One of the things that I like about performing in Fresno is getting to visit Hocus Pocus! I love digging through their bins of junk magic looking for things like packet tricks, or strange little props that were never commercial successes.
One of the things I like to do is buy them and try to figure out better ways to do them, or other effects to do with the gimmicks. I should be posting some videos in the next couple of weeks of what I found!
Keep an eye out!
-Louie
My friend Rolando Medina recently started selling Puzzle Coins! These are coins that he’s cut into a puzzle. These are really interesting, and there’s a ton of puns with the word puzzle that you could use.
“Do you want to see the most puzzling coin trick I do?” Then the coin turns into the puzzle pieces.
Here are a few ideas:
1: Show a half dollar.
This is a trick that takes me hours to figure out
Put the half dollar into your left hand, which makes a fist around it.
I never know if I should start with the edges or the middle…
Open you hand to reveal the puzzle pieces
2: Have a half dollar sitting on the table, you wave your hand over it and it turns into the puzzle half dollar!
– simply use a Raven and a shimmed shell
3: Could use it at a follow up to Karate Coin
After you stab the coin on your finger, you then smash the coin into little bits (not specifically revealing they’re puzzle pieces)
I think these coins are great for making social media videos as the close up video of them can really show off the detail.
I think he’s really underpriced them at $39.99 and they should be a few bucks more…but I’ll take them for cheaper than what I think they’re worth! Aside from using them, they are just cool to have on your shelf!
-Louie
Just a heads up that I’ll be out of town from October 1-17, 2023. Any orders placed wont ship until 10/18 when I return. .
You can always order my products at Hocus-Pocus.com, they usually have everything in stock
This blog will still be updated and the daily posts will appear below this notice.
Also if you’re in the Fresno, CA area, you can catch me from October 4th to October 15th at The Big Fresno Fair!
-Louie
I’m still tweaking my routine with the Craig Petty’s Apparition Coin set. I was trying to eliminate the phases that use the coin purse. I ended up with a three phase routine, however it lacked the punch of the four phase routine that had the coin purse. Once I put the coin purse back in, it immediately was getting better reactions.
Here’s what the routine looks like:
I think the first phase is like a “flash opener” to a stage act. It’s a great visual moment, and sets people up for the transpositions that they are about to see. I’m glad I tested it both ways and have found the best way to do the routine!
-Louie
I’m excited to say that the old, larger size of the Evaporation trick will be available again soon! The original 16 oz bottles haven’t been available for a long time, but I’ve just found a bunch of them, so I’m making up a batch of about a hundred of them soon!
I should have these bottles gimmicked in the next couple of days and they’ll be available on my website and shipped out to Murphy’s Magic, so available at your favorite dealer soon!
-Louie
I just started reading Scripting Magic Vol 2 by Pete McCabe on a flight recently. One interesting thing that he does in the book is lays out a trick and asks how you would turn it into a performance piece, or what you would do with it.
One of the tricks he does this with is a mathematical trick using matches. Essentially you can control the number of matches in the middle pile of three piles where you don’t know how many total matches there are and don’t need to look at the matches. There’s only a few steps to the math, and they aren’t that complex.
Following the exercise, before I read the routine I wrote out a little routine of my own for the trick. Here it is:
My wife says I can gamble on anything. Duh, I’m Chinese, we gamble, squat and smoke.
The greatest bet I ever lost was to my bok bok… uncle Frank.
He’d gamble on anything…the lottery, the horse track eating at a BBQ restaurant in a white neighborhood.
I’m going to show you our final bet and my last memory of him.
Here grab that pack of matches off the hostess stand, or first full of Pennies from the jar at the counter.
He wrote on the dinner bill the 3 moves he’d make. He’d committed to those
(Take out old receipt)The rules are simple, if we tie he wins. Anything other than a tie and I win.
Make three equal piles…I have no idea how many there are, so if there’s a remainder, put it in your pocket, so you have something to show for it.
No matter what he gets the middle pile.
Give me a number 1-9
(Nail write adjustment)
Wow, that’s the same number I said!
His middle pile will be a tie with your number, not more, not less.
(Follow instructions on reciept)
We tied and all I have to show for it was this receipt for dinner…and over 40 years of memories
That’s the routine that I wrote, keep in mind I wrote it in the notes app on my phone on the flight, so it’s probably got some errors. The point is to not just read the book, but to actually do the work.
-Louie
When I was at Stevens Magic Emporium a few weeks ago and picked up Craig Petty’s Apparition coin set, it got me doing coin magic again. For some reason I had stopped doing it in my close up set. One of the reasons that I had stopped was pocket space, there’s not a neat way to keep four silver dollars and a shell in your pocket along with everything else I need in my pockets.
The thing that getting the Apparition set got me to do was use a coin purse. Honestly, I’m against using a coin purse, as it’s not something that people see anymore. It might as well be a change bag, it resembles something older people see.
Think about it, when was the last time you saw someone use a coin purse that wasn’t a magician?
The Apparition coin set is a neat little bundle in my pocket, so I needed to figure out how to justify the coin purse. Then it hit me, it was one simple line, “This is my Nana’s coin purse, can you guess what’s inside?”
That’s it.
That line solved the problem, now it’s not a strange prop.
I will say that as I’ve been using the gaffed coins, I’ve really phased out using the coin purse as a gimmick and it’s simply a holder for the coins. I think I’m going to go out and find a cool, vintage coin purse for my current coin routine to give it a bit more character.
-Louie
One of the tricks that I’ve always wanted in my show is a rope trick but I’ve have trouble making them work in my show. I think part of why rope tricks don’t fit is partially my performing style and part trying to find the framework for the trick. I have trouble finding the “why” I’m sharing a rope trick with the audience.
Recently I was playing with Daryl’s Rope Routine and while it’s a great routine for Daryl, it really doesn’t fit me AND one it has a Professor’s Nightmare phase. While I think that Professor’s Nightmare is a good trick, it’s way too overdone and I don’t want visuals that are common in my show. Unfortunately not doing the Professor’s Nightmare phase in Daryl’s Rope Routine cuts the routine in half and the routine lacks something…which is a second half!
A couple of years ago I remember Ken Scott doing a rope routine called Four Nightmares DX at a virtual magic convention. There’s a video of Ken doing it on his website, and here’s the video of it that I could find on YouTube:
What I like about this routine is that it can be done solo onstage, so you don’t need to bring someone onstage to help you like in most cut and restored rope routines. It’s also has a lot of effects that are pretty visual and fairly different. Lots of effects using the knot, but they are different effects with the knots!
My fear with this trick is that its’ something that I will end up liking, but then it will become unavailable. Also keeping the rope clean and white. If I end up liking this routine, I’ll have to learn to make my own gimmicked rope.
-Louie
Recently I’ve been and will be working a lot in Arizona and California. There’s huge Hispanic population down here and I’ve been trying to work on doing parts of my show in Spanish. I’m not good at it, but showing that I’m trying goes a long way endear myself to audiences that may not speak English well.
It’s not a bad idea to learn bits of your show in another language, it makes you a lot more versatile if you’re a talking act. I’m getting to the point where I can communicate ideas in Spanish, not really do the full routines, but can get the point across.
It’s also fun when I say things wrong or when the audience corrects my pronunciation. It shows that what’s happening is real and opens the show up to some unexpected moments.
Awhile ago a juggler friend of mine said, “If you don’t know two languages, you’re lazy” and I agree with him. It’s soo easy to learn a little bit of a second language and you don’t need much to start putting bits into your show!
-Louie
ProMystic just put out a new trick called 50/50 and it’s great! It’s basically a location of someone holding a stack of your money.
The base routine is someone out of a group holds some money of yours. You say you’re betting your money that you can find it. You then narrow down the group until you have one person left and they have your money.
What I like about the routine is that it really fills the stage with a few bills. It also has a feeling of a chance of failure and while the method isn’t 100% is is 99.9% surefire. There is a strange scenario that I can imagine where it could fail, but it’s very unlikely.
I’ve done this three times as preshow and it’s worked great! I need to do some writing and hopefully can move it into the show soon!
-Louie
