Tag: close up magic

What is the Greatest Packet Trick of All Time?

Of the hundreds of packets tricks I’ve learned and tried, last week I took out an old one that I really haven’t done since I was a teenager, and was amazed at how much people loved it! That packet trick is COLOR MONTE!

While it’s not my style to do, I also can’t deny how great it is! It’s really the sponge balls of packet tricks!

There’s so much action in it; you get a lot of magic effects in a short amount of time. Plus it has a story that’s easy to follow and makes sense. Not some wacky story about bigfoot or splitting breakfast with a football team.

This post is just a shout out to an amazing routine!

-Louie

Easy App Magic Trick without a Magic App!

It’s no secret that while I have used phone based app magic, I’m not a huge fan of them. They are frequently abandoned by the creator once sales slow down or are affected by a lack of internet connectivity. Recently, I posted about a trick with my phone that doesn’t go the traditional magic app route. Here’s what the first version of the trick looked like:

The first version needed some double lifts, which is fine, but I learned they are totally unnecessary. There’s no reason to have them, and they could be eliminated with a slight adjustment. Taking them out, really streamlined the trick, and the adjustment allows me to do it with a borrowed deck!

This is a good example of looking at a trick and trying to improve it past the “it works” phase to make it work better!

-Louie

A Simple Cell Phone Magic Trick

Personally, I don’t like using my cellphone for magic tricks. It’s too easy for an audience to say something is an app or AI. The other reason is that so many magic specific apps get abandoned by their creators, and they just stop working.

Here’s a little magic trick that I came up with that uses a cell phone:

The video above was the test of the trick, I’ve tightened it up and removed all the double lifts from it.

Honestly Evaluating The Magic Trick

What I like about this is that it doesn’t use any magic apps, so I’m not relying on some magician in their basement in Alabama to keep it updated!

What I don’t like about it, is that the effect is fairly slow. Removing the double lifts speeds it up a lot and takes out a lot of unnecessary process.

One last thing, I found the trick is stronger when it’s repeated a second time!

When creating magic tricks, I think it’s important to evaluate what’s going one. Figure out what you like and don’t like and what makes it hit harder for the audience. Try things, take risks. .

-Louie

Fun Origami Magic Trick!

In the summer, I frequently work with Jeremey the Juggler, who is a juggler, but also an origami master (I’m not sure if that’s an official title). One day he mentioned that he made an origami box that just happened to kinda do a magic trick.

Here’s his video:

I’ve helped him in the past with a tutorial, you can see it here!

When he mentioned this to me, I took a piece of paper from a magazine and made one and came up with a little routine with things in my hotel room:

There’s really not much to do the trick. A false transfer and use your arm to cover you loading the object on top of the box. Then use the box to do the second vanish.

It’s a quick, fun little sequence that appeals to magicians and origami people.

-Louie

Close Up magic in Spanish

This summer, I’ve really been trying to speak Spanish more when performing close up magic for groups where that is their native language. I perform in California a lot, so I encounter groups that don’t really speak English frequently. I’ve been working on my Spanish for the last few years using Duolingo, and I can safely say that I’m not conversational; however, I can communicate!

When I approach a group, I can tell them why I’m talking to them, what I do, and I can tell them what I need them to do during the trick. In close up magic, I don’t really have any jokes in Spanish, I do have a couple in my stage show.

The trick that got my into close up in Spanish was Emerson and West’s Gourmet Mouse! This can be easily narrated, and the picture cards help tell the story. I kept working and I can do my normal close up set (mostly)!

With things like Duolingo, or whatever, you really don’t have an excuse not to know a bit of a second language. Even when you don’t speak it well, it shows that you’re trying and I think audiences really appreciate that!

-Louie

How To Create New Ideas

Sometimes an idea becomes a reality when you just notice something. Recently, I was on a flight having a Bloody Mary, and the cap was sitting on the tray table.

creativity for magicians on an airplane

The idea that popped into my head was to use it for the three shell game. In the shell game, there are a lot of phases where you put something on top of the shell to create the illusion that you can’t get at the pea. There’s very few where you put things under the shell to make it more difficult.

Here’s one with a finger ring that I came up with a long time ago:

The idea with the tiny bottle cap is to cover the pea with that, then put a shell on top of it.

The first thing I had to do to make it work was file off the little metal nubs at the bottom of the bottle cap. Once it was smooth, it worked perfectly!

This is an easy to carry thing, and could be used in conjunction with a shot glass to have three things over the pea!

-Louie

Magibank by Tony Chaudhuri and Johnson Products

A few weeks ago I got this cool coin box set when I bought a box of vintage magic tricks.

Magibank by Tony Chaudhuri and Johnson Products

This is a really cool and rare coin box set. I can’t find any reference to it online, aside from a couple of old sites that offered only the instructions.

There’s not one main effect, but several that you can do and a lot of cool moves to switch the boxes!

I just listed this for sale on my Vintage Magic page.

-Louie

How to Deal With Kids That Follow You During Roving Magic

When you perform at a smaller county fair, you’ll have kids who are there all week. They’re usually 4H/FFA kids, or the children of vendors. One of the challenges is that since they’re there the full run of the fair, they’ll follow you around if you’re doing roving magic. That can lead to a challenge of them saying what’s going to happen in the trick before the ending.

I’ve got a new technique that I’m using, and it’s working out great. After I do my close up set, I say, “If you’re here the rest of the fair, each day you see me say “Hey Louie, show me the trick of the day!” “

This does a couple of things; it tells them that you’ll gladly show them more tricks…tomorrow! This lets them know that the you’re done with them for the day. I didn’t have any kids follow me around last week. The other thing that it does, is create excitement about you when you’re walking cross the fairgrounds. Kids will yell to you to show them the trick of the day!

When I do roving magic at fairs, I work out of my pockets, so I don’t have a lot of room to carry a ton of extra stuff. I do have room for one trick of the day!

You can watch a sample of my roving magic show here:
https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/roving-close-up-magic/

Aside from my table, here’s a sample of the props I travel with:
https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/roving-magic-at-fairs/

After a week of offering a trick of the day, I’m a fan!

-Louie

When Should I Replace a Close Up Mat?

Not too long ago, I wrote a blog post about how I now consider close-up mats to be a disposable item. I just opened this close up mat and the first group I performed for put two marker dots onto the mat!

close up mat with sharpie marker stain

Well, instead of getting a week or two out of the close up mat, I got 5 minutes. After that group, I ran back to my gear and opened another brand new close up mat.

The nice thing about close up mats is that traveling with two of them isn’t really a big deal. I probably wouldn’t travel with three; I think two is reasonable. If the second one gets stained, I’ll just have to commit to using that one for the rest of the event.

-Louie

Jimothy and How To Create a Card Trick

A couple of days ago I saw a video of a unique looking racoon that that internet has named Jimothy. Here’s the video:

He’s popping up everywhere, and that got me thinking, what magic trick could I do with him.

A Simple First Step To Creating Magic Tricks

The easiest way to create a magic trick quickly is to find the theme, in this case Jimothy and figure out what to do with it. I’m travelling right now, so I’m limited with props, which can be a good thing when trying to create something new. I did have some blank face playing cards, so that gave me a start, it’ll be a card trick, with a picture of Jimothy.

My idea was to do an ace assembly type trick, with Jimothy and things raccoons eat. The challenge was that I didn’t have enough blank face cards to do it in the traditional way with 16 cards. I think this was a good thing, because most ace assemblies are too long and redundant, but you kinda need to have three “traveler” piles because there are four aces. I didn’t have that restraint for this trick.

I’m a huge belivier in creating magic tricks with rules or restraints. It definately makes it easier. You can read about how this applied to a full show that I wrote here!

Here’s what I came up with:

What I like about the format of this card routine is that it can be used for other themed tricks. It’s an easily adaptable format, customizing!

-Louie
PS: You can learn more about how I create magic here!