On my Facebook page I’ve started posting OUT OF CONTEXT VINTAGE MAGIC ILLUSTRATIONS. These are pictures from old magic books that I’ve come across that without context look strange. Here are the ones I’ve posted so far:
I normally post these on Sundays on my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/louie.foxx/
Pop over there, all of these are public, however if we’re not friends, shoot me a friend request!
-Louie
I’m still working through The Bat magic magazine and I can across this notice about a magic show:
It’s crazy how bad this magic show must have been that the local magic club had to take out an ad to say they had nothing to do with it! It’s also a flash back to a time when magic clubs were bigger and had some more “influence”.
Today most magic clubs struggle with getting/keeping members.
-Louie
I don’t think I wrote a post about seeing the That’s Magic at the White Rabbit Theater in Reno. This is an illusion show presented by Kaileigh and Chase Hasty. I saw the show with 17 magicians!
They do a great job with the magic show. It’s a fairly standard magic show, but they have some original “bits” with the effects they do. Chase does a great job of being in the moment during the show. With a seven day a week schedule, I’d imagine it’s easy fall into being robotic onstage.
The show is more than illusions, Chase shows he has some skill doing ball and card manipulation and Kaileigh does the aerial silks, so it’s not just “store bought” stuff, which I appreciate!
The show uses a lot of lighting cues, which really adds to the theatricality (Is that a word?) of their magic show. Lighting cues really make a show feel bigger. At some point, I should find someone to write some basic ones for me to use when I work in theaters. Just one or two, so it adds visual texture to the show.
I really enjoyed the show, and it’s worth checking out, there’s a lot you can learn by watching it.
-Louie
This snake basket magic trick I’m working on feels like a “project car” that’s in someone’s garage that they are constantly working on. It’s something I keep finding ways to improve. The first version is barely finished, and I’m working on a second one!
The big change is that I’m going to move it away from a card trick. I’m going to merge it with Terry Seabrook’s Chattering Teeth Routine. The snake will chew holes in the paper, and the reveal will be when the paper is opened. A paper is physically larger than a playing card, even a jumbo playing card. Bigger is better for a reveal!
Moving to paper also allows me to customize the routine to a show. For example, if I were doing a safety-themed show for kids, the snake could chew a stop sign in the paper. It could still be a card a la the original Seabrook routine, or spots (like on a die) or even the image a piece of art!
I’m liking flexibility of this idea!
-Louie
This is an idea I had a while ago, and 3d printed it:
This is a three phase mental magic type routine. I read someone’s mind, then they read my mind, then a magic trick happens. I took it to a magic meet up and here’s what the magicians think of it:
Billy McComb, in one of his books, mentions an easy way to create new routines is to combine two tricks. I think his example is a thumb tie and card to wallet. The block trick I came up with combines the Color Vision Block with a super old stage magic trick. I don’t think people are expecting the part that uses the old stage magic effect, and by the time that part is revealed, I’m way ahead of them. Also, people newer into magic may not recognize it as it’s not really used much anymore.
-Louie
In the course of a month, I get to see a wide range of green rooms of offstage spaces for the performer. They range from nothing, a table in a conference room to what they have in nice clubs.
A couple of Decades ago when Jim Gaffigan was really becoming a big, we were chatting with a comedy club owner and Jim said something like, “I know what you pay me, just put me up somewhere nice.” That’s something that really stuck with me, if you treat the act right off stage, it’ll payoff onstage.
A couple weeks ago the comedy club I was performing at had a cabinet of snacks!
More than that, it had three tubs of toiletries:
That’s HUGE if you’re doing two shows back to back and you want to freshen up a little bit between shows. Personally, I try to not take these green rooms for granted, because the next gig I do won’t have anything and I’ll spend 20 minutes hunting down a cup of water!
-Louie
I found a stack of Chinese Laundry Ticket papers in a box of old magic from the early 1960s. This is a torn and restored paper effect with a strip of paper. The theme of this trick is a ticket from a Chinese laundry that’s torn and restored, and this routine is typically filled with offensive (racist) patter lines. A better themed version would be Arnold Furst’s Fresh Fish paper tear.
Anyway, I have these Chinese laundry ticket papers, and I was curious what they actually said, so I ran them through Google Translate and here’s what they say:
This is one of the things that’s problematic with these older magic tricks, is that what’s actually written on them isn’t what it’s supposed to be in the trick. This trick, if it actually had numbers on it instead of talking about rice, would be slightly less offensive. The simple fact that the trick is taking something from another culture, but not taking the most basic step of making sure it’s correct, is just one of the reasons I dislike this trick.
Go out there and be a better human.
-Louie
On a flight I read the book Trickanalysing The Magic of David Copperfield. This is a book from 1997 that goes through 20 of David Copperfield’s close up magic routines that he’s done on TV. This book is about the theatrical elements in the routines, not about specific methods.
The first 2/3’s of the book is the author going through and breaking down what’s theatrically happening in the routines. The final third of the book digs more into the author’s definitions of the theatrical devices used and how they could be applied to your magic. Then at the end, there are some worksheets for you to go through your magic and see what you’re using, or could be using.
Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about this book. I didn’t dislike it, however, I’m not in love with it. It was definitely interesting, but I’m not sure how much of the Trickanalysing system that I’ll personally be using. It is always neat to read about someone’s system.
-Louie
Well, it’s public now that Hocus Pocus in Fresno has closed. For me, this is the end of the “family magic shop” era. Aside from Stevens Magic Emporium, there really aren’t any prominent family run magic shops in the USA anymore. Yes, there are some smaller ones, but not really any with national/international reach.
I first met Paul and Betty Gross when I was performing at The Big Fresno Fair about a decade ago. They came to the fair and watched my show, and then they introduced themselves. I had done business with Paul Gross long before that. Hocus-Pocus was the second shop to sell my Evaporation trick. The first was Max Krause’s magic shop, but he called me at around 10pm, right after I had sent out an email to magic shops announcing the product. Paul put in an order the next morning and he immediately sold out and reordered.
After Paul’s passing, I continued doing business with Hocus Pocus when Max took over. Max was involved before that, but he became the face of the business at that point. For not being a magician, Max knew a lot about the industry and a ton about collectible magic!
That brings us to today (technically last night) with them officially being closed. Last week I got a call from them giving me a heads up about it, and I immediately booked a flight down to say good by to them. Every magic product I’ve released for the last decade has been through them, and it’s been a great relationship.
It’s sad to see this shop going away, and it was great to chat with them about what’s next. Max is a super smart guy, and he kept his Dad’s dream alive and now he’s working on his dream, and I wish him and the rest of the family the best!
-Louie
In my collection of old magic stuff, I had a pack of FAKO cards. This is a deck of gaffed cards and novelty cards.
The pack I had was just the cards without the booklet, so I’m not 100% positive as to what tricks the cards do. One of the cards has a big stop sign on it, and here’s what I’ve been doing with it:
It’s just a second deal until they say stop, and then a timing force for the second time. Every time I do it, the person has a great reaction when they see the card!
-Louie
