Uncategorized – Page 2 – MagicShow.Tips

Rope and Coat Hanger

Years ago I came up with a way to do the silk thru ring trick with a coat hanger where the silk goes from the triangle to the hook of the hanger. My method uses a reel and is a very visual moment. I’m trying to recreate that but using using a rope instead of the silk and reel.

Here’s what I came up with.

@louiefoxx Magic with shapes! #magictrick #magic #shapes #coathanger #trick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Using a rope in place of the silk solves a problem but it also makes the trick less visual. I think that trick is fine when you take the trade off, it makes the trick much more practical in an outdoor environment like a fair. I’m not sure that this is a method that I’ll use, but hopefully it’s a step that will get me closer to something better!

-Louie

Movie Money Magic!

If you follow me over on TikTok.com/@Louiefoxx you may have noticed that I have posted a lot of videos of magic using the Movie Money fake bills. These are an upgrade from the old stage bills that didn’t remotely look like money, or were in strange sizes. The Movie Money looks very realistic and just have small slugs that say “copy” or something like “for motion picture purposes”, other than that they look like real money. They don’t feel like real money as they’re printed on paper.

I’ve come up with many tricks using these bills and what makes them better than using real money is their texture it better suited to card techniques than the real money. There is a lot of variation on the paper between different manufacturers, so some will be thinner and unusable and others will be just right in thickness and texture.

Another bonus is that all the bills within a value have the same serial number. That eliminated the problem of posting a trick to social media and some dopey kid watches the video a dozen times looking for discrepancy and notices that a serial number on a bill changes or is repeated. When all the $10’s are the same that’s not an issue.

I’m working on a book with magic with these bills and it will come with all the necessary bills to do each trick. You won’t have to hunt around for the correct quality of bill or have to make the gimmicks yourself.

I’m hoping to have this ready in the next month or two, so keep an eye out for it!

-Louie

Look Good On Stage!

I’m really glad that in 2020 I learned to do stage make up.

Coming out of comedy rooms, it’s something that people don’t really do. What I do is very basic, it’s just to take shine off of my face, so nothing crazy. It does make a huge difference when performing in the lights at a theater.

If you don’t know how to do it, learn to do it! I asked a friend of mine who is a stage actor and he referred me to someone who gave me a lesson.

-Louie

Just a Heads Up…

In the March and April I’m heading out of the country for a couple of gigs. That means that I won’t be able to work on or ship any products ordered during that time. The dates I’m away are:

March 3 – March 13
March 27 – April 10

If there’s anything you NEED, please plan ahead and order in advance.

Also while I’m away, you can get many of magic products at Hocus-Pocus.com!

-Louie

Roving Mentalist Gig

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I had an upcoming gig where I was booked as a roving mentalist. The gig went well, the thing I struggled with was how to introduce myself, as they specifically wanted “Mentalists” as their roving acts. I figured it out pretty quickly, but it took a few tries to come up with an opening line that made sense.

Here’s what the audience saw for props.

Obviously they didn’t see them laid out like this, they were in my pockets.

Here’s what the full set of props looked like:

The new thing that I added for this gig was ProMystic’s Flux. I really like it, however in trying to come up with an “out” for it when it fails, there’s not a lot to do to get yourself out of it. The easy solution is to simply have two of them, if one fails, I simply get the other one.

I have some ideas for how I’d like to use this onstage…

-Louie

Applause Please 2: The Encore

Another batch of Applause Please 2: The Encore will be ready soon! This is the prop that I use for the object in light bulb effect. Traditionally this effect uses a lamp onstage, but I’ve changed that lamp to an applause sign!

I don’t have these in stock all the time as the outer applause box I don’t make, Phil over at Ackerly Builds currently makes them for me. That means that I get them in batches of about a dozen and those are then all gimmicked at the same time and offered for sale at the same time and usually sell out pretty quickly.

The current batch of Applause Please 2: The Encore can be preordered at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/applause-please-2-the-encore/
The estimated ship date is March 3rd, 2025.

-Louie

Working With Cool People!

One of the challenges working as a magician is that it can be a very solitary experience. You travel alone and frequently perform alone. The other night I got to work with Brian Ledbetter, who I’ve known for years. It was great to BS in the green room.

In my off seaon (not summer) I’m usually working by myself, so this was a nice change. Gigs with friends are the best and I look forward to them!

-Louie

Trying a New Idea!

Sometimes I have an idea and I have no idea what an audience will think of it. That’s where open mics come in! I simply drove down to an open mic and gave the idea a try in front of real people.

My idea was for the card to pocket routine that I used to do. The second time the card goes to my pocket I wanted smoke to come out of my pocket, then reach in and pull the card out.

The smoke was easy, as a while ago I picked up a remote control smoke gimmick. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but knew if I didn’t get it that I’d come up with a cool idea for it and wouldn’t be able to find them. I just taped it inside of my pocket . When I tried it, it got the reaction I was looking for! It made the appearance of the card more of a moment.

If you have an idea that needs an audience, go find an open mic and give it a try!

-Louie

Theater Etiquette

A few days ago we went to see my secret favorite Christmas movie, which is Love Actually. This was at the Oregon Symphony and they played the music to the movie. This is a popular trend with movies like Harry Potter or Jurassic Park and it brings a lot of people out to see the symphony who might not normally go.

Love Actually in Concert by the oregon symphony

The problem is that there’s a lot of uneducated people about the etiquette for live shows. The big one for this was at the end of the movie. The movie ended and the symphony plays through the end of the credits. However once the credits started, about 1/3 of the audience got up and left while the symphony was still paying.

This was super disrespectful as the performance was still happening. I understand that there’s a certain muscle memory that you leave when the credits start if you’re at a movie theater. However the symphony was still actively playing.

It’s like someone leaving your magic show halfway through your closer to beat traffic. Honestly I felt really bad for the symphony. When the credits finished they remaining audience applauded them.

How does this relate to a magic show? Well, a lot of people have never been to a live show and don’t know the etiquette. You need to teach them. This can be done in several ways, with preshow announcements, during your show or whatever.

You need to let them know your expectations. You can’t expect people to not record your show if you don’t tell them not to.

-Louie

Protecting Your Original Magic!

Once a month I pop into popular online market places like eBay to see if there are any counterfeit or knock off products of mine. It’s been a while since one has been on eBay, but one recently popped up.

This particular eBay listing violated two parts of my registered intellectual property. The first was in the description it used my ad copy, which I registered with the US Copyright office.

Sites like eBay or AliExpress will pull stuff faster and 100% of the time (at least in my experience) when you have a registration number. I filed a copyright claim with eBay, which is super simple and takes less than 5 minutes.

Within about 48 hours I got an email from eBay confirming the item was removed!

Super simple, I’m surprised more magicians don’t file their ad copy and art with the US Copyright Office. It costs about $70 to file it and get your registration number.

Oh, the second way that this listing was violating my intellectual property was that “Louie Foxx” is trademarked, so the listing was violating my trademark. I could have included this violation with the copyright claim but didn’t. I like to save that one in case the item pops back up with different text, but still uses my name in the title or anywhere in the listing. I can get them a second strike for violating IP.

-Louie
PS Another good resource is Sara Crasson’s book Own Your Magic A Magicians Guide to Protecting Your Intellectual Property, which covers patents, trademarks, and copyrights. I highly recommend this book!