Pictures – Page 6 – MagicShow.Tips

Coin Matrix Layout

One of the things that I’m playing with is a Coin Matrix. One thing I thought about is why the coins are in the corners of the performance area rather than in some other shape. I get that there’s a lot of tradition, as the modern coin matrix is based on Yank Hoe’s Sympathetic Coins. Then, when Al Schneider created the modern version, he called it Matrix, and I think in math, those are traditionally a square or rectangular shape.

I was playing with some other shapes and layouts for the coin matrix. A straight horizontal line, a diagonal line, however I think I’ve settled on the classic Ace Assembly layout. With a leader coin in front and the three follower coins in the back.

I really like this layout, as in my routine, there’s some other stuff that needs to happen, and it moves all of the empty spaces once the coins travel to my edge of the table, which makes the next part for me a lot easier to do!

I want to say there’s nothing wrong with the standard coin matrix layout; however, there’s also nothing wrong with changing it!

-Louie

Christmas Mindreading

Here’s a quick little mindreading trick that I came up with a few years ago.

Effect: You ask someone to think of one of the following Christmas things:
Gift – Stocking – Candy Cane – Santa – Snowman
You then tell them letters in the word they are thinking of, then finally the word!

This is a simple progressive anagram. There’s really not much to it, you follow the card below:

I remember the word NASM for the flow of the letters named. Then, for the order of the items, think of a “Gift left in a stocking, which is a candy cane from Santa.” Then if it’s none of those, it’s a snowman.

There you go, some propless mentalism for your family gathering.

-Louie

Five Minute Magic Spot

While I was on the cruise ship I was asked to do a 5-7 minute spot in the farewell shows. I don’t do short spots as often as I used to do them a couple decades ago. They stress me out because you don’t really have time to establish a character or vibe and you don’t have time to win back the audience if you lose them.

Here’s my props for the 5-7 min spot:

Here’s what I did: My stand up chop cup routine (see my lecture notes) which ends with the production of a tennis ball. Then I did a card to pocket routine with a signed card. The routine ends with the signed card coming out of the tennis ball.

One thing to note is that aside from these props, where everything happens in my hands, the only other thing I used (but not necessary) is a stool to set the tennis ball on after it’s produced, so that it’s visible the whole set. The stool was already on stage from the act before me and the one after me, so there was zero moving of props for my spot.

Oh, the black string thing is one of Nick Lewin’s Ultimate Microphone Holders. That allows me to use a handheld mic, so I don’t need to get mic’d up with a head set.

It’s an action packed 5ish mins, with a nice little surprise at the end.

-Louie

Everything Has Already Been Invented

I always hate it when people say, “Everything has already been invented.” I think it’s a way for the person who said that to:
1: Justify them not trying to be creative.
2: Used as a way to trivialize someone else’s creativity.

That said, there are a lot of ideas that are reinvented, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many tricks from a long time ago weren’t complete because they couldn’t find the final piece of the puzzle. Sometimes a technique or material didn’t exist that would take the trick from just “meh” to amazing.

I was reading The Bat magic magazine from the 1940s on the plane home from Florida and read the Bowman’s Bullseye. Read the circled effect:

Does this sound like a modern trick? If you said The Stranger, then you’re correct! The effect is the same, but the method is quite different and wouldn’t work today. In fact, I’m not sure Bowman’s Bullseye was practical in the 1940s.

What the stranger did was create the same effect, but using techniques that would have been impossible 15 years ago, and made it practical! The two tricks are light years apart (OK, actually like 90 years) and can’t be compared, other than they are both based on the telephone tricks that were invented pretty much where the telephone was.

Keep creating!

-Louie

Back on Land!

Today I wrapped up my contracts on the cruise ship, and I’m heading back home for the holidays.

It’s always great to perform in nice theaters, but even better when I get to perform with stage/tech crews that are amazing! The stage/tech crews on cruise ships work with magicians and variety acts a lot, so they already kinda know what to do with an act like mine.

We’re entering the slower time for performing (for me). One of the things that I want to do is work on the transition from using ShowCues to GoButton for my audio. There’s a bit of a learning curve in the way you interact with GoButton. I’ve been using ShowCues for over a decade, so it’ll take some work to unlearn the muscle memory.

-Louie

Main Theater Shows

Last night was the night for this cruise itinerary that I did my two shows in the theater on the ship.

I had a weird brain fart in the middle of my show where I didn’t know what was next. I quickly figured it out when I glanced at the set list on the back of the pop up bins I keep my props in. It’s been a while since I’ve needed to look at the set list. The main reason they are there is for setting up and for the actual flow of the show while I’m performing.

Today is another day off, and then I’m performing a quick 5-minute act in tomorrow’s farewell show.

-Louie

Getting Props on the Ocean

It’s been a few days since my last show on the ship, my next shows are tomorrow. In my show I use a orange for my drawing routine and a banana for my whip routine. You’re not really supposed to be bringing fruit on/off the ship, so I get those two while onboard.

One of the challenges can be that they’ll have something like bananas all week, but then they’re out the morning of my show, and I can’t get them. Typically, a day or two before my show, I’ll go down and grab what I need and keep them in my room. Then on the day of the show, if they have them out at breakfast and they look better than what’s in my room, I’ll upgrade my oranges and bananas.

This is one of the challenges of performing on cruise ships: if you need something or break something, it can be hard to source it. I try to travel with what I need to fix things or backups. For example, I do Promystic’s Color Match in my show, and I travel with a spare set in case one stops working.

-Louie

Lounge Magic Show

My show last night was on the cruise ship, which was in the lounge. This is a very different feeling from the theater, but a lot of fun and more intimate. On this particular cruise line, I’m supposed to have two different 45-minute shows, so for the lounge, I did the show that I didn’t do in the theater the night before.

This show had a segment of close-up magic with the camera. Usually, I use the camera to enhance smaller things that I hold, but not to show the tabletop. For this show, I did a short sequence on the table top. The rest of the show was routines that played bigger. I remember reading somewhere about making your show big, and it went something like this:

“When it’s close up, go parlor, when it’s parlor, go stage and when it’s stage go stadium.”

I closed the show with my book test, which ended with a two-phase banner reveal. The banner is 24 inches tall and about 20 feet long; it fills the space!

Last night was also the end of that particular cruise’s itinerary. I joined the ship midway through the itinerary, so I had to get up early this morning to clear immigration. As part of this process, because of the manifest I was on, I had to leave the ship for a few hours. I had the honor of being the first person off the ship…exciting!

I’m actually writing the post at a coffee shop before I can get back onto the ship.

-Louie

Embarking and Show Day

Last night I gave my show a quick run trough before I went to bed.

This morning I headed of to the port. I thought the ship would be at the docked across the street from the hotel, but it was the other one about 2 miles away, so I hopped in a taxi and headed over.

My show in the theater was later that night, which makes for a long day! I loaded into the theater and did my tech run-through. Then back to my stateroom for a quick nap, and then to get cleaned up for the show.

As I was heading back to the theater, I glanced at my iPad, which controls the show’s audio. There was a red light where the green light normally is on my media star. I unplugged and replugged the adapter, and it was still red. Everything looked fine on the iPad and the Media Star (aside from the red light), so I swapped out the adapter. Luckily, that was the problem; the adapter went bad. I try to carry backups for things like that, especially if they are small. Having an extra $25 adapter saved the show!

Tonight, I’ve got one show in the lounge. This is a smaller-scale show, and more like a fancy bar gig on land. It’ll be fun!

-Louie

Travelling with a Magic Show

Yesterday was a long travel day, but I made it to the hotel in Cozumel, Mexico. Luckily, the hotel is a block from the port where I’ll board the ship this afternoon.

I’m really loving travelling with my Porter Case. That’s a carry-on-size case that becomes a dolly for carrying other things. You can read my blog post about the Porter Case HERE. In the picture below, which is below the white suitcase. The suitcase has my clothes and personal things, and my backpack has all of the electronics for the show (camera, iPad, etc.)

Another thing that really helps when traveling is speaking another language. I speak a little Spanish, but it really helped me navigate customs when entering Mexico. I’ve done several audio courses in the past without much success, but the daily DuoLingo I’ve been doing for a few years has really paid off. I’m not conversational, but I can communicate, and that’s super helpful!

-Louie