Pictures – Page 11 – MagicShow.Tips

It’s a Wrap on Library Shows for 2025

Well, I’m doing doing library shows for the summer. When I was putting together the show, one of the goals was that it was one trip in and one trip out of the library. I also wanted that to be only one thing in each hand. Here’s what the show looked liked when packed up.

What’s pictured above is everything for the show. The show was was expandable from it’s most basic form which was the prop box on the table to set up that filled a larger space.

The other goal was for the show was that is played big. It didn’t feel like a suitcase magic show where everything is flat. The show had a lot of textures and I really liked doing this show.

I’m proud of this show and I think I may keep it to cycle back into the rotation for kid shows in the future. The more important thing was that I used this show to learn to do things that will have a life outside of this show. I learned to use and get confident with the iQpro app to run video for my show and I using ankle switches for my show.

One of the goals for my summer library show is that I work on something that I can use outside of that specific show. Whether it’s a routine that I can use in another show or in this case, production stuff.

Always look for a second life for things!

-Louie

Visiting the P3 Theater!

Last week when I was in Columbus, OH my bubby Chris Hanowell visited the fair and caught my show!

The next day Chris and David gave me and Billy Kidd (who was also working at the fair) a tour of the P3 Magic Theater / Magic Shop.

The p3 Magic Theater is a really cool space and looks like a great venue for magic! I mean, it should be since it was designed for that!

-Louie

Final Summer Library Show of 2025!

Well, I’m now done with my summer reading shows at libraries for the season. Here’s my case before the final packing of it.

I really liked my show this year and it was a ton of fun to do it. My show was themed around the colors of the rainbow and the show worked for libraries and summer camps. I think this is a show that I may keep around and for kids events. The rainbow themes is a great segue between tricks and a good frame for the show.

The show also got me to use iQpro for visual elements on a screen in the show. The show was mostly images on the screen, but it also had some video elements. I’m really liking this program for the video projection, however I’m struggling with it for audio. Ideally using one program to run the show would be best, however I’m thinking there may be some advantages to using two. Primarily if something happens to one, like the app freezes, I still have the other running. That means I might not have music, but I’ll still have video or vice versa. Having one is better than none!

The other routine that has come out of this that’s a keeper is my expanding card trick warm up. This is a multiphase card trick for kids. It’s probably doubled in time and effects from how I used to do it!

-Louie

Using Fire in Your Show?

The amount of magicians that give other magicians bad advice about using fire in their shows. The big thing is about getting permission or correct permitting to use fire. Many magicians repeat the old saying: “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission”.

That is totally wrong!

There are many gigs where you absolutely cannot use fire. I worked a gig at a museum where an act got fired (no pun intended) for using a flaming wallet. The gig I was at last week had this sign in all the dressing rooms:

If you showed up to this gig and fire was a part of your show, like burning a dollar bill, you wouldn’t be able to do that routine. If you did fire at this gig, which is two weeks, you wouldn’t last long!

This is why doing fire correctly by asking for permission is KEY! You’d come into this gig knowing you couldn’t use it OR getting the correct permits, etc to be able to do it.

-Louie

Sign Language Interpreter For Magic Shows

All of my shows at the Ohio State Fair had a sign language interpreter. It’s a really cool thing to have and there were a lot of deaf people in my audience because of this. It was great to have my show, which is very verbal to reach people who probably wouldn’t normally watch it.

There were 4 or 5 interpreters who cycled through the 24 shows that I did over 12 days and they got to know my show pretty well. At one point my show got off track and I was trying to bring the routine back so we could wrap up and I totally forgot where I was in the show. I asked the interpreter and she told me what the next part of the routine was!

Everyone from the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities did a great job, and I even learned to tell a joke in sign language, and I have the sign language interpreter verbally tell it on the mic while I signed it. Not only that, but I learned a lot about sign language!

I really wish more events would offer this, and it does open the show up to more people!

-Louie

Magic Show Review

It’s always great to see what other magicians think of my show. A magician (who I had never met before) was at one of my shows last week. He texted about my show to another performer who I did know and that performer shared a screen of of the text.

It’s always great when magicians like my show. While they’re not my target audience, they are a group that I try to have something in the show for. My show is fairly non-standard, or at least if something is sorta standard, it has a twist on it. I don’t do this specifically for magician audiences, it’s for me. I honestly couldn’t do an “off the shelf” magic show. It’s the difference between a cover band and a band that does originals. A cover band will have much easier early success, but there’s a limit to the level of success they will have. However a band that does originals will have a harder time at first, but the potential level of success is much higher.

Doing standards IS a part of the learning process. You do need to know standard techniques. I did linking rings for a long time, and if you handed me a set I bet I could still flawlessly do my old routine.

-Louie

Recording My Show

When Ray Ban first put out their Ray Ban Stories glasses with a video camera in it, I thought about getting them. The current version is the Ray Ban Meta, which does more than just record. They’re also voice assistants, and does a few other things.

I had been on the fence about getting them for years and I finally picked up a pair.

The current version of them when the record, there’s a LED that flashes. Obviously I don’t like that it’s distracting. It’s purpose is so that you can’t secretly record people, and that makes sense. However to use them to record another angle of my show that’s already being recorded by a camera or two I personally have no issue using them without the LED flashing.

The challenge is disabling the LED. You can’t simply cover it, if you do, you’ll get an error. What I did was read a bunch on Reddit and found a few solutions and picked the one that I thought was best and fit my level of how much I wanted to alter the glasses.

If you’re thinking of getting a pair of these, read up on what they do and don’t do to decide if they’re right for you. Also if you want to disable the LED, be sure to read up on different ways to do it to make sure you are comfortable with the level of risk of damage to the glasses that can happen.

-Louie

Oil and Water

Awhile ago I found a set of lecture notes called Something From the East by Haruhito Hirata. In the notes there was an oil and water trick that wasn’t for me, but it did have one part that did appeal to me. The cards were dealt out in rows and then the rows were mixed. The cards then separated by color.

The method was fairly complex and involved. I thought the trick could be streamlined a little bit, so I came up with this:

Then I realized that I could get a bonus trick out of it if the cards had different colored backs, so here’s the second version:

I’d like to get a third effect out of it, but not sure what that would be. Maybe it’ll come to me one day…

-Louie

Seance Spirit Hand!

One of the things that I make every now and then are seance/spirit hands. These are hands that tap messages from ghosts. I just make and sell the shell of the hand, it’s up to the buyer to gimmick them or use a gimmicked board wit them. The hands are also unpainted so that they can be decorated for whatever look the buyer wants.

Here’s one of the hands that was decorated and packaged beautifully by someone who bought on of my seance/spirit hand shells!

No one really makes a these hands and if you want one, the hand shells that I make are a good starting point!

-Louie

Magic Show Production

This summer I ran the video elements of my library show with iQpro. I still ran the audio with showcues as I was really comfortable with that. If the video didn’t work it was not big deal. If the music didn’t work, that was a bigger deal. The show still would have went fine, but the music adds more to the show than the video does.

I’m now very comfortable using iQpro for the video elements of my show. The nest step is to get confident using it for the audio. This week I’m at a state fair and going to use iQpro for the audio of the show, and run video with it as well. The video won’t show anywhere but my iPad and no one will see it, except me. However this is good practice for using it for both video and audio.

-Louie