Some friends and I were texting horrible variation of existing magic tricks. One of my ideas was the “dimmest” D’lite! Then my buddy Chris used AI to make them into packaged magic tricks.
It came out well! He uses AI for his work, and gave me some tips on how to use AI more effectively to create things. I think that effectively communicating with AI is going to be a skill that will be helpful. It’s a modern version of knowing how to use photoshop (which I don’t know how to use).
-Louie
When I have down time when I’m on the road I pop by junk shops and try to find old magic props or unopened bicycle cards from Cincinnati. Usually I don’t find much, but the other day I found a Deland Deck:
I also found this lid that looks like the top of a dove pan!
The lid was lacking the spring clips inside, so a quick search on Google and I learned it’s the lid from a serving tray. I guess that the dove pan is actually something in real life…well halfway. The metal bowl isn’t something that would have been with it, it would be paired with a flat tray.
I always love finding the real life item that props are trying to mimic!
-Louie
There are some magic products that just shouldn’t exist. This is one of the products:
It’s a cheat sheet for the invisible deck. Let’s start with the memory, you really need to remember two things. You need to remember which side of the deck is even, and hearts to spades, that’s it. For the math, you need to be able to subtract a number from 13.
It’s not too hard, however, it that’s too much for you, you can eliminate the math and memory by simply opening the flap and looking at which side is towards you. Then removing them from the box the correct way and fanning them vertically while looking for the named card. Boom, no math, no memory, no need for an Invisible Deck Crib.
OK, so is this solving a problem? If you’re not going to put the time into learn a trick, you really should be doing it. I suspect that’s what’s behind all the versions of ACAAN that are marketed, it’s to try to make the trick accessible to lazy magicians.
Maybe someone has a learning disability and can’t do the math in their head? OK, there are lots of things that I don’t do because I don’t have the ability to do them. For example I can’t use memory pegs because I have a thing called Aphantasia, however I was able to learn a memorized deck. It took a lot of work and I had to create little things to help me learn it. I wanted to learn to a memorized deck, so I figured out a way.
Now let me mention the worst line in magic advertising:
“eliminates memory and math (or commonly sleight of hand) to allow you to focus on performing.”
This makes it seem like you can’t do the two at the same time. Let’s look at famous magicians:
Darren Brown, David Copperfield, David Blaine, Doug Henning, and Criss Angel
All of them do or have done technically challenging things in their shows and could still entertain with it. Why can’t you?
If the answer is because it takes practice, then maybe performing magic isn’t for you.
Believe in yourself, you can do it!
-Louie
Yesterday I mentioned that I paid $15 for a box of magic stuff. All I had to go off of was the picture below:
Well, when I went to pick it up, it was actually 4 boxes!
This led to a challenge as I’m travelling right now, so my car has my show in it and I won’t be home for a few days. Also quite often old magic has a musty smell, and I don’t want to have that smell in my car all week and I just don’t have space for it.
I stopped at a grocery story and used their parking lot to sort through the boxes. Like most boxes of used magic, most of the stuff is junk.
Here’s an overall look at some of the boxes:
The VHS tapes have great material on them, I dont’ have a VHS player and there’s really no market for them. I did find a lo
The stuff that I didn’t want filtered down the magic food chain. These were left at a performer’s house who lives near where I got the boxes.
Here’s the pile of stuff that I kept:
There’s a MAK french arm chopper, MAK Chen Lee Water Suspension, snake basket, multiplying bottles (india), sword thru neck (india), and a lot of other misc stuff.
One of the surprises were two Ormand McGill books and they both were signed!
These boxes of magic were a solid buy for $15 and since I was in the area and didn’t have to travel to get them.
-Louie
I’m really liking using “projection” in library shows. It gives my lower production show production value. Some people’s library shows have a lot of “curb appeal” with backdrops, banners, etc. My set up in fairly minimal for things like that. It’s a case on the table and if they have a TV or projected, then a second table with a camera.
There are a couple of schools of thought on this. You want the audience to walk in and go “wow” when they see the set up. Personally I don’t care about this as the moment the audience starts walking in my preshow starts. I’m talking to them, and doing things. For me the library show starts when the doors open. My personality is selling the show, not a back drop.
Would it be better if I had fancy backdrops? Yes it would. Honestly I should level up the curb appeal of my show. It’s hard to be motivated to do that when I’ve got as many libraries as my schedule can handle and I’m not a full time library performer who does 150 of them in the summer.
Don’t be lazy like me.
-Louie
I’ve been doing a coin to key chain for a while now and I love it! The effect is you show your lucky coin that’s permanently embedded in a fob. Then another coin is signed and reappears as your lucky coin that’s permanently embedded in your key chain!
The lucky coin could be given out in its holder as a souvenir!
What I love about this trick is that it lives on my keychain, all I need to do is borrow a marker! I’ll probably make a batch of these at some point and offer them for sale.
-Louie
The last couple of months I’ve have a huge output of original (to me) magic effects. The shift is that I’m playing with magic more, and in a directed way. Playing is different than learning a new trick or practicing one that I already do.
When I play with magic, I put a prop on the table and have recess with it. I just start playing, and sometimes an idea will pop into my head and I’ll have to figure out how to make it happen. Other times I’ll just play and come up with nothing new. However that play where I come up with nothing new is still flexing the creative muscle in my brain. I’m also working through my vocabulary of sleights or techniques. The goal is to move past what I know. For example, if I have a packet of cards in front of me, I want to get past doing twisting the aces. However sometimes that means working through all the ways I know how to do it to come up with an different angle on it. Or to figure out what I don’t like about the effect and try to fix that.
It’s been a lot of fun dedicating time to play. I think more magicians should do this!
-Louie
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
In the 1980’s and 1990’s Mike Bornstein had ads in magic magazines for his money magic. I found a set of his lecture notes and have been going through them. One of the tricks that I though was interesting was this torn and restored bill:
@louiefoxx The old hundred dollar magic trick! #magictrick #magic #magician #moneymagic #vintagemagictrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
While the method now is fairly standard for torn and restored things, what makes his interesting is the tearing sequence. It’s backwards from how most are done. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse, but different!
Finding unexpected things is one the fun thing about all these old lecture notes!
-Louie
Yesterday I posted about using the miracle pad by Mike Giles. In a funny little coincidence I was having breakfast with David Williamson and he brought up Michael Giles! I’m assuming Mike Giles and Michael Giles are the same person. That led me to looking him up, and it looks like he was primarily an illusionist.
Here’s a few video clips of him doing illusions:
It also looks like he had at least one close up magic release:
I always love it when something takes me down a rabbit hole of learning about a magician that I didn’t know anything about!
Sadly Michael Giles died a while ago.
-Louie
