close up magic – Page 10

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

Howie Scharzman Presents Babushka!

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before magic became a global market, it was harder to get a trick that was made in a different country. What would happen is magicians would bring things back when they travelled to another country. One magician that did this was Howard Schwarzman and he would write instructions in English and sell the tricks as “Howard Schwarzman Presents…”.

One of these tricks was called Babushka. Here’s the what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx What the heck is this thing? #whatisit #russiandoll #wow #gone #magictrick #vintage #louiefoxx #howardscharzman #1992 #magic #where ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is a trick where the method is fairly “Rube Goldberg” in that’s it’s probably way more involved than it needs to be, but it’s fun to do! It reminds me of 1990’s Tenyo magic, it’s a super clever method!

Now for a little Howie Schwarzman story. I never met him in person, but I did sell him a couple of collectable tricks on eBay. After he won the auction he told me he wanted me to send him the items THEN he’d send me a check. I didn’t accept checks as a form of payment and reminded him of that. He said, “Do you know who I am? I’m Howie Schwarzman”. I told him I didn’t care who he is. I did let him mail me a check, but I held it for two weeks for it to clear, he wasn’t happy with that. That’s was my only interaction with Howie.

If you can find a Babushka, it’s totally worth tracking down to play with!

-Louie

3d Printing a Vintage Magic Trick

Sometimes I see a picture of a magic trick and try to figure out what it does. Someone posted this picture of a box in a magic group on social media:

It’s a trick where you push the pins though a coin. I thought that this looked like a fun little 3d printing project, so I made a simple version of it. My version had a nested lid instead of a hinged lid.

And if you want to see it work, here’s a demo of it:

@louiefoxx What does it do? #mysterybox #coin #magic #cointrick #magictrick #3dprint #louiefoxx #nails #spike #figureitout #reveal ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is an easy 3d print as it’s only two parts. You just need the coin and four nails. If you’d like a copy of the .stl file to make your own, contact me and ask for it!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Blaisdell’s SKP

This vintage magic trick is Blaisdell’s S-K-P, and I can’t find any reference to it online. Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx What were you thinking? #magictrick #rubberband #vintage #whatwereyouthinking #magic #rubberband #louiefoxx #vintagemagictrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The problem with the trick is there’s soo many props and soo much process to make a rubber band go through a shoelace. There had to be ring on string techniques that could accomplish the same effect in a much clearer manner. One of the challenges of the trick is the audience needs to understand how the line segments that the rubber band make work. If they don’t understand that, the trick will fall flat.

I will say the move that accomplishes the trick is kinda interesting, but not enough to put out a physical trick. I think this trick would be a good magazine item, but not a full release.

-Louie

Finished Ginosko!

I finally finished reading Ginosko. This is a fantastic magic book, what I like about it is that it’s not just tricks. The whole back half is advice from other magicians and people in David’s life.

For me the routine from the book that’s worth the price of the book is “Asking the 8 Ball”. It’s a transposition of a selected card with the 8 of the same suit. One of the things that makes this great is how the end of the trick where the actual transposition happens, the audience kinda figures it out on their own. What I mean by that is when we get to the point where I reveal the selected card isn’t where it should be, the audience member automatically reaches down and reveals the transposition with any guidance from me.

It’s really a great moment.

There’s tons of other great material and advice in it. There’s a fun vanishing bottle routine in it, I won’t do the routine, but got me thinking about an idea for the vanishing bottle. The book helping me make a connection to something else is always valuable to me!

Another trick that hits really hard is “Post-it Crane”. This is a cool trick, but I don’t think it’ll really ever end up in my main close up magic set because I don’t have the pocket space for a post it pad and the “gimmick”. When I have done it, it’s been for small groups of about 4 people and it absolutely amazes!

This book is cheap at like $25 and totally worth picking up! I got mine at Misdirections Magic Shop.

-Louie

Simple but Ugly

In using projection at my shows over the summer I learned that some projectors or TV’s will “time out” and turn off if they don’t think they’re getting a signal. The camera I use has a black out option that I used to use, until I learned that the black out can be interpreted as no signal and the TV or projector will go into sleep mode.

To solve this problem, I 3d printed a simple camera cover for my iphone and glued it on.

This is a very simple, low tech way to solve the problem. The camera is still sending a picture to the screen, so it won’t got into sleep mode.

For these shows I didn’t want to run the camera through my laptop and use my Media Star to control it. That’s way too much set up and gear for a library show.

-Louie

Cheap Bicycle Playing Cards!

About a month ago I was told that Walmart had bricks of bicycle cards for $14! It turns out these are a clearance item, so once they’re gone, they’re gone. I’ve been buying them up whenever I find them on my travels.

There are still some out there at Walmart’s, but I’m finding them less and less now. If you go looking, they usually be with the playing cards OR in the clearance section of the store.

Just a note, if you’re going out looking for them. I found a box that was still labeled at $29, but I took it to the register and when I scanned it, it came up at $14. So if you see the higher price, it should ring up at $14!

Good luck finding them!
-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Ronnay’s Twisting the Jokers

Today’s vintage magic trick is Twisting the Jokers by Ronnay. This trick is very much the vibe of the golden age of packet tricks. It’s a trick where the four cards turn over one at a time, then turn into a different value. During this time that plot was done a ton of different ways, and here’s Ronnay’s version:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Ronnay’s Twisring the Jokers #magictrick #joker #cardtrick #vintage #packettrick #louiefoxx #magiciansoftiktok ♬ 10 minutes, meditation, sleep, mindfulness, night(951759) – Gloveity

The provided patter is garbage, it feels like rip off of the standard Six Card Repeat patter. The problem with this trick’s patter is that it uses a lot of industry terms that make it feel really clunky.

From a technical standpoint this trick is fine and it logically flows, but with a modern trick like NFW which is easier to do and much cleaner, Twisting the Jokers is obsolete…but these types of tricks were steps on the ladder to get to tricks like NFW and they have their place.

– Louie

The Bodega Coin Tray

I’ve been doing my version of the Multiplying Coin Tray for a while now. I call it the Bodega Coin Tray. It’s gone though some tweaks over time with the design of the tray, but am loving the current version!

Here’s the coin tray in action:

@louiefoxx This math doesn’t math! #math #counting #coins #penny #cointrick #takeapennyleaveapenny #louiefoxx #bodegacointray #magic #coingmagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The full routine starts with a four penny trick, that has a few phases to it. Then I do the coins to spectator’s hands. It’s a great sequence and using the tray that looks like a “need a penny” try from a corner store allows me to get the tray into the routine with a joke. Then doing tricks where the tray isn’t the method takes heat off of the tray when I use it for the method.

I have an introductory price on these now through the end of september 2024. The normal price will be $25, but I’m offering them at $20 right now, with free shipping in the USA!

You can get them at: https://www.magicshow.tips/bodega-coin-tray/

-Louie

Look It Up!

This summer teenagers have been saying, “That’s soo sigma” or just “Sigma” when I perform close up magic for them. I had a feeling that “sigma” meant cool, based on the context it was used in. However, to be sure, I did a Google search to figure it out.

Nothing in life has made me feel older than researching slang on the Today Show’s website!

That confirmed what I thought, and now I can use it correctly. While I think that when a older magician uses kid slang it feels like they are trying to pander to the kids and never seems cool.

In my close up I now say, “that’s soo sigma” but I do it in a way where I’m almost making fun of saying it. Very tongue in cheek, and not using it like it’s something I would normally say.

It’s important to keep an eye or ear out for these trends that kids do and figure out how you can use them to your advantage. For example, there’s the trend of kids asking you to “do a backflip”. I came up with two version of this trick to do when they ask:

@louiefoxx Do a Back Flip! #doabackflip #backflipchallenge #backflip #louiefoxx #magic #magictrick, #surpriseending #old #magician #cardtrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The other version and the one that I use is published in Vanish Magazine about a year ago.

Simply knowing how to respond to these things will put you ahead of the game!

-Louie