MagicShow.Tips – Page 142 – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

That Way More…

This summer I started playing with doing the Ambitious Card with the cards spread on the table, not with the effect happening in my hands. For context, here are my two previous posts about it:

http://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/horizontal-ambitious-card/

http://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/horizontal-ambitious-card-3rd-phase/

I now have the three phases worked out and cleaned up the handling a bit. It’s a much tighter routine than before. Here’s the version I’m currently doing:

One of the things I’ve recently added was anticipating that in the second phase that the spectator would almost immediately point to the top card. Being able to foresee that and being able to show that card as not being their card is a great moment.

I’m really enjoying performing this version of the Ambitious Card, and like it much more than doing it entirely in my hands.

-Louie

The Comedy Helpline

I picked up the book The Comedy Helpline recently and read it while I was stuck in line for two hours to get an oil change!

This is an interesting little book, kind like Wayne Dobson‘s book 50 Shades of Gold, that has a lot of little tips in it. It’s not a “how to” for comedy magic, but will make you think about a thing or two. I’m glad I read it.

-Louie

Fair Stage Show Sizzle Reels…

In the past I’ve written about trying to make little sizzle reels for events that I’m performing at. I really started doing this with virtual shows as it’s really easy to as it’s already being done for a camera. Most of the ones I’ve been doing recently are videos of me doing close up magic. This is my first one of the stage show that I do for fairs.

Now that I have a template of what to show, it’s shouldn’t be too hard for me to do them for future fairs. I know the things to show, and can spend more energy on the look out for more spontaneous things that get caught on video.

-Louie

Props in Real Life!

There are some props that have always baffled me as they don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. The props for the Rice, Orange and Checkers trick is one of them. Below is a Rings n’ Things set that I own:

The middle container is the rice vase where you fill with rice, then rice turns into an orange. At the hotel I’m at, I found what I think it’s supposed to be in real life:

I don’t think anyone has really used containers like that in my lifetime, but I found what they rice vase is supposed to look like! I now only slightly less dislike the Rice, Orange and Checkers trick.

-Louie

Phone Pouch…

A few nights ago I saw Amy Schumer perform at a theater in Seattle. She was great! Amy has a very defined character and point of view. That point of view may not be for everyone, but when you get to her level, “everyone” isn’t your audience. As a stand up, you need a point of view, and that’s to to eliminate some people who don’t agree with you.

Going into the theater, they had us lock our phones up in little pouches. This is becoming more and more common. I think that we as a culture have proven our inability to keep our phones in our pockets during a show, even after a no photo/recording announcement.

My first thought was that these pouches would be great to do a Key-R-Rect or 7 Keys to Baldplate style trick with. You’d just need to put grommets on both sides of the flap. Now you can borrow or use your phone and put it in and do the key trick with it.

The challenge would be getting one of these. It doesn’t look like they sell them direct to the public, so you’d need to find someone who goes to a school that uses them, buy theirs, and have them say they lost theirs.

I haven’t thought of a routine yet…but I think it’s a good prop for locking up a cellphone.
-Louie

Uncle Stinky’s Magic

A couple of weeks ago I was at a festival and saw “Uncle Stinky” pitching the Squirmle. If you’ve never seen one, it’s an old magic toy pitch where a little worm moves around. I believe this was an extension of the Magic Mouse Pitch.

He did the pitch really well, honestly I’d be afraid to use fishing line in full sun in a festival setting, but he did it fearlessly!

There’s always a lot to learn from pitchmen, and I love watching them!

-Louie

Storing Your Show…

Right now we’re in the middle of the summer outdoor performing season. One of nice things about performing at fairs which are multi-day events is that you only need to load in once and load out once. After the first day my gear lives at the fair. Normally they are supposed to have a space for me to store my gear on the grounds, however that doesn’t always happen.

Last week my stage was a trailer and to avoid doing a complete pack out everyday, I locked my show to a chain that was under the stage!

Is this the most secure way to store a show? Probably not, however anytime you store your gear anywhere you are taking a risk. The amount of “locked” storage areas where I keep my trunk which seem to never actually be locked is very high! At some point you have to have faith that no one is going to the fair to steal your show. It does happen, I know of people that have had things stolen, however it’s pretty rare if you take basic precautions like locking things up.

-Louie

Single Use Props…

Many times after shows magicians will comment on how much is must cost me to perform my show. I have several spots where I use props that I can’t reuse each show. Honestly, I don’t have too many props that are single use. Here are my consumable props for my day at the fair:

Each show I use a paper coil, kabuki streamer, bar of hotel soap and a banana. In addition to the picture I also give away some of my wristbands which I sell after the show. Every show costs me about five dollars to do. To me this isn’t a big deal and since I’m getting paid, it’s just the cost of doing business.

If spending $5 or $100 to do your show is what your vision as an artist is, then it’s money well spent!
-Louie

Putting Butts in Seats

I’m always reading on social media that people are upset that their name isn’t on programs and instead a generic “magic show” is used. Honestly, given the choice between just my name or just what I do, I’d rather have just “magic show” on the schedule. It’s going to put more butts in seats than my name with now context.

Last week I was performing at a fair and they used just my name on the schedule, with no context, not one knows what I do.

I took a dry erase marker and added some context to my name.

There’s not really a way to definitely tell if it made a difference. My first show of the day before I added it, I had no audience 15 mins before showtime and had to talk it up. The other three shows had people sitting in chairs waiting for the show when I started my talk up. My non-scientific test tells me it made a difference.

My advice is to get over your ego and put butts in the seat.

-Louie

Senior Show Set Up…

Yesterday I took a quick break from performing on the fair circuit and did a senior show. This was a “monthly activity” for seniors at a retirement community. Most of these places need entertainment and host multiple entertainers a month to perform at things like monthly birthdays, holidays, etc.

If you’d like more info on performing senior shows check out my book How To Perform For Seniors which teaches you how to market and perform shows at these communities.

My current 40-45 minute show fits into the black case, which is briefcase sized.

The yellow case is my audio gear.

The show was put together to visually fill a little bit of space and not look like I’m just using flat handheld props that were selected because they easily fit into a briefcase.

The nice thing about this show is that it can be done using people from the audience, and it can also be done “no contact”, so no one from the audience joins me on the stage or handles any props.

Aside from any COVID restrictions, the no contact option is handy as sometimes you’ll have a less mobile group and it’s not easy to have people join you on stage. Having them interact from their seats is good, however if you physically go to them in the back row, a lot of the audience can’t see what’s happening. When you talk to them from the stage and the magic still happens onstage the whole audience can see what’s going on.

-Louie