magic show tips – Page 48

Don’t Let Them Intimidate You!

Last week I had a gap in my schedule, so I threw my crank organ in the car and went to the Pike Place Market to busk with it.

The market has a permit system and rule about how long you can be in a specific spot. When I got there, there was a piano player in the spot I wanted to use, so asked him how much time he had left and put my name next in line. The piano player was visibly annoyed that I got in line to perform at that spot. I should say that since he has a piano, he’s very limited on spots he can do. Me getting in line, cuts down the amount of time he can perform that day.

When he time was up, he angrily packed up his piano. I set up my organ and started to play, and I quickly noticed he was glaring at me from across the street! I took a pic, and you can see him circled in red.

He stood there for about half and hour, then walked by me twice after that to look at my permit. Here’s the moral of the story, don’t let anyone intimidate you when you’re street performing…especially in a permitted situation where there are rules!

-Louie

The Classic Force

A couple of decades ago I was at Bob Fitch‘s first performance workshop up in Canada. One of the people there was Bob Sheets. One night at dinner I got to see Bob Sheets do his classic force and he told me his thinking behind that. Sheet’s classic force is the basis of the one that I do. I’ve added some bits to it, like turning cards face up and offering the cards one at a time.

Here’s the second half of my multiple classic force routine:

@louiefoxx Stop taking that! #magictrick #volunteer #magic #fair #countyfair #louiefoxx #cardtrick #stopit ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

If you don’t know how to do the classic force, you really should learn it. It’s a solid skill to have in your tool box. I initially started learning it when I was a teenager from the book Forcing a Card in the Classical Manner by Paul Gertner. I think he’s got an updated version of it out, but that’s the one that was my first real introduction to the Classic Force.

-Louie

There’s No Plan B for Your A Game

A couple of days ago I finished reading the book There’s No Plan B For Your A Game. I was told it was good by another magician. This is not a magic book, but a “self help” style book.

For me one of the big takeaways is to act like you’re already doing what you want to be doing. For example, I want to work more theaters, so instead of wishing I could do more, I should be acting like I’m currently doing them.

What does that mean?

Aside from marketing to them as if I’m currently in that market, I should have my show up to that level. That means having all the things done (or working on them) for that venue. For example, I want to use projection for part of my show, so I’ve been breaking it in a library shows over the summer. I’m acting like I’m in a venue that has projection capabilities.

This book has made me think a bit more about how to take the next step.

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s Geo-Metrick

Nick Trost’s Geo-Metrick interesting trick, it’s essentially a packet version of Paul Curry’s Out of This World, using ESP cards. The packet is only 20 cards, ten are of one ESP symbol and the other 10 are of another ESP symbol. You and the spectator each get five of each symbol, they are mixed and you deal out ten of them face down in a row. The spectator then deals their ten cards face up on top each of your face down cards. When you flip over the pairs of cards they all match!

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx The Bacon and Square Magic Trick! #magictrick #bacon #square #cardtrick #magic #mindreading #mentalism #outofthisworld #louiefoxx #nicktrost ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

For me, this trick isn’t strong enough to justify carrying around a packet of 20 cards just for that trick. However this method would work with just red and black playing cards, so that would make it something you could do with any deck of cards. It’s a good thing to have in my head for an impromptu situation, but I’ll never do it with the ESP cards. I should say that if I came up with a great way to theme the trick for a gig, it’s something I would do.

For example, if I was performing at a pet adoption event, instead of wavy lines and as square, I used pictures of families and pets. Each family was matched to a pet! That makes sense and it’d be an easy way to add a custom trick for the event.

-Louie

A Bad Laugh in the Show

One of the things that Charlie Frye mentions in his book Sleightly Absurd is that you should have no descriptive patter. Since reading it I’ve been looking for places to replace or remove patter that is simply descriptive.

There are reasons to leave in descriptive patter, like if you’re doing cards across and the audience has to know there are 10 cards in each packet.

In my kids show I do a blendo with three silks. In an attempt to remove descriptive patter, I changed to calling them tissues. I give them one at a time to the kid and say, “The yellow tissue if for you to blow you nose. The red tissue I used to blow my nose. The green tissue my dog used to blow her nose.”

All of those get a laugh from the kids, so that’s three reactions I didn’t have before when I simply told the kid to hold the “red, yellow and green handkerchiefs.“. HOWEVER the new laughs weren’t good laughs. I noticed what while the kids laugh, the adults pulled back and for them it was almost a cringy moment. I tried it at several shows and each time I got the same reaction from the adults. That led me to removing the line.

This is a good example of why you should remove a line that gets a reaction from the audience, but isn’t necessarily a line that moves your show forward.

-Louie

Stay Safe Out There

Recently there was a shooting at a fair I was performing at. You can read about it here:
https://columbiabasinherald.com/news/2024/aug/16/grant-co-fairgrounds-evacuated-after-shooting/

This happened on a day where my last show was an hour earlier than the rest of the week, so I was offsite when it happened. When you’re performing at a large event (especially a multi day event), do you have a plan in case of an emergency? You don’t need a formal plan, but just to think it through once when you load it. This isn’t just for an active shooter, but for something as simple a wind or lightning.

Do you know where the exits are?
If you’re onstage, do you have any duty to direct people to exits?
Do you know what the venue’s lightning or wind policy is?
If there’s a medical emergency, do you have the onsite first aid phone number?
If there’s a police emergency, do you have the onsite police/security phone number?

Also I should mention that for many large events, that police and medical’s phone numbers usually aren’t 911. There’s usually a phone number for the onsite team that will respond much faster!

Spending 30-60 seconds just looking at the venue can be super helpful in an emergency!

-Louie

Magic Tshirt!

I’ve had a lot of people ask me where I got my new Tshirt!

I’d love to sell them, but I’m not in the Tshirt business. I had sold shirts in the past with my Straight Outa Tarbell shirts and dealing with sizes is a pain in butt.

So if you want a Tarbell/Erdnase shirt, simply go on etsy and search “custom campaign shirt” and have one made…and do it with my blessing!

-Louie

Trick from Ginosko

Here’s a trick from the book Ginosko. It’s called Blackjack for Brother John and it’s a packet trick that has a story that has a very 1980’s packet trick feel to it. That’s not a bad thing, but it feels like something Nick Trost or Emerson and West would have put out with novelty cards.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Blackjack for Brother John from the book Ginosko! #blackjack #cardtrick #magicbook #magic #magictrick #closeupmagic #gambling #louiefoxx #ginosko #idahomagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s a great story packet trick, and you only need four cards to do it with. That makes it impromptu, just pull the cards from the pack and you’re good to go. I would probably palm them out and remove the cards from my pocket, as you start by showing four of the same jack.

I recommend you pick up Ginosko, it’s only $25!

-Louie

Magic Trick Premise Idea: The 5 P’s

This is an idea for a presentation to frame a magic trick. The premise is that you’re going to help the audience be better viewers of magic tricks. To educate them, you are going to teach them the 5 P’s that ever magic trick has.

1: Preamble: This is where you introduce the props.
2: Premise: This we were you set up the effect.
3: Prestidigitation: This is the magic moment
4: Proof: This is where you show the magic has happened
5: Payoff: This is the Tah-Dah moment.

Depending on the trick , you may only need four of them and not all five. For example a card appearing on to of the deck would only need four. However a card under glass would have all five. Number four would be the card appearing under the glass, and number five would be turning the card over to show it’s the selected card.

This is kind of a generic presentation that you could plug many different tricks into.

Creating a Bit From Reality…

Last month I was at an AirBnB. I was sharing the house with a bunch of the other performers at the Ohio State Fair. Behind the painting on the walls we found strange “Alien Postcards” from October of 2016

The first one was behind the paint of an apple, then we started searching the AirBnb and found the second one inside of a picture of Groucho!

OK, so that’s what happened in real life, now how do I turn it into a bit for my show?

I started by telling the story.

I’m staying at an AirBnB with some amazing performing, acrobats, jugglers…and a mime. He’s not even performing here. But that guy never shuts up.

One night I was looking behind the paintings and found some “alien postcards”. When I mentioned it to my wife on the phone she said, “why were you looking behind the paintings”, not “what’s an alien postcard.

I was looking for my keys.

Here are the postcards. On the front they say, “Materials deployed for reflective and connective purposes”. On the back this one says, “Thank you for signaling that you are anticipating my transmission”.

The other says, “Thank you for sending the signal that you are invested in receiving this signal…You’re going to die…JK, LOL LOL…but seriously, we’re watching…no parties!”

So now I’m searching the AirBnB for cameras, and you know what I found?
My KEYS!

That’s the story. I’ve embellished it a little bit added some punchlines. The nice thing about being in a house with other performers is that we could workshop the story a little bit.

The next step is going to be figuring out what to do with this. Is it a little stand alone bit, or is it a segue to something else. Like a trick with a key and/or postcards?

One idea is to have borrow a key, cover it up with a handkerchief and have that held by someone in the audience. Then 5 postcards are shown, each has a place where I’ve found my keys. These could be funny places, like in pie, or whatever. One is selected, and the key disappears and ends up inside of the postcard.

I don’t know what will happen with this bit…

-Louie