It’s been a while since I’ve made any chop cups, and yesterday I made a batch of dice cup chop cups. I made these to take to the Portland Magic Jam this weekend.
Internally, there’s not much to it, it’s a magnet in a cup. I 3D print a magnet puck, and cover it with the same material that lines the cup.
Then I make a set of chopped dice, so one is regular, and the other has a magnet load.
I’m going to package these with an 8 Ball for the final load and sell them as a set. If I have any left after the Portland Magic Jam, I’ll offer them for sale here.
A few days ago I hopped a train down to Eugene Oregon to see Jack Grady‘s show at a comedy club with my buddy Matt Baker (the juggler, not the magician). I think I had seen a video or two of his, but didn’t know much about him.
Jack’s big on the social media and his thing is “ass magic” where he puts things into his butt crack and then magic happens. That’s a quick background about what I knew about him.
This show is a great example of how a strong character can carry a show. The magic is just “meh” for the most part, but the performing persona carries the show. One thing that my buddy caught, that I didn’t, was in the fish hook roulette trick, it felt like he actually could mess up the trick. Since I was familiar with the trick and method, that thought never entered my mind.
The show’s roughness was a feature! It felt like it could really go wrong at any point. I have a feeling he hasn’t been touring with the show very long. I also think that in a few years, if he’s actively working on the show, that his show would be GREAT!
The show doesn’t over use the “ass magic”, but there were a couple of spots where it could be used that it’s currently not.
If Jack is coming to your area, the show is worth going to!
Magicians frequently say that the modern style of vanishing birdcage doesn’t look like a cage. They really don’t, however cages that look like them do exists. I cme across them every now and then, here’s one:
and here’s another:
In real life, there really isn’t a birdcage that’s handheld anymore. Modern birdcages for pets are giant. No one really uses a handheld cage anymore. -Louie
Tomorrow I’m in a show called Sunday Scaries…sort of in the show. What happens in the show is that someone tells their paranormal story, and it’s acted out by an improv troupe. I have two paranormal stories, one is about a ghost that I took a picture of (I didn’t see it in front of me, just in the picture), and the other is the UFO that I took video of (I don’t think it’s an alien spacecraft, but it’s definitely unidentified).
I’m there to tell my story, but I’m going to have a few jokes written, so I have some laughs in my back pocket. When doing any sort of interview, I think it’s important to think about it and plan a couple of things. Be prepared, even if you don’t use what you’ve thought of.
For this, I don’t think I’m there to be throwing out punchlines; I’m there to tell my story and let the improv group get the laughs, but I’ll have a few laughs ready to go.
Are we at the point where this is modern card magic:
I’m trying to decide whether I’m a grumpy old man afraid of change, or if something like this is a step in the wrong direction. Sure, you can do a cool trick with this deck, but is this what card magic needs?
Are we at a point where someone asks you to show them a card trick and you can’t because your deck isn’t charged?
Nick Trost was a BEAST! He was a pioneer of modern card magic. I’m rereading The Card Magic of Nick Trost. One of the things that I’m doing is learning the original routine and then trying to update or add something to each routine. I’m only four tricks into the book, which has 122 effects!!!
The second trick in the book is the 7 Card Count and after Nick’s original routine there’s a Rollins-Hamman-Longe variation of it. The first trick is good, but this version is better!
I did come up with a variation on the original, but also a variation on the variation! If you have the book, it’s the exact same set up and routine, except these are the card, and the final display is slightly different.
The card second to the left has a picture of a stop sign, but it could just be a blank card that says “stop”.
What this setup does is change it so each card that’s eliminated reappears in the packet. Also, I like the 1-2-3 of each color to sell the premise of only using three cards of each color.
Right before the final display, you’ll have three face up black cards, and you’d normally put them on the bottom, in this case put them face down on top. Next, pull the three red cards one at a time off the bottom and deal them face up on the table. Then deal the top three cards (black) face up onto the table, and that will leave you with the final (stop) card face down in your hand. Say, “This never works, we might as well stop now” and then reveal the final card!
The only downside is this trick is no longer impromptu.
One of the tricks that I’m working on for a tour in April needs an opaque, tall, tulip-style ice cream cup. I spent hours searching thrift stores online and didn’t quite find anything I liked…well I did, but I also didn’t want to buy 36 of them! I finally gave up on trying to find one that already exists and decided to design my own. The nice thing about this is that I get something that is what I want, instead of the potential limitations of gimmicking something that is already made.
Here’s what the trick looks like in my garage:
The ice cream scoop is something that Dan Harlan sells called The Scoop and he even posted this on his social media:
Screenshot
The cup is my design, and here’s what is it:
Obviously, you don’t need to use The Scoop with it; it would work great with a loop ball or just sleight of hand with a ball. Anything you can fake put into it would turn to the streamers.
Ok, so why did I make a full glass, when I don’t show it empty at the start and could just put confetti in it?
Simple, clean up.
There’s no cleanup with streamers; no one needs to sweep or vacuum them up.
For me, this is the perfect solution for the second half of turning ice cream into something exciting!
-Louie PS: If you want one of these, contact me for pricing!
One trick I learned as a teenager from Al Schneider was the Zombie Floating Ball. It’s also trick that I’ve never really done as more than a one off sort of trick. In the school assembly tour I’m doing in April I need to make a rock float, so the zombie method is what makes the most sense.
My gimmick is based on the Tommy Wonder style gimmick from his books, but modified to something that I could make and it’s detachable from the sponge rock.
I’ve also never really had any levitation’s in my show, so I’m excited to learn the ins and outs of performing one!
One of the interesting things was their rules for magic books:
Section C above means all those Ed Harris Jumbo Dollars that teach magic tricks on the back are violations of this section. It also makes giving away any promo that teaches a trick a violation. I don’t know if this is still in their current by-laws, but it highlights how tightly held magic secrets were at one point, compared to now.
I’m still working on the show I’m doing for a school assembly tour in April. One of the tricks that I had planned is a cards across type effect using postcards. I had a method worked out, then I realized the trick involves counting to ten.
Counting to ten means I’ll have to deal with kids and the 6/7 trend that’s still happening. It’s not as crazy as it was a year ago, but it’s still a thing.
In the past, I’ve used the Piano Card Trick‘s method of pairs to do an object across types of trick. That version has no counting, just moving pairs of cards. That eliminates using the numbers six and seven in sequence.
The downside of using the pair method is that only one thing moves instead of two or three cards. I guess the big plus is that since I’ve used this in shows before, I have a lot of the “bits” built in, so I don’t need to do a lot of figuring out gags. That’s also a bad trap; I shouldn’t be lazy and should be writing new gags.
-Louie PS If you’re interested in using the piano card trick onstage, look into Jim Steinmeyer’s Apples and Oranges trick.
