Pictures – Page 69 – MagicShow.Tips

Ring and Rope…

After a street show at a fair a guy asked if he could show me a trick. I always try to say “yes” when people ask me. This guy took a piece of rope that was leftover from my show, and his wife’s ring and made the ring end up in a knot in the middle of the rope!

I’m familiar with the trick, but it’s the first time that I’ve been shown it from someone in the audience! I know I’ve posted this before, but people’s magic trick that they show me have gotten much better the last couple of years!

-Louie

Full Face Peel – Trials

The trick I’m currently working on is more of a gag. It’s for the end of my ambitious card routine. After the trick is done, I peel off the signed face of the card, leaving a blank card.

Here’s a video of one of the trials of it:

I quickly realized I need to do it backwards, giving them the sticker and leaving me with the blank card!

The full face sticker plays as fun, not strange. Almost like it’s something that you could do with any playing card, but never knew you could. The other version of the trick that I’m doing that leaves the pips behind plays more like a strange thing.

I think either version would be elevated from a bit or gag to an pretty good trick if you did it with a borrowed deck or a deck at the bar. If you added in the sticker card and stole out the duplicate, you’ve got a very memorable moment!

-Louie

Full Face Peel!

After doing the peeling off the face of the face card, leaving only the index on the cards many, many times at the fair, I wondered how it would play with an index card. In Alan Wong’s Card Sticker pack, most of the cards are index cards, so I figured I should try to use them. I stuck one onto a blank face card

It took a few tries to get them lined up correctly, however the nice thing is the Card Sticker’s adhesive is very forgiving! The plan is to simply force this card and at the end, peel off the face.

I don’t think this is really a “trick”, just a fun after moment. I’ll give it a try today at the fair and see how it goes!
-Louie

Struggling on a Stage

This week I’m performing on a stage that has always given me trouble. I’ve performed on this stage on eight of the last eleven years and always struggled.

There are a couple of problems with the stage, it’s really dark and deep, so my show gets lost on the stage. Then you add in that you have about 25 feet between you and the first row of benches. Keep in mind the first three rows benches are in the sun most of the day, so unoccupied and basically a physical barrier between you and the audience. That puts the first row of people closer to 40 feet away from you!

The last time I was there was in 2019 and realized that if I moved the drum riser to the front of the concrete dance floor it would move me closer to the audience. That made a huge difference and this year I remembered to do that and my shows are doing well on that stage…well technically doing well on a drum riser on a dance floor.

If your show is struggling in a venue, look at the obstacles that are there and try to figure out solutions. Sometimes there are no solutions that are reasonably fixable, like a post in front of the stage. However many times there are solutions, if you think about the problem.

-Louie

Roving Magic at Fairs…

Last week I was doing roving magic at a fair. When I do this, I do either a street show, or close up magic, depending on which I think will get better results. The fair I was as had my times scheduled and my 1pm timeslot wasn’t the best for trying to do a street show as it was slower at the fair and there wasn’t really any shade. For those shows I did close up magic and went to the people who were in spaces more conducive to watching magic.

Here’s the props for my close up set:

And here’s what everything is:

real mans wallet, shell game and card tricks

The nut is actually over 2 inches across, hole is 1 1/2 inches. I bought the nut on a whim, and put it into my pocket and figured I’d think of something to do with it. I did come up with a way to produce it and use it!

-Louie

Astoria, OR Magic Shop

A few ago I was in Astoria, OR performing and that small town has a magic shop! It’s called The Magic Shop & More run by Seth Howard.

The Magic Shop and More
Seth Howard magician

It’s a great shop, it’s mostly geared as a “pitch” shop, which makes sense as there’s not really a magic population. That said, he still has things of interest to a more experienced magician and Seth is very knowledgeable. He and also order things in for you to pick up if you know you’ll be in town.

It turns out I was familiar with Seth’s trick Howard’s Hustle and was recently thinking about it, so it was good to chat with him about it. Howard’s Hustle is a two card monte routine that has an ending and begins and ends with showing both sides of the cards. It’s really clever and I have an idea for using the general idea for what Seth’s doing in the trick for a very different routine.

If you’re passing through Astoria, OR you should swing by and say hi. His shop is in the tourist area, so you’ll probably walk by anyway.

-Louie

To Lure With Spectacle…

A while ago I got the book To Lure With Spectacle by Jimmy Talksalot at the recommendation of my buddy Skip Banks. I was having an issue with my street show and he said the book might help me.

The issue I was having was mentally I was getting upset at people that would stick around for one trick and then leave. It’s a small percentage of the audience, and it really bugged me. In the book Jimmy writes about audiences “doing you a favor” by watching versus you doing the audience a favor by performing for them. This is a huge mental shift and really helped me out. I’m no stranger to performing for a transient audience, but sometimes you forget things and a refresher course is needed.

If you are thinking about street performing or want to make your street show better, I totally recommend this book. I don’t busk, I perform street style shows at fairs. The huge difference is at the end, I don’t ask for a tips. If you’re in the fair market, this book is also very worthwhile!

-Louie

Indoor and outdoor shows

Show business is funny. In less 24 hours you can go from performing outdoors in the full sun (I’m not complaining, I love outdoor gigs):

To performing indoors at a really cool theater!

While both shows are similar, there are things that I do indoors that I don’t do outdoors and things I do outdoors that I don’t do indoors. There are reasons for that, the audiences are different. Inside I can take a little bit of time with things, so I can do some slower tricks. Outdoors everything is a bit quicker and I’m a little more aggressive when I perform.

I enjoy indoors and outdoor performing, and both have their own sets of advantages and disadvantages. As a performer you need to learn what material of yours works in each situation.
-Louie

The Comedy Helpline

I picked up the book The Comedy Helpline recently and read it while I was stuck in line for two hours to get an oil change!

This is an interesting little book, kind like Wayne Dobson‘s book 50 Shades of Gold, that has a lot of little tips in it. It’s not a “how to” for comedy magic, but will make you think about a thing or two. I’m glad I read it.

-Louie

Props in Real Life!

There are some props that have always baffled me as they don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. The props for the Rice, Orange and Checkers trick is one of them. Below is a Rings n’ Things set that I own:

The middle container is the rice vase where you fill with rice, then rice turns into an orange. At the hotel I’m at, I found what I think it’s supposed to be in real life:

I don’t think anyone has really used containers like that in my lifetime, but I found what they rice vase is supposed to look like! I now only slightly less dislike the Rice, Orange and Checkers trick.

-Louie