Tricks – Page 70 – MagicShow.Tips

Hat Coil preparation

I’ve got a few summer camp shows this week. Yesterday I mentioned that I use a Hat Coil in my summer camp show.

Last night I was getting them ready, so here’s how I prep them. I start by removing the inner brown cardboard from the hat coil. Then I take a bit of the middle and I crumple it into a ball. That ball then gets shoved into the middle of the hat coil. That makes it easier to pull out when I’m ready to produce it.

Next I cut off some of the outer layer and throw it away. I use tape to secure the end. The reason that I do that is because the hat coil slows down a lot towards the end and the last bit just takes forever. By cutting off a little bit is makes it a little punchier:

It takes about 10 minutes to do 7 -10 of them, so it’s pretty quick.

Now I’m good to go for the week!

-Louie

Magic Mondays in Seattle

In the Seattle area we have a show called Magic Mondays. This is essentially a magic open mic, and a great resource for local magicians to work on material, or just have a chance to perform in front of a real audience. This show has been running for years and has a built in fan base, and the audience came back when the show returned after 2 years off during the pandemic.

Last night we got to see Jim Earnshaw perform some coin magic, then David Regal’s Will The Socks Match. I really liked the sock trick!

Next we had Frederick Turner doing a “do as I do” style card trick, with a bell as the transition prop. I really liked the used of the bell and it was great signal at the end of the trick.

In the show was a new to the Seattle area performer, David Hirata. He did some great rope magic, card magic and was a lot of fun to watch!

Finally we had Master Payne who did his fabulous coin in bottle routine. He’s going to be doing a presentation at FISM in a couple of weeks and will be doing this routine, so he was practicing it.

Last night’s show was solid show and best of all, it’s FREE to the audience!
This is a great show to catch is you’re in the Seattle area on the second Monday of the month at Third Place Books (Ravenna).
-Louie

Summer Day Camp Shows…

When I was a lot younger I used to do a ton of summer day camps. By a lot, I mean 2-3 a day all summer. Now I do about a dozen or two a summer. I really enjoy doing them, however I’m trying to get 5-14 day contracts and having a single day camp show can get in the way of booking those longer contracts.

Here’s my case from one that I recently did:

While this show isn’t what I would consider what “my art” is, it still has a lot of things in it that I find interesting. One of those is my hat coil routine. It runs about 5 mins and is what currently is closing the show. There’s not much to it, it uses a hat, electric deck, two loose cards and a hat coil.

A while ago I had a use for hat coils and had bought a bunch of them, then stopped doing the routine, it just wasn’t playing how I wanted it to. So they sat for a while and I decided I wanted to get rid of them, so I started throwing a couple in my case to try to find a use for them. Over a few years I eventually came up with a routine that works.

One the surface, hat coils are expensive at about $4-$5 each retail plus any shipping. However, I had bought a bunch of them initially, so I didn’t pay that much for them. Now whenever I’m at magic swap meets, frequently I can find them and pay virtually nothing for them. Enough old time magicians have these in their collections to keep me doing this routine for a while! Even if I have to pay retail, the routine is worth it!

-Louie

Medina/Chanin/Rivera Shell Game Set

Yesterday was an exciting day at the post office, I had one of Rolando Medina’s Chanin/Rivera shell game sets arrive and an extra set of peas!

These are made from the original mold and look great!

I like the shape of this shell with it’s high top. It covers any flash if your fingers have a gap at the back of the shell. The shape of the shell really poops the pea out the back nicely!

I have several sets of shells made from this mold:

What I like the Medina Set is that it looks semi realistic, less like plastic that’s pretending to be a shell than the other sets. I’m home for a couple of weeks doing local shows that are all stage shows, so I won’t be able to try them out for real until I hit the road…but I’m excited to try them!

-Louie

Watching Audience Magic…

I don’t get it when magicians are annoyed when people in the audience want to show them a magic trick. If I was guessing it comes down to an ego thing. When I’m doing roving close up magic, I always let them show me their trick. Sometimes you’ll be surprised at what they show you…usually it’s just the 21 card trick.

Occasionally I get to see this two card change:

However sometimes you get to see an amazing trick, this is probably what I’d consider the greatest trick I’ve ever had someone in the audience show me!

Letting someone from the audience have their moment makes you a generous performer. Now there are times where it’s inappropriate to have them do a trick, but in 95% of times when they offer there’s really no reason for you not to let them show you the trick aside from you being worried that someone will steal your spotlight.

-Louie

Ending to a Card Set…

I’m trying to decide which is a better ending for a routine with a deck of cards:

1: Ending with the deck back in new deck order
2: Ending with all the backs in the deck of cards different (rainbow deck)

They are similar in effect in a very broad sense, visually all the cards are not how they should be. However the effects are different. When the backs are different it’s a transformation and the when they’re in order it’s a transposition.

The other question is whether to do both effects or just one? It’d be easy to get the second effect after the first one with a deck switch. That would make the color changing backs the kicker effect to the cards in order. I think I’ll just have to try it each way and figure out what I like…

-Louie

My Fav Flower Trick!

This video of a magic trick came across my social media feed:

It’s not a deep mystery, but I’ve watched it maybe 6 or 7 times and it makes me smile every time!

I’m not sure how or why you’d use it in a show, but I love that someone came up with it, wrote it up in a book and many years later someone else made one!
-Louie

Horizontal Ambitious Card – 3rd Phase

A few weeks ago I posted about how I’ve started doing the ambitious card effect with the cards spread across the table (read it here). I’ve added a third phase:

The ending with it in the card box is a great third phase.

I have changed the second phase a little bit since I made the video above. I’m putting the selected card second from the top of the deck. What I noticed was happening most of the time was at the second phase, people would very quickly point to the top card. When they do that, I show it’s not there and remove that card. Then I proceed as in the video and it’s getting a great reaction. If the don’t immediately point to the top card, I do the reveal with a double lift and that sets me up for the third phase.

I’ve also made a change to the third phase. I’m setting the card on the table (after the switch) and having them put it into the deck.

-Louie

Ink Hole Coin Trick

I just stumbled across a video of the trick Ink Hole and I really like it!

Here’s what the trick has going for it:

it’s not a card trick. Yes, I know there are plenty of tricks similar to this with a card and hole. My thinking is the less tricks that I do that don’t use cards, the better. I’m not anti card trick, however for texture in the show, if I can avoid a card, I do!
It’s very visual and in a strange way!
it happens in front of your body and not on a table.

What I don’t like about it is that there is (as far as I can tell) a requirement that you wear a black shirt. This isn’t a deal breaker, but it is definitely a consideration.

I’m on the fence about getting it, it’s more the wardrobe condition that’s keeping me from ordering it.

Even if I don’t get it, I still think it’s a really cool effect!

-Louie

Library Magic Show

There was a time many years ago when I would do about 75 library shows in a summer. This year I think I’m doing 5, however I’m staying very busy performing in other markets. Yesterday I performed at one of the first libraries that I ever performed at!

The pic was taken as I was setting up and people were trickling in, we ended up packing the place!

One of the great things about library shows is that they normally have a theme each year and you get to create with that theme. It makes creating really easy because you have rules you need to follow. In the case of a library it’s the theme of “outer space” or whatever.

Since I was only doing a handful of them I didn’t offer a theme this year. I do kinda miss writing a 45 minute show every year and taking it from nothing to a a polished show! Those skills have really helped me with creating material for other venues!

-Louie