Prop Building – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Magic Show Pop Up Bins

Many magician use pop up bins for prop holders. These are basically fabric covered cardboard cubes that sit on your table and keep your props out of view. I’ve used a half size one, so only about six inches tall for many years. I needed to replace my old one and I learned that that don’t make the size I need anymore. The taller cube is too tall for me to sue, so I custom made myself one.

Here’s my old one, my new one is in the middle and a standard tall one:

Since I was making one, I could make one that is how I wanted it to be, not how they come from the store. Here’s a close up of the custom one that I made:

I wanted my bin to be slightly taller so my props don’t stick out above the front, so I made the front 8 inches tall. I also need to be able to easily get to things sitting on the bottom of the bin, so I made the back of it six inches tall.

I love the result of it! It’s exactly what I need, and I’m not compromising. The best thing is that it was really easy to make! My only regret is that I didn’t custom make one years ago!

-Louie
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Tinkertopia!!!

One of my favorite stores is in Tacoma, WA, it’s called Tinkertopia. It’s a reclaimed material store that resells this stuff for art.

They have soo much cool stuff, and I always find things that I can use as a part of a magic prop or for some other project.

One of the things that I found were some hinged plastic circles. You can see them on the counter in the above picture. They are 4 segments that are hinged to make circles. I’m thinking I’m going to use them for something similar to the hinged ruler figures that magicians used to do.

The challenge with a store like this is that once they sell out of something, you many never find it again. They had these hinged circles in three colors, so I bought two of each color for a total of six of them. I’m kinda regretting not buying them out of all of them, I have a strange feeling I’ll either need more for whatever idea I come up with, or I’ll fall in with whatever my idea is and want to make a backup and I won’t be able to find more.

Then there’s the possibility that I don’t come up with anything I like with them and end up throwing them away. That’s the gamble.

-Louie
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Prop Fixing Day

I was looking at my magic tables and they’re getting beat up. Two of them it’s just the the top fabric was getting worn out, but the third one was straight up beat to crap!

This is my stage table, and things sit on the top of it, so you don’t see the surface of it. As long as I was recovering my two tables that I work on, I might as well do this one.

Here’s all three tables with their new surfaces. Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner, it only took about 30 is mins to do all three of them and it’s not hard. I have a self adhesive surface I use.

Sometimes it’s hard to know when your props are getting worn out as it happens slowly and gradually. Every now and then you really need to give your stuff a good once over !

– Louie
Click here for more information about learning to build your own magic props.

Production Totes

When making deliveries, Amazon uses these totes to haul packages:

I don’t know if they’re common enough for people to recognize what they are. They collapse flat and I think they could be converted to a magic prop. It wouldn’t be hard to make one into a tip over trunk. You would also simply put a panel that flips up on the bottom and put it on a mirror base and you’re good to go.

The challenge is that I don’t think they’re quite super common knowledge like a milk crate was. Maybe in a couple of years…

-Louie
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Need a Coin Tray

The “need a penny” tray that I’ve been playing with for a little while has been getting good reactions. It was time to tweak the design to make it look better and slightly more deceptive. The new one (on the right) is next to the old one:

The two main changes that I made was that I beveled the edges of the tray and I printed the bottom portion in black. Here’s a few more views of it:

The beveled edged and black bottom make it look soo much thinner. This is a great example of why you should learn about all types of magic. Essentially I took some stage illusion principles and applied them to a close up magic prop to make it more deceptive. I guess reading Rand Woodbury’s Illusionworks book when I was a teenager finally paid off!

-Louie
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Harvesting Magnets and Shims

Whenever I get any product that comes in the fancy box that has a magnetic flap in it, I always rip out the magnets and metal shims before I recycle the boxes.

The magnets and shims are very thin, which makes them great for magic!

The round shims are perfect for adding t playing cards or dollar bills!

Look around you at product packaging that you would normally just get rid of. There’s tons of useful things, like clear, rigid plastic. I used that to make the gimmick for my signed cracker routine.
The round shims are perfect for adding t playing cards or dollar bills!

Look around you at product packaging that you would normally just get rid of. There’s tons of useful things, like clear, rigid plastic. I used that to make the gimmick for my signed cracker routine.

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Music Remote Holder

Once again my 3d printer saves me a big headache in getting something made! I need a holder for two Flic Buttons that someone from the audience will use to run a music cue for me during a comedy escape. I spent about 5 minutes designing a simple holder and then hit print!

Here’s what the finished prop looks like:

The piece on the left is the cover, however after putting the Flic Buttons into it, they pressure fit into it, so I don’t need the cover as they won’t fall out.

It’s really worth your time to learn to use basic 3d design software like TinkerCad even if you don’t have a 3d printer. You can design things and then email the file to someone else to print.

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Painting a Magic Prop…

One of the tricks I’m working on uses a fake lime slice. The one on the left is how I get them. It looks good, however the white rubs off fairly quickly and from a short distance it’s not obviously a lime.

For the one on the right I went to an art store and the lady there helped me pick out a paint to use that should be more permanent. So far the new white paint is holding up a lot better than the original paint.

Sometimes it’s the little things like white paint on a fake lime that makes a huge difference in the trick!

-Louie
Click here for more information about learning to build your own magic props.

3D Printing Magic

I can’t imagine life without my 3D printer! There’s many props that would have neve seen the light of day without it. Right now I’m working on a batch of my Take Up Reels.

These are the the first lock of the Take Up Reel that locks the string long. These would have been impossible to make without a 3D printer, or at least impossible to have at a reasonable price!

If you haven’t played with 3D printing, you can play with design software and try to make something without having a 3d printer. Websites like Tinkercad.com are easy to use. If you’ve never played with making your own designs, go to one of these sight and play with them, you’ll be surprised at what you can make!

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Hook For the Giant Linking Pins

One of the things that I’m trying to figure out for the Giant Linking Pin / Thumb Tie routine that I’m working on is what is the presentation hook. It’s the why am I showing this to the audience. This is usually the hardest piece of the puzzle to figure out when creating a routine.

I’d been doing it as “the first trick I ever learned“, but artistically, that’s pretty lazy. That premise is a good placeholder to get the routine onstage, but it’s now a good long term one (usually).

It hit me the other night, I personally have a needle phobia (in a medical setting). I could use that as the hook by saying that I did “exposure therapy” starting with carrying around safety pins in my pocket and eventually moved up to the giant pins. That tells the audience something real about me, and gets an unusual prop (the giant safety pins) into play.

I need to play with it more, but I think it’s a good idea…

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!