MagicShow.Tips – Page 96 – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

Silver Rocket Box by Richard Himber

I’m a huge fan of Richard Himber and his magic. One of the things that magicians say is that he had a huge ego and they support that by mentioning that he named his tricks the “himber wallet“, “himber ring” etc. That’s not quite true, those tricks were marketed under different names that didn’t have himber in the titles. Magicians started calling them himber ____.

At a magic auction a while ago ago I picked up a Silver Rocket Box that Richard Himber put out. It’s a super clever trick for producing silks.

@louiefoxx Silver Rocket Box vintage magic trick by Richard Himber! #vintagemagic #antiquemagic #vintage #magic #antique #collectiblemagic #louiefoxx #stagemagic #richardhimber ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I added the cup production. One thing that most silk productions lack is an ending. Usually they end with one big silk, which I think isn’t a good ending. You need to bunch up the silks and produce a bowling ball or whatever.

-Louie

Busker Organ

About 10 years ago I worked at an event where there was a Street Organ / Busker Organ. These are hand crank organs that are cranked by an “organ grinder”. I was fascinated by it, and it’s something I’ve thought about doing. I even bought a set of John Smith‘s plans for make my own, but never did.

Then few months ago I was in Mexico City and these street organs were everywhere!

@vintageorgan Street Organ in Mexico City! #streetorgan #mexicocity #busker #buskerorgan #oldetyme #streetperformer #mexico ♬ original sound – vintageorgan

That got me very interested in doing it again and I went out and found a guy who could make me one! Here’s the organ that was made for me:

@vintageorgan Busker Organ! #streetorgan #organgrinder #organ #buskerorgan #vintageinstrument #holland ♬ original sound – vintageorgan

It was custom made in Europe and I should have it in a few days. I have some ideas for what to do with it, and we’ll see what happens when it arrives!

I went ahead and got all the socials for it:

https://www.tiktok.com/@vintageorgan
https://www.instagram.com/vintageorgan
https://www.facebook.com/vintageorgan

Go and give them a follow!

And the website www.vintageorgan.com

-Louie

Card Production

A few nights ago I was dinking around with a deck of cards while watching a movie with my wife and came up with a production of the top card of a face down deck.

It’s not the greatest production, but it’s something. The action of the card reminds me of something in Ernest Earick‘s book By Forces Unseen.

I think the next step to making it better would be a way to have it come out of the center of the deck…but not sure if that’s possible!

-Louie

Magic Meals!

Whenever I travel I always try to meet up with the magicians in that area! Since Chris Beason and I were in Canada last week to see Harrison Greenbaum’s show, there were a lot more magicians out than if I was just randomly in that town.

chris beason, rob tzeka, chris uhill, and glen lebarre

Before the show we got to have dinner with many of the the magicians in British Columbia!

Then after the show we got to have second dinner with the Norden’s and Harrison.

Mike norden, chris beason and harrison greenbaum

And the next day we got to have lunch with Reg Donnelly and Paul Romhany!

Chris beason, paul romhany and reg donnely

Paul knew, but didn’t mention that he had won the literary award from the magic castle! They announced it the next day.

It’s always fun to hang out and swap stories with magicians! If I’m ever in your area, shoot me an note, if I’m available, I’d love to kick it!

-Louie

Show Set Lists

For every show that I do, I have a written set list. I know my show, but I always have one. For my main show, it’s taped to the inside of the lid of my case. Recently I was in a show where I did three five minute spots, so the list was written on a piece of paper inside the bin on my table top.

I do this for a couple reasons, for my main show if I’m repacking it, it’s easy to go down the list as I pack to make sure I have all of my props. For unusual configurations of my show, it makes sure I have all the correct props set. It also takes brainpower out of what I’m doing, I can glance at the list and know what to do!

-Louie

Vanishing Birdcages!

While I was in Canada last weekend I was chatting with some magicians after the Harrison Greenbaum show and someone mention there was a guy about an hour away that was making vanishing birdcages and gave me his phone number. I called him the next day, and was invited over and got to see some of his cages!

These cages are great and since he’s not mass producing them, he’s open to doing custom sizes. The cages have a great action to them and look great!

I’m very fortunate to have gotten to see these cages and I’m on the list for a cage the next time he makes them!!!

Talking to people and then following up on opportunities when they present themselves is one of the biggest secrets to success. Not just in prop hunting, but in life!

-Louie

Harrison Greenbaum Show

Last weekend I drove up to Canada with my buddy Chris Beason to see Harrison Greenbaum‘s show. I had heard a lot about him, but never really have seen him perform. I had seen a version of his lecture at an online magic convention.

In the show he did six tricks in 90+ minutes. That’s about one trick every 15 minutes. He doesn’t get 15 minutes out of the trick in a traditional sense. Before tricks he has stand up comedy that segues from the previous trick to the next trick. This is the way to do it, none of the routines feel like they’re dragging out.

Harrison’s show is also very much in the moment, and he does a lot crowd work (talking to the crowd, ad libbing with them, then using that info in the show). This makes the show feel like you are definitely seeing a unique show that will never happen again.

Watching Harrison’s show is a good lesson in how much you can do with a huge personality and very minimal props. He doesn’t just stand in one spot, he moves all over the stage and really fills the space. It doesn’t feel like a bar show that happens to be on a stage, it feels like a stage show that happens to use smaller props.

-Louie

My Audio Lifeboat During Stage Shows!

In my tech sheet that I send out for stage gigs, one of the things I ask for is a corded microphone in a straight stand. This is my emergency microphone, in case something strange happens with my headset mic. I ask for the mic to be muted on the mic, no the soundboard. If I need to use it, I simply grab it and switch it on. I don’t need to ask a sound guy to hand me one or switch it on.

Here’s my emergency mic at a large corporate event sitting behind their projection screen:

I don’t always get a corded mic, less and less venues and sound companies have them. I frequently travel with my own handheld mic with a switch, however I don’t travel with cord. I’m OK with a wireless handheld as an emergency mic, but prefer a corded as if something is causing interference with wireless, I definitely won’t have the same problem with a handheld.

-Louie

Mental Voice vs Inception

When Promystic’s Inception came out many years ago, I immediately got it. My routine with it has become a highlight of my show! It like everything about it, the only downside (and I don’t really think this is) is the price. The unit is about $1k, and for me it’s totally worth it! I use the heck out of it!!

I’ve been looking for a solution for a back up that’s not quite as expensive. Basically I want a unit that I can have around in case of an emergency and something happens to my Inception. In the past I’ve tried Alien Mind Reading and Echo. I didn’t like either of them because they required you to be connected to your phone via bluetooth. The more things you have attached and more connectors the more than can go wrong. Promystic’s Inception is a stand alone unit, there’s nothing additional you need and it’s not wireless connected to anything.

Recently Mental Voice by Blackbox Magic Creations came out and priced at about $200. It’s a stand alone unit and I would say it’s basically a stripped down Inception that’s got a few design flaws.

Here’s what I don’t like about Mental Voice:

It doesn’t have any sort of low battery indicator. They say it will last a month or so with regular use. I don’t want to have to remember which day it was charged last or how many shows its done since it’s last charge.
It has a physical volume sliding lever. This lever sticks out and the volume setting is easy to accidentally change.
The shape of very thick and kinda round near the metal panel. This shape make it difficult to get the bone conductor flat against the person’s head. It’s not hard, but you have to pay attention.
If you have more than one message on it, it’s clunky to toggle between them. If you want to use track #1 for your first show and track #2 for the second and don’t have access to a computer you’ll need to push a button twice for the second track. While this doesn’t sound like a big deal, during a show it is. There’s no feedback (haptic) or visual that you’re on the correct track.
Can’t use other props with it. I know I said that I prefer props that don’t have external things connected to it and that’s true. However I’d be lying if I said I’ve never used Inception‘s ability to connect to other Promystic devices. Mental Voice isn’t compatible with other magic/mentalism props.

With that said, I would say that Mental Voice is Inception with 1/5 of the features for 1/5 of the price. It’d be a good intro to using a bone conduction gimmick to work out a routine before investing in Promystic’s Inception. Then the Mental Voice becomes your emergency back up unit. I play on keeping my Mental Voice, but it will be my backup unit.

One more thing, I would NOT recommend buying direct from Blackbox Magic. I ordered from them it was a sh*t show getting the product shipped to me. I may write a blog post about my horrible experience dealing with Blackbox Magic. Murphy’s now distributes it, so order it from a dealer like Hocus-pocus.com or another reputable dealer.

-Louie

Golden Horseshoe at Disneyland

A couple of weeks ago I went to Disneyland with a bunch of variety entertainers after an event in Anaheim.

One of the things we saw was the piano player at the Golden Horseshow Review.

The format in the show (20ish mins) show was song, jokes, song, joke and that repeated. This is a solid formula for a show and format that’s great for a magician, just substitute tricks for the songs.

Why does it work? It changes him from an ambient act to an engaging show. The jokes also make you connect to him, he’s not just a piano player, he’s a person. That’s the goal with a magic show, to be a human. If you want to learn more about being a person on stage and not just tricks, check out Jon Armstrong’s Masterclass on Vanishing Inc. That master class is really great!

-Louie