MagicShow.Tips – Page 23 – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

Money Across

In playing with the fake “Movie Money” another trick I wanted to do was something like a card across where a selected bill travels from one packet to another.

This is the solution that I came up with:

@louiefoxx The $400 magic trick! #magictrick #money #moneymagic #trick #400 #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like how this trick turned out, it’s got a less packet trick feel to it that many of these other tricks do. I think it feels very similar to Phil Goldstein’s Shinkansen, but has a different method.

-Louie

This is the Spot!

If you do a remotely fun show for kids, you’ve have a kid pee during your show because they’re having too much fun and don’t want to get up, or you make them laugh too hard. The other night I had a kid helping me and she was laughing super hard, she stopped and said, “I just peed”!

This is always a hard thing to navigate, you need to deal with it, but in a way that causes the least amount of attention. In this instance the kid didn’t seem in distress and was remarkably calm, so I said, “we’ll pause this trick and you can take care of it”. She left and got a change of clothes and while she was gone I did another routine. Once she was back, we picked up the routine where we left off.

Oh, I had a paper towel in my case, so I put it on the spot. Not so much to clean it up, but to mark it for me so I knew where it was.

Every time this happens you need to instantly read the situation to know what the appropriate way to handle it is.

-Louie

Roving Mentalist Gig

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I had an upcoming gig where I was booked as a roving mentalist. The gig went well, the thing I struggled with was how to introduce myself, as they specifically wanted “Mentalists” as their roving acts. I figured it out pretty quickly, but it took a few tries to come up with an opening line that made sense.

Here’s what the audience saw for props.

Obviously they didn’t see them laid out like this, they were in my pockets.

Here’s what the full set of props looked like:

The new thing that I added for this gig was ProMystic’s Flux. I really like it, however in trying to come up with an “out” for it when it fails, there’s not a lot to do to get yourself out of it. The easy solution is to simply have two of them, if one fails, I simply get the other one.

I have some ideas for how I’d like to use this onstage…

-Louie

More Money Magic

A strange little trick that I came up with using some money:

@louiefoxx Magic trick with money! #magictrick #money #moneymagic #tendollars #forty ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s interesting, but not the greatest trick ever. There’s too much process, it needs to be more direct for it to be good. I like the idea of the upside down bill moving up the stack. It reminds me of a trick that Alan Ackerman (I think) showed me when I was a teenager in the 1990’s with a stack of coins. It was 3 half dollars and an English penny. The English penny started on the bottom of the stack and moved up to the top one position at a time.

This trick with the upside down ten dollar bill moving up the stack was an early experiment with rough and smooth with bills. This one used different areas being roughed and I think that has possibilities with bills.

Here’s another trick with roughed zones on bills:

@louiefoxx Making money like magic! #magic #money #dollar #mineymagic #onehundreddollars #moneyhack ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I’m having fun playing with the bill magic!

-Louie

Original (?) Packet Trick

If you follow me on TikTok, you know I’m into vintage magic tricks and really into old packet tricks. I’ve wanted to come up with an original Emerson and West style packet trick with full story patter. I didn’t want to come up with a variation of something that already existed.

The other day I threw some cards into my backpack and with my time between gigs I came up with this:

@louiefoxx A Car Buying story with Cards! #cardtrick #carbuying #magic #magictrick #sedan #sportscar #carsalesman #story #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is actually the second version of the story. The first version is more personal to me and my story, where the one above is more generic. I think this is fairly close to the Emerson and West style, it’s got all the mini effects and the pun/kicker ending.

The handling sequence just worked itself out. It was too easy, so I’m assuming someone has to have come up with it before, but it’s original to me.

This was a lot of fun to work out!
-Louie

Wireless HDMI

Thanksgiving was a few months ago, but I want to say that I’m thankful for this this thing to come into my life!

It’s a wireless HDMI system. This allows me to not have to run a cord from my camera onstage to where ever their HDMI input is. I’ve used it a lot since I got it and I just upgraded it. Before it had to be plugged into power, but I bought the batteries for it, so now I don’t need a power outlet. My video is pretty much 100% self contained now, I just have the output wires from the camera to the wireless HDMI. It’s soo much more mobile now and setting up so soo quick!

-Louie

Packet Tricks with Money by Larry West

Recently I’ve been playing with packet trick techniques using money instead of cards. I discovered this set of lecture notes by Larry West that has two trick using bills like cards for a packet trick style effect.

The two tricks is the lecture notes are very similar, in fact they are the same effect, but with different methods. One uses a gaffed bill and the other doesn’t. I think that one of the reasons that money packet trick magic isn’t really a thing is because to make any gaffed bills, like a one dollar bill with a ten on the backside might be crossing the line with what’s legal or not. Also the cost to put them out as you’d have to add the cost of the bills to the trick.

Anyway, here are the two money tricks from Larry West’s lecture notes:

@louiefoxx Cheating the con man! #magictrick #magic #money #conman #counting #math #magiciam #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Hustling the Hustler! #magictrick #money #magic #moneymagic #hustle #con #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I’m not sure which version is better.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Rosemary Le

On this episode we welcome Rosemary Le. Rosemary discusses her upbringing and how her need for movement led her to ariel. We discuss her Ph.d, her life in academia and learn about her work with some pretty cutting edge experiments.

We throw some hard questions at her thoughts on learning and even throw some business proposals her way. She talks about her desire to take a break from the corporate world to explore the performing arts. A wonderful conversation with an extremely smart and talented person

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Applause Please 2: The Encore

Another batch of Applause Please 2: The Encore will be ready soon! This is the prop that I use for the object in light bulb effect. Traditionally this effect uses a lamp onstage, but I’ve changed that lamp to an applause sign!

I don’t have these in stock all the time as the outer applause box I don’t make, Phil over at Ackerly Builds currently makes them for me. That means that I get them in batches of about a dozen and those are then all gimmicked at the same time and offered for sale at the same time and usually sell out pretty quickly.

The current batch of Applause Please 2: The Encore can be preordered at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/applause-please-2-the-encore/
The estimated ship date is March 3rd, 2025.

-Louie

Working With Cool People!

One of the challenges working as a magician is that it can be a very solitary experience. You travel alone and frequently perform alone. The other night I got to work with Brian Ledbetter, who I’ve known for years. It was great to BS in the green room.

In my off seaon (not summer) I’m usually working by myself, so this was a nice change. Gigs with friends are the best and I look forward to them!

-Louie