vintage magic trick – Page 5

Howie Scharzman Presents Babushka!

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before magic became a global market, it was harder to get a trick that was made in a different country. What would happen is magicians would bring things back when they travelled to another country. One magician that did this was Howard Schwarzman and he would write instructions in English and sell the tricks as “Howard Schwarzman Presents…”.

One of these tricks was called Babushka. Here’s the what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx What the heck is this thing? #whatisit #russiandoll #wow #gone #magictrick #vintage #louiefoxx #howardscharzman #1992 #magic #where ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is a trick where the method is fairly “Rube Goldberg” in that’s it’s probably way more involved than it needs to be, but it’s fun to do! It reminds me of 1990’s Tenyo magic, it’s a super clever method!

Now for a little Howie Schwarzman story. I never met him in person, but I did sell him a couple of collectable tricks on eBay. After he won the auction he told me he wanted me to send him the items THEN he’d send me a check. I didn’t accept checks as a form of payment and reminded him of that. He said, “Do you know who I am? I’m Howie Schwarzman”. I told him I didn’t care who he is. I did let him mail me a check, but I held it for two weeks for it to clear, he wasn’t happy with that. That’s was my only interaction with Howie.

If you can find a Babushka, it’s totally worth tracking down to play with!

-Louie

3d Printing a Vintage Magic Trick

Sometimes I see a picture of a magic trick and try to figure out what it does. Someone posted this picture of a box in a magic group on social media:

It’s a trick where you push the pins though a coin. I thought that this looked like a fun little 3d printing project, so I made a simple version of it. My version had a nested lid instead of a hinged lid.

And if you want to see it work, here’s a demo of it:

@louiefoxx What does it do? #mysterybox #coin #magic #cointrick #magictrick #3dprint #louiefoxx #nails #spike #figureitout #reveal ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is an easy 3d print as it’s only two parts. You just need the coin and four nails. If you’d like a copy of the .stl file to make your own, contact me and ask for it!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Ronnay’s Twisting the Jokers

Today’s vintage magic trick is Twisting the Jokers by Ronnay. This trick is very much the vibe of the golden age of packet tricks. It’s a trick where the four cards turn over one at a time, then turn into a different value. During this time that plot was done a ton of different ways, and here’s Ronnay’s version:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Ronnay’s Twisring the Jokers #magictrick #joker #cardtrick #vintage #packettrick #louiefoxx #magiciansoftiktok ♬ 10 minutes, meditation, sleep, mindfulness, night(951759) – Gloveity

The provided patter is garbage, it feels like rip off of the standard Six Card Repeat patter. The problem with this trick’s patter is that it uses a lot of industry terms that make it feel really clunky.

From a technical standpoint this trick is fine and it logically flows, but with a modern trick like NFW which is easier to do and much cleaner, Twisting the Jokers is obsolete…but these types of tricks were steps on the ladder to get to tricks like NFW and they have their place.

– Louie

L or D: Life or Death by Peter Kamp and Magic Dream – Review

The other day I got an email for the trick L or D: Life or Death by Peter Kamp and Magic Dream from Stevens Magic Emporium. This is a mentalism effect where you have five tokens have a “heads” and a “tails” side. In this case they are themed with “life” and “death”. They are turned over by the spectator, so that you don’t know what’s token has which side up and then one is covered. You tell them which side is face up on the token that is covered.

The description of the trick, immediately told me this was a themed version of Sam Dalal’s MentaColor (this trick is probably not original to him). Here’s Sam’s much older version of the trick:

@louiefoxx Why would anyone do this Magic Trick? #magictrick #mentalism #mindreading #headsortails #guess #5050 #louiefoxx #vintage #samdalal #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

As I say in the video, this is a method that’s looking for the trick. It’s a lot of process and props for what is essentially a 50/50 guess. Sure you can repeat it to prove you get it right every time, but it’s still a lot of process each time.

Honestly, I think that the “life or death” presentation angle of the trick is an improvement over Sam’s colors, and a bit easier on the performer when you get to the end because you don’t have to remember the pairs of colors. However in the end it doesn’t fix the fundamental problem with the trick, which is that it’s a lot of props to do a “heads or tails” revelation.

-Louie

Vanishing Bird Cage!

I love that there are people who know what I’m into and when they run into thing that they think I’d like, they text me! For example, I collect vanishing bird cages and last month at magic live my buddy Clive Hayward sent me some pictures of a vanishing bird cage that was for sale there.

This cage is unusual, you’ll notice the side bars are attached by string!

I have a vanishing bird cage in my collection that’s similar, however it has metal parts that connect the sidebars to the cage. I’m curious if maybe this vanishing birdcage was a “budget” model of one with metal connectors, or if this was a home repair.

I’m glad this one is in my collection!

-Louie

Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick: UPDATED

When I was performing at a 12 day gig, I was playing with Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick. I liked the sequence, but thought the ending was just “Meh”. Here’s what the original trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick! #cardtrick #closeupmagic #magic #magictrick #vintage #columbus #louiefoxx #nicktrost #packettrick #cards #foxlake ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The main change was the theming, and I kinda changed the end. Here’s what I came up with:

@louiefoxx The One Dollar Card Trick! #cardtrick #magic #onedollar #cointrick #louiefoxx #magictrick #magician #what ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like the ending being a picture across the four cards, instead of four separate cards. I think them being one image wraps up the trick nicely.

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick – John Kennedy’s Cigarette Thru Any Coin

This is a fun trick that I remember seeing advertised in the 1990’s. It’s John Kennedy’s Cigarette Thru Any Coin! Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! 1990’s CIGARETTE THRU ANY COIN by John Kennedy #magic #johnkennedy #cigarette #cointrick #closeupmagic #louiefoxx #sleightofhand #vintage #antique #seattle ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I thing this trick is interested as there are a couple of methods working at the same time to create the illusion of the cigarette going through the coin. I don’t know if this is an improvement over the traditional method with a gimmicked coin. Kennedy’s method would have you have to do a switch of the larger object, which complicates doing the trick with “borrowed” objects, which makes the trick stronger.

Cigarette through coin is a classic bar trick like coin in bottle where the strength of the trick is that is uses borrowed objects and everything can be returned at the end and handled by the audience, so everything feels impromptu. It’s that unplanned feeling of it that makes the trick hit really hard!

-Louie

Nick Trost’s Grave Location

If you read this blog, you know I like playing with old packet tricks. I’m currently at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio and noticed that Nick Trost lived here when he was alive and putting out packet tricks.

I did a little bit of research and found out that he was buried in St Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, OH. I drove out there to try to find his grave and the cemetery was gigantic, so I asked the office for help.

The gave me a map to the location of his grave in the very back of the cemetery. That map saved me hours (days?) of searching and I found him really quick!

It was a nice drive out there and gave me something to do that morning before my shows at the Ohio State Fair.

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick – Jail Bird by Nick Trost

Nick Trost put out a ton of magic tricks in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Today I’m playing with Jail Bird, which is a penetration of a card through a brass fastener.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Jail Bird Card Trick by Nick Trost a Vintage Magic Trick #magictrick #magic #cardtrick #closeupmagic #packettrick #louiefoxx #nicktrost #vintagemagic #antiquemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The problem with the trick is that in the instructions, you come out with the trick set up and then do the trick. It really needs to be set up in front of the audience and while not hard to do, it’s not in the instructions. I don’t know if that was to make the trick “easy to do” or “self working” or the limitations of trying to keep the instructions to one sheet of paper.

It’s a interesting effect, but honestly I don’t know a context were I would really use this trick as it’s kinda a quick one off sorta thing.

-Louie

Karl Germain

The next two weeks I’m performing at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, OH. On my day off yesterday I drove two hours up to Cleveland, OH to do some touristy stuff. While I was up there I decided to try to find Karl Germain‘s grave at the Riverside Cemetery.

When I got there I did a lot of wandering in the section where it should be, but couldn’t find his grave and then it started raining. Normally I’ll wander until I find the grave, but the weather was bad, so I went to the office to ask for assistance.

While I was in the office I was chatting with one lady and about what I did and the other lady overheard part of the conversation where I mentioned I was a magician. When she heard that she said I should try to find Karl Germain’s grave!

She told me that originally his headstone didn’t have his death date, just the birth year. It was years after his death that the year was added.

The office workers at the cemetery were also amazed at how much some of his props have sold for, like the blooming bush that went for $132,000!

On Saturday I have an appointment at the mausoleum in Columbus to see Howard Thurston!

-Louie