card trick – MagicShow.Tips

Tommy Wonder’s Card in Ring Box

Tommy wonder card in ring box by jm craft

The other day, I started playing with Tommy Wonder’s Card in Ring Box. This prop is detailed in Tommy Wonder’s book The Books of Wonder. The effect is pretty straightforward, it’s a signed card to ring box. What makes it cool is that the audience sees the card drop out of the ring box.

Before I give my review of this, I should mention that I didn’t pay for it. I don’t know if that really affects how I feel about this, but figured I should mention that.

I took it out and gave it a try at the fair I’m performing out, here’s a peek at it in action:

@louiefoxx The Card In Ringbox is a vintage Tommy Wonder magic trick idea! #cardtrick #magictrick #magic #tommywonder #jmcraft ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The box looks great, and the measurements are what is in the Books of Wonder. I really like it, and I think it works great for doing a card under a box, then ending with the folded card in the ring box.

My only issue with the box is how the card is attached to the box. In the Tommy Wonder Books of Wonder, there’s a loop of thread that you slip the card into. In the JM Craft magic’s version of it, the card is permanently attached to the box.

This doesn’t sound like a big deal…until you are in a situation where you have a blue deck and the gimmick is red!

At the gig I’m at, I took a brick of Bicycle Cards, which are 6 red and 6 blue. I go through a deck each roving set. That means that on my 7th roving set, I couldn’t do the trick.

Not being able to easily change the gimmick is an issue for me. Sure, I can pack only red decks, since I buy my decks by the brick, which means that I can’t do the trick in half of my shows.

If the gimmick color is an issue for you, like all your gimmicks or whatever are one color, make sure the gimmick matches that! Other than the change from how the card attaches to the box being different from what’s in the book, the JM Craft version of Tommy Wonder’s Card in Ring Box works great!

-Louie

The Snake Box

One of the tricks that I made for this school assembly tour is a snake box. This is essentially a “snake basket“, however, I’m not using a basket as I think that’s an old trope, and one that kids don’t have a point of reference to. The routine in my show started out as a card trick, but it’s now something more, and something that plays bigger!

I was thinking about Terry Lunceford’s The Viper trick and it’s great. If you haven’t seen it, here’s what it looks like:

It’s a great routine for its time. Personally, I think that trying to use a phobia someone has for a laugh is an older style of performing and not modern. Doing a danger trick is one thing, a French Arm Chopper isn’t a common fear, but snakes are.

My snake basket does have the snake jump out, but with only me onstage, and guess what, it gets a great reaction!

As someone who has an irrational fear of something, I try to show some compassion to people in the audience and not put them in a position where they will laugh at them being scared.

That’s just my opinion. I still think it’s a great effect, just not the part where you jump scare someone in front of an audience.

-Louie

The Stop Trick

In my collection of old magic stuff, I had a pack of FAKO cards. This is a deck of gaffed cards and novelty cards.

The pack I had was just the cards without the booklet, so I’m not 100% positive as to what tricks the cards do. One of the cards has a big stop sign on it, and here’s what I’ve been doing with it:

It’s just a second deal until they say stop, and then a timing force for the second time. Every time I do it, the person has a great reaction when they see the card!

-Louie

Topsy Turvy Cards

There’s a great little card trick that I think is a George Sands thing and more recently popularized by David Williamson. You and the audience have four cards each. They follow along with you, turning cards over, and you always end up with all your cards facing the same way, and theirs don’t.

The instructions that I learned from said to give them the cards to do the last phase. The problem I had with this is that you’re handing them a packet that secretly has a card reversed. Most of the time, the spectator would expose that reversed card. My solution to this was for me to hold the cards in one hand and they perform the action. That keeps the cards squared, and the secretly reversed card a secret!

Here’s what it looks like:

This is a trick that isn’t part of my normal work, but it’s a fun thing you can do for a group that they all get to do. What I don’t like about it is that the spectator doesn’t “win” and I haven’t figured out a way to make that happen. In David Williamson’s version they do win and it’s great!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick – Destiny Deck by Nick Trost

The Destiny Deck by Nick Trost is a fun little routine that has a few effects that happen one after the other. Here’s what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Destiny Deck by Nick Trost! #magictrick #cardtrick #vintagemagic #cardmagic #nicktrost #louiefoxx #dice #closeupmagic #antiquemagic #antique ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What I’d probably do to change the trick is eliminate the dice and have people hold up fingers for their number. That frees up some pocket space and the trick will still work. It’s a fun trick to do, the only problem is the reset and because of that it’s something that I really won’t carry with me. However I did have fun doing it for a couple of days!

Also it looks like Abbott’s Magic has a few left in stock: https://abbottmagic.com/shop/ols/products/nick-trost-destiny-deck

-Louie

Magician vs Parrot

With social media eating up content, I’m always looking for things that aren’t from my show to use. I personally don’t want to burn material from my show on social media. Recently when I was in Cartagena, Columbia there was a parrot at the port, so I did a trick for it:

@louiefoxx Magician vs Parrot! #magictrick #parrot #magic #parrotsoftiktok #cardtrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s not the best trick in the world, but it was easy content to create and fun. More importantly, it’s not my act, so I’m not burning material.

Also, this parrot was kind of a card trick master. I put the shuffled deck down and he flipped over the four aces right away. I wish we had recorded that, but it wasn’t planned and caught us off guard!

Keep an eye out for fun moments that you can use for social media videos!

-Louie

Why is there a Fourth Card?

One of the things that I’ve noticed when going through old packet tricks from the 1970’s and 1980’s is that a lot of them will have a strange point where an extra card just appears. A good example of this is Mexican IV by Karl Fulves.

Here’s what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Bet you can’t follow the card! #game #gambling #betyoucant #magic #cardmagic #magcian #threecardmonte #louiefoxx #karlfulves #amazing #waitforit #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s strange when 3 cards turn into 4 cards, I don’t know how I feel about that. I was trying to give the trick some context and make the appearance of the fourth card make some sense, so here’s what I came up with:

@louiefoxx All about the famiily! #family #dog #wife #magic #baby #cardtrick #magician #louiefoxx #car #surprisebaby #story ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Having the baby appear gives the fourth card appear some context, instead of a four turning into two aces. Another thing that I added was the change of the dog card to the dog and cat card, so there’s a little bonus effect in there!

If you’re learning a trick and something doesn’t make sense, figure out a way for it to make sense!

-Louie

Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick: UPDATED

When I was performing at a 12 day gig, I was playing with Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick. I liked the sequence, but thought the ending was just “Meh”. Here’s what the original trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick! #cardtrick #closeupmagic #magic #magictrick #vintage #columbus #louiefoxx #nicktrost #packettrick #cards #foxlake ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The main change was the theming, and I kinda changed the end. Here’s what I came up with:

@louiefoxx The One Dollar Card Trick! #cardtrick #magic #onedollar #cointrick #louiefoxx #magictrick #magician #what ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like the ending being a picture across the four cards, instead of four separate cards. I think them being one image wraps up the trick nicely.

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick – Carnival Cards by Tom Ogden

This vintage packet trick is interesting, as it feels like Emerson and West’s Color Monte, but with four cards. Here’s what Tom Ogden’s Carnival Cards looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Carnival Cards by Tom Ogden #vintage #magictrick #cardtrick #carnival #magic #louiefoxx #cards #gambling #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This uses the same move and the effect is very similar, except for the fourth card on the table. I’m curious what came first, it looks like Color Monte was released in 1974 and the Carnival Cards is undated, but based on the packaging, my guess in late 1970’s to early 1980’s.

Here’s the changes that I would make to the Carnival Cards trick:

It’s strange that Carnival Cards uses gaffed cards, because they aren’t needed. I kinda wonder if they were added to make the trick feel more “different” from Color Monte?

-Louie

Nick Trost’s Grave Location

If you read this blog, you know I like playing with old packet tricks. I’m currently at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio and noticed that Nick Trost lived here when he was alive and putting out packet tricks.

I did a little bit of research and found out that he was buried in St Joseph Cemetery in Lockbourne, OH. I drove out there to try to find his grave and the cemetery was gigantic, so I asked the office for help.

The gave me a map to the location of his grave in the very back of the cemetery. That map saved me hours (days?) of searching and I found him really quick!

It was a nice drive out there and gave me something to do that morning before my shows at the Ohio State Fair.

-Louie