Tricks – Page 130 – MagicShow.Tips

Seal It Up!!!!

One of the two new routines I’m working on this week is my cracker routine. It’s a card trick with a cracker and it’s got a long way to go, but made some huge strides. Basically it’s card trick with saltine crackers. One of the things that it’s lacked is an ending.

The other day I was having breakfast with some other performers at the fair and we were brainstorming and one of them suggested that at the end the signed cracker reappear inside a sealed cracker packet. I liked the idea, but didn’t think I’d be able to come up with a loading system that would work using the limited tools and materials I have with me.

Luckily I kept my eyes open and saw a pie lid that worked perfectly for what I wanted to do. I built a cracker packet loading device and I’m happy to report that the loader is working great!!!

Keep on Tweakin’

One of the new bits that I added to the show this week was a fishing pole that the reel popped off when someone tried to turn it. It began as an accident when a kid broke my fishing pole, and I decided to turn it into a bit.

What I did was epoxy magnets to the reel and pole, so when the kid cranked them, they came apart. It was a quick and dirty fix and lasted several days, but last night a kid dropped the reel when it came apart and the magnet popped off. I liked the simplicity of a magnet to make it work, but I didn’t like that the reel didn’t turn at all.

Right now I’ve got the glue drying on the second version of the reel. This one is going to be attached by a snap. I went to the local Walmart and picked up a the biggest snap I could find and epoxy’d it in place. Hopefully the snap will allow the reel to turn a couple times before it pops off . We’ll see how this turns out…

Finding the Silver Lining…

While working on the Object in Ball of Yarn, recently I 3D printed a fishing reel to reel in the yarn. Every time I used it for the first few shows I worked the reel. Yesterday I decided to let a kid reel in the reel. Guess what happened? Within two cranks, the kid snapped the reel off the fishing pole!

When that happened, I was bummed out, however I’m also smart enough to see the “silver lining” in the situation. When the kid broke the reel, it was funny. My thinking then shifted to, how can I make that happen every time?

This solution was pretty simple. I just epoxy’d a magnet on the pole and the reel. When someone goes to crank it, they come apart. It’s a simple , and effective solution. The bonus is that’s today’s new bit I’m working on for Day 3 of a new bit in the show every day.

Another Bonus Trick…

About a month ago I wrote about getting bonus tricks out of the tricks you are already doing (you can read the post here). These are little things that frequently happen and when they do, you can take advantage of them. The example I used was having a card selected, top change it, and have it signed. Most people don’t process that the card has changed, and they remember signing the card they picked, not that the one the one you switched it for.

Using this an idea that was inspired by a trick in the book Be More Funny by Christopher Barnes, I came up with this trick. Someone picks a card (5 of spades) and signs it. You could do a quick ambitious card sequence, then have a card selected from another deck. You say both cards will match, but they don’t, the second card is the 4 of spades. You rip out the middle spade of the 5 of spades to turn it into the 4 of spades. The audience is then amazed that the signed 5 of spades actually turns into a 4 of spades (still signed)

So how do we do this?

I have two methods. The first is simply to top change the card. The second is to use a gimmicked card, this card would be a five of spades, but the corners show the four of spades:

The gimmicked card is better if you want to do a trick with the card before you rip out the center pip and it will reinforce the idea that the card is still a 5 for a lot longer. You’ll have a hard time passing of a 4 as a 5 if they keep seeing the face.

I’m going to try to make up a few gimmicked cards this week and try them out!

Probably more ideas pop for magic tricks into my head while driving than anywhere else. One thing that fascinates me is magic that uses liquid. The main reason is that liquid has a set of rules it has to play by, and the audience understands that. Those rules also make it a challenge, which is why there aren’t a ton of tricks put out that use liquid.

The idea that popped into my head was to have a small set of Gozinta Boxes. These are a nested set of boxes where the outer box will fit inside the inner box. The trick is that boxes are opened and there’s a shot glass inside. You reassemble the boxes in the opposite order (inner box on the outside), then open the boxes again and there’s another shot glass. Both shot glasses fill up the interior of the boxes. You reassemble the boxes with the original outer box on the outside and for the finale, you open the boxes and it’s filled with whiskey, that you pour into the two shot glasses filling them!

As far as method goes, there’s a natural off beat after the second shot glass production that would be perfect for adding the liquid. I was thinking about several ways to seal a load to add into the box, however I think the best and most reliable way would be to simply switch one of the boxes. In theory all of the attention will be on the second shot glass, the production of the liquid is the topper to the trick.

I just ordered a few of the small Gozinta Boxes and will try it out soon!

Easy Way To Be Creative…

One of the hardest things to do is to sit down and try to come up with ideas. Your options are too broad, you need to narrow it down and give yourself some rules. Some examples would be doing trick with a dollar bill, or an animation that doesn’t use invisible thread.

When I travel I make videos of magic tricks using things that I find in my hotel room. Limiting the main prop of the trick to things in the room narrows your focus.

Another way to narrow your focus is to find one of the calendars online that lists all of the national days. For example today is National Coffee Day. You then create a magic trick for whatever today is.

Here’s an example of three tricks that use a coffee cup that I did for the tricks in a hotel video series:

Even More Cracker Action!

One of the great things about working at fairs is that you have a lot of chances to perform and work on new material. This trick with a cracker that I’ve written about here over the last couple of days has progressed nicely.

A big change I made is that instead of making the cracker reappear in an impossible location, I’m restoring the broken cracker. After I catch the cracker and smash it, I’m putting the crumbs into an envelope and offer it to the kid as a prize. I then rip open the envelope and dump out a restored cracker! I’m still doing the restored cracker with the wrong name, but this restoration phase is new.

The other change is that I was doing a pass to bring the signed cracker to the top. Doing a classic pass with crackers is really hard to do invisibly, so I’m doing a side steal. A side steal is sooo much easier with a cracker than a card!

The final change was switching from a Ritz Cracker to a Saltine Cracker. A saltine is less greasy and the signature shows up better on the white cracker.

All of these small changes are starting to add up a bigger results.

More Crackers…

At the fair yesterday, I tried the cracker magic trick in my preshow. It went well, and the audience liked it. That said, there are a couple things that I need to improve on. The big one is writing a script, and the other prop management.

For prop management, this will come with doing it. I had to dig around too much looking for the cracker or bowl, that’s mostly because I don’t know what I’m doing. There’s not a clear “flow” to the routine as far as what goes where.

For a script, I basically said something like:

I couldn’t find a store that sold a deck of cards in this town. I ended up having to buy something to try to make it work. So we’ll do a cracker trick! Pick a cracker, remember it, put it back and mix them up. Is that your cracker!!

How about you write your name on it, so we can tell it apart.

It goes into this bowl, we’ll cover it up and shake it to mix them. When I count to three you’ll toss the crackers into the air and I’ll reach out and catch one, it’ll be your cracker. If I can’t do that you win what’s inside this cup.

One…Two…Three!

Was that your cracker (show crushed cracker)?

Wait, there’s the cup…inside the cup is a cracker…read the name…Oh, that’s not your name.

We’ll make it disappear. All I need is some magic dust…and that makes it change into your name!!!

It’s a pretty bare bones script, not much going on. I’ll try to “punch it up” a little bit later today.

Magic Crackers…

During the three hour drive from the airport to the hotel, I started thinking about the card trick using crackers. I think it’s going to be more than a “card trick” with crackers. It’s going to a magic trick with crackers. Here’s how I’m thinking it’s going to flow: Someone picks a cracker and signs … Continue reading “Magic Crackers…”

During the three hour drive from the airport to the hotel, I started thinking about the card trick using crackers. I think it’s going to be more than a “card trick” with crackers. It’s going to a magic trick with crackers.

Here’s how I’m thinking it’s going to flow:

Someone picks a cracker and signs it. The signed cracker is mixed with the other crackers into a bowl. The crackers are flung into the air, you reach out and grab a cracker in your fist! When you open your hand it’s just crumbs. An envelope is opened and inside is a cracker…with the wrong name on it. You put the cracker in your hand, and say you’ll make it disappear. You reach into your pocket for some “magic dust” which the audience thinks is the cracker you just put into your hand that you are crunching up. When you open your hand, the cracker is still there, but it’s now got the correct signature on it!

This routine above has a few twists and turns into it. I think if I started doing this, it would change a bit with doing it. The one huge downfall of t he routine would be how messy it is. This is easily fixed with a drop cloth.

Finally An Answer…

Sometimes I get an idea that pops into my head, but is hard to try out. A while ago I had an idea for a trick that happens over video chat. The effect is that you mail someone a new deck of cards and a note for them to video chat you. You have them shuffle the deck of cards, they remove one card and you tell them what it is. This can be repeated multiple times, and they can keep the deck and examine it all they want.

The idea for this was sparked when I saw someone selling The Dream Deck by John Cornelius. I don’t think it’s a huge secret that is uses a deck that’s marked so that it can be read through a red filter.

The biggest problem with trying out this idea is that the style of marked deck is very expensive. For me it didn’t make financial sense to spend that much on an idea I’ll probably never do.

Then yesterday I was at the Magic Castle swap meet and someone had The Dream Deck for sale and I got it for cheap! I’m happy to report that you can read the marks over video chat…sort of. The whole trick hinges on the quality of the cameras and connection. You need a high resolution camera and connection that will give you a high def streaming image.

I’m glad I got an answer to my idea, and I’m pretty excited about it. I just ordered a marking kit to work on furthering this idea…