NFW Card Trick + Hypnotic Rumba Count

Sometimes the universe hands you something fun. I was cleaning the office and found a set of Gary Freed’s NFW card trick. This is a great trick where four jokers turn into four aces. The provided routine is alright, and when I was younger and working at Market Magic Shop in Seattle I developed a better handling for it that was much better looking than what was in the instructions.

When I found the NFW set last night I immediately recognized that JP Vallarino’s Hypnotic Rumba Count would work really well with the NFW card set!

Using the rumba count makes this a very direct change of four jokers to four aces! I think this would make a great trick for a preshow video as it’s simple, direct and a good trick!

-Louie

King of Conjurers book

Over the last month or so I’ve been trying to get through the book King of Conjurers: Memoirs of Robert-Houdin. This is the biography of Robert-Houdin and for me this is a hard read. It’s probably that it was translated from French and it’s not the best translation is what’s making it a hard read.

It’s an interesting book and one that I feel I should read at some point as everyone loves to quote Robert-Houdin as saying, “…a magician is an actor playing the part of a magician…”

While reading the book, I found this advice (bottom paragraph) about working slowly:

I think he’s right in many instances, but not 100% of the time. Yes, working slowing has it’s place, and most magicians could benefit by working a little bit slower. Someone like Hans Klok whose style working fast works for him.

I’m heading out to a show in a bit and I’m going to try to slow it down a bit…

-Louie

Kings to Jokers to Kings

After playing with the Hypnotic Rumba Count yesterday from the book Vallarino yesterday, and coming up with simple Jokers to Kings effect, I found a natural extension of that trick. I took it a step further (backwards?) and the trick has four kings that turn to jokers, then back to kings.

Like jokers to kings from yesterday, I should say that this routine is super obvious with the move and I’d be shocked if it hasn’t been done before. The important thing about creating is that you play with every idea. For me it’s about flexing my brain’s creativity muscles, not necessarily creating something that’s never been done before.

-Louie

Hypnotic Rumba Count

I just stared reading the JP Vallarino book that was put out by Vanishing Inc. It’s all cards, which I’m not opposed to, as I enjoy playing with deck of cards.

The first thing in the book is the Rumba Count. This is a way to show four cards as the same card. The second thing in the book is the Hypnotic Rumba Count, which is a variation of the Rumba count and something that I don’t think I had ever learned in the past.

When I learn a new move, I try to figure out what I can do with that move before I explore what other people have done with it. It’s just a fun creative exercise. Sometimes it leads to new things, but usually I end up recreating the obvious thing with it.

The first thing I came up with is a change of 4 jokers to 4 kings

@louiefoxx Four Jokers Card Trick! From the new JP Vallarino book by Vanishing Inc #cardtrick #magic #sleightofhand #vanishinginc #louiefoxx #cardmagic #jpvallarino #playingcards ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is definitely the obvious thing to do with this move and probably the first thing that JP Vallarino did with it.

-Louie

Human Calendar Stunt…

The other day I was at the Pike Place Market and walked by a street performing pitch and saw this:

Unfortunately Mr. Unity wasn’t there, so I can only form my opinion based on his milk crate stand.

It looks like he does the day of the week birthday calculation. This is something that I’ve personally never understood why is impressive. It’s clearly a math calculation, not a memorization feat (at least when I’ve seen it). And the end result is something that I didn’t know or have any connection to.

I think if it was reversed and you told the magician the day of the week you were born on and the year, and they told you your birthday, it’d be much cooler. However, I’m going to imagine that would ultimately give the magician a 20-25% success rate, unless there some some fishing for where in the month the birthday is.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Peter Paul Van Camp

On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we welcome in poet Peter Paul Van Camp. Peter tells us about how he got inspired to start writing poetry and how his desire to share it with people led him to move to Canada.

We discuss his love for birds, his short lived tv show and hear some great stories from 50 years in the entertainment industry. A great conversation with one of the more unique acts at the Moisture Festival. 

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More Take Out Boxes!!!

Woo hoo! The first batch of my Take Out Box has sold out at Hocus-Pocus and I’ve got a new batch of them on the way! Thanks to everyone who has ordered one!

If you don’t know what the Take Out Box is, here’s the video:

What I really like about this prop is that it’s like a classic production box that would have been put out by Abbott’s or Davenport’s, but it looks like something that actually exists in the current world…unlike those older boxes metal boxes, or the ones that have funky Chinese characters on them. However, if you’re into the Chinese characters, you could draw one on it and it would totally make sense on this prop!

-Louie

Audience Interaction Tricks…

Last night I went out to see the band The Interrupters and one thing I noticed was that they use a lot of things to tell the audience what they want them to do. This is something that in my show I try, but subtly. After watching this show, it made me realize that asking an audience to do something isn’t bad. It can be repetitive, but not necessarily bad.

the interrupters

Something like telling the audience how to respond when a trick happens is effective, because sometimes they don’t know how to respond. If you want people to clap along to a song, you need to tell them.

I need to reevaluate my show and look at places where I’m not getting the desired audience response and try to find spots where I can tell the audience what to do!

-Louie

New Book Day!

I’m always trying to expand my knowledge about magic and magic techniques. I just had four news books arrive!

Magic books

These four books are on vary different things within magic! I think it’s important to be well rounded and know as much as you can about as much of magic as possible. It makes you better in an impromptu situation, and it makes you a better creator.

Knowledge is power and sometimes you can find a technique from a style that’s something you wouldn’t normally do, but can find a way to apply it to what you do!

-Louie

Fiddling Around

Play is important! You should play with magic as a creative exercise. Learning from a book is good, but sometimes just fiddling around with a deck of cards or whatever with no purpose will lead to some fun things.

Here’s what I came up with the other night:

@louiefoxx Quick Card Trick! #cardtrick #cardmagic #sleightofhand #louiefoxx #magictrick #cardchange #aceofspades #bigfoot ♬ Vibes – ZHRMusic

There’s not much to it. I discovered I could drop an outjogged, double card from the deck into my hand below it. Once I kinda figured out the technique, I needed to figure out what to do with it. That ended up my a slightly flourishy card change.

Will I ever seriously use this? No.
Was it fun to figure out? Yes

-Louie