A few weeks ago when I was in Oaxaca, Mexico I saw a street show my a clown.
I was aware that Mexican and South American clowning is very different that in the USA or Canada. There’s a very “adult” style clowning in those areas that wouldn’t really play in the USA.
The clown did a long bit using a balloon as a penis and didn’t hide it with double entendre, he did straight up d*ck jokes with the balloon!
The late night crowd was with him and were enjoying the show. I’m not going to say the show was offensive, it was just very different from what we see north of the border!
The cool thing about his show was there was no dead time, the show always pushed forward!
My recent airplane reading was that I started the book The Psychology of Magic. I originally heard of this book from my buddy Chris Beason, and I picked up this copy back in June at Misdirection Magic Shop in San Francisco.
I’m not too far into the book, but so far it’s really interesting. In this book they’re using lab style testing for magic. The beginning of the book they’re using lab study type groups to learn more about card forces. It’s really interesting what results they came up with.
The other eye opening thing was a prediction that’s 1-4 or 1-100 has basically the same impact!
Last week was the final fair of my summer season. This fair is also two weeks, so I try to work on as much stuff as possible while I’m at this one as it’s my last chance to do a lot of shows in a short period.
One of the things I was working on is Tenyo’s Four Nightmares rope trick.
This routine is good, but I think it has the same weak spot as most rope routines, and that’s the lack of an ending. There’s no definite punctuation at the end of the trick.
Oh, I took out one of the phases of the routine and that’s the 3rd effect where you tie a knot and it disappears. It’s the weakest part of the routine and removing it doesn’t hurt the routine.
For the routine, I’m presenting it as simply that I’m going to do four tricks with the rope. I then name each trick as I do them. The fourth and final trick I call it “the end” and that has helped me sell the end of the routine. I’m not 100% happy with framing the routine this way, but it’s a starting point.
Also, if I’m going to keep doing this routine, I need to learn to make the gimmicks. The white rope will get very dirty very quickly…especially out on the fairgrounds!
A couple weeks ago when I was roving I threw a giant die into my bag. I was going to play with a hat load to produce it. I’ve done hat loads in the past and familiar with many techniques to get the giant die into my hat. I didn’t have a plan for the load, I just used the appropriate technique at the right time and if that opportunity didn’t present itself.
Here’s a highlight reel of some close up and the giant die production is in it:
I don’t know if this is something that I’ll actually add to my show, but it was fun to play with for a few days!
On this episode we welcome in the energetic Steve Langley. Over Zoom Steve tells us about his early beginnings as a chef and how that led to the creation of his juggling team the Fettucini Brothers.
He talks about his 30 year career, how paddle ball helped him along the way and how he transitioned to a totally different style of performing. A treat to be able to get to chat with Steve and we hope you enjoy it.
When I’m out performing at fairs in the summer, I can have a lot of down time in between shows. I try to be productive during those times. Last week I bought a ton of clocks and spent some time between shows gimmicking them!
I ended up being a photo opp for all the other performers as it looked like I had a little sweat shop going!
Using that bonus time I have during the day frees me up later in the day to do other things!
Today’s guest on the Moisture fest podcast is hilarious comedian Kermet Apio. We discuss how he got into comedy, what his kids think of his career and how he ended up winning one of the most prestigious, comedy competitions in all of North America.
We also discuss how a comedian might prepare for performing at the Moisture Festival and the differences between it and a comedy club audience. A great conversation with one of the great comedians in the northwest.
The best version of the princess card trick is Limited Edition by Gordon Bean. Having the thought of card disappear really solved the biggest problem with the trick, that’s that you couldn’t show the card they picked. When their card turns blank, it makes sense!
I just came across Disappeared Thought in magic junk bin purchase and I think it’s a better solution from a method standpoint to the effect in Limited Edition. One of the cool things about Mathieu’s method is that it allows you to show the full front and back of all the cards.
That got me thinking, what if I reversed the trick, so all the cards disappeared, and that led me to a strange trick, that would probably only be interesting to magicians.
Here’s the version that I came up with:
The ending with the 52 on 1 card isn’t a strong enough gag for a real audience, however I think it would do well for a group of magicians.
This week the Moisture Festival Podcast welcomes in actor, boxer and tap dancer Joe Orrach!
In this episode we talk to Joe about taking ballet classes in between making deliveries when he was younger to his current outreach where his builds self esteem with ex gang members!
This is a fantastic interview with an incredible person!
The new version of Applause Please is now available at Hocus-Pocus.com! Right now there are only five units available and they have them all, so if you want one, be sure to order one now!
I don’t know when I’ll be able to get more of these made. I probably won’t have time to make any more until after the summer.
Applause Please 2: The Encore Applause Please has been a hit of Louie Foxx’s show for about a decade! After releasing it to the magic community 8 years ago, the prop has gone through many changes based on feedback from magicians who use the trick and Louie’s pleased offer Applause Please 2: The Encore!
Louie has performed it for kids, adults and everything in between at libraries, school assemblies, comedy clubs, theaters, and on cruise ships! The basic effect is you use an applause sign that lights up when you step on the foot switch throughout your show. During your show something disappears and reappears inside the lightbulb inside of the applause sign!
The Applause Sign and base have been redesigned by MagicCrafter and built in high quality wood. The remote control units have been upgrade to be completely battery powered, so you don’t need to plug it into a wall, this makes it much more versatile than the original version!
Warm Up: You show an applause sign and light it up by stepping on a switch and the audience claps. When you look away the sign lights up on its own and the audience applauds. The applause surprises you and you look back at the sign just as it turns itself off. This comedy “look don’t see” bit is repeated until the audience is warmed up and ready for the show!
Routine 1: An applause sign is utilized throughout your show. During your show, you pour a bottle of juice into a folded up newspaper and the liquid vanishes! You step on the foot switch to turn on the applause sign and it DOESN’T light up. When you open it up the light bulb inside is FULL of the juice that just disappeared! You twist the end off the light bulb and pour the juice out!
Routine 2: An applause sign is utilized throughout your show. You show a handkerchief, and it changes color from Red to Yellow. You then teach the audience how the trick works and reveal that there are two handkerchiefs. You demonstrate the trick again, while “teaching” how the trick works and at the end the red handkerchief has vanished! You step on the foot switch to turn on the applause sign and it DOESN’T light up. When you open it up the light bulb inside is the missing red handkerchief!
Bonus effect 1: An applause sign is utilized throughout your show. At some point during your show, you make a red handkerchief disappear! You step on the foot switch to turn on the applause sign and it DOESN’T light up. When you open it up the light bulb inside is the missing red handkerchief!
Bonus effect 2: You borrow a dollar bill and have it signed, it ends up inside the lightbulb of the applause sign! You get video of a routine that Louie did for a library tour almost a decade ago. The method isn’t taught, but if you own a thumb tip, you can figure it out and is included as another example of a routine you can do where an object reappears in a lightbulb.
You get:
– Remote controlled applause sign! – Plastic lightbulb with 2 bases (one for liquid and one for the silk routines) – Flash drive with instructional video – 9v battery – Evaporation liquid vanishing trick (sports drink style bottle) – Dye tube – Yellow and red silks
You get everything you need to put Applause Please 2: The Encore into your show right away!
