Louie – Page 86 – MagicShow.Tips

Kidshow Magic Kompendium

While I’m stuck in the office for a few days while I have my COVID isolation, I decided to read a book that I haven’t read yet. The book I grabbed was David Ginn’s Kidshow Magic Kompendium and a little ambitious of a read at over 500 pages!

This book is does a great job of laying out what makes a good kid show trick! You get complete routines with most of the tricks as well. There aren’t necessarily complete descriptions to how the things work or how to build them as there are many dealer items and things that the average person couldn’t make at home. I don’t think this is a bad thing, but just something to be aware of.

If you want a solid foundation of kid show performing and props, this book is great! I’m about 200ish pages into the book and it’s a fun read. David gives you advice and stories from the past.

It looks like this book is $35 on GinnMagicShop.com and for that price it’s a steal if you’re getting into or want to learn more about kids magic!

-Louie

The Show Doesn’t Have to Go On…

I got home a couple of days ago from a large booking conference. On my way home I got a text from a text from someone that I hung out with that they tested positive for COVID. I got home and had a negative test…but the next day I tested positive.

That means that I had some choices to make. I tested positive on a Thursday and had a holiday event on Saturday. According to the CDC guidelines, I would still be in isolation. My symptoms are pretty mild, so do I just bang out the show and do a no contact show?

My answer was to cancel the show…well have a friend of mine fill in for me. I could have done the show and gotten the cash, but it’s really not a good look doing a show when you’re sick.

People always praise Michael Jordan for playing in the “flu game” where he had a 103 temperature. Many years ago I’ve done the show very sick or physically hurt. One time I did a show right after I was in a car accident! I think times have changed and booker will look down on you if you do the show while visibly sick, especially if there are other options.

The show doesn’t have to go on.

For me the doing the right thing was more important than the cash.

-Louie
PS: Having to cancel this gig was a blow to my plan of only working 3 Saturdays in December…but about an hour after I cancelled it I got an email from a gig that I had contacted me a while ago wanting to book for next Friday!

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Vivian Tam

On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we welcome Ariel superstar Vivian Tam. We talk about her interest in circus at a young age, how she was able to mimic circus videos she got at the local library and how that led to a successful aerial career.

She tells us about going to stunt school, how she comes up with some of her routines and how much storage is needed to house all her equipment. A fantastic interview with one of the best aerial performers working today.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Senior Shows Zoom Training Session

A while ago I had an idea to host a zoom session about performing for seniors. It’s been a while since I’ve done any meaningful performing on zoom, so it was a little bit stressful. I did need to redownload and relearn the basics of using OBS (production program).

With all of the technical stress, the nice thing about giving presentations on Zoom is that I can tape my notes to the wall behind my computer! Also with this not being a show, I didn’t feel the need to dig out the backdrop or set up all of the lights.

My goal with the zoom session was to solve problems, not really as a lecture. There were a lot of questions and a topic that came up a couple times was the best way to contact senior communities. For me the best way to do that is with postcards or letters. While it may or may not be the method with the highest closing percentage, for me it’s the most efficient. I can spend less than an hour total and have a couple hundred postcards in the mail, where using phone or email will take a lot longer than that. With email, unless you already have a complete and up to date list, this can be fairly time consuming!

Another topic that came up a couple times is what to bring into a senior show and what type of material to do. My show fits in a briefcase and the audio has it’s own case. The other thing I travel with is a folding step stool.

When I do seniors shows, since they aren’t the best paying gigs, I need to be able to set up and pack quickly. This show can set up in about 15 mins and pack up in about 10 mins!

There will probably be another Senior Show Zoom at some point, if you want to be updated about it, contact me and ask to be on the mailing list!

-Louie
PS If you are interested in performing in senior communities and don’t have my book How to Perform for Seniors, you can get it here:
https://www.magicshow.tips/how-to-perform-for-seniors-book/

Always be Practicing!

While I was at the airport recently, I looked out the window and say one of the aircraft marshaller’s juggling the marshalling batons:

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A post shared by Louie Foxx | Comedy Magician (@louiefoxx)

This guy is using his downtime at work to practice and get good at a skill!
Practicing in your downtime with other tasks in a great way to pick up new skills! I learned to do rubik’s cube and a lot yo yo tricks in the time between when I finish setting up my show and my show’s start time. Sometimes it’s just 15 mins, or whatever. That’s time I could be scrolling through Instagram, or learning something new!

-Louie

Christmas Themed Shows?

One thing that I don’t really do anymore are themed shows. However there’s one exception, and next week I’m doing a show with some Christmas/winter themed magic. It’s for a client that’s used me for close to two decades, so I’m willing to do things for them that I normally wouldn’t do.

This is a family show, but geared to kids as I’m the opening act for Santa. I agreed to do 30% of the show themed for them. I ordered a few things for this event that I’ll be doing two back to back shows at. All of the tricks are similar to things that I’ve done in the past, so I’m familiar with them.

These trick are easy to plug into my show. This show will be what I consider “commercial art”. This show isn’t what’s in my heart (well 30% isn’t), but it helps keep me funded to do my art!

-Louie

Who Books That??

In stand up comedy circles there’s an inside joke that when someone does something cool, people say, “Who books that?” Typically newer comics or comics that are plateauing are asking comics moving up how they got a cool gig. Or really what they’re asking is how they can get a gig without putting in the work to get the gig.

In reality, it’s really easy to find out who books a gig, you simply call the gig and ask!

Recently I did a casino, which was a tribal casino in the middle of nowhere:

I posted that picture of my picture on their sign on social media and had four magicians contact me asking for the bookers information. These were magicians that I know, but I’m not really close with. If they were a close friend or someone I frequently trade referrals with, it’s not a big deal. But when it’s someone that I chat with twice a decade, the request feels gross.

Don’t be the person taking the lazy way out, do the work!

-Louie

Packing The Right Size…

Here’s what loading in my 60 minute stage show looks like!

That’s actually not quite right, the doctor bag on top isn’t part of the stage show, and neither is the brown tabletop on the left side of the luggage cart. I just didn’t want to leave them in the car. So the actual props I’m moving is slightly smaller.

I’m not a believer in the “briefcase show” where you have 60 mins in a briefcase. There are a handful of people that can pull it off, however most look like every trick was selected because it’s flat and the show has no visual texture.

So my advice is to pack as small as your artistic vision allows!

-Louie

Jerry Andrus Optical Illusions

One of my hobbies is treasure hunting through old boxes of magic tricks. There are two things I like about it, the first is finding something really cool or collectible and the second is trying to figure out what things are. I love finding parts to tricks that I’m unfamiliar with and trying to reverse engineer what they’re supposed to do.

One of the things from a recent magic box that I got were some Jerry Andrus optical illusions:

jerry andrus trizonal space warper optical illusion

This is a Trizonal Space Warper from 1981 and it’s the size of a record! It’s actually intended to be put onto a record player to create the spin. I was chatting with someone who knows a lot more about Jerry Andrus that me and he said that there were about 25 of this one made and of the 25 only about ten ever sold. that would make this is a pretty rare product from Jerry!

This is a fun one to have in my collection!

-Louie

Adding Effects to Sizzle Reel

I’m playing with adding some visual effects to sizzle reels, or social media videos. Here’s two versions of a sizzle reel, one without effects and one with some visual effects.

Here’s the one without:

And here’s the one with:

The goal is to not use the visual effects simply because I can, but to hopefully use them to enhance what you’re watching. I don’t want to be like soo many of the videos in the early days of consumer level video editing where every transition was a a huge deal, with star wipes or whatever.

Let me know which you think is better!

-Louie