Louie – Page 116 – MagicShow.Tips

Vanishing Bird Cage Comparision

There really aren’t many vanishing bird cages that are currently being made. It’s really the vanishing bird cage from India or the Baby Lindy and Walter Blaney cage from Dan Summers. Those two makers couldn’t be further apart in pricing! The cage from India is about $50, and the Summers cages are $1,500-$2,000!

I recently has someone ask me about the two, and there’s really no comparing them. For starters they are completely different style of cages, so it’s not an apples to apples comparison.

What the magic market is lacking is a good, entry level cage, something in the $200-$400 range, however that doesn’t currently exist right now. I’m going to do a quick comparison of the India cage and the Milson Worth Silver Meteor which is the cage style that the Indian cage copied.

For me there are two main differences. The first is weight!

The Milson Worth cage is 115 grams and the Indian cage is 149. You really feel that extra 34 grams in weight when the cage lands in your sleeve!

The other difference is texture. The Milson Worth vanishing birdcage has all the soldered spots smoothed out, where the India cage is rough and that will create a lot of potential snags when the cage is going up your sleeve.

I know that the Milson Worth magic company isn’t around anymore, so you can’t buy the cage new, but there are a lot of them out there for sale on sites like eBay, etc. This cage is a decent beginners cage and one to use if you want to try out the cage before investing thousands of dollars in a cage!

Just a quick note, if you end up searching for a Milson Worth Silver Meteor cage, don’t pay more than $150-$200 for it. There’s a seller or two on ebay asking for way too much for the cage!

-Louie

Disappeared Thought by Mathieu Bich

The best version of the princess card trick is Limited Edition by Gordon Bean. Having the thought of card disappear really solved the biggest problem with the trick, that’s that you couldn’t show the card they picked. When their card turns blank, it makes sense!

I just came across Disappeared Thought in magic junk bin purchase and I think it’s a better solution from a method standpoint to the effect in Limited Edition. One of the cool things about Mathieu’s method is that it allows you to show the full front and back of all the cards.

Here’s Mathieu Bich’s Disappeared Thought:

@louiefoxx Mind reading card trick! Think of a card and I'll make it disappear! #mindreading #psychic #readmymind #cardtrick #cardmagic #disappearingcard #mentalism #louiefoxx #iknowwhatyourethinking ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

That got me thinking, what if I reversed the trick, so all the cards disappeared, and that led me to a strange trick, that would probably only be interesting to magicians.

Here’s the version that I came up with:

The ending with the 52 on 1 card isn’t a strong enough gag for a real audience, however I think it would do well for a group of magicians.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Alan Plotkin

The Moisture Festival podcast is joined by Alan Plotkin! Alan is the festival’s official videographer and the created Moisture Festival The Movie which can be seen at film festivals around the USA!

We learn about Alan’s beginnings as a film maker using old school 1970’s video editing equipment, how he got involved in recording variety acts and he role as a referee! It’s a great interview that you’ll love!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Sympathetic Cards by Ronnay

Here’s another visit with an old packet trick. It’s Sympathetic Cards by Ronnay, that was put out by Emerson and West. The trick is a “follow the leader” effect where two packets keep matching when one is turned face up or face down, then there’s a couple of kickers with jokers appearing and backs changing colors.

The problem with the trick as written is you end up with two more cards than you start with. It’s a small problem, but also something that I feel needs to be addressed. However there’s a lot of magic that happens in it and it’s pretty good magic, so it’s not a bad trick…

If I was to improve it, the main thing I would do is try to figure out a way to get rid of the two extra cards. Other than that, it’s pretty good.

-Louie

Help Others Be Amazing!

Earlier this year Dan Block as thinking about setting a Guinness World Record, but he had some worries about doing it correctly. I suggested that he set the world record at an industry event. I did this for several reasons, first Guinness likes records to be press worthy, so the event was something that the news could promote. Second at the event there were experts in the field who could be witnesses and finally the room would have many people who had broken Guinness World Records and could help out with making sure the rules were followed.

Dan just sent me this:

I’m super excited for him!

Many magicians think that helping other magicians achieve things is making their competition stronger and they’ll lose gigs to the person they helped. I don’t think this way. When everyone is amazing, it’s better for all of us.

I constantly go out of my way to help people level up, and you know what…those people go out of their way to help me be better. If we look at other performers as a team and not a competition, you’ll go a lot further and you’ll be much happier.

-Louie

Vintage Three Shell Game?

The other day I was looking at some three shell game sets on ebay and came across this set:

And here’s the description:

Vintage Original Three Shell Game
This Is the Oldest Con Game Ever Played A high-performance set of shells that handles well on the STREETS. This is YOUR CHANCE to learn this crowd-pleaser and get a top-quality set of shells. Highly recommended! THIS VINTAGE SET IS FROM A MAGIC ESTATE SALE. I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT THESE WERE PURCHASED IN THE LATE 1940s to EARLY 1950s. I CAN’T TELL IF THEY ARE REAL OR MANUFACTURED! THEY LOOK AMAZING! NO INSTRUCTIONS! YOU GET THE -3-SHELLS AND -1- PEA

NO REFUNDS! NO RETURNS!

What’s wrong with that description is that those shells are 100% 3d printed or made from a mold of a 3d printed shell. How 3d printing works is that it makes things in layers, and that leaves ridges and those are clearly visible in the picture.

The seller say’s they’re from the 1940’s or 1950’s, when really the oldest they’d be is probably 2010, which is a solid 60 years newer than the seller claims. I’m not saying the seller is knowingly lying about the age, however whoever gave them the mid 20th century claim is incorrect.

This is a situation where having a little bit of knowledge of materials will save you $80!!!

-Louie

Support Magic Shops!

When I’m out and about I try to support brick and mortar magic shops. There aren’t that many left and when I’m travelling they can be very helpful when I need to replace a prop or get some strange supply like rough stick.

Last week I visited Market Magic Shop and picked up a hoodie!

Then a couple of days later I was in Astoria Oregon and visited The Magic Shop and More and hung out with Seth Howard.

While I was there I picked up an old, thick stock jumbo invisible deck! I really want it for the thick cards, it doesn’t really matter that it’s roughed on one side as I’m not going to use it for the invisible deck trick.

If we want these magic shops to continue to exist, we need to support them by buying from them. Not just a deck of cards, but actually shopping and making more meaningful purchases.

-Louie

Liar’s Blackjack by Bob King

Here’s another packet trick I picked up from a magic shop’s junk bin. It’s called Liar’s Blackjack by Bob King. It’s sorta an all backs routine, but not really. You have five cards that have backs on both sides, then a few faces appear and one of them changes.

Here’s what it looks like with when the original instructions are followed and my update on the trick:

The big change is that I got rid of the cards with backs on both sides. That’s such a strange object that the routine really glosses over and I think detracts from the routine. Using blank face cards keeps the focus on the effect and presentation. Then a little change in the count as the Kiss Elmsley doesn’t really work with the blank face cards, so I used the Hypnotic Rumba Count.

This isn’t a routine that I would ever do, but I think that getting rid of the cards with backs on both sides is a HUGE improvment!

-Louie

Genii Magazine!

In David Kaye’s column in Genii Magazine this month he did an article about performing at fairs. He interviewed Jef Eaton, Alex Zander, Terry Godfrey and myself for the article.

It’s a great article with some solid nuts and bots information about performing at fairs and how to get into performing in that industry. If performing on the “fair circuit” is something you’ve though about doing, you should pick up the July 2023 issue of Genii!

-Louie

The (W)hole Thing For Me!

I had a day off last week and finally made a prototype of my custom props for The (W)hole Thing which is Daryl’s version of an Emerson and West packet trick.

The main differences is that the circle around they hole is a donut, the spots are arranged like an X and the cards are black. The main reason that the cards are black is that I might have a line about a black hole. With the cards in black I’m sacrificing some visual clarity of what’s a hole and what isn’t. I think if I end up not using the black hole line, I’ll switch the colors back to red as it visually pops!

-Louie