magic show tips – Page 37

ReaList by Greg Rostami was Down!

If you weren’t aware Inject 2 by Greg Rostami was down for most of January and when it came back up their marquee trick “the Google Peek” wasn’t and still isn’t functioning. One of the workarounds that Greg was pitching was to buy another one of his apps called ReaList and use it with Inject 2.

Well guess what, ReaList was down for a while!

This really highlights why I don’t use magic apps that need the internet. There’s so much out of your control and according to Greg’s statement so much out of the app developer’s control that make apps like ReaList and Inject 2 unreliable (in my opinion). These are all things that there’s really no back up for. Sure you can have an alternate method, but it’s hard to run them at the same time. It won’t work to say, “type this into Google on your phone AND write it on the back of my business card“.

Before using an app, think about is having someone type something into Google really better than writing on the back of your business card? The effect is the same, and one of these methods leaves them with your business card.

-Louie

Magic UnCorked in Portland!

A couple of nights ago I made it out to Magic Uncorked in Portland, OR. It’s a magic show in a wine shop that happens semi regularly. The show features three performers and is a lot of fun!

I’m new to this area, however it seems that magicians are really out there supporting magic, there were about six of us that weren’t performing!

Its a great venue and the performers were John Stevens, Moto, Craig Martin and hosted by Dave, who is a magician and co-owns the wine shop Ora et Labora.

The show started at 6pm with drinks and roving close up magic, then the parlor style show started at 7:30pm and went till just past 9pm. For $35 a ticket that included a drink, it was a great deal!

If you have shows in your area, go out and support them!

-Louie

Magic Trick Request

At a recent gig they requested I do a trick with a donor’s check. I decided to do a Bank Nite type of trick where the check was put into an envelope and mixed with other envelopes. One envelope was selected and the rest were shredded and the selected envelope had the check.

Pretty standard in effect, but I didn’t want to deal with an electric shredder, so I used a manual shredder.

The shredder above says is has a capacity of 2 sheets, however it worked just fine with and envelope with a check sized piece of paper in it. It played fine, and the manual shredder is a great prop to have around. I think this premise is an easy way to customize a trick for an event.

-Louie

Table Refurbishing

Awhile ago I put a new surface on the top of my stage table, but where it really needed it was on the bottom!

It was getting really beat up and when onstage the audience looks up at this part and many can see the bottom of it. I took it out to the workshop and put a couple of coats of flat black paint and some clear coat on it and it looks way better!

I’m not sure why I waited soo long to do this, but I’m glad I did!

-Louie

Atomic Deck

The new hot trick right now is the Atomic Deck, which is an ACAAN, here’s the trailer, then I’ll give you my thoughts on it:

When I watched the trailer and the first thing that jumped out at me was this:

That’s a very specific statement, not “NO ROUGH AND SMOOTH”, so that instantly tells me that it’s roughed, just not by traditional methods. I don’t know how I feel about that in its marketing as it’s technically correct, but very misleading.

That aside, the trailer above leaves out something very important, this trick requires a phone or computer. Of course this part of the trick is completely left out of the trailer. It is mentioned in the ad copy, so it’s only sorta deceptive in its omission from the video.

With the current issues that Inject 2 is having, relying on app or website isn’t a good long term solution. The site is only good as long as the deck is selling and they’re paying for the hosting. You’re relying on something outside of your control for the trick to work.

OK, not to the effect, it’s not a true ACAAN in my opinion. You have multiple cards named and multiple numbers and then you essentially pick the combination that will work the best. So instead of Any Card at Any Number, it’s more of a “Selected Card from a Selected Group of Cards at a Number from a Selected Group of Numbers“. That’s a huge thing that to me distances this from the Berglas Effect.

It should look like this:
Spectator names a card and a number. The cards are dealt and the card is at that number!

Here’s a video of me doing ACAAN at a gig that I was just supposed to be playing the organ at, however someone requested I do a magic trick.

@louiefoxx When someone asks the musician to do a magic trick! #magictrick #cardtrick #musician #magician #acaan #king #organist ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I want to be clear, I’m not saying the Atomic Deck is bad, I am just commenting on how it’s marketed and what it’s marketed as.

That’s my old man talk about how ACAAN should be to truely be an ANY CARD AT ANY NUMBER, not just a CARD AT NUMBER.

-Louie

Money Across

In playing with the fake “Movie Money” another trick I wanted to do was something like a card across where a selected bill travels from one packet to another.

This is the solution that I came up with:

@louiefoxx The $400 magic trick! #magictrick #money #moneymagic #trick #400 #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like how this trick turned out, it’s got a less packet trick feel to it that many of these other tricks do. I think it feels very similar to Phil Goldstein’s Shinkansen, but has a different method.

-Louie

More Money Magic

A strange little trick that I came up with using some money:

@louiefoxx Magic trick with money! #magictrick #money #moneymagic #tendollars #forty ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s interesting, but not the greatest trick ever. There’s too much process, it needs to be more direct for it to be good. I like the idea of the upside down bill moving up the stack. It reminds me of a trick that Alan Ackerman (I think) showed me when I was a teenager in the 1990’s with a stack of coins. It was 3 half dollars and an English penny. The English penny started on the bottom of the stack and moved up to the top one position at a time.

This trick with the upside down ten dollar bill moving up the stack was an early experiment with rough and smooth with bills. This one used different areas being roughed and I think that has possibilities with bills.

Here’s another trick with roughed zones on bills:

@louiefoxx Making money like magic! #magic #money #dollar #mineymagic #onehundreddollars #moneyhack ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I’m having fun playing with the bill magic!

-Louie

Original (?) Packet Trick

If you follow me on TikTok, you know I’m into vintage magic tricks and really into old packet tricks. I’ve wanted to come up with an original Emerson and West style packet trick with full story patter. I didn’t want to come up with a variation of something that already existed.

The other day I threw some cards into my backpack and with my time between gigs I came up with this:

@louiefoxx A Car Buying story with Cards! #cardtrick #carbuying #magic #magictrick #sedan #sportscar #carsalesman #story #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is actually the second version of the story. The first version is more personal to me and my story, where the one above is more generic. I think this is fairly close to the Emerson and West style, it’s got all the mini effects and the pun/kicker ending.

The handling sequence just worked itself out. It was too easy, so I’m assuming someone has to have come up with it before, but it’s original to me.

This was a lot of fun to work out!
-Louie

Wireless HDMI

Thanksgiving was a few months ago, but I want to say that I’m thankful for this this thing to come into my life!

It’s a wireless HDMI system. This allows me to not have to run a cord from my camera onstage to where ever their HDMI input is. I’ve used it a lot since I got it and I just upgraded it. Before it had to be plugged into power, but I bought the batteries for it, so now I don’t need a power outlet. My video is pretty much 100% self contained now, I just have the output wires from the camera to the wireless HDMI. It’s soo much more mobile now and setting up so soo quick!

-Louie

Packet Tricks with Money by Larry West

Recently I’ve been playing with packet trick techniques using money instead of cards. I discovered this set of lecture notes by Larry West that has two trick using bills like cards for a packet trick style effect.

The two tricks is the lecture notes are very similar, in fact they are the same effect, but with different methods. One uses a gaffed bill and the other doesn’t. I think that one of the reasons that money packet trick magic isn’t really a thing is because to make any gaffed bills, like a one dollar bill with a ten on the backside might be crossing the line with what’s legal or not. Also the cost to put them out as you’d have to add the cost of the bills to the trick.

Anyway, here are the two money tricks from Larry West’s lecture notes:

@louiefoxx Cheating the con man! #magictrick #magic #money #conman #counting #math #magiciam #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Hustling the Hustler! #magictrick #money #magic #moneymagic #hustle #con #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I’m not sure which version is better.

-Louie