Pictures – Page 19 – MagicShow.Tips

Working With Other Magicians!

Last month when I was travelling to a ship to perform for a week, I noticed on their app I could see the schedule. It turned out there was another magician performing the same week that I was, and that magician was David Williamson!

It’s kinds stressful heading out to a gig where you’re working with one of your favorite magician and one that’s in almost every magician’s top ten magicians. The silver lining to that stress is that I get to hang out with him!

I’ve seen his show before on a cruise ship back in the mid 2010’s when I was on vacation with my family. He does a solid show with classic Williamson energy, I love his stage persona, it’s great!

If you get a chance to see his show, do it…and if you get a chance to work with him, do it!

-Louie

The Miracle Pad by Mike Giles

A while ago I came across the Miracle Pad that was put out by Mike Giles. I remember being a teenager when this came out. I think in the late 1990’s this was something like $60 or $75, which was a lot of money for a close up pad!

This is a fancy close up pad, and it will facilitate a production of four half dollars and a jumbo coin.

I’m playing with it and the routine that I came up with is a matrix, that ends with a production of four coins and the jumbo coin. My routine isn’t quite at straight forward as you’d expect it to be with this prop. I had to add in an additional think to make it happen.

I never really intended to use the Miracle Pad as a gimmick. I put a table base on it and it’s my close up magic table that I use with projection. Since I had it with me on the ship I’m performing on, I got to playing with it.

Honestly I don’t think I’ll ever use it as a gimmicked pad in my shows, but it’s fun to play with!

-Louie

Paul Daniels and the Story of Magic

My airplane reading is Paul Daniels and the Story of Magic by John Fisher. This is essentially a book on magic history, with Paul Daniels added in.

I think it’s kinda strange how he’s shoehorned into all of the biographies in the book. It’s like, Vernon was good at card tricks, and Paul Daniels also did them. What I feel the book is lacking is Paul Daniels take on the topics of magicians.

One thing the book gets through, but it’s not clear if it’s Paul Daniels or John Fischer’s opinion and that one of them doesn’t like David Copperfield. I think I had read in Wayne Dobson‘s book that there was a bit of a feud between them at some point.

What I do like is that there are some very specific mentions magic history. Like who created the Sucker Silk to Egg routine that’s now a standard routine. I’m betting 99% of magicians who do the routine don’t know who created it.

If you don’t know it was Fred Culpitt, who also created the Doll House Illusion!

The book also attaches some stock lines to specific performers. I find this interesting, as the history of stock lines is very murky. Quite often they get credited to who popularized the line, and not who created the line. I don’t know how accurate the crediting is in the book, however it’s still great to see some of the history of a joke!

I picked this book up at Powell’s Books in Portland OR for $12 and for that price I’m happy with my purchase!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival

In Seattle we have a variety arts festival called The Moisture Festival that happens every year. I’ve performed at this for about a decade and it’s a ton of fun. What makes it fun is that you get a ton of amazing acts together in one show! Each act does 5-8 minutes each, making it a very fast paced show. I performed in three of the shows on the first week.

One of the great things about these shows is just hanging out with everyone! Everyone’s journey to get on stage is different and we all have crazy road stories! This is one of the gigs that I think are good for my soul. I leave them inspired to be better and with new friends!

-Louie

MAK Magic’s Mint Condition

My best guess is in the late 1990’s MAK Magic put out Mint Condition. This is an expanded shell coin that had the back of the coin on the inside. That allows you to show both sides of the shell when it’s empty.

I’ll admit that when it came out I thought it was a dumb idea. It was an improvement that didn’t really improve how a shell coin is used. For most close up magic, I still think it’s not necessary.

The place where this coin is great it for social media videos. Where is someone knows about a shell coin, it removes that when you show both sides of the coin. Social media is a great place for things that correct little details in magic tricks that are overkill for an in person performance.

The other thing is that I don’t think that Mint Condition was a huge seller, as a there’s not a lot of mentions of it when I do a Google Search and I can’t recall seeing one pop up on a used magic site. I guess them being uncommon is good for people who are using them!

-Louie

A Young Person’s Schedule

I’m getting old! I used to be able to perform all day, I think one time when I was younger I did 6 birthday parties in one day! Unfortunately age is creeping up on me. The other day I did three shows, I did two shows at different libraries that were forty five minutes each, then did a 90 minute theater show!

Here’s what the 45 minute library show and the 90 minute theater show look like when packed up:

And here’s what the three venues look like when set up:

I don’t know what I was thinking when I scheduled them! I also should have scheduled them with some time between them, not with just travel time between them. I could have used a nap between the libraries and the theater.

I need to be better about not pushing myself, and scheduling some gaps in my day if I’m going to do 180 minutes of performing!

-Louie

Reading Glasses

Last week when I was hosting a show at the Moisture Festival in Seattle it was the first time I’ve ever worn my reading glasses onstage! While notes in the picture in this post are a reasonable font size, some of the other notes I were given were written in a super tiny font that I wouldn’t be able to accurately read.

It was strange to wear them as they made everything else blurry that was what I would normally look at. I ended up turning it into a bit with my normal stage glasses which have no lenses and my reading glasses.

I can see good enough to do my show with my stage glasses. The reason they don’t have lenses is that I don’t want reflection on the lenses to block my eyes.

-Louie

Sealing My Luggage

When I fly with my show, I always seal the checked cases shut with a zip tie.

This provides very little in the way of security, but it lets me know if my cases have been opened. This is a huge help, because it lets me know if I need to check my cases before the gig. Years ago when my checked show cases were screened by TSA they took out my two table tops and didn’t put them back in. I didn’t realize it until I was at the next gig and it made that show a challenge! It was also a nightmare tracking them down and getting them back!

When I put the zip tie on my checked luggage, I use a fairly thin zip tie. I need to be able to open it without a blade. With a thin one, I can just jam a pen in between it and the case and twist. That will easily break it.

I also use a neon color so it’s less likely it’s been resealed. I’ve had TSA put zip ties on my gear after screening. It’s rare that it happens, but they don occasionally do that. When they done that, they’ve always been white. It’s less likely they’ll have an orange and green one!

When my bags arrive, seeing my zip ties gives me some piece of mind that I have all of my gear!

-Louie

Another Vanishing Bird Cage

My Vanishing Bird Cage collection just grew by another cage. This one popped up on eBay for $35 and I grabbed as soon as I saw it.

Without seeing it in person, I don’t know who made it or if its actually from the 1940’s. However for $35 it’s a gamble I’m willing to take.

Looking at the solders on the “U” joints in the pictures and the dimensions gives me confidence that this isn’t a cage from India, and I’m really hoping what is pictured is what will show up in the mail.

Another clue is in one of the pictures you can see the top of an instruction sheet that says: AN N.M.C. PRESENTATION ROUTINE. That would imply this is a cage that was sold by the National Magic Company.

We’ll see what shows up in the mail. Unfortunately I’ll probably be out of the country performing when it shows up, so I won’t be able to see it for a week or two.

-Louie

Lucky Penny Magic Trick

A trick I’ve been doing as part of my EDC magic is signed penny to key fob. The effect is a signed coin ends up permanently sealed inside of a “lucky coin” holder on your keychain. The nice thing about this is that it’s almost 100% self contained. I have everything I need to do the trick on my keychain, except a marker.

I’ve been using my original first design for a little bit and spent a little bit of time other day tweaking the design. The colors are just what was in the printer and have nothing to do with the design, besides making it easier to tell them apart.

The first redesign was good, the second was better and the third was a huge step backwards. I went back to the second redesign and it was the best of the three. That’s the great thing about 3D printing, it’s easy to tweak designs to get them where you want them!

-Louie