magic show tips – Page 11

Five Minute Magic Spot

While I was on the cruise ship I was asked to do a 5-7 minute spot in the farewell shows. I don’t do short spots as often as I used to do them a couple decades ago. They stress me out because you don’t really have time to establish a character or vibe and you don’t have time to win back the audience if you lose them.

Here’s my props for the 5-7 min spot:

Here’s what I did: My stand up chop cup routine (see my lecture notes) which ends with the production of a tennis ball. Then I did a card to pocket routine with a signed card. The routine ends with the signed card coming out of the tennis ball.

One thing to note is that aside from these props, where everything happens in my hands, the only other thing I used (but not necessary) is a stool to set the tennis ball on after it’s produced, so that it’s visible the whole set. The stool was already on stage from the act before me and the one after me, so there was zero moving of props for my spot.

Oh, the black string thing is one of Nick Lewin’s Ultimate Microphone Holders. That allows me to use a handheld mic, so I don’t need to get mic’d up with a head set.

It’s an action packed 5ish mins, with a nice little surprise at the end.

-Louie

Everything Has Already Been Invented

I always hate it when people say, “Everything has already been invented.” I think it’s a way for the person who said that to:
1: Justify them not trying to be creative.
2: Used as a way to trivialize someone else’s creativity.

That said, there are a lot of ideas that are reinvented, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many tricks from a long time ago weren’t complete because they couldn’t find the final piece of the puzzle. Sometimes a technique or material didn’t exist that would take the trick from just “meh” to amazing.

I was reading The Bat magic magazine from the 1940s on the plane home from Florida and read the Bowman’s Bullseye. Read the circled effect:

Does this sound like a modern trick? If you said The Stranger, then you’re correct! The effect is the same, but the method is quite different and wouldn’t work today. In fact, I’m not sure Bowman’s Bullseye was practical in the 1940s.

What the stranger did was create the same effect, but using techniques that would have been impossible 15 years ago, and made it practical! The two tricks are light years apart (OK, actually like 90 years) and can’t be compared, other than they are both based on the telephone tricks that were invented pretty much where the telephone was.

Keep creating!

-Louie

Back on Land!

Today I wrapped up my contracts on the cruise ship, and I’m heading back home for the holidays.

It’s always great to perform in nice theaters, but even better when I get to perform with stage/tech crews that are amazing! The stage/tech crews on cruise ships work with magicians and variety acts a lot, so they already kinda know what to do with an act like mine.

We’re entering the slower time for performing (for me). One of the things that I want to do is work on the transition from using ShowCues to GoButton for my audio. There’s a bit of a learning curve in the way you interact with GoButton. I’ve been using ShowCues for over a decade, so it’ll take some work to unlearn the muscle memory.

-Louie

1943’s Color Changing Toothpick

In the first volume of The Bat magic magazine there’s a fun little close up trick. It’s the Color Changing Toothpick by Jack Vosburgh.

It’s a nice, simple little trick. The plot is clear, and it’s not hard to do. It’s something that I’m going to file in the back of my head for impromptu situations. In the video above, I colored the toothpicks with markers, so that’s something that could easily be made at a restaurant with a Sharpie marker.

This is what I love about going through old books or magazines, there are little tricks like this that people should still be doing.

-Louie

Main Theater Shows

Last night was the night for this cruise itinerary that I did my two shows in the theater on the ship.

I had a weird brain fart in the middle of my show where I didn’t know what was next. I quickly figured it out when I glanced at the set list on the back of the pop up bins I keep my props in. It’s been a while since I’ve needed to look at the set list. The main reason they are there is for setting up and for the actual flow of the show while I’m performing.

Today is another day off, and then I’m performing a quick 5-minute act in tomorrow’s farewell show.

-Louie

Pool Ball and Cue Trick

Years ago, I wrote down an idea for a variation of an old juggler’s trick. The original trick was to balance a golf ball between two golf clubs, so that it makes a sort of T shape.

My idea was to do it with pool balls and a pool cue. Here’s what it looks like in my garage:

It seems like jugglers aren’t as into changing props for tricks as magicians are. No juggler has done this (as far as I know), and to me it seems like a logical variation of the golf club trick.

I got to try it out at a show the other day and it went great!

I think this is something that I’m going to work more on. The trick is there, now it just needs a routine.

-Louie

Getting Props on the Ocean

It’s been a few days since my last show on the ship, my next shows are tomorrow. In my show I use a orange for my drawing routine and a banana for my whip routine. You’re not really supposed to be bringing fruit on/off the ship, so I get those two while onboard.

One of the challenges can be that they’ll have something like bananas all week, but then they’re out the morning of my show, and I can’t get them. Typically, a day or two before my show, I’ll go down and grab what I need and keep them in my room. Then on the day of the show, if they have them out at breakfast and they look better than what’s in my room, I’ll upgrade my oranges and bananas.

This is one of the challenges of performing on cruise ships: if you need something or break something, it can be hard to source it. I try to travel with what I need to fix things or backups. For example, I do Promystic’s Color Match in my show, and I travel with a spare set in case one stops working.

-Louie

Ah Nertz: a Card Trick From 1943

In the second issue of The Bat Magazine from 1943 there’s a packet trick called Ah Nertz. Packet tricks didn’t really exist at that point, there were things like 3 card montes or tricks with the four aces, but nothing like post 1960’s packet tricks.

Here’s Ah Nertz as written:

If you think about the effect, this is an early version of twisting the aces.

I wanted to update the trick with a few modern moves, so here’s what I came up with:

One thing that the original lacked was showing all the cards going the same way. To do that I added a modified DM Move/2 for 4 Count. I also wanted a reveal of the one the upside down cards, but where you see all of the cards. That was accomplished with an Elmsley Count.

Here’s a walk through of the updated version of Ah Nertz:

What I think is interesting is that in theory you could theme the trick very easily with customizing the last card. It could be a trade show trick, “all the options for buying X got your head spinning…”. Or a story could easily be attached to it, like a kid who always felt different. Then the reveal on the final card ties it all together!

I think this trick’s premise is one of the hidden gems in The Bat magazine!

-Louie

Working Through The Bat Magic Magazine

Yesterday was the end of one cruise itinerary and the beginning of another. It looks like my theater shows this week are on the 18th, so I have a few days off. One of the nice things about doing a show later in the cruise is that no one knows that I’m the magician, so I can be anonymous on the ship.

I brought an old magic book, well bound version of The Bat magic magazine.

This bound version covers the years 1943-1945. There are some interesting things in it, and a lot of patter that doesn’t hold up in modern times. I’m going to try to make some videos of some of the tricks that I have the stuff to do or make.

I did find time to make a video using my Meta Glasses. I like the idea of performing into a mirror so the audience can see both sides of the trick. Here’s a four ace assembly:

I’m going to play with this framing a bit more this week with my free time. I like the concept for social media videos.

-Louie

Lounge Magic Show

My show last night was on the cruise ship, which was in the lounge. This is a very different feeling from the theater, but a lot of fun and more intimate. On this particular cruise line, I’m supposed to have two different 45-minute shows, so for the lounge, I did the show that I didn’t do in the theater the night before.

This show had a segment of close-up magic with the camera. Usually, I use the camera to enhance smaller things that I hold, but not to show the tabletop. For this show, I did a short sequence on the table top. The rest of the show was routines that played bigger. I remember reading somewhere about making your show big, and it went something like this:

“When it’s close up, go parlor, when it’s parlor, go stage and when it’s stage go stadium.”

I closed the show with my book test, which ended with a two-phase banner reveal. The banner is 24 inches tall and about 20 feet long; it fills the space!

Last night was also the end of that particular cruise’s itinerary. I joined the ship midway through the itinerary, so I had to get up early this morning to clear immigration. As part of this process, because of the manifest I was on, I had to leave the ship for a few hours. I had the honor of being the first person off the ship…exciting!

I’m actually writing the post at a coffee shop before I can get back onto the ship.

-Louie