MagicShow.Tips – Page 20 – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

Another Vanishing Bird Cage

My Vanishing Bird Cage collection just grew by another cage. This one popped up on eBay for $35 and I grabbed as soon as I saw it.

Without seeing it in person, I don’t know who made it or if its actually from the 1940’s. However for $35 it’s a gamble I’m willing to take.

Looking at the solders on the “U” joints in the pictures and the dimensions gives me confidence that this isn’t a cage from India, and I’m really hoping what is pictured is what will show up in the mail.

Another clue is in one of the pictures you can see the top of an instruction sheet that says: AN N.M.C. PRESENTATION ROUTINE. That would imply this is a cage that was sold by the National Magic Company.

We’ll see what shows up in the mail. Unfortunately I’ll probably be out of the country performing when it shows up, so I won’t be able to see it for a week or two.

-Louie

Opening Night

A Couple of nights ago it was the opening night of the Moisture Festival. This is a variety arts festival in Seattle that runs four weeks. The opening night lineup was amazing, I was probably we weakest act on the bill!

If you’re in the Seattle area, you should come out and check out a show. Also you’re helping support the over 100 variety performers we bring in from around the world!

-Louie

Lucky Penny Magic Trick

A trick I’ve been doing as part of my EDC magic is signed penny to key fob. The effect is a signed coin ends up permanently sealed inside of a “lucky coin” holder on your keychain. The nice thing about this is that it’s almost 100% self contained. I have everything I need to do the trick on my keychain, except a marker.

I’ve been using my original first design for a little bit and spent a little bit of time other day tweaking the design. The colors are just what was in the printer and have nothing to do with the design, besides making it easier to tell them apart.

The first redesign was good, the second was better and the third was a huge step backwards. I went back to the second redesign and it was the best of the three. That’s the great thing about 3D printing, it’s easy to tweak designs to get them where you want them!

-Louie

Stage Illusion in Furniture!

The other night I was staying in a hotel and as I was leaving the room I noticed a stage illusion inspired night stand!

I’m not sure why the feet needed the false space, they’re not hiding a lady in there, but the black art is there to hide the lack of gap between the feet. My guess why they have that is a solid base is cheaper to make and more durable.

It’s a great mainstream use of a magic principle!

-Louie

Super Psychic: The Incredible Dr. Hoy

I took the book Super Psychic: The Incredible Dr. Hoy with me on a trip and read it on the plane. I’m not sure what this book was trying to be, was it a self help book, a biography or something else.

The book as a biography isn’t a compelling one, it’s basically David Hoy was born awesome and nothing bad happened to his life. He’s a perfect human who never messed up. To me, that’s not a good biography, I want to read about peoples challenges and how they overcame them.

Later in the book it tells you how to use ESP to meet women, be a better salesman, stop smoking, etc. The stop smoking was the funny one to me as it said David didn’t smoke, so it’s not something he used. Anyway, this part of the book feels like a self help book, except there’s really not much to it.

I have a feeling this was a book that was intended to be a pitch book to sell after speaking engagements. But it also had to look like a mass market book to give him status, which would boost his speaking/show fee.

If you’re really bored and can find the book for a few bucks, I guess pick it up. However I really didn’t think it was remotely an interesting read. It did kill time on the airplane, so there’s that.

-Louie

Looking Sharp!

Last week when I was performing on a ship, my first show on my arrival day. That doesn’t give a lot of time to hang my clothes and get some wrinkles out of them.

That’s where wrinkle release spray comes in! This stuff is like magic, you spray it on your clothes, straighten out the wrinkles and the wrinkles are gone.

I’m sure there are other brands that make it, and I bet they all work pretty much the same. This is great to have with your stuff when you fly, it’ll keep you looking sharp…or at least not wrinkled!

The other thing that really helps is learning how to correctly fold a shirt for travel. Starting of with a shirt that’s folded and won’t get many wrinkles is also a huge help!

-Louie

Driving vs Flying to a gig

Recently I posted a picture of my gear for a 90 minute theater show that I drove to:

and now here’s two 45 minute theater shows AND a week of my personal stuff (clothes, laptop, etc):

When flying to a gig, there’s a lot of things that I don’t bring. For example all of my stuff that has a base can use a microphone stand for a base which the venue can provide. I also have versions of a couple of bulkier props that pack smaller, and that saves a lot of space. Also the flying version of the show is a lot more organized, as space is the most important thing.

-Louie

A Shuffle and a Cut to Order!

I’ve been playing with some shuffle sequences. You can see one of them at this blog post from a few days ago called Red / Black Separation. In a natural extension of that shuffle sequence I came up with what I’m calling A Shuffle and a Cut to Order.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Shuffle and a cut to order! #cardtrick #magictrick #shuffle #cards #poker #magic #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like the progressive nature of this routine where the cards go from shuffled, to separated by color to finally them all in new deck order! The trick has three different beats to it (but not three effects) which I like and each builds upon the previous. The other night thing about this over the previous Red/Black Separation is that this is much easier to do!

I’m glad I kept playing with this!

-Louie

Penny Assembly

Many years ago there were several matrix effects using pennies. I think Bruce Kalver and Steve Duschek both sold versions. If I’m remembering correctly, both used steel pennies. I was cleaning up and found some copper plated steel pennies and wanted to put together a little coin assembly. I don’t think it’s technically a matrix as the coins aren’t in a square.

@louiefoxx Almost Worth a Nickel! #magictrick #magic #coins #nickel #coinmagic #cards #pennies #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What I like about this is that it has an ending, while the ending isn’t very magical, it’s an ending and it has a tag line. As for method, there’s really nothing new here.

It was fun to work out a routine for this!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Tony Steinbach

In this episode we welcome in juggler and funny man Tony Steinbach. We learn about Tony’s first exposure to juggling and how his dad used juggling in his work training. Tony talks about his development as an artist and how his collaborations with other artists have helped pave the way to what he is doing now.

He tells about the Renaissance fair circuit and the adaptations he makes to his show to make it work in such a specific environment. A fun conversation with another 2025 moisture festival newcomer.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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