Visiting the Fresno Magic Club!

When I travel I always try to visit a local magic club. The Fresno Magic Club is a great club and I always love visiting there! I brought three other acts that I was working with last week to the magic club.

dennis forel, mickey o'connor, bri crabtree and Louie Foxx

I love seeing the different styles of magic and what people of different levels are doing. One thing I dislike is that with the streaming videos, you have a lot less variations in style based on region than you used to have.

fresno magic club

I always love watching people of all levels perform in a safe space!

Magic clubs are close to my heart. They really helped me grow as a kid. If you have a local magic club, go out and support it!!!

-Louie

UnPlanned Rising Card Routine

A long time ago I had an idea for a rising card routine.  Most of the rising card routines that I have seen have either a singular rise, which is the whole routine, or it’s multiple rises. The thing I have against multiple rises is that it’s essentially the same trick over and over, you just may add conditions each time to make it more impossible.  I understand it gives it a sense of build, but why wouldn’t you just do it the “hardest” way the first time if you could, the previous ones were wasting the audience’s time? 

In the idea for my rising card routine, three cards are selected and the deck is put in a glass.  An interesting point is that the cards never leave the glass after they are put in.  This is one of the interesting parts of this trick, the hands off nature of the trick.  I do touch the cards, but only the top card to show it’s not a selected card.  So the deck is in the glass, and first two cards appear one at a time to the front of the pack. Then for the finale the final card rises up from the middle of the pack.

It’s a good one, two, three set of reveals.  It’s also done with me solo onstage, so no one physically has to come up on stage and it ends with a nice applause pose.

There are some challenges with the original routine.  The placements of the gimmick in the deck and best way to hide the lock that I built into my rising card gimmick are some of the more major challenges. I took my props for this routine to the green room of the fair I’m working at and was showing it to Mickey O’Connor and Bri Crabtree for their thoughts.  While messing around with a different idea, I came up with a way to use a someone from the audience as a way to “lock” the rising card in the down position.  It was a real “break through” for the routine…also it marked a complete change of the routine.  It’s now a two card revelation with someone onstage, and that person does the magic.  It is a better routine after the changes, and this is a great example of how bouncing around ideas with other people can make a huge difference!

-Louie

Fresno Magic Club

I still believe in magic clubs and that they are a great way to learn magic and build community. Last night I brought some of the performers (Bri Crabtree, Dennis Forel and Mickey O’Conner) from the fair to the Fresno Magic Club.

Dennis Forel did some amazing stunts with a balloons, which is always my favorite!

fresno magic club

And Micky O’Conner did a great bit with a jumbo coin

frenso magic club

And we saw some great magic from the club members as well

frenso magic club

I highly recommend looking up magic clubs when you travel! It’s also always nice to see what tricks and styles are popular in different areas.
-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Bri Crabtree

In this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast we are joined over the phone by the hilarious Bri Crabtree. She tells us about how she had to hide being a juggler in high school from her classmates and what it is like to live in an artist workspace in San Francisco.

She discusses her career, what it’s like being a woman at a juggling convention and her fascination with learning new skills. She’s a comedian, clown, artist and an all around awesome person. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. 

X Ray Coin Vanish

Last night I was walking my dog and was thinking about an amazing idea of my friend Bri Crabtree. She uses a green screen spot, which is a genius idea! My idea was to use it as an xray for a vanish. Here’s a rough idea of what I’m think of:

I’m thinking if I get a ping pong paddle that’s green on one side I can make it work. Show the non-green side that says “x ray” then flip it over, show the skeleton of my hand with the coin and d do the vanish.

It’s not the deepest mystery in the world, but it is fun!