One of the challenges of trying to relearn to do a street style show is trying to figure out what the show is. Is it a close up show or a bigger half circle show? I really love doing close up magic when roving at a fair, and I’m finding it hard to transition from building a crowd with close up to then turning that group into a circle show crowd.
Part of the challenge is “ego”, I’m finding that I have some fear of losing people and I need to get over that. I’m afraid of failure in this context. I’m pretty fearless on stage with taking risks and trying new things, so I’m not sure why this has gotten into my head. I’m afraid of people leaving. I know that people will filter in and out of the show and that’s just what it is, but I my mind can’t get over seeing people leave.
I did find when I went out to do my “roving” set, if I immediately put up my rope front row, that kept me from doing tabled close up magic, and really helped for me to just do the bigger stuff. I do need to make a judgement call based on how busy the areas that I’m assigned to are at my assigned times as to what will be more effective, close up magic or a half circle show. Sometimes there’s very little foot traffic and I think it feels strange trying to build a big show for the handful of people that walk through the area.
Hoping to get some of my fearlessness back soon!
-Louie
Tag: close up magic
Magic Jam!
The Magic Jam that I put together in Seattle on Tuesday was a blast! We had a good turn out of people I knew and magicians I didn’t know!
For me one of the takeaways is that it reminded me that there are soo many different styles of magic out there and there’s not really one right or wrong way to do it! Peoples styles are heavily influenced by where they perform, whether that’s just for their family and friends, busking, corporate shows or whatever. The venue dictates a lot of the material you do.
Thanks to everyone that came out to hang out!
-Louie
A Batch of Placeholder!
Yesterday I shipped out a batch of my new trick Placeholder to Hocus-Pocus.com!
Placeholder is a card trick where a selected card turns blank, you can watch a demo of it here:
I have a lot of fun with this trick! You can get it from Hocus-Pocus.com or from me at: https://www.magicshow.tips/placeholder/
-Louie
Another Visit to the Magic Garage!
When I’m in the bay area, or near it I always try to visit the Magic Garage! It’s always the great to visit and chat with Will Chandler and he also makes an amazing Old Fashioned!
What’s fun about the Magic Garage is that it’s got magicians who hang out there who do all sorts of magic. From close up to parlor to illusions and magicians of every skill level!
I love hanging out here and chatting magic! It’s one of my favorite spots that I pop into!
-Louie
Jeki Yoo’s Vanishing Birdcage!
Here’s a great version of the Vanishing Birdcage by Jeki Yoo.
The cool thing about this is that he’s wearing what he normally wears for all of his videos. The downside is this method isn’t practical for a normal stage show presentation. In my opinion any different method for the cage is great, no matter how practical or impractical it is for different venues. The normal stage version of the Vanishing Birdcage is already a very impractical trick due to the set up when compared to pretty much any standard magic trick, so it’s hard to say any method isn’t “practical”.
-Louie
Coins Thru Glass
Many, many years ago I saw a video of Daniel Cros doing Coins Thru Glass. You can watch it here. Basically the effect is the coins go thru the bottom of the glass into another glass one at a time, then the final coin uses a spectator’s hand. I never really like the ending of the trick and the switching from a glass to a hand.
Last night in my hotel room I was playing with the trick but added a hat to it. That gave a slightly different frame to the trick and allowed me to have a “kicker” ending that still followed the frame work of the first coins to go thru the glass.
Here’s what I came up with:
While not great, if I put a little bit more time into figuring out the blocking, the trick would flow a lot better and look a lot less like I just thought of it and don’t know where the props should go.
It’s a fun little thing to work thru, but I don’t know if I’ll put much more time into it as I don’t think I’ll ever do it.
-Louie
Shell Shocked by Giovanni Livera
A bit ago someone mentioned Giovanni Livera’s three shell game routine. I wasn’t aware of this routine, so I tracked down a his book Confessions of an Italian Magician where his Shell Shocked routine is written up.
His routine has an ending that’s unusual, it ends with three production items. The first two are dice and the third is a plastic P. I have all of the props except the plastic P, but that’s where my 3d printer came in handy.
Within about 15 minutes I had made a plastic letter P and had it printed and can now learn the routine!
I’ll get started working on it later today!
-Louie
ReUpholstering a Dice Cup
As I get ready to head out on the road to do a week of street style shows, I spent the day cleaning up my props. The dice up that I use for my Cee-Lo dice routine was pretty beat up on the inside.
I’ve been using this particular cup for probably 6 years (or more!) and it’s showing a lot of wear on the inside. I had changed the outer black cover in the 2020’s to a tan leather so that it would show up better for virtual shows.
I carefully removed the old lining on the sides and used that as a template for the new felt that I was going to stick into it. I decided to keep the bottom part as is and just recover it with new felt. I’m not sure this was the best decision…I’ll see how well it holds up over time.
Here’s the finished cup:
It came out alright, I probably should have just made a new cup from scratch. This cup still works great and transferring the leather outer layer or making a new leather covering would have been a pain.
We’ll see how this works this week.
-Louie
Working on the Half Circle Show
One of my goals this summer is to work on my half circle show. This a street performing style show where it’s more parlor or stage than it is close up magic. Last week was the first week I took out the current version of the show and it had some wins and some losses.
The things that I need to work on:
- I need to lay out a larger perimeter. I’m putting my rope line too close to my performing area, leaving me with a very tight half circle.
- I need to get out from behind the table. This is partially a symptom of laying out my perimeter too tight.
- I need to do the three trick set that I had planned and do it as planned.
A few other mistakes that I made.
- I tried a routine from a different show that’s a comedy escape, but there’s a blow off at the end where I don’t get out. It’s funny if you see the whole routine, but if you only catch the last 30 seconds, you don’t get it and it looks like I messed up.
- I need to take my PA out of my cart. It doesn’t sound right with it in the cart. I blame laziness on my end for that.
- If I continue to use music, I need to plan it out better than using my existing stage show music.
Ok, so things that I did right:
- I tried to improve every day.
- I did things outside of my comfort zone
Well, those are my general reflections on the week. Hopefully the show will continue to improve the more I do it an the more I start to figure it out!
-Louie
Working Out New Material!
Over the weekend I performed at a four day fair in California and I learned a lot! I’m working on my half circle show and it’s gotten better but still has a long way to go. I’ll write more about this in the next few days.
Here’s a highlight reel of some of the magic that I did:
@louiefoxx Magic at the Glenn County Fair! #countyfair #orland #glenncountyfair #magicshow #louiefoxx #escape #fairmagicshow #orlandca #magician #comedymagic #closeupmagic #haunteddeck #cardmagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
When I perform at a fair I always put an odd prop or two into my pocket and do it throughout the day. These are usually things that I never intend to do in my standard act, but it breaks up the monotony of doing the same set all day.
The “new” tricks I took were Bob Ostin’s Auto Suggestion and Matchbox Mambo by Paul Richards. I used to sell the heck out of Matchbox Mambo in the early 2000’s when I was at Market Magic Shop in Seattle. Here’s the problem with Matchbox Mambo, it doesn’t work for kids. No matter the conditions you put on it, they can’t see why pushing one matchbox drawer in shouldn’t make the other come out. Handing it to them after doing it the first time and explaining why it doesn’t work the way they think it does is a waste to time. You end up spending more time explaining WHY it’s a magic trick than performing the magic. It was fun to play with last week, but Matchbox Mambo isn’t going to graduate into my main roving magic set.
I’ll write more about Bob Ostin’s Auto Suggestion later.
-Louie