Shell Shocked which is Giovanni Livera‘s three shell game routine from his book Confessions of an Italian Magician.
What I like about the routine is that is has an ending that’s a punctuation, not just doing the same thing under more conditions. In the book Giovanni gives you his shell shuffling sequence, but if you already have a few sequences, then you can add his ending to what you already do.
One of the changes I made to the routine is that I’m palming the P the whole routine, instead of stealing it towards the end of the routine. Doing it that way makes sense for me as I don’t keep my shell game props in a bag, so needed a workaround.
If you’re looking for a shell game routine, this is worth checking out!
-Louie
Ultimate Aces on TikTok
I’m newer on Tik Tok, so still working hard to build it up, let’s hope the government doesn’t take it away and I lose that work! I recently posted John Fedko’s Ultimate Aces and it’s gotten a ton of views (for me on tiktok).
One of the things that I noticed was if you look at the bottom of that screenshot there is a suggested search. It’s “Ultimate Aces Card Trick Revealed”. That’s kinda messed up from a magician’s perspective. I’m assuming that suggested search is based on what people are searching after watching the video.
Here’s the video of the Ultimate Aces:
@louiefoxx Watch the aces! #cardtrick #aces #cardmagic #magic #magictrick #vintagemagic #acetrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
To me this confirms my idea that people aren’t figuring out how tricks work based on watching the video, but doing searches to figure it out. It also adds to my not really caring if people post how it works. One thing I’ve seen in the comments for this trick is that for every correct reveal there are ones that are incorrect. Lot’s of people saying the routine uses a double lift!
Noticing that search bar has given me a lot of perspective about the Tik Tok comment section.
-Louie
Hanging Out With Performers!
My daughter sells her art at events (like craft shows) around the Pacific Northwest. When I’m not working I go and hang out with her while she’s working. I also usually post on social media where we’ll be. It’s fun how many performers come out to hang out as well!
Recently I had a giant puppet act and stand up comic come by to hang out. I also had Clive Hayward come by!
Clive and I snuck away and had a beer while my daughter was adding some art to the walls of this venue. Of course we jammed some card tricks.
We also chatted about Jeff McBride. Clive had recently done a one on one problem solving session with Jeff. Clive mentioned how quickly McBride solved problems he was having. I’ve seen Jeff do this with people’s acts at WonderGround in the past. He has an amazing amount of knowledge of magic, theater, and pretty much everything about performing.
I had been thinking about a class that Jeff is putting on at his Mystery School called The Story Master Series that starts on Jan 11th. I’m trying to grow my show more, and it’s hard to do that in a vacuum. Taking a class to learn more is never a bad idea. I signed up for the class and excited for it to start!
Hopefully I’ll become better at sharing stories!
-Louie