Pictures – Page 15 – MagicShow.Tips

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

A Simple Trick to Not Forget Anything

One of the challenges of doing your show is packing up. Specifically not forgetting anything. One thing I do is the “Dummy Check” where after you’re packed out, you visually look where your stuff was one more time to look for anything you forgot.

One of the challenges with this summers library show is that the show used a lot of power and I tried to charge the batteries while I was packing up a show. For a normal day of two to three libraries, it’s not a big deal. However there were many days where I had four or five shows in a day. That meant that if I could charge the batteries for 10 or 15 mins while I packed up, it made a huge difference for that last show.

The technique I would use to not forget to the batteries was to put my keys near where they were charging as the plug wasn’t always near the performing area. Without my car key, I couldn’t load out. For me this was a fool proof system to make sure I left with the batteries!

If you’re worried about not packing something, put your keys near it!

-Louie

Magic Monday in Seattle!

I was up in Seattle on Monday last week, so went and performed at Magic Monday! This show happens on the second Monday of the month and has been running for something like 25 years!

Before the show I met up with Chris Beason for a quick drink at Teddy’s. This bar was one of the places where Cliff Gustafson used to perform when I was a teenager (and not old enough to get in to see him)

The performers were Jim, Evan, Payne and me.

Sorry Jim, somehow I didn’t get a picture of you.

It’s not just the show, a lot of magic happens, like Ruben doing some close up magic for the audience after the show.

I look at this show like a magic open mic. It’s a place to try new stuff for a great audience! It’s also like a magic club meeting as we all get together in the pub downstairs and hang out after the show.

If you’re ever in Seattle on the second monday of the month you should come out to the show!

-Louie

Fixing a Vanishing Birdcage!

A while ago I got a text from a friend who found a vanishing birdcage that was for sale. It was in really rough shape, it was missing a bar, had another bar that was loose and two of the corner bars needed to be fixed.

I bought the cage with an experiment with my bird cage guy to see if he could repair it. It came back and it looks like a totally different cage!

Not only were the bars replaced/fixed he also cleaned the cage. The cage was pretty loose when I got it and he tightened it up a little bit so it’s less like handling a jellyfish!

I’m glad I tried this and it’s good to know that there can be a second life to some of these old broken cages!

-Louie

Best Spoons and Forks for Metal Bending!

Frequently, I see people ask in social media groups “what are the best spoons/forks for metal bending?” The answers are all over the place, from ones specifically being sold at magic shops to Walmart. For me, you can’t the the Costco spoons and forks!

The cheap ones less than 31 cents per fork and less than 27 cents per spoon. They’re soft and ready to go out of the package. The normal Costco doesn’t normally stock these but the Business Costco does! A normal Costco membership will get you into the business Costco and walking around you might find other things you need for your show that the normal Costco doesn’t have.

I don’t know if Costco sells them online, but you should be able to search based on the info in the pictures above.

Happy spoon/fork bending!

-Louie