Louie – Page 95 – MagicShow.Tips

Packing Small and Playing Big…

Right now I’m reading Doc Dixon’s book The Show is the Mother of Invention. It’s about having a show that you can take as carry on luggage onto a plane and making that stuff play big. I’m about 2/3’s of the way through it right now and I really like it!

The show is the mother of invention by doc dixon

For me this is a very interesting read as I do travel a lot, both by car and by plane. Even when travelling by car, it’s important to try to pack small, or at least efficiently!

I used to be a “Pack as small as your artistic vision will allow you to…” sort of person. That led me to travelling around the country with a four foot metal spoon that required it’s own case! And that prop was used only for a 15 second gag! I’m no longer that person, I still have that spoon and case, and can do the routine whenever I want, but the it’s not currently in my show.

Doc’s book has a lot of strategies for getting more time out of what you already have, and how to make small things play larger. There are many techniques that I already do, that I didn’t know were techniques, like telling stories about what’s happened when you did the trick at another show.

Making a show that I can hand carry onto a plane is something that I’ve been playing with for a while now and you can see my current version at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/tag/carry-on-magic-show/

One thing that’s important to me is texture. I don’t want the show to feel like it was designed to fit into a case…even though it was. For example one of the things that’s in my show is my Applause Please trick, which is an applause sign that’s part of a larger routine. This is technically an “illusionette” in that it’s bigger than a hand held item, yet smaller than a zig zag. This prop has a lot of negative space that I can use to fill with other things when it’s packed up.

In addition to confirming what I was already doing, I’ve learned several new things that make Doc Dixon’s book totally worth buying for me! If packing smaller and getting more mileage out of what you already are doing is something that interests you, I highly recommend getting this book!

Louie

Shipping Notice

**The Daily Blog is below this notice**

Just a heads up, I’m on the road performing right now. Normally my shipping department when I’m travelling is my daughter, but she’s on vacation now through 9/12/23, so all orders placed for in stock items wont’ ship until then.

Digital products will still be emailed within 24 hours of placing your order.

Physical products that I currently have in stock are:

How To Perform For Seniors book
Cee Lo
Out For Beers
Take Up Reel
Evaporation

If you need something sooner than 9/12/23 you can order from Hocus-Pocus.com as they have most of my products in stock and ready to ship.

Thanks for your support!

Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Steve Langley

On this episode we welcome in the energetic Steve Langley. Over Zoom Steve tells us about his early beginnings as a chef and how that led to the creation of his juggling team the Fettucini Brothers.

He talks about his 30 year career, how paddle ball helped him along the way and how he transitioned to a totally different style of performing. A treat to be able to get to chat with Steve and we hope you enjoy it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Al Koran’s 5 Star Miracle Prediction

I’ve been working on a routine that I call “choices”, this is essentially a card prediction. This has had many different versions and methods, with the first version simply using an invisible deck for the reveal. It’s had many different reveals from the selected card in a wallet, to it being the only red backed card in a blue backed, blank faced deck.

The trick was just OK, the final reveal was lacking something…or had too much. Then a while ago Nick Lewin put out the 6 Star Miracle Prediction, which is his version of Al Koran’s 5 Star Miracle Prediction. I’m a HUGE Nick Lewin fan, and get everything he puts out. I honestly didn’t think I’d use the trick, however it ended up being the solution for the Choices routine.

The ending where I’m just holding two cards gives a great picture and ends with me in an applause position. The nice thing is the whole thing fits inside a jumbo card case, so it packs relatively small. This trick is intended for stage shows, so I have no desire to use a regular pack…however it could be downsized to that size and play well on a stage.

I’m not sure if this is the final version of this trick, but it feel pretty close!

-Louie

Quick Draw!

About a month ago I worked with Roy McCoy, The Quick Draw Cowboy in Wyoming. Roy is an cartoonist, and his show is him drawing stuff (there’s a couple of other things in it as well). Roy only does the fair where he lives, however he has one of the best stage set ups that I’ve seen.

I think if he was doing more than one fair, he’d probably have less stage dressing to lug around, set up and strike. The show was probably as good as it could get for someone who doesn’t do a lot of shows. It’s missing a lot of the bits to fill dead time, however for what it is, it’s fantastic!

I really enjoyed this show, it was something different and fun!

-Louie

The Long Walk…

Last week the fair I was at had a very long walk from the audience to the stage. This made bringing someone up from the audience a bit of a speed bump in the show. The general format in my magic show is every other trick has someone from the audience onstage. Figuring out how to deal with the time that it takes to bring someone onstage was a challenge.

The first thing to fill the time was simply writing jokes to address the issue and fill the dead space. I wrote lines like, “The walk to the stage is longer than the line at the DMV“.

One of the emergency props that I have in my case is a thumb tip with a silk. I can do a solid 5 minute routine with that that’s full of laughs. That routine uses two people from the audience.

Obviously, bringing two people onstage wasn’t he solution to the long walk to the stage, but the silk was. I started simply vanish the silk while the person walked to the stage. It filled the dead space, but needed more. Then during my morning writing I came up with the idea of doing silk in balloon. That gave some sort of a payout to the vanishing silk. However, the breakthrough was the next day during my morning writing I had the idea of silk in selected balloon.

I had a line of balloons tied to string from my case to the microphone stand. The silk vanishes while they are coming onto the stage. Then a balloon is selected and when popped the silk appears inside that balloon.

What I ended up with is a routine for when there is a long walk to the stage (or any show), but not a solution to fill that time for existing routines that I do.

I’m not disappointed that I didn’t come up with a solution for the long walk, as a routine that fills the stage and packs very small is still a win!

-Louie

The Show Must Go On…

A couple of weeks ago when performing at a fair in Montana we had a storm blow through. There were 50 mph winds and the fair made the decision to close the stages. My buddy Jerimiah Johnston was onstage and didn’t see the text as he was performing, so I walked out to tell him and this is what I saw:

@louiefoxx Juggler Balances a Table in 50mph Winds! #juggler #balance #juggling #wind #severeweather #louiefoxx #jeremiahjohnston #fairlife #performing #theshowmustgoon #army ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The guy is a trooper!

I personally would have called the show, but he kept plugging away!

-Louie

IBM convention!

The 2024 International Brotherhood of Magicians convention is going to be in Tacoma, WA next summer. That’s about 30 mins from where I live, so I figured I should go.

Being local takes out a lot of the travel burden as I don’t have to pay for travel. I would really like to go to more magic conventions, but it’s difficult in the summer as I’d have to turn down a 5-10 day gig to attend.

This should be a fun convention, and you can register at:
https://www.magician.org/convention/online-registration-2024

-Louie

Magic Books for Sale!

I’ve just added some magic books to the Used Magic page on this blog.

I’ll be adding more soon, and there’s only one of each and when it’s gone, it’s gone. So if you need any of these for your collection, order them now!

https://www.magicshow.tips/used-magic-for-sale/

-Louie

Make it Memorable!

When I do TV spots, I try do more than just a magic trick, I try to make it a moment that’s memorable. Sure you can do sponge balls and it’s fine, however I try to do things that are fun.

Here’s an example from a media spot a few weeks ago:

@louiefoxx News Reporter Hustled with Classic Con Game! #reporter #game #gambling #congame #cantwin #pushups #shellgame #hustle #newsreporter #louiefoxx #sleightofhand #payyourdebts #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s not always possible to do more memorable or fun spots due to time, or other circumstances. However, when I get a chance to do a little bit of planning, I try to do something fun!

-Louie