Category: vintage magic trick

National Magic Vanishing Birdcage!

This vanishing birdcage that I just added to my collection is pretty cool!

metal birdcage for magic tricks
metal vanishing birdcage in it's original box

This is my first older cage that has come with the box! However, what makes it more interesting is the pull connector and the corner hinges. Here’s a close up of them:

metal hinge of a magicians vanishing birdcage

Let’s start with the pull connector, it’s teardrop shaped instead of the normal rectangle. This shape, in theory, will have fewer snag points than the rectangle. However, what I find really fascinating is the corner hinges. They go all the way around and aren’t “U” shaped. This should make a stronger hinge, as they are frequently broken on older cages, but this has to be a big pain to make!

I’m very curious about whether this cage was an early cage where they were made to last, but then they stopped doing them because they were easier to manufacture if they did things like make the corners “U” shapes. Or maybe this cage was a custom job to make it more reliable and durable?

I’m glad to have this added to the collection!

-Louie

Magic Trick That Looks Like AI!

Modern magic, especially close up magic has moved to very visual effects. Things that look like AI or if you’re old school, then trick photography. Magicians rarely look to the past, there are some amazing tricks that look like a modern AI fake magic trick.

One example is the Joseph Silk Gun. Another is the Jumbo Card Restoration Frame which was invented by Theo Bamberg in 1909. I’m sharing a greenroom with a magician who has one of these and it looks amazing!

There’s ton’s of really cool stuff from the past that fits modern styles, you just got to search it out!

-Louie

Buried Treasure Bean Box by Arturo

On my trip to the Bay Area a couple weeks ago, I ended up picking up a great vintage magic prop! It was Buried Treasure Bean Box by Arturo. Here’s what the original ads looked like:

Buried Treasure Bean Box by Arturo
Buried Treasure Bean Box by Arturo

And here’s what mine looks like:

Buried Treasure Bean Box by Arturo

This is a prop that I do plan to use in my show. I have an idea for it, so when the opportunity to buy it popped up, I jumped on it!

I really like the idea of the item being buried in beans (or whatever). The problem with this is visually it’s hard for an audience to see what’s going on because you have to see the beans from the top. With a camera, this would work great!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Box for $30

Magicians frequently ask me where I get my vintage magic tricks. Well, there’s not one source; this one kinda happened out of the blue. Basically, someone at a show told me they had an old box of magic tricks. We negotiated a price at the show, and I bought the box without knowing what was in it!

Here’s the saga:

There are some winners in that box!

-Louie

Card Man Stuff by Al Leech

I picked up the booklet Card Man Stuff by Al Leech recently and I’m digging it!

Card Man Stuff by Al Leech

The stuff in it is older school card magic, and the clunkiness, I think, can be easily fixed. For example, he used the cut deeper force to have a card selected, and that’s a move that I really dislike. I think the problem with that force is that when the cards aren’t in face up and face down clumps, it kinda gives it away. There are better forces that can be done in its place.

The first trick is the production of a four of a kind, and that naturally flows into the second trick, which is a transposition of the two four of a kind sets of cards. I like things in books that can be routines that flow from one to the next to eliminate set up in the second trick, but still work as stand alone magic tricks if needed.

Despite the clunkiness, the tricks are pretty direct, which I like!

-Louie

Magic Trick Box for $25

On a leap of faith I bought a box of vintage magic tricks for $25 while I was in California. I didn’t really know what was going to be inside of it, but I figured it was worth the gamble. Here’s what was in it:

There wasn’t one thing that totally blew me away. The box was definitely worth more than the $25 I paid for it, but not a crazy score.

I’m lucky that I was able to fit everything into my suitcase. A couple of the things are going to move to my shelf!

-Louie

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

Abbott’s Surrounded Livestock Vanish by Arturo

Thanks to the power of social media, I figured out what the magic prop that I found at a junk shop yesterday is!

It’s an Abbott’s Surrounded Livestock Vanish by Arturo!

After reading the description, I’m amazed that I pretty much nailed the handling of the box with my guess!

-Louie