Louie – Page 84 – MagicShow.Tips

Get the Event Flow Schedule!

Here’s a huge tip when performing a events, always try to see the event flow schedule and take a picture of it! Here’s event flow that I from the banquet staff at the hotel:

I took the picture right after I arrived at 4pm and I was supposed to rove for an hour at 5pm and do an 30 min show after dinner at approx. 7pm. If you look at the schedule, that’s not what’s on the schedule.

For starters, I was scheduled to rove from 5pm to 6pm, but the event didn’t start till 5:30pm. Shifting the roving 30 mins isn’t a big deal as I there was going to be a gap between that and the show. However they had the show listed as 90 minutes and I don’t do a show that long for a holiday party. This was quick to clear up with the booker, and they confirmed they were only expecting me to do 30 mins.

The shift from a 7pm show to an 8:30pm show could be a challenge if I had a late night gig after that one. One thing I was doing this year was only one show on each Saturday in December, so they were buying out my night. This is great for the client, so they don’t have to worry about the show running late and me having to leave. I confirmed the 8:30pm start time and said “no problem“.

I did leave the client a business card with my cellphone number on it and told them that with a gap that long I’m not hanging out in the banquet room, but they can text me and the show can start in 15 minutes.

Lucky me, I got a text at about 7:15pm and the show started at 7:30pm! As a super bonus, they were a great audience!

The takeaway lesson from this year is having companies buyout my Saturdays nights is the way to go. It’s less stress free for me and the client. They can throw almost whatever at me and I can say, “no problem” and mean it! Everyone wins!

-Louie

Sponge Peeps – 2nd Attempt

Yesterday I wrote about a failed attempt at making sponge bunnies that look like Marshmallow Peeps (read about it here). I made a second attempt, and this one turned out much better. Instead of using actual Marshmallow Peeps to create the mold, I sculpted them out of clay.

My mold is one full size bunny and then two smaller ones. My thinking is that I can get a full set out of two castings in the mold. I can make additional molds if this is something I want to make a lot of.

I used foam in the mold as I already had that at home, so it was easy to make a test with.

They came out with a workable density, I think that I would like them to be a little bit softer, so I’ll have to explore some other densities of foam. The next step will be to play with adding pigment to them so that they’re yellow.

-Louie

Sponge Bunnies

Last year around easter I had the idea to make sponge bunnies out that look like the Marshmallow Peeps.

I bought this pack of them last year and I just got around to trying to make a set. The first step was to make a mold of them.

I started to make the mold using actual Peep’s, but unfortunately it was a failure. I think the sugar or some ingredient of the Peep didn’t play well with the mold material.

I’m going to give it another try, but I think I’ll have to make the Peep’s out of clay and then make a mold of that. Hopefully it will be sooner than another year before I make another attempt!

-Louie

Money Paddle Idea

One prop I don’t really like, but spend way too much time thinking about is the Money Paddle. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be.

Is it an olde tyme drink stirrer?

And if it is, how do you give it context for a modern audience?

One thing that it reminds me of is a strop for sharpening blades.

The strop pictured above is probably 18 -24 inches long, where a money paddle is about 6 inches. That’s a small point to give it context. A knife and a strop belong together, so the props are connected.

I glued some black and white paper to my money paddle and now the next thing is to try to figure out a routine to do with them.

Also on a side note, the only reason I own a money paddle is that some were made out of wood from Houdini’s house in New York. I thought that was a fun thing to own, but since it see it everyday, I want to figure out something to do with it!

-Louie

Blankety Blank Blank Blank by Ken Driscol

Here’s a packet trick that I found in a junk magic bin. It’s a twisting the aces style effect with the backs turning blank at the end.

There are a couple of things that I didn’t like about the trick. The big thing with this style of twisting routine is no one really shows all the backs at first. This is easily accomplished with a Flustration Count and half pass. I think the surprise of the blank cards at the end is more amazing when the audience feels like they’ve seen the 4 regular backs.

-Louie

Chinese Flame Clock

The Chinese Flame Clock is an interesting magic trick. This was invented by Ed Massey and mine appears to have been made by Milson Worth. This style of illusion isn’t really a modern style, however I’m sure there’s someone out there killing with it!

@louiefoxx Chinese Flame Clock! Vintate Magic Trick! #vintagemagic #antiquemagic #vintage #magic #antique #collectiblemagic #louiefoxx #stagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The trick is really solid, I think it’s pretty deceptive. It’s nothing that I would do, but it’s a great example of creating a method to make an effect happen!

-Louie

Changing Card Tricks

Inspired by Vitaly Beckman’s An Evening of Wonders show, I’m trying to think of ways to eliminate playing cards from my show. Not taking the card tricks out, but trying to figure out other things to use and use them in a context that makes sense. One of the tricks that I do is essentially a card prediction done with jumbo cards and the premise of the bit is the choices that I make in life. I think the trick would work with postcards, and could keep the theme of making choices. With travel postcards from different countries, there is a lot of visual contrast between the cards.

These cards are 4X6 inches which is a little smaller than jumbo playing cards. I needed to commit and buy five sets of them to make the gimmick set of cards or the trick.

Hopefully it works!

-Louie

NW Ring of Fire Magic Club

On Thursday night I made it out to the NW Ring of Fire magic club in Lynnwood, WA. There were about 15 magicians there. It’s been years since I’ve visited this club as it’s over an hour drive (without traffic) for me to get there .

The club president Tony Blei kept things fun, positive and moving along!

While I was there, I won the raffle and my prize were two magic VHS tapes

I don’t have a VHS player, but I discovered a long time ago that the tape can be removed from VHS tapes and they work as hat coils!

It was a fun night and if you’re not going out and meeting other magicians in your area you should! They are a good source of ideas, referrals, and people to cover gigs if you get sick.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Matthew Laslo

On this episode we welcome in the youngest person we have interviewed Matthew Laslo. We learn about how he started in magic, what it was like being the only magician in his town and where he looked to for inspiration.

Moisture festival podcast with matt baker, louie foxx and matthew laslo

He tells us about all the people who has helped him a long the way and some of his great success’s including multiple TV appearances and a crazy trip to China. We also learn how he came to be a part of the touring Broadway style magic show called Shazam. A great interview with a fantastic young performer.

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Vitaly Beckman – An Evening of Wonders!

Last week my daughter and I drove two and half hours to see Vitaly Beckman’s show. I saw Vitaly’s show about eight years ago at a casino and I liked it then.

I think Vitaly’s show is one of the most original magic show’s I’ve seen in a while! The only thing that was really a an “old plot” was his card in bottle, and it’s still a great routine! He’s got great presentational hooks for his routines and lot of them are about art and photography.

He’s got a really fun way of picking people from the audience, and it’s something I wish I had thought of as it’s fun and confirms the randomness of the selection!

It was also great to see how he uses projection in his show. He had graphics that highlighted the effects he was doing to create a mood. Also the close up camera wasn’t overused and just about everything could be seen without projection if it wasn’t available.

One of the things I like is how he’s adapted playing card moves to other objects, like photographs or drivers licenses. That’s something that makes him stand out, he’s using objects that are way more relatable than cards! It’s super smart! In my virtual shows and a few live show I’ve used Polaroids in place of playing cards. It’s something I really should go back and explore more as it’s a great way to add relatable context to what would otherwise just be a card trick.

I should note that Vitaly’s ending is amazing! He asked to share what it is, but it’s super fun, and amazing!!!

If he’s performing in your area, buy a ticket! I left Vitaly’s show inspired to work harder on my show.
-Louie