In my collection of old magic stuff, I had a pack of FAKO cards. This is a deck of gaffed cards and novelty cards.
The pack I had was just the cards without the booklet, so I’m not 100% positive as to what tricks the cards do. One of the cards has a big stop sign on it, and here’s what I’ve been doing with it:
It’s just a second deal until they say stop, and then a timing force for the second time. Every time I do it, the person has a great reaction when they see the card!
-Louie
One of the tricks in The Bat magic magazine was a description of the Chefalo Knot. This is a series of three knots that are tied into a piece of rope, then dissolve when the ends are pulled. In The Bat it’s mentioned that there are no descriptions of it that are correct. Well, even the description in The Bat wasn’t correct (at least how I read it).
If you ever tried to learn it from Tarbell, the illustrations are incorrect. Here’s the pictures from Tarbell:
In the last picture (fig.51) where the red are is pointing is incorrect. What it should look like is the picture below where the green arrow is pointing:
If you layout the rope with my updated illustration, the trick will actually work.
I put about 90 minutes into figuring out this dissolving knot trick one night and that made me committed to it. I wanted to figure out something to do with it. Since it’s a vanish of three knots, the first logical step was to make them reappear. Then I wanted to add something more, so I added a ring that penetrates onto the middle knot.
I’ll post a video of it when I get a chance.
-Louie
I made it to the White Rabbit Theater for a third time last week to check out close up magic by Phoenix Phenomenal in the bar. I went down with Mickey O and Bri to watch the show.
Phoenix does some great magic, and as a younger person doing 4 close up shows a night at the bar will get him a ton of real world flight time under his belt!
That’s one of the keys to performing, stage time. In comedy they say “Stage time is more precious that gold”. In magic, many people don’t see the value in stage time, and more advice you hear is “charge a lot of money” versus “get on stage and get good”.
Oh, I’m not saying Phoenix was bad, so please don’t read it that way. He’s great, he’s just younger. He doesn’t have the miles on him that someone who’s been doing it longer has. I wish I had a nightly bar gig when I was his age, I would have gotten way better sooner!
-Louie
I was at a conference in Reno last week, and the hotel/casino had a magic theater in it! The first night a few of us went to check out Phil Ackerly do some bar magic. Phil makes the boxes for my Applause Please 2.0 trick, but we’d never met in person, so it was great to see him in real life!
The next night I snuck down again to watch Phil for a little bit.
It was cool to watch how Phil handled a guy who was one of the “can I shuffle those cards” types. He did it without belittling the person or with a lame hack quip. He did it in an honest, heartfelt way. It was so effective that when the guy tried to do it again, all his friends told him to shut up so they could enjoy the show.
It was fun to meet Phil and see the show!
-Louie
A magician posted these pictures of himself performing as a Chinese person.
Here’s my response to the picture, which I replied to in a private magician’s group, and not on his public, personal FB page:
I really dislike that magicians still think this is an acceptable way to perform. Performing in “yellow face” has a long history in magic and one that needs to end.
Here’s Jack Chanin (I think, and if I’m wrong, let me know) performing in Yellowface (yellowmask?):
These “characters” are outdated stereotypes. Part of the history of yellowface was to portray the Chinese as monsters and to give them frightening physical features. The long mustaches and fingernails, the bright yellow skin color were to make Chinese people look less human.
Why would any performer who knew its history want to continue doing that?
In my opinion, it’s lazy creativity. In both pictures above, the performer is using the Chinese sticks prop; however, that trick isn’t from China! Instead of putting the energy into creating a unique routine, the performer does something that they’ve seen done before. The thinking is that if someone else has done it, then that’s the way to do it.
I’ve personally walked out of several shows when a performer did stereotype material. There is an exception to this, does the performer have a point of view with what they are doing. Is it social commentary, relating an actual experience, or something like that? In all of the exceptions to this that I have seen, the person never put on a costume.
The moral of the story is don’t do stuff like this.
-Louie
In a couple of months, the Portland Magic Jam is happening. I’m not able to go to many magic conventions due to my performing schedule, but this one I’m currently available for! I just registered for it!
They’ve got a great mix of performers/lecturers for this convention. If you’re in the Portland OR area, or looking for a reason to visit, this is a convention worth checking out!
Details at: www.portlandmagicjam.com
See ya there (unless work comes in)!
-Louie
A little while ago I picked up a magic box with props from the 1960s. Here’s what was in it:
One of the interesting things was the Joseph Silk Gun:
Here’s a video of one of them in action:
The Joseph Silk Gun isn’t something that I’d use in a show, but it’s a very cool prop!
-Louie
Here’s another idea for the Vanishing Bottle.
Effect: You show a bottle and tell a story about a friend paying you back for a beer. You say, “he paid me back with venmo, but as a joke he said it was for an eggplant.” You put the beer bottle into a paper bag. You snap your fingers and bring out an egg plant! You then crumple the bag and toss it over your shoulder to show it’s empty.
That’s it. It’s a simple plot with an easy presentation hook. It is also a non-standard routine for the vanishing bottle.
-Louie
Saturday night, I did my magic lecture for the Portland Society of Magicians. This was the same lecture that I did for the PCAM magic convention a few months ago.
This lecture is mostly platform/stage material, however there is a lot of stuff of use to close up performers. In the lecture I talk about how I create original magic, and ways to make magic your own. It’s always fun to share my “art” with other magicians!
-Louie
PS You an get the lecture notes at: https://www.magicshow.tips/lecture-notes-2025/
The more I work on this snake basket, the more I want to simplify the wiring in it. The previous versions had an LED to indicate that it was on. I eliminated that using the ESP32’s built in LED, so that took out some wires. Here’s the current wiring:
One thing I have that’s redundant is that each action is triggered by a button press. The first version just had a single button that started all of the actions that would be timed. I didn’t like this as it makes me a slave to the preprogrammed timing. To give me more freedom, I added a second remote control button, and both buttons trigger each action. I could eliminate the wired button, however, I can see a situation where it could come in handy, like if the remote unexpectedly ran out of batteries.
The next tweak will be in the code, and that will be adding some delays after the button press. That will get my hands away from the remote control or the wired button when the action takes place.
I think this is coming along nicely, and I’ve learned a lot about using microprocessors!
-Louie
