Category: Tricks

Custom Made Vanishing Birdcage!

I just had my first custom made birdcage arrive! It’s the cage in the middle in the picture below:

vanishing birdcage

It’s the pretty much right in between an Owen Vanishing Birdcage and the Summers/Riser Baby Lindy Vanishing Birdcage.

vanishing birdcage

The middle size is great so far (I’ve only practiced with it). I like that it’s visually larger. I like the size of the Owen cage, however it’s just a tad too long for my sleeve and I need to ditch it really quickly after the vanish. Where the smaller Summers/Riser cage can live in my sleeve for a while. The new middle size is just short enough so I don’t feel like I need to ditch it right away!

I can’t wait to use it for an audience!

-Louie

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.

magic trick with 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

Reducing Magic Clutter!

One of the things I’m trying to do is carry around less stuff. For example, for a 45 mins show, I used to travel with 60+ mins of material. That’s a habit from when I was younger and the time it took to do routines would vary wildly show to how. With years and thousands of shows under my belt, I’m much more consistent with the minimum time that routines take.

Here’s my set up from a recent show at a comedy club:

Comedy club magic show

In the past, my table top bin would be filled with soo much extra crap that I never used. That’s just extra weight I’m lugging around. Now there are only two extra tricks that I’m travelling with.

Here’s the what my two prop bins look like:

The two extra routines I have are the gypsy thread and my ACAAN with a jumbo deck and I rarely use those. Frequently I’m finding myself cutting a planned routine out of the show because I’m running long!

Having less clutter in my gear is super helpful for reducing set up and tear down times and having less stuff onstage makes everything much more efficient!

-Louie

Pi Day Magic Trick

One of the things I do to try to keep creative is come up with tricks for holidays. While Pi Day 3.14 isn’t a traditional holiday, it’s a theme that I can create a trick for. Here’s a counting trick using Pi Day as the theme.

“We’ll the first 5 digits of Pi which are 3.1415, without the decimal, so we’re using: 31415”

“Let’s start on the first digit, so touch the three. Now you’ll spell “Pi Day” jumping one number per letter. You can move forward, or backwards for each jump, you just can’t jump from end to end. Go ahead and start jumping now.”

“Pi is a number that never ends and I’m going to guess you’re not on either end, so eliminate the 3 and 5. That leaves us with the 1, 4, and 1.”

“Using the number you’re touching, jump that many times, forward or backwards.”

“I’m guessing you’re not on the first number one. That leaves us with a 4 and 1.”

“Using the number you’re not touching, jump that may times.”

“You’re on the number one!”

There you to a simple trick that could be used as a social media video or as newsletter content!

-Louie

Brass Magic tricks!

Recently I acquired a whole bunch of brass magic tricks. This appears to be all stuff from the early 2000’s and a lot of it was really tarnished.

brass magic tricks: flying coins, ring casket, bill tube, screwed up

I spent some time and elbow grease to clean them up a little bit. Below is a comparison of the two cups from a set of Flying Coins, one before and one after cleaning.

flying coins brass magic trick

I like a nice patina on things, but sometimes patina just look funky. These look a lot better after a quick cleaning!

-Louie

Finger Off Extreme

I love fun little sight gags and Finger Off Extreme by Luca Bono is FANTASTIC! It’s a silly little gag where you pull you finger off.

@louiefoxx Sleight of hand!! #sleightofhand #magic #magictrick #pinky #degloved #louiefoxx #brokenbone #ouch #wtf ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What’s great is the visual of the bone is soo unexpected. The trick isn’t hard to do, you do need to palm the piece, but that’s really not a big deal. The props are well made, the packaging is fun (if that’s important to you).

I highly recommend Finger Off Extreme!

You can get it at: https://kranzomagic.myshopify.com/products/finger-off-extreme-by-luca-bono

-Louie

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.

3d printing magic tricks

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

Cards for Color Changing Card Backs

When I was buying some props at a Walmart I came across the Nertz game that is put out by Bicycle. It’s got different colors of the rider back cards. These would be great for making color changing card tricks. The only downside is that these appear to only come in jumbo index.

Cards for color changing backs magic trick
Cards for color changing backs magic trick

and a funny little thing that I noticed is on the back it lists all the colors and which ones are new. It lists red as a new color?!

Cards for color changing backs magic trick

If you’re working on a color changing card effect, I think it’s worth it to pick up a pack of these!

-Louie