Pictures – MagicShow.Tips

Out of Sorts by Max Maven

As I’m working my way through Max Mavens book Ansology, I think my favorite trick in it is called Out of Sorts. This is a trick where a spectator thinks of a card and they never say it out loud, then after a few shuffles, You then tell them what their card is and where it is in the pack.

I’m really liking this trick, it can be done hands off or with the dealing done yourself. I was trying to think of a way to do it so that it wasn’t a card trick and I came up with a way to do it with postcards. The postcards I’m using are national park postcards.

If you are familiar with the trick, you know you need pairs of cards. In the picture above, you’ll see that the postcards are kind of in pairs in columns. Once you know one, it’s pretty easy to know the other. The challenge with this specific set of postcards is that the writing isn’t very big. I think if this is something I was going to pursue, I’d find something with a larger print of the name of the place.

Using these postcards the method doesn’t change. If you have the book, I recommend looking into the trick out of sorts, even with playing cards it’s still great!

-Louie

The Rise of Houdini

On Friday, my wife and I went to see the show The Rise of Houdini in Portland, Oregon. This show was part burlesque, part magic show, and part scripted show about a séance. The magician in the show was D.R. Schrieber.

Before the show D.R. did some close up magic for the crowd.

The magic show was good. D.R. does a great job with his character, and the audience was into it. The third act, which was the play about a séance trying to contact Houdini, was interesting. There was a fake heckler, which I think surprised a lot of the audience, that he was part of the show.

There was a point where there was an intermission during the play, but D.R. was on stage as his character in this play, and he was reading a book. That book was used previously as a book of magic spells. From the audience, the book looked really familiar to me. I asked after the show, and it was, in fact, the pocket edition of Expert at the Card Table!

This is a fun show to watch

-Louie

Visiting the Portland Society of American Magicians Magic Club

With my hand out of commission due to surgery, I’m trying not to let it slow me down too much. On Wednesday night, I went to the Portland Society of American Magicians magic club meeting. It was a lot of fun and I saw a lot of great and fun magic.

That night was the Close Up Magic contest, and congratulations to Mel, who was the winner. Mel did a really cool coin box routine that he said he had been doing since about 1980! What I really liked about this coin box routine was that it wasn’t your standard Okito box routine.

I also tried out a routine I’m playing with. This is the second time I’ve done it, and it’s coming along nicely. This is a routine that I’m working on that only uses one hand, which is another attempt by me to find the silver lining of not being able to use a hand for two to six weeks. I’ll write more about this routine another time.

– louie

Max Maven’s Ansology

On Monday, I went in to have hand surgery. It’s a trigger finger release; hopefully, I will have full use of my middle finger on my right hand again! Before the surgery, I ordered the Max Maven book, Ansology. The night before surgery I started working through the book. This book is a combination of several previously published Max Maven books along with a little bit of new commentary.

A hand with cards and a Magic book by Max Maven

The nice thing about this book is that it doesn’t rely on heavy sleight of hand for most of it. So I’m able to work through a lot of this stuff with only one hand. So far two great tricks I found are Abacus and Out Of Sorts.

Abacus is an epic trick with multiple endings; it feels very modern, even though I think the trick is like 40 years old. The only drawback is that the trick uses a full deck setup, so for this trick to work, you’d really need a deck switch before you do it.

Out Of Sorts is a great hands-off card trick where you not only tell the audience where their mentally selected card is with your back turned, but you also tell them what it is. This trick does have a bit of procedure up front, which I’m not a fan of; however, I think the payoff makes it a real head-scratcher. I think this is going to be my go to trick right now with only one hand.

I’m looking forward to going through more of the book. I’m familiar with one of the books that’s contained in this anthology Of previously published Max Maven Books. This style of magic, which relies heavily on procedure, math, anagrams, and very light sleight of hand, is great for me right now!

-Louie

Doing Card Tricks Onstage

This is going to be an angry old man post. If you’re doing card tricks onstage and the audience needs to be able to tell what a specific card is, DON’T use normal poker-size cards. I can’t clearly see them from the third row.

There are options to make things play further back into the audience. Card-Shark makes two great options. Number one are large index cards, those have indexes that are a little bit bigger than standard cards. The best option to still keep the feel of a normal card trick, without going to jumbo cards are the Phoenix Parlour sized cards. These have larger indexes and are physically larger than poker sized cards.

Here’s a picture of the different card’s indexes:

playing cards with normal and large indexes

And here they are lined up:

You can do *most* sleight of hand moves with the Parlour sized cards. I’ve done my card to pocket routine with them and that involves palming a card!

Move up a size and reach a bigger audience!

-Louie

Lord Franzannian Royal Olympian Spectacular Vaudeville Show

Last weekend I did a “one off” spot in Lord Franzannian Royal Olympian Spectacular Vaudeville Show. This is a super fun vaudeville show that takes place in Olympia, WA. It’s in an 85ish seat theater and the acts (are supposed to) do 5 minutes.

This was the show’s 20th year, and my first year in the show. The cast of the show stays the same for the three weekends it runs, except there are a few one night pop ins, like me.

Showtime was 8pm on the day that I was in the show, but I showed up at 5:30pm for tech. I was doing hand shadows in the show, so my set up was pretty simple and tech took about 5 mins.

When the acts started showing up, I got to catch up with my friend G Sparks!

I first met G Sparks in the mid 1990’s at a Desert Magic Seminar in Las Vegas. He was demoing his No Switch Bullet Catch. This is one of the best bullet catches; there’s no gun involved!

Before the show, there was a meeting, which was a quick talk about things we need to be aware of and general info.

The show takes place in the showroom at the back of a restaurant/bar that’s really for bands, so there’s no real backstage. The area they have is small, so the green room in the alley behind the building!

I love quirky things like this, and it’s a fun way to build community. In my night there, I got to talk to everyone!

My act was in the second half, so I got to watch most of the show from the audience. The show also had a live band, and I think every act used the live band.

If you’ve never worked with a live band, when you get the chance, DO IT! I don’t really do anything to the music; they play my walk on/off, but I give them the freedom to do whatever they feel to accentuate my act. That leads to some fun spontaneous moments, like when I was asking each band member what a rimshot sounds like on their instrument!

This is a super fun show, and if you’re near Olympia, WA, check it out! Or if you’re going to be in the area next year, they start looking for acts in September, keep an eye out then at: https://www.professionaltalker.com/ for details.

-Louie

The Best Forks for Metal Bending

In my kid show I do a fork bending routine, and these are the best forks (in my opinion) for fork bending!

You get three dozen of them for $10.99 at Costco. Not every Costco sells them, you need to find a Business Costco. You don’t need a business membership to go to one; these locations just cater more to restaurants than a normal Costco. I’m sure you can get them online as well.

-Louie
PS: An early version of my fork bending routine is in Vanish Magazine and I’m writing up my current routine for an upcoming book and lecture called: Two Openers, Two Middles and Two Closers for Kid Shows.

Using a Magic Show Set List

Whenever I hear that magicians don’t have set lists, it amazes me. There was a point early on in my career when I didn’t use them; however, you need them if you’re doing longer than a 30 minute show for a birthday party. For longer, more formal shows, you need structure and flow. You don’t get that if you’re just randomly grabbing props.

Here’s my set list for a 90 min (including intermission) show:

Having a set list helps you with transitions and general prop management. One thing that I try to do with a set list is to not have two routines in a row that use people from the audience onstage. Another thing is to not have two long routines back to back. These aren’t absolute rules; however, with a set list, it’s much easier to do than when you’re just grabbing props and doing that routine.

-Louie

First Tuesday Night Magic Meet Up in Portland OR!

In Portland OR there’s a magic meet up on the first Tuesday of the month. This used to meet at the magic shop at Lloyd Center before the center closed. Now they meet at a bar in Portland and it’s a fun night of jamming and BSing!

If you’re in the Portland area on the first Tuesday of the month, reach out to the Portland Society of Magicians for information on the meet up. This meet up is an independent meet up, but George at the PSM can give you info.

-Louie

Magic Shop in Portland, OR

On the way to a gig the other day, I stopped at the new location for the All American Magic Theater in the Pioneer Place Mall. Gaddy is working behind the counter, and he does a great job demoing and is very knowledgeable.

The magic shop has a big variety of magic tricks, from the latest releases, to vintage magic. Portland it lucky to have a well stocked magic shop!

-Louie