MagicShow.Tips – Page 27 – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

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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Why Jrod Illusion is an A-hole

Sometimes “working” magicians are pieces of sh*t. I posted a video of a trick with bills on TikTok, and Joe Rodiguez (Jrod Illusions) decides to post how he thinks it works. That’s part of TikTok’s game with magic videos for amateur magicians and I understand that and am OK with that. But when a supposed working magician exposes stuff, it’s makes me want to post on all of their videos how they do stuff. I won’t because that gives them engagement, which is TikTok gold.

OK, so here’s the video:

@louiefoxx The Eighty Dollar Trick! #magictrick #money #twenty #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Ok, you’ve seen the video, now here’s his comment:

Here’s the problem with his comment…he’s 100% wrong. Like a beginner magician should know there are no magnets involved in the trick…and he calls himself a professional. It really makes me wonder about the quality of the material of his show based on the lack of knowledge displayed in that comment. While I haven’t seen his show, I would suspect it’s pretty much garbage tricks done poorly by someone who doesn’t understand magic. I could be wrong, and that’s just my opinion.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Joe Rodiguez (Jrod Illusions).

-Louie

Red / Black Separation

I’ve always like red / black separation card effects. I think it’s because when I was a teenager I saw a John Mendoza VHS tape where he did a routine called “the squeeze” or something like that. The effect was a deck was shuffled and kept going back to red/black order.

Over the years I’ve done several versions of this in my close up magic. The other night I was playing with a version that I had come up with as an offshoot of something else I was working on.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Two shuffles, that’s all. #cardtrick #magic #cardmagic #magictrick #cards #shuffle ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Then ending where they separate into suits I like, but not sure that to non-magicians that payoff is any better than just red/black. Also I think it needs three phases. The first two could simply be shuffles into red/black. Maybe the second shuffle is a zarrow and up the ladder cut?

I’ll play with it more and actually try it on someone this week to see if it plays well.

– Louie

David Hoy Biography

When I got married 23 years ago, the lady who ran the chapel mentioned she went to college with a magicians. I asked if she remembered who it was and I got the standard, “You wouldn’t know who it is”.

Then she said the name “David Hoy!”

She told me several stories and one that stuck with me (not sure why) was about David’s cards. He always had cards with him, but no one was allowed to touch them. Everyone knew that. Then one time a new kid saw David’s cards sitting on a table and shuffled them! David blew up at the kid and it was the talk of the campus for a week!

I got her a copy of David’s mass market biography. When I bought one for her, I bought one for me. That was 23 years ago and it’s been sitting on my shelf and I’ve never read it. Well, I’m took it with me on this trip and I’m going to read it!

Hope it’s good…

-Louie

The Card Clothespin!

Here’s a quick little novelty card reveal that I’ve wanted to do for a while, I just never have a clothes pin:

You can download the instructions on how to make the trick here:

The Card Clothespin Download

If you make one, let me know how it plays for you!

-Louie

Flux vs Espionage

About a month or so ago I had a gig where I was booked specifically as a mentalist. I only added one new thing to what I already do and that was ProMystic’s Flux. I really liked what I could do with it, however the problem is coming up with an out if it fails. The solution that I came to was to have two of them.

Instead of buying a second Flux, I picked up Espionage by Iarvel Magic which is about $50 cheaper than flux. Now having used both of them I decided that Flux is the better of the two and worth the extra money.

First of all both do the exact same thing, they detect a magnet. What I dislike about Espionage is that it’s hard to tell if you turned it on while its in your pocket, where Flux will vibrate when you turn it on. Also the range on Espionage was a little bit shorter than with Flux. Those two things are a big deal when you’re out there performing and to me with the extra money.

-Louie