Visiting the Oddities and Curiosities Expo!

When the travelling Oddities and Curiosities Expo was in town I popped by to check it out. I’ve performed at the expo in the past, and swung by to say hi to some friends.

It was great to see the Three Legged Dog Sideshow do their thing!

Oddities and Curiosities Exp

Magicians can learn a lot by watching sideshow acts. It’s a very similar build through routines. A magician has to show the box is empty before you can make something appear, and a sword swallower has to show the sword is real before they swallow it.

You really should check out the Oddities and Curiosities Expo when it’s passing through your town, you can learn a lot!

-Louie

Make It Easy For Me!

A couple of months ago I was contacted by a state run veterans home to perform for their group. They were super upfront with a very low budget, and for veterans, I’m OK with that. I consider this type of gig “volunteering”, however every time you volunteer, there has to be an exchange of some sort. Otherwise you’ll frequently be treated as a volunteer and not talent. They’ll change dates or times or scope of work on you at the last minute or worse without letting you know! Once they are invested in the show, they stop treating you like a volunteer.

Once I agreed to the show they emailed me a lot of paperwork to do to get paid a fraction of the fee that I would normally get. One of these things involved me setting up an account as a vendor, waiting 7-10 business days to get a vendor number, then once I get that number I need to send it into the veterans home. This wasn’t simply a fill out paper work and send it in. It was send it in, then wait and follow up about the status of my vendor number, then I needed to forward that. Sure that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s work that takes place over multiple days…and that’s assuming they are no delays or problems with my paper work. All of the following up is on ME to do. I have to remember to check the status in a week, I need to make calls if there’s a delay.

Oh, then they say that I submit an invoice the day of the show and they mail me a check. So for me when that happens, they get moved into my “payments not made” system and I automatically have points in time that I follow up to figure out the status of the payment.

In my experience the only payments that are mailed to me that I need to chase are from low paying gig. Rarely (I can only think of once, and it was a crazy circumstance with the organization) do I ever have to hunt down a check 30 days after a gig at my normal rate.

I was told that all of this was mandatory. The paper work, the sending of the check after the gig. Here’s what I emailed them:

magic show booking

Within an hour after sending that email they replied stating that they would like to book the show and they’ll have cash waiting for me.

It’s crazy how mandatory, and the only way we do it can change.

Here’s advice to anyone who is trying to get a performer for lower than their normal rate or a charity, or whatever: Make it easy for the performer!
I’m not going to do more work for less money…and the more work which isn’t even the fun part of the gig!

Oh and in a fun side note, in the time between when I sent the above email and when they replied, I booked a gig for another date at my full rate. This communication was that I answered an incoming email with a price quote and needed info to book the gig. They replied with the info. I replied with a square link and they paid it! It took about 10 minutes start to finish to book and get paid for a gig at literally 10 times what I was getting paid for the veterans home!

Don’t let people make it hard for you do be nice to them. Once they make it more work for you to do a discounted show, lay out what you’re willing to do and be willing to walk away from the gig!

-Louie

Call Backs in magic

I was watching Tom Papa’s latest Netflix stand up comedy special and he uses a technique called a “call back” a couple of times. If you don’t know what a callback is, it’s where you reference something that was said or happened earlier in the show.

There really are two kinds of call backs, planned ones that are scripted, and unplanned ones, that are spontaneous. Both are great, but the unplanned ones are the best. They are an “inside joke” that exists only with that audience.

For example at a comedy club a couple of months ago, a lady was clapping by tapping two chicken wings together. I mentioned it and it became something that I referenced a couple of times in the show that got a big laugh. Those tell people that they’re seeing a show that’s unique and that’s really one of the draws as to why people come out to a live show, to hopefully something that will never happen again!

Look for those moments in your show and use them!

-Louie

My Favorite Trade Show Trick!

Right now is booking season for the summer of 2025 and I’m going a lot of booking conferences and trade shows. My absolute favorite trick to do at these is my Out For Beers trick.  

This trick leaves buyers with an item that has been magically altered, that they can show people.  More importantly, they trick still works when they bring people over to me who know what will happen in the trick!  

This routine starts with a gag and ends with a trick where picture of a full pitcher of beer empties itself!

Out for Beers is $19 and includes free shipping in the USA!  

If you order Out for Beers anytime in November 2024, I’ll throw in and extra 25 of the empty beer cards!  You don’t need to do anything to get these added to your order, they’ll automatically be included!

Click here to order Out for Beers!

Rope Thru Coat Hanger

For five or six years I’ve been working on a Silk Thru Coat Hanger routine. I’ve figured out the sequence, however one of the weak links to the routine is the reel. I like it and it allows for some very visual things to happen, however I think that sometimes the string is too easy to see.

Here’s an old video to give you a idea of some of the stuff I was doing:

The cool part of the routine was the silk going from the triangle to the hook of the coat hanger.

I put this routine on the back burner for a bit, but recently started playing with it again. I’m looking more into ring off rope techniques and found this one:

The routine above has a similar flow to what I was doing with the reel, so that makes for an easier transition to a rope and hanger routine. I did figure out a way to make the rope go from the triangle to the hook of the coat hanger using the method in the above trick.

One of the challenges is the ergonomics of holding a ring work better than an coat hanger for this routine. It could simply be a practice thing to learn to do the move on a flat surface. We’ll see…

-Louie

Showcases to book your show

Last week I went to a booking conference to work on filling up my summer schedule. One of the things that that happens besides a trade show where different acts have booths are showcases. The showcase is one of the best ways to schedule work as you can actually show potential bookers what you actually do!

This one had some awesome acts!

Depending on the rules where you’re showcasing, your showcase set can be between 10-20 minutes, with most being about 15 minutes.

My showcase at this conference was with my crank organ.

vintage street crank organ

Honestly, I was super nervous. The organ is newer to me and I don’t know it inside and out like I do my show. With my magic show almost everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong. That means I know how to deal with problems if they occur in my magic show. With the organ I’m positive that there’s a lot that can go wrong that I haven’t encountered. And of course problems tend to appear when there’s a lot riding on that show. Luckily nothing went wrong and I had a good showcase set!

I personally think that going to showcases is one of the best ways to book work. You can book a lot of work in a short amount of time. Most industries have some sort of showcase.

-Louie

Nothing New…

I hate the saying that “everything has been done before” when talking about creating magic tricks. A few years ago when Watch This, which is a card to watch came out that was sort of a “new” thing!

I just stumbled across this trick from 1910 that’s basically the same trick! It’s Card to Baby!

card to baby

It’s basically the same thing, but instead of a watch, it’s a freaking baby!!!!

I guess there really isn’t anything new under the sun!

-Louie

Magic Club – SAM #59

A couple of weeks ago I popped by the Portland SAM magic club. It was their close up contest night! There were three contestants that all did card tricks, and all with very different styles!

Then after the contest we saw some magic by Gaeton from France and a demonstration of the Vampire Block Escape!

The Vampire Block Escape is a trick I’ve seen on shelves of magic shops, but had never seen any actually do the trick. This particular one was homemade and probably 60 years old!!! The trick looked great and while the style of prop isn’t modern, the trick is still great!

I’m a huge fan of magic clubs and if you aren’t popping into your local magic club, you should. Contribute to your local magic community.

-Louie

Vanishing Birdcage Repair!

A while ago I bought a couple of vanishing birdcages and one of them turned out to be a vintage Owen vanishing birdcage. Unfortunately this cage had a bad corner joint.

vanishing birdcage

I sent it up to my birdcage guy in Canada and he fixed the corner and gave it a quick polish and it looks fantastic and works great!

vanishing birdcage

I’m glad I took a gamble on this cage, it’s a great addition to my collection and a good example of an older Owen vanishing birdcage!

-Louie

Nickel To Half Dollar by Joe Berg

I was playing with Joe Berg’s Nickel to Half Dollar and it’s an interesting gimmicked coin. Essentially it’s a coin that turns from a nickel into a half dollar. What I like about it is that the coin expands to the larger size. What I don’t like about it is the strange two handed grip you have to have on the nickel and that there are better ways to turn a nickel into a half dollar.

I came up with little transposition routine that uses the coin.

@louiefoxx Easy magic trick! #magictrick #cointrick #magic #nickel #halfdollar #coins #louiefoxx #switch #how #magiciansoftiktok ♬ Money – Pink Floyd

It’s not much, however I think the clean up at the end where I steal the the half shell off of the card is interesting and then allows me to show “both sides” of the Nickel to Half Dollar gimmick.

This is a video only trick, it really wouldn’t play in the real world as the Nickel To Half Dollar isn’t really practical to set and then properly hold with people watching you.

It’s a fun gimmick to play with!

-Louie