Sponge Tennis Balls…fixing lines

When I was putting together my tennis ball routine for this school assembly tour, I started using Sponge Tennis Balls by Daba Magic. I like these more than the Alan Wong Sponge Tennis Balls as the Daba ones pop open much faster.

After using them for 2-3 shows a day on this tour, I found one thing that I don’t like about the Daba Sponge Tennis Balls. The white line on them is tape or something like that, where on all the other sponge tennis balls I’ve tried, they are painted on. After about a week the tape lines started getting loose, and this week they started falling off.

Here’s what the lines should look like:

sponge tennis ball

And here’s what they looked like this week:

sponge tennis ball

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised that this would happen to them. I didn’t think that tape was good way to make the lines. I went to the store and bought some paint and redid the lines:

sponge tennis ball

It only took a few minutes to paint the lines onto the sponge tennis balls, and this should hold up for a lot longer than the tape lines.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Michael Rayner

On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we talk to the hilarious Michael Rayner. We discuss with Michael a variety of different subjects including his successes as a commercial actor, his recent Tik Tok fame and what caused him to become a comedian and juggler.

He gives some great tips on how to find your voice as a comedian, what is a realistic aspiration in this industry and how setting goals and sticking to them can change your life. A fun and insightful conversation with one of Moisture Festival’s favorite acts.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Ankle Switch Problem Solving…

For this tour I started using my Media Star remote control that runs my music with the magnet ankle switch. Early on I realized that it was running about 2 shows before it stopped reliably working. Changing batteries every couple of shows solved the problem, but is annoying and I have a feeling that’s not how it’s supposed to work.

In the show I use the ankle (magnet reed switch) in a few spots to make the music play seamlessly, however there’s one spot where I need it as I can’t use my hands. I have someone from the audience playing sound effects from a fake music remote, and I need to trigger them when they push the button. With the ankle switch giving me problems, I needed to think of a way to make the gag work.

I defaulted to the mentalist’s old friend, Dual Reality! I put three different colored dots on my remote control.

I simply say “push the blue dot” or “push the red dot”, which implies to the audience that there are different buttons, when in reality it’s all the same button. I’ve done this for one day (2 shows) and it’s working out well and is a great, simple solution to the problem of the ankle switch not behaving properly.

We’ll see how it works for the three shows today…

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



International Leg of the Tour

During this school assembly tour around the midwestern US states, I took a quick trip to Canada to performing a show…so technically this is an international tour?

I was performing in a variety show with Trevor and Lorena Watters, a baton duo (whose names I forgot) and Michael Dardant

The shows went great, but more importantly, after essentially being by myself for weeks, it was nice to hang out with friends!

Tomorrow I’m back to doing the school assembly, but my emotional battery has been recharged!
-Louie

Magician Bio For Promo

In my spare time I help out with a variety arts festival and I’m updating their website with bio’s for performers. I’m amazed at how many performers don’t have a simple one paragraph bio.

Back when I was on vacation in Oct/Nov part of our trip was on a cruise ship and in one of the production shows they had bios of the different performers in the show on the screens before the show. These were simply one paragraph bio’s with a head shot of the performer.

cruise ship performer bio
cruise ship performer bio

These don’t need to be much and are used much more often than you’d think. A bio is different than a the short/long description of your magic show, as they may both be used at the same time in the same program.

A bio is a little more about you and less about the show. It’s simply a quick background on YOU.

Magician Bio Sample

Johnny The Magician began practicing magic when a magician performed at his sister’s 8th birthday. Ever since that day he’s been amazing friends and family with sleight of hand tricks and in the last 20 years he’s come a long way! In addition to being a graduate of the Chevez Course in Manual Dexterity he was also “stunt hands” creating magic with a credit cards in a national commercial for Visa.
In his spare time Johnny is an avid boating enthusiast having sailed on every ocean on the planet!

There’s really not much to it, just list some interesting thing about you, some accomplishments and maybe something about a hobby you have. Having a short bio ready to send out to bookers or already available on your website makes you life and their life much easier!

-Louie

Finding Little Things to Change…

Yesterday was the end of the third week on the road performing my new school assembly show. This week I was really focusing on getting more out of the people who help me onstage in the show and letting them “shine” more.

One bit in the show where I draw a picture of a kid. I have the kid face the audience and do different emotions. I was using and older kid in the 3rd to 6th grade range and they weren’t really doing much interesting. My reasoning for an older kid was they are standing on stage by themself, so I was worried a kid that a younger kid would be uncomfortable onstage alone. Turns out I think that was the issue with an older kid, they feel a bit self conscious.

This week I switched a kindergarten or first grade kid and the difference is HUGE! Every kid I’ve used was great, and really played up the emotions that I was asking them to do. Also there’s something that all ages love is seeing a little kid have fun. Their joy is infectious!

It’s little things like this that make a good show great! My show still has a lot of these little things to be fixed.

-Louie

Splenda to Sugar!

I was messing around with an idea in my hotel room. It’s pretty simple, change a packet of sugar to a packet of something else. I came up with several ways, and this is probably the best one:

@louiefoxx Splenda or Sugar? #magictrick #sugar #splenda #louiefoxx #magic #magician #what #illusion ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s very direct, the packet of Splenda turns to a packet of sugar. No crazy moves, just cover it with a cup. I’m pretty proud of this, and I don’t think this technique has been used yet (but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had)

-Louie

Efficiently Loading In and Out

One huge thing with this school assembly tour is efficiency. Honestly, I’m not getting paid a ton, so wasting time loading in and out isn’t a good use of my time. The show loads in and out in one trip.

My road case has wheels on the bottom of it and I have handle that attaches to the front of it that I use to pull it.

One trip without a dolly or hand truck makes this a quick load in and out.

-Louie

Asian Magic Boxes…

Magic has a long history of appropriating Asian culture, from people performing in yellow face to props having random Chinese characters put on them to make them look exotic.

I have a prop that has Chinese on it that actually makes sense. A couple of years ago I made a production box out of a take out box from a Chinese restaurant. This idea had been in a notebook years earlier, but I finally got around to it in 2020.

This box is the first trick in the school assembly show and gets a huge reaction! In the show I use it to produce a tennis ball, while saying producing a tennis ball from a take out box doesn’t really make sense, in the routine it does make sense.

This little box is crushing it in the show!

-Louie

Setting Up The Show Quickly

Out here on this tour, sometimes the travel time between shows is very tight and I don’t have very much time to set or strike the show. I provide everything except electricity. Knowing that some shows I may not have much time to set, need to pack out quickly, or both, I have two set ups for the show.

The normal set up takes about 20-25 minutes to set up and I use this when I have plenty of time to set up and strike.

Here’s the normal set up:

school assembly magic show

The quick set up/strike takes about 10-15 mins and I use it when I have tight travel time.

Here’s what it looks like:

school assembly magic show

The big difference is that I don’t have the banner. It also doesn’t use a speaker stand for the PA. A difference you can’t see is that the quick set up doesn’t use a wireless headset mic. Those few things make a huge difference in set up/strike time.

I use the handheld mic with a stand or a mic hanger for when I need to use my hands. I’m really glad that about a year and half ago I decided to learn to use a handheld microphone. Having practiced with a handheld really makes me a lot more versatile!

-Louie