After doing my “Face Peel” ending to my card routine, I’m really liking it! People take the card sticker and put it on their phone cases, on their shirts or in this lady’s case, on her purse!
I think it’s a way better souvenir than just handing them a card at the end of your card routine.
-Louie
In less than two weeks I’m showcasing at a booking event and my retractable banner is missing. I needed to order another one ASAP, but of course, I’m on the road and can’t find the original files.
Working off a picture of the old banner, I had it recreated with a couple of more recent pictures and some new credits.
Having to remake the banner was sort of a blessing in disguise as it needed to be redone anyway. That and the retractable base was getting pretty banged up, it didn’t work very smoothly.
If I was at home I had pictures on a hard drive that I would have rather used, but sometimes you just need something that’s “good enough”. This will get me through the event and with banners at about a hundred bucks, if I only use it once before I redesign it, it’s totally worth it!
-Louie
Well, I’m back to my ProMystic Color Match set. This one is honestly the best solution for the trick in my opinion.
I like that I can simply switch on the receiver and it’s ready to go. I can quickly test that the receiver is one and working during my routine by lifting one of the pens while I talk and replacing it into the cup. Also I think the cup is a better display for the pens onstage than them sitting on a flat surface.
The other thing that I like is that I don’t need to use a reset button like on the Murphy’s Magic Anverdi Color Match set. I think that button and the pens timing out is a solution to a problem (for me) that doesn’t need solving. If someone changes their mind, you simply get a new signal. Getting the signal if someone uses a pen a second time is very helpful. It lets you know something is wrong and instead of giving you no signal, it gives you some information to work with. Personally, I’d rather have a little bit of info, than none.
So my conclusion is that the Murphy’s Magic Anverdi Color Match set works fine, just not for how I do my show, and I’m sticking to the ProMystic set.
-Louie
I still believe in magic clubs and that they are a great way to learn magic and build community. Last night I brought some of the performers (Bri Crabtree, Dennis Forel and Mickey O’Conner) from the fair to the Fresno Magic Club.
Dennis Forel did some amazing stunts with a balloons, which is always my favorite!
And Micky O’Conner did a great bit with a jumbo coin
And we saw some great magic from the club members as well
I highly recommend looking up magic clubs when you travel! It’s also always nice to see what tricks and styles are popular in different areas.
-Louie
Not too long ago I wrote about simply having a description of your show on a schedule being more effective at putting butts in seats than your name. Here’s the daily sign on the stage that I’m performing at for a 12 day contract:
My show’s name is the only one that has any description of what it is. It’s the only one where if someone sees the sign, they are going to go out of their way to see (if they want to see a magic show). The other two acts with no description probably won’t make it on people’s mental schedules.
Sure having just your name is great for your ego, but it doesn’t help with crowds. I’d rather have “magic show” than “Louie Foxx”.
The name that I gave my show is, “Louie Foxx’s One Man Side Show“, however usually either Louie Foxx or One Man Side Show made it on the sign. It was my agent’s idea to call the show The Magic of Louie Foxx for the fair/festival industry. It’s really made a difference in my starting crowds!
-Louie
I figure I should try the Murphy’s Magic Color Match sets in a show…since I own them. I don’t like the markers that the set comes with, so I had to pull out the gimmicks and put them into a new set of pens.
On a side note, on the Murphy’s Magic Color Match Video, they mention removing the gimmicks, but then don’t talk about it…at least not that I watched. I will say I didn’t watch the whole video, the routines don’t interest me right now, so it could be buried in those instructions. It’s not listed (that I saw) on the table of contents.
I’ll give them a try later today and we’ll see how it turns out…
-Louie
Currently I’m on the first half of a twelve day contract in Fresno, CA. I used to do Promystic’s Color Match in my show a while ago and I’m recently cycling it back into the show. At the beginning of the run I had one of the pens start to do strange things, so I ordered a replacement part for it…but that doesn’t help me for the rest of my current contract.
Luckily, Hocus Pocus is only 5 minutes from where I’m performing, so a quick trip there and I picked up one of Murphy’s Magic’s Anverdi Color Match sets.
I honestly don’t think that the Color Match that Muprhy’s Magic sells is Anverdi’s…especially when at the beginning of the video they show how it’s different. It’s Murphy’s way of justifying something that may be an ethical dilemma.
I do like how the Murphy’s Magic set has an auto cycle off for the signals. That’s handy in 91% of instances, however in that remaining 9% it makes it harder on you as the performer. Yes, they do have a work around, but it’s not really practical for me. Method wise, I guess it’s solid, I’ve only practiced it, because somehow my Promystic gimmick that was acting funky, magically started work fine once I bought the Murphy’s Magic set.
While a few bucks more, I still prefer the Promystic Color Match set, I think it more solidly built. I also like that I can easily have two thumpers operate at the same time, where I don’t recall them mentioning that using two was possible with the Murphy’s Magic set.
I think I’m going to keep using my Promystic set as long as I can, as I prefer how it works. It could just be me being old and stuck in my ways…
-Louie
A long time ago I was playing with the Anthony Linden’s Suit Jacket Escape routine. This is an “in and out” type of escape routine, and it uses the shackles that have the giant oval ring between the chains that lock your wrist. Anthony’s routine is great, however I visually don’t like the look of the shackles with the big oval in it.
What I did to get away from the shackles is I bought a set of “jump cuffs” from Cannon’s Great Escapes. Jump Cuffs are handcuffs that can be (minimally) examined and you can instantly open them. I was going to use them for the “in and out” part of the routine, but I couldn’t get over the noise of the arm ratcheting. Also it took a long time to take them off and put them on.
The solution to the time and noise was remembering the method used in Harry Anderson’s Cufflinks routine from his book Wise Guy and it was also a commercially available product. Part of the Cuff Links routine is a thumb tie style bit with handcuffs instead of your thumbs being bound.
What I did was take my Jump Cuffs and gimmick them like the gimmicked cuffs for Cuff Links. This gave me a really cool gimmicked set of handcuffs, that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else use. Unfortunately the routine didn’t play for me and I eventually sold the uniquely gimmicked handcuffs about 10 years ago.
Now I have an idea for a routine that would used the Jump Cuffs with Cuff Links gimmick. I just bought a new pair of Jump Cuffs from Daytona Magic and am going to add the Cuff Links gimmick to them. We’ll see if my new idea for a routine works…
-Louie
Sometimes it feels like I’m perpetually cleaning out my office. This time I found a super rare Kraft’s Famous Magic Kit. This is a punch out magic kit that was created by Harlan Tarbell!
From what I’ve heard (mostly from Richard Kaufman) is that there are two versions of this punch out kit. The 1936 version for Morton’s Salt which has Tarbell’s name on the cover and the version that I have from 1938 for Kraft which doesn’t have Tarbell’s name anywhere on it.
I suspect that the Kraft version is a bit more rare than the Morton version as I’ve found many instances of that one being sold, but I can’t find a single mention of the Kraft version. I’m guessing since it lacked Tarbell’s name, less people saved them.
If this is something you’re interested in, I just added it to my Used Magic For Sale page!
The dismantling of my Virtual Magic Show is continuing. Today I took apart the spinning shelf that held all of my props for the show.
As the show progressed, I simply rotated the shelf counter clockwise to get to the next set of props. From an efficiency standpoint, it was great! It was also nice to glace at the holders, and if there was an empty one, then a prop wasn’t set for the show or was missing!
I’m getting rid of the board, and keeping all the holders. If I need to recreate this, it won’t be hard to do.
-Louie
Click here for more information about learning to build your own magic props.
