Pictures – Page 18 – MagicShow.Tips

Never Bet on a Sure Thing

I’m working through Jack Carpenter’s new book Carpenter’s Conceptions right now. The second trick in it is my favorite so far, but I’m only about 5 tricks into the book. I’m a huge fan of his, ever since I was a teenager and I got his book Modus Operandi.

Fun little fact, Jack and I used to live in the same town (along with Bob Cassidy) and I would run into Jack every now and then at the Red Robin.

In Carpenter’s Conceptions the second trick is called Never Bet On a Sure Thing which is a five card monte trick. Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Follow the jack! #cardtrick #magictrick #magic #cardmagic #magiciansoftiktok #cards #bet #neverbetonasurething ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Well, that’s almost what’s in the book. I changed it a little bit, the final display has a little something extra that I discovered. Did you notice it?

The final display where you are three cards as four cards doesn’t really hold up as well on a social media video. If someone watches it twice and is burning you, they’ll notice two of the same cards. To minimize that, I came up with this Elmsley Count variation:

Ideally the gimmicked card would have the same head on the jack on both ends, but the card used in the video above was all that I had at home.

It’s not a big deal, but it’s a little thing that can make your social media videos slightly more bullet proof.

-Louie

Calculator Prediction Routine

This morning I was doing my daily writing and came up with a little routine for a number prediction. Here’s the rough routine:

“My third grade report card said my handwriting was bad, and only suitable if a grew up to be a doctor or serial killer. One time I turned in an essay and Ms. Smarr said it was illegible…It was typed, double spaced.”

“The only good thing about having bad handwriting is when I find a note a wrote a long time ago I feel like Indiana Jones trying read a document written by a lost civilization of serial killers. My handwriting looks like the handwriting that on the Magna Carta, if it got wet and put in a blender!”

You then show you elementary school signature, which looks like the bottom line below:

“It’s not that bad. I guess that’s why I preferred math, numbers are easy.”

You then do a calculator force and in my case I’m forcing the number 311707. I then flip over the LOUIE to show it’s actually 311707 (see the top line above).

There you go, it’s a routine, it’s not a great one, but it’s a routine that gets the prediction into play with a personal story. I may revisit this later, but it was a fun surprise that came out of my morning writing!

-Louie

Why I make the Big Bucks!

In December everyone is a corporate entertainer. There’s more work out there than there are performers. It’s not hard to be working evenings Thursday thru Sunday, but the off peak time gigs are what separate the pros from the warm bodies!

I did a holiday party at 7:30am!

Being able to be ready and “on” that early and getting an audience to laugh is a probably one of the hardest things for a performer. Most of these people are having their first cup of coffee while you’re trying to tell jokes.

One of the challenges for shows this early is to not try to push the audience too hard. You really can’t hype them up like you can a show that would take place at 7pm. The 7am energy is much more laid back, no matter what you do! You gotta embrace it!

-Louie

White Album Xmas

For 17 years there’s been a circus show in Portland, OR called the White Album Xmas. I’ve heard about it and finally got to go see the show!

The show is a circus show to the soundtrack of the Beatle’s White Album, which is played by an amazing band! The show has a story that is the throughline and it loosely connects the circus acts.

This is a super fun show put on by super talented people and it’s clear that it’s a labor of love. I was chatting to a friend of my who has been in the show for 17 years and he said there’s about 65 people involved in putting the show on! That’s a major undertaking!

What really surprised me is that the demographics for the show was essentially two kinds of people. People who are into the circus and people who are into The Beatles. For each group, the other thing was a bonus. My wife and I were a good example of one person from each group!

The thing that really struck me about everyone in the show was that they all appeared to be having the best time they’ve ever had in their lives! Everyone in the show looked like there’s no where they’d rather be than on that stage. That’s something 99% of magicians should learn to do: look like they’re having fun onstage!

Sometimes I see a show and want to be a part of it and this is one of those shows. The reality is that my style of performing doesn’t really fit into the show. Sure I could create an act for the show, but the other problem is that the show runs during prime holiday party season and I’d be missing out on a lot of high paying gigs. I’ll have to settle be being a part of the show by buying a ticket and possibly volunteering as an usher or whatever on my day of.

If you’re in the Portland OR area in early December, you should check out this show!

-LOuie

Trying a New Idea!

Sometimes I have an idea and I have no idea what an audience will think of it. That’s where open mics come in! I simply drove down to an open mic and gave the idea a try in front of real people.

My idea was for the card to pocket routine that I used to do. The second time the card goes to my pocket I wanted smoke to come out of my pocket, then reach in and pull the card out.

The smoke was easy, as a while ago I picked up a remote control smoke gimmick. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but knew if I didn’t get it that I’d come up with a cool idea for it and wouldn’t be able to find them. I just taped it inside of my pocket . When I tried it, it got the reaction I was looking for! It made the appearance of the card more of a moment.

If you have an idea that needs an audience, go find an open mic and give it a try!

-Louie

Big Guy’s Magic in Milwaukee, WI

Last month I was out in Wisconsin performing at the comedy club in Appleton. It was a fun gig, and on my way back to the airport in Milwaukee I stopped by Big Guy’s Magic.

I’ve heard a lot about this magic show, so I was excited to stop by. However the guy working (who wasn’t “Big Guy”) was really disappointing. He kept telling me how nothing new was in magic (which I totally disagree with) and how live shows don’t hold audience’s attention and that no magicians tour anymore because no one wants to see a magic show. He never asked why I was in town… I was a magician ON TOUR and had about 150 people at my show at the comedy club the night before. Of all the places where someone should be enthusiastic about magic should be the person working at a magic shop.

When I travel I try to support magic shops by spending money at them. Normally I try to make a meaningful purchase, not just a deck of cards, but a book or some antique prop if they have one. I really didn’t want to spend any money here based on how the guy was bad mouthing magic, but I did make a small purchase.

I do understand that sometimes a “warm body” is needed to run the magic shop when the owner can’t be there. I hope that was the situation, and I’ll probably give the magic shop another chance next time I’m in Milwaukee.

Now for what’s good about the magic shop, it was really well stocked!

They had a ton of current magic as well as vintage magic! They also had some of the world’s largest mouth coil!

It’s always good to see an older style magic show that has a lot of stuff in stock!

-Louie

Vanishing Birdcage Instructions!

I have a fairly large collection of vanishing birdcages, and one of the things that I don’t have are a lot of instructions. I’ve rarely come across cages with the original instructions.

I recently came across a few sets of instructions from some older vanishing birdcages to add to my collection!

The set on the left are instructions for the Secondus vanishing birdcage that was put out by Harry Stanley’s Unique Magic in England! This cage was made by YIMKA, and I have one in my collection, so it’s great to pair those two up!

The set of instructions on the right belong to an unknown (to me) cage.

I’m happy to have these in my collection!

-Louie

People Love ACAAN!

A few days ago I was at a booking event and Chubby Checker was there. He’s 82 years old and been in showbiz for over 60 years!

I was chit chatting with his manager and she told me that Chubby loves magic and asked if I could show him a trick. I went over and did Any Card at Any Number for him and he loved it. He bugged me the whole event to do it again and I did and each time he was more amazed.

Magicians who have never done a pure ACAAN where it’s simply “name a card, name a number” and their card is at their number don’t understand how good of a card trick it is. It’s an impossible trick.

Many magicians say that audiences don’t like it and it’s a trick for magicians are totally wrong. I think there are so many bad tricks that pretend to be an ACCAN, but aren’t and dilute the effect. Once you get dice, your phone or convoluted processes into the trick to make it easier, the trick isn’t as clear or nearly as impossible.

Doing ACAAN correctly where there’s no process, or additional props, just a card, number and a deck of cards isn’t easy to do. It’s out of range of the average performer as you need to improvise a lot and have a huge toolbox card magic knowledge to draw from.

It’s totally worth learning to do correctly, it’s an incredible trick that audience do like!

If you’re interested in doing ACAAN, I recommend tracking down the book Any Card by Alain Nu. It’s a great overview of how to work ACAAN.

– Louie

Staging for Video Projection

In yesterday’s post I mentioned using a Hollyland Mars 400s Pro II for video projection in my show. I forgot to include a picture of my simple set up with it.

Hollyland Mars 400s Pro II for magic show video projection

It’s just an old iPhone with an HDMI adapter that goes to the Hollyland Mars 400s Pro II. The iPhone has a physical shutter that I 3d printed to block the camera when not in use.

That’s it! Easy peasey, nothing to crazy.

-Louie

Magic Advent Calendar!

This month there’s a really cool magic advent calendar where you get a cool magic trick each day in December leading up to Christmas…and it’s FREE

advent calendar for magicians with magic tricks

It’s not too late to sign up for it to learn some great magic. Simply go to: https://mysteryarts.christmas/ and there’s a link at the top of the page to sign up.

-Louie