Pictures – Page 22 – MagicShow.Tips

Library Magic Show

This year I’m a bit late working on my library magic show. Normally I’d have it written out and have most of the props built. This year I’m just getting to the brainstorming stage. My show is going to have a trick for each color of the rainbow.

Here’s some of my initial brainstorming notes:

One thing I noticed once I started brainstorming was that a lot of things that I associated with colors were food. I don’t want the whole show to be about food, so I had to think harder and now only about half the show is about food!

The other challenge is to vary the magical effects in the show. I noticed that I had a lot of tricks that were productions, but the show can’t just be all things appearing. I added a card trick, a transformation (actually two) and a transposition. Hopefully that will provide enough variation of magic effect in the show.

-Louie

Summer (2025) Library Show

I’m a bit late, but starting to work on my 2025 summer library show. The national theme is Color Your World, so I’m working on things with colors. My wife had an idea of using a pinwheel and they’re colorful, and every kid knows what to do with them.

The idea is for them will use two kids. One blows on it and it spins, then when the other kid tries it doesn’t spin. I’ll need to design a simple brake for the pinwheel. I don’t have a plan for how that brake will work, but once I have them it’ll be easier to design.

-Louie

Coin to Key Chain!

I’ve been doing a coin to key chain for a while now and I love it! The effect is you show your lucky coin that’s permanently embedded in a fob. Then another coin is signed and reappears as your lucky coin that’s permanently embedded in your key chain!

The lucky coin could be given out in its holder as a souvenir!

What I love about this trick is that it lives on my keychain, all I need to do is borrow a marker! I’ll probably make a batch of these at some point and offer them for sale.

-Louie

The Original Jerry Benson Dancing Stick!

This just popped up in a magic sales group, it’s THE ORIGINAL JERRY BENSON DANCING STICK that was put out by Peter Pit.

The Original Jerry Benson lived in Seattle and I met him when I was a teenager. He was a barber that did magic! His legacy in magic is largely forgotten, but he’s the guy that turned the floating cane into the dancing cane!

He was a cool guy!

-Louie

Magic Show Pop Up Bins

Many magician use pop up bins for prop holders. These are basically fabric covered cardboard cubes that sit on your table and keep your props out of view. I’ve used a half size one, so only about six inches tall for many years. I needed to replace my old one and I learned that that don’t make the size I need anymore. The taller cube is too tall for me to sue, so I custom made myself one.

Here’s my old one, my new one is in the middle and a standard tall one:

Since I was making one, I could make one that is how I wanted it to be, not how they come from the store. Here’s a close up of the custom one that I made:

I wanted my bin to be slightly taller so my props don’t stick out above the front, so I made the front 8 inches tall. I also need to be able to easily get to things sitting on the bottom of the bin, so I made the back of it six inches tall.

I love the result of it! It’s exactly what I need, and I’m not compromising. The best thing is that it was really easy to make! My only regret is that I didn’t custom make one years ago!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast -Nick Harden

On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we welcome in circus extraordinaire Nick Harden. We learn about where a kid from a small town in Illinois first discovered circus and how it became an obsession.

We learn about how the connections that he has made through the circus have opened up opportunities all over the United States. He also tells us about the difficulties in performing in different spaces and how that forced him to come up with different variations of his act. A great conversation with a very talented circus performer.

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Another Simms Vanishing Birdcage!

A few weeks ago before I went out of town I bought a Vanishing Birdcage and it arrived right after I left town. Now that I’m home, I got to open it up and check it out.

As I thought, it’s a Warren Simms vanishing birdcage!

It’s got the “S” stamped on it and the “H” means that it was made for Max Holden’s magic shop. I’ve now got two Simms vanishing bird cages in my collection.

This is my other one that was made for Tannens”

I’m glad to have both of these in my vanishing bird cage collection!!

-Louie

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