Category: Video

Ditching the Invisible Deck!

The idea of using a Nest of Envelopes as a running gag with a magical payoff is taking shape. In the first version of the trick, the magic trick was going to be card prediction. Playing cards are uniquely grouped to allow several choices of groups to get to a single card that nothing else I could think of can. Ideally, this trick wouldn’t be a card trick, but it’s looking like it will.

When I first came up with the idea, as a placeholder for the trick, I used an invisible deck. The goal is to have something more original or less common than an invisible deck. Also, the invisible deck is less punchy of a reveal. It takes time and steps to get to the reveal.

What I want is a single card in the envelope. That’s it, the card is chosen (in 3-4 steps), the last envelope is opened, and that’s the card in the envelope! I didn’t have a method, but with the re-release of Phil Goldstein’s trick Shinkansen, that jogged my memory.

A few years ago I made a vintage magic trick video of that trick:

@louiefoxx Is a magic trick from 2002 vintage? #vintage #magictrick #cardtrick #shinkansen #magic #packettrick #cardsacross #maxmaven #wow #louiefoxx #philgoldstein ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I also made a jumbo version of the trick and did it onstage as a filler piece. Part of the method of the Shinkansen led me to the method I’m going to start to use to do the prediction in Nest of Envelopes!

If you’re a magic creator, this is why having a broad knowledge of magic tricks and methods is a huge help! Part of the method for cards across got me closer to my vision for a playing card prediction!

-Louie

Jumbo Tom Foolery Transformation

The Jumbo Tom Foolery Transformation is a series of changes of four playing cards. One at a time, the cards flip over, then the backs change color, then the faces change.

Here’s a quick demo of it:

The challenge with this is that you use the same move 13 times in the routine. I think this routine was originally done with poker sized cards, but then someone decided to sell it in jumbo size to have an additional product to sell. The move doesn’t really lend itself to the jumbo cards, especially with the provided thick 8082 Bicycle Cards!

I came up with a different handling, the move still has to be done 13 times, but I think it makes more sense with jumbo cards. Here it is with my move:

While this is a trick I’ll probably never do for an audience, figuring out a better way to do it was a nice way to exercise my brain!

-Louie

The Snake Box

One of the tricks that I made for this school assembly tour is a snake box. This is essentially a “snake basket“, however, I’m not using a basket as I think that’s an old trope, and one that kids don’t have a point of reference to. The routine in my show started out as a card trick, but it’s now something more, and something that plays bigger!

I was thinking about Terry Lunceford’s The Viper trick and it’s great. If you haven’t seen it, here’s what it looks like:

It’s a great routine for its time. Personally, I think that trying to use a phobia someone has for a laugh is an older style of performing and not modern. Doing a danger trick is one thing, a French Arm Chopper isn’t a common fear, but snakes are.

My snake basket does have the snake jump out, but with only me onstage, and guess what, it gets a great reaction!

As someone who has an irrational fear of something, I try to show some compassion to people in the audience and not put them in a position where they will laugh at them being scared.

That’s just my opinion. I still think it’s a great effect, just not the part where you jump scare someone in front of an audience.

-Louie

Ice Cream Cup Magic Trick

A while ago I created an ice cream cup that holds a throw coil packet. It’s really nothing crazy, just a cup with a little hole and tab to hold a streamer securely. It turns out it was something that a lot of people needed and many magicians are using it!

Here’s a video that was sent to me by Rich Stein:

I’m always honored when any magician uses props I’ve created in their shows!!

-Louie
PS: you can get the ice cream cup here: https://www.magicshow.tips/ice-cream-cup/

A Sample of the School Assembly Show

The other night I cut up some video to make a highlight reel of what the show I’m doing looks like. Here’s a peek at the show:

You’ll notice that on my prop box I have a TV screen. I use this when they don’t have a TV/projector that I can use. Nothing shown on it is 100% necessary for the show, but it does enhance it. It’s really there for me to get more comfortable using the production software and the ankle switch remote control.

I’m having a blast doing this show!!!

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

Any Card At Any Number

One of the days I was performing at the Moisture Festival, there was a delay in starting the show. The producers asked me if I could fill some time to keep the people in the theater occupied. I did my Any Card At Any Number (ACAAN). Here’s the full spot because there’s a joke that’s a callback and doesn’t make sense if you don’t see the beginning before the trick starts.

For me, ACAAN is a great stage trick; it’s solo with just me onstage, but it involves the audience, and it’s a good trick!

-Louie

A Toast to Nick Trost #3

In the book The Card Magic of Nick Trost there’s cool trick called Double Pinochle with an Elevator Finish. Here’s what the trick looks like as written:

It’s a nice change of four cards. What I don’t like about it is that it’s themed with the game of Pinochle, which isn’t as common as it was in the past.

Here’s what I came up with to update it:

The first change I made was for it to use four jokes, instead of two queens and two jokers. Then I used my Elmsley For Video move that allows you to show all four kings when you do the Elmsley Count and not have to show one card twice. Then procedurally, I needed to add a displacement so that I could get a clean display at the end, so I did a weird sort of top change off the bottom of the packet to the top of the deck.

Hope you like my changes

-Louie

Vintage Magic Junk Shop Find

Magicians always ask me where I find all the vintage magic tricks that I have. The answer is simple, I hunt for them. Recently, I was performing in a small town and was walking through a junk shop and found this box:

It’s clearly an older prop, my guess is 1960’s. Here’s a pic in the mirror of my hotel room so you can see the front and back:

What’s really weird about this is the arrangement of the window and door. Here’s a video walkthrough of the prop and what I think is going on:

It’s definitely interesting….

-Louie

Postcard Magic Trick

I’m working on a trick where I need to make a postcard disappear from one stack and reappear in another stack. Here’s what I came up with:

The reason I’m going with a gravity flap instead of an elastic flap is that I don’t need a visual change of the card. Also, with gravity, there’s less to break. There’s nothing worse than restringing an elastic flap card has broken right before a show!

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!