magic books – MagicShow.Tips

Mr. Fingers: The Magic of Irv Weiner

The book Mr. Fingers: The Magic of Irv Weiner came in the mail the other day and I’m excited to start digging through it!

I’ve done Irv’s Red Tape Thumb Tie in my show for a while and have read many other the booklets of his routines. Somehow books that I’m excited to read show up when I’m not in a position to read them for a while. I’ve gotta finish up reading The Bat, which I’m almost done with and have a few projects in the workshop to finish up before I can start this book.

Once I get into it, I’ll write a review.

-Louie

Trickanalysing: The Close Up Magic of David Copperfield

On a flight I read the book Trickanalysing The Magic of David Copperfield. This is a book from 1997 that goes through 20 of David Copperfield’s close up magic routines that he’s done on TV. This book is about the theatrical elements in the routines, not about specific methods.

The first 2/3’s of the book is the author going through and breaking down what’s theatrically happening in the routines. The final third of the book digs more into the author’s definitions of the theatrical devices used and how they could be applied to your magic. Then at the end, there are some worksheets for you to go through your magic and see what you’re using, or could be using.

Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about this book. I didn’t dislike it, however, I’m not in love with it. It was definitely interesting, but I’m not sure how much of the Trickanalysing system that I’ll personally be using. It is always neat to read about someone’s system.

-Louie

The Chefalo Knot

One of the tricks in The Bat magic magazine was a description of the Chefalo Knot. This is a series of three knots that are tied into a piece of rope, then dissolve when the ends are pulled. In The Bat it’s mentioned that there are no descriptions of it that are correct. Well, even the description in The Bat wasn’t correct (at least how I read it).

If you ever tried to learn it from Tarbell, the illustrations are incorrect. Here’s the pictures from Tarbell:

In the last picture (fig.51) where the red are is pointing is incorrect. What it should look like is the picture below where the green arrow is pointing:

If you layout the rope with my updated illustration, the trick will actually work.

I put about 90 minutes into figuring out this dissolving knot trick one night and that made me committed to it. I wanted to figure out something to do with it. Since it’s a vanish of three knots, the first logical step was to make them reappear. Then I wanted to add something more, so I added a ring that penetrates onto the middle knot.

I’ll post a video of it when I get a chance.

-Louie

Magic Books at Powell’s Books

Whenever I’m near downtown Portland, OR I try to visit Powell’s Books. They have a huge inventory of used books and many magic books.

If you look at the picture above, it’s a mix of new and used magic books. Frequently, they have a lot of professional magic books, not just standard bookstore stuff. This trip, there wasn’t anything super crazy, but I did pick up these two books:

Both of those books were about $10 and things that I can read when I’m on a plane or whatever.

If you’re ever in the Portland, OR area, you should check out Powell’s Books!

-Louie

Openers – Magic Book

I just started reading the book Openers. This book is a compilation of “openers” for magic shows. The book is mostly close up openers so far, but I’m only about 1/3 into the book.

So far my favorites are:
Virus by John Guastaferro: This is a full deck, all backs routine where one side then turns blank, then to normal playing card faces. It’s not too hard to do. I like the routine, however I think I’d need to find a new theme for it. His theme is great, just not for me.

Contender by Liam Montier: This is a quick trick where you know which card someone is thinking of. I think this is a great “bar bet” style of trick.

I should also mention that I’ve been hunting for chop cup routines that don’t use a table and there’s one in this book called The Gold Cup Con by Carl Royle. It’s a close up routine using a small chop cup that will hold a golf ball. It’s a great routine, just not for what I’m personally trying to do with a chop cup.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the book!

-Louie

NEW Louie Foxx Lecture Notes!

In a week I’m heading out to the 2025 PCAM convention to do my full show and a lecture. If you can’t make it, you can get the lecture notes from me!

2025 Lecture Notes .pdf $25

These are the lecture notes from the lecture that I will present at the 2025 PCAM magic convention. They focus is on stand up/stage magic. They contain seven tricks/routines and five essays.

Introduction
The Opener Card Routine: The five-minute card routine that Louie does as my warm-up for family audiences!
Developing a Unique Show
Louie Foxx’s Take Out Box (Two Versions!): Turn a Chinese food take-out box into a production box!
Moving the Sponge Ball Down the Field
The Fortune Teller: A folded paper fortune teller becomes a self-contained prediction system!
Process in Magic and Mentalism
The Body Language Book Test: A book test plays BIG!
Can I tell that joke?
The Cracker Card Trick: A card trick using crackers! This was performed by Louie TV’s Masters of Illusion!
Fiat Currency: An opening effect that explains what you do.
Why You Should Hang Out With Magicians
The Stand Up Chop Cup: A chop chop routine that uses no table and no one from the audience!

48 pages
These are a .pdf that will be emailed to you within 24 hours of placing your order.

2025 Lecture Notes .pdf $25

Mastering Comedy Magic by Ian Batterbury

On the plane the other day I read Mastering Comedy Magic by Ian Batterbury. This book goes through different techniques and objectives with using comedy in a magic show. The book says it’s intended for beginners at comedy magic. I would say it’s for beginning at adding unique comedy to their magic.

The difference is that there are a lot of comedy magicians out there who have never had an original thought in their life. They are doing Banana Bandana, or whatever using the jokes the trick came with, or worse using the jokes they’ve seen other people do without permission.

This book is a general “theory” of performing comedy magic, without much in the way of tools, like how a joke is structured. If you’ve never created your own original script for a routine, this book will give you some good guidelines to help you out. With it only being about $10 on Amazon, it’s worth looking into.

-Louie
PS Another good book to look into is Ryan Kane’s Out of Stock

Stealing the PreSale?!

I was curious if Dan Harlan’s Masterworks book set had come out yet and a magic site that sells pirated magic effect that are illegal copies had them listed for sale.

The crazy thing to me is that this set hasn’t been released. They’re preselling a pirated copy of a book that doesn’t exist yet!

That’s insane to me. Why would anyone buy a copy of something that hasn’t been put out yet and why would anyone sell it? If I recall from a thread on TheMagicCafe the books are already late in coming out, so as the person selling the illegal copies, it’s gotta be a customer service nightmare to deal with anyone who bought them wanting to know the status of the book.

If you buy direct from Dan at least you can bug him. If you buy an illegal copy, there’s really no one you can be mad at (except yourself).

-Louie

Magic at Powell’s Books

On Sunday I made the drive to Powell’s Books in Portland, OR.

They always have an interesting selection of used magic books. They have a range of beginner stuff to more advanced magic books.

A couple of the more advanced books they had were:

And then my personal favorite book that’s with the magic books:

I picked up a The Magic Catalogue by William Doerflinger for $10.

The Magic Catalogue is an interesting book based on what I’ve seen flipping through it. It’s a brief magic history and then reproductions of older and current (at the time of printing) magic catalog pages. I’m not sure who the market is for this, besides me!

If you’re in Portland, OR it’s totally worth popping by Powell’s!

-Louie

Dynamite In a Small Package by Doc Dixon

A month of so ago I picked up the book Dynamite In a Small Package by Doc Dixon. It’s lived in my backpack since I bought it and I’ve finally read it. It’s a quick read and a GREAT book!

The book covers five card tricks with a regular deck of cards. Each of the card tricks has a different flavor and are distinctly different tricks. The big thing for this is that each of the tricks was designed for the stage and plays bigger than you average card trick.

The book has a script for the tricks, and Doc does a good job of not only teaching the WHY, but how to apply his thinking to other tricks. I’m a fan of Doc’s stuff, the guy is a worker and has been for years and it shows in his marketed magic stuff.

For $35, this book is a great part of your emergency plan for when the airline loses your luggage!

-Louie