MagicShow.Tips – Page 72 – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

Smile Harder!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to do show wearing a mask, but recently did one!

This was a show at a senior assisted living facility and many still have mask policies, however most allow you to take it off while performing. This show didn’t allow me to take it off during the show.

Performing while masked makes connecting with the audience soo much harder! One thing that I do is I smile soo much bigger than I would do in a normal show. People can tell when you’re smiling while wearing a mask, but you need to smile BIG to have it play further back.

Also the show that I do at senior facilities can be done as a “no contact” show with no audience volunteers onstage or handling any props. This is a good option to have for your senior show as its not always an option to bring people onstage.

-Louie

When The Stage is the Floor

A common thing when performing in ballrooms is that your performing area is the floor. For whatever reason there is no stage, or the stage is unusable. Working on the floor is like performing standing in a hole. Pretty much anything held below your armpits can’t been seen by the second row.

Here’s my “stage” from a recent gig:

To add some height to my show I travel with a folding stool.

I stand on the stool for a lot of parts of the show to elevate me to make my hand held props much more visible. It also makes ME much more visible to the audience and makes it easier to connect with them as I can look them in the eyes.

A folding stool is cheap and easy to travel with. Get one, put it in the trunk of your car and you’ll always have it ready to go!

-Louie

My Favorite Deck of Cards!

My favorite deck of cards are the old Cincinnati, OH Bicycle Cards. They moved to Kentucky in 2009, so these cards having been made in almost 15 years! As I travel I visit junk shops and whenever I find these unopened or decks with the seals intact, I buy them.

Here’s my current hoard of them!

I don’t use these cards for shows, I use them as my person practice/fun decks.

When I find something I like, I stock up on them!

-Louie

Placeholder Card Trick

Inspiration comes in some strange places. I was cleaning out my storage closet in the office and found a gimmick that was for an ACAAN that was marketed in the late 1990’s. The trick was garbage, and was about to throw it away when I realized part of the gimmick had potential for a different trick.

Here’s the video I sent to my brainstorming group a while ago:

I like the concept of the card turning blank from a deck that’s in order. It makes it very easy to determine that the selected card is the one that’s blank. I don’t think I’ve seen a trick like this before, where a card turns blank in a deck that’s in order. Usually trick where the selected card turns blank, it’s away from the deck or it happens from a packet, like Gordon Beam’s Limited Edition trick.

I’ve been having fun doing this trick which I call Placeholder.

-Louie

Get the Event Flow Schedule!

Here’s a huge tip when performing a events, always try to see the event flow schedule and take a picture of it! Here’s event flow that I from the banquet staff at the hotel:

I took the picture right after I arrived at 4pm and I was supposed to rove for an hour at 5pm and do an 30 min show after dinner at approx. 7pm. If you look at the schedule, that’s not what’s on the schedule.

For starters, I was scheduled to rove from 5pm to 6pm, but the event didn’t start till 5:30pm. Shifting the roving 30 mins isn’t a big deal as I there was going to be a gap between that and the show. However they had the show listed as 90 minutes and I don’t do a show that long for a holiday party. This was quick to clear up with the booker, and they confirmed they were only expecting me to do 30 mins.

The shift from a 7pm show to an 8:30pm show could be a challenge if I had a late night gig after that one. One thing I was doing this year was only one show on each Saturday in December, so they were buying out my night. This is great for the client, so they don’t have to worry about the show running late and me having to leave. I confirmed the 8:30pm start time and said “no problem“.

I did leave the client a business card with my cellphone number on it and told them that with a gap that long I’m not hanging out in the banquet room, but they can text me and the show can start in 15 minutes.

Lucky me, I got a text at about 7:15pm and the show started at 7:30pm! As a super bonus, they were a great audience!

The takeaway lesson from this year is having companies buyout my Saturdays nights is the way to go. It’s less stress free for me and the client. They can throw almost whatever at me and I can say, “no problem” and mean it! Everyone wins!

-Louie

Sponge Peeps – 2nd Attempt

Yesterday I wrote about a failed attempt at making sponge bunnies that look like Marshmallow Peeps (read about it here). I made a second attempt, and this one turned out much better. Instead of using actual Marshmallow Peeps to create the mold, I sculpted them out of clay.

My mold is one full size bunny and then two smaller ones. My thinking is that I can get a full set out of two castings in the mold. I can make additional molds if this is something I want to make a lot of.

I used foam in the mold as I already had that at home, so it was easy to make a test with.

They came out with a workable density, I think that I would like them to be a little bit softer, so I’ll have to explore some other densities of foam. The next step will be to play with adding pigment to them so that they’re yellow.

-Louie

Sponge Bunnies

Last year around easter I had the idea to make sponge bunnies out that look like the Marshmallow Peeps.

I bought this pack of them last year and I just got around to trying to make a set. The first step was to make a mold of them.

I started to make the mold using actual Peep’s, but unfortunately it was a failure. I think the sugar or some ingredient of the Peep didn’t play well with the mold material.

I’m going to give it another try, but I think I’ll have to make the Peep’s out of clay and then make a mold of that. Hopefully it will be sooner than another year before I make another attempt!

-Louie

Money Paddle Idea

One prop I don’t really like, but spend way too much time thinking about is the Money Paddle. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be.

Is it an olde tyme drink stirrer?

And if it is, how do you give it context for a modern audience?

One thing that it reminds me of is a strop for sharpening blades.

The strop pictured above is probably 18 -24 inches long, where a money paddle is about 6 inches. That’s a small point to give it context. A knife and a strop belong together, so the props are connected.

I glued some black and white paper to my money paddle and now the next thing is to try to figure out a routine to do with them.

Also on a side note, the only reason I own a money paddle is that some were made out of wood from Houdini’s house in New York. I thought that was a fun thing to own, but since it see it everyday, I want to figure out something to do with it!

-Louie

Blankety Blank Blank Blank by Ken Driscol

Here’s a packet trick that I found in a junk magic bin. It’s a twisting the aces style effect with the backs turning blank at the end.

There are a couple of things that I didn’t like about the trick. The big thing with this style of twisting routine is no one really shows all the backs at first. This is easily accomplished with a Flustration Count and half pass. I think the surprise of the blank cards at the end is more amazing when the audience feels like they’ve seen the 4 regular backs.

-Louie

Chinese Flame Clock

The Chinese Flame Clock is an interesting magic trick. This was invented by Ed Massey and mine appears to have been made by Milson Worth. This style of illusion isn’t really a modern style, however I’m sure there’s someone out there killing with it!

@louiefoxx Chinese Flame Clock! Vintate Magic Trick! #vintagemagic #antiquemagic #vintage #magic #antique #collectiblemagic #louiefoxx #stagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The trick is really solid, I think it’s pretty deceptive. It’s nothing that I would do, but it’s a great example of creating a method to make an effect happen!

-Louie