Tricks – Page 48 – MagicShow.Tips

Generic Kid’s Show

Last week I did a library gig, it was my, first one since last summer and it was a lot of fun. They had me doing a show for kids on spring break and had me do a fun, non themed show.

The show has a very simple set up, just a case, banner and my sound system. The show is my generic kid show.

Here’s a peek into the show’s case. That’s a 45 minute show with about 10-12 minutes of additional emergency material. The emergency material is for when the audience is a lot younger than what the show is designed for. I’ll swap in the emergency material for things that aren’t for kids under 5 or 6 years old.

That material for younger kids is considered emergency as my show is sold as for being for school aged kids. If you’ve worked libraries at all, then you know the audience will frequently skew younger than the suggested age range and it’s important to be prepared for that.

-Louie

Cool Moments in the Show

One of the great things about performing at higher profile gigs is that there frequently great photographers there. That’s one of the cool things about performing at the Moisture Festival, they have photographers who are experienced in taking pictures of variety acts. More than just having experience with variety acts, they usually get to see an act multiple times, so they can figure out where the moments are in your show!

Louie Foxx at the Moisture Festival in seattle — Photo Credit: Sanderling Photography

The picture above was taken right after the guy in the middle guessed the girls card! This is a 6-8 minute routine that I do where someone from the audience guesses another person’s card. This used to be a longer routine with three people, but I’ve shortened it to just two and it’s a much tighter routine.

Another change that I made to the routine a few years ago was switching to jumbo cards.

That makes the end of the routine really pop for the entire audience when the card is finally shown!

-Louie

Poof Too!

A few weeks ago I performed in a show called Poof Too! in Hermosa Beach, CA. This is show with stage magicians and one close up magician. I was the MC in the show and had a performance spot in the show.

It was great performing with David Zirbel, Simone Turkington, Mark Furey, Shawn McMaster and Alexander Great & Pamela! Everyone was super professional and great to deal with as an MC and fun to hang out with! When I was approached to be in this show by Dennis Forel, the first thing I asked was “is it a fun show”, not how much does it pay. Personally a fun show is more important to me than money (don’t get me wrong, I still gotta pay the bills).

I’d been doing comedy gigs before this one and in a comedy club I have a lot of gear. However a show where the illusionist is packing up crates of huge illusions, and I just wheel my case out, I feel like I have nothing!

I love performing with other magic acts. One thing I did years ago (close to two decades ago) was to start to work on a show that I can do when I’m sharing the stage with other magicians and not have to really worry about duplication. Sure there will always be things that no matter how different they will seem the same to an audience. A rope trick will usually feel like almost any other rope trick no matter how different it is. For me, just trying to have unique or less common tricks in the show makes my show much more versatile.

-Louie

Getting Paid to Work on my Show!

Last week I was working with a buddy and one of my creative partners at a fair in Arizona. It’s always great when I do a gig with him because we work on our shows while at the gig!

He hadn’t see me do my linking pin / thumb tie routine before and with his help the routine made a huge leap forward!

If you don’t have a brainstorm group or someone to bounce ideas off, you’re missing out of growing your show quickly. I highly recommend hanging out with other performers that you like or trust and getting their input on your show!

-Louie

Preshow’ing your show

One of the great things about performing at fairs is getting to see all of the other acts at the fairgrounds! You can learn a lot from watching other acts!

One of the huge lessons is watching everyone’s preshow audience build/warm up. The different act have different goals with their starting audience. Some want as many people as possible and some want to select their audience and try to get the people who aren’t into what they do to leave. Neither approach is right or wrong, but which ever way you do it, it should be intentional!

Tomorrow my week starts with performing at the Moisture Festival in Seattle. This is a variety arts festival and the shows are in a theater, so I don’t get to try to select my audience. I get to perform for whoever bought a ticket. This festival is a blast, so it’ll be fun!

-Louie

Spirit Rapping Hand

A long time ago I made a mold of a vintage spirit rapping hand that I had acquired and then made a few hand out of resin. (You can read the post about it here).I sold them a long time ago, but someone contacted me asking me to make them one. I has some time, so I made him one:

It turned out well! These hands are kind of a pain to make, so it’s something I don’t offer on my online catalog. However if you want one, feel free to contact me and if I have some time available, I’ll gladly make you one!
-Louie

The Linking Ring Parade!

I finally got to see the physical copy of my fourth parade in the Linking Ring Magazine!

It’s got about a 10 magic tricks in it. I think I need to write at least one more parade for the Linking Ring so that I have an even five!

If you’re a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians check it out in the March 2024 issue!

-Louie

20 min magic show in 44 seconds

Last month I performed in a magic show in California with five other magicians. Here’s the highlight reel of my show:

@louiefoxx 20 min comedy magic show in 44 seconds! #hermosabeach #magic #comedymagic #california #louiefoxx #hoopandcup #balancing ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Also if you’re not following me on Tik Tok, shoot over there and give me a follow at tiktok.com/@louiefoxx!

-Louie

Economy Of Motion

When I was at Tokyo Disneyland at the magic shop, one of the things that stood out to me was how the demonstrator moved his hands. There was no wasted motion, it was very efficient.

One of the things with sleight of hand is Economy of Motion. You don’t want more motion than is necessary to do the sleight of hand, or you want to try to reduce motion. However that is with hidden motion, and it doesn’t necessarily apply to the visible motions that are made openly. Sometimes doing something like taking a card and putting it into the deck doesn’t need to look efficient or slick. It can look sloppy and that sloppiness can hide the sleight of hand, or enhance the effect.

A good example of where I try to be less efficient is when I do card to wallet. I used to be soo efficient with removing the card from the wallet that some of the effect was lost. Now I take my time opening the wallet and fumble while pulling out the card. That reinforces that the card doesn’t fit easily into the wallet, so I couldn’t have easily snuck it into it!

Take a peek at what you do and figure out when to have as few motions as possible and when you need more!

-Louie

Beast’s Transformation!

When I was at Tokyo Disneyland one of their new attractions is the Beauty and the Beast ride. At one point in it the Beast turns into a human and it was one of the most magical things that I’ve seen in person with my eyes!

It’s super cool, however something like this would be unrealistic in 99.99999% of any magic shows as the staging/lighting it would take to do it wouldn’t travel well…or handle being moved very well. That said, I think the bar of what magic tricks can be is being raised by things that aren’t presented in magic shows. There’s soo much amazing stuff that’s just out there for the general public that it proves Arthur Clarke’s third law.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

We’re leaving the days of having a bad trick with a good presentation being acceptable, and entering a world where you need a good trick with a good presentation. Honestly, I would argue that we’ve been in that world for at least a decade and most magicians have just been unwilling to accept it!

-Louie