close up magic – Page 3 – MagicShow.Tips

Happy New Year (yesterday)!

Today I’m reflecting on 2025 and it looks like I did 204 contracts last year! Some of those are were multiple show/day contracts, but that’s the easiest metric I have for that. I spent just over a month on the ocean performing on cruise ships and we bought a house.

Last year my new year’s resolution was to read more, and scroll less on my phone. I did that…but I can still be better about that. I have a feeling that “read more” is going to be a perpetual new year’s resolution for me.

Here’s what I’m hoping to do this year:

Read more.
Learn Arduino, and build a couple projects I’ve wanted to do forever.
Add more production (video elements) to my show.
Learn Go Button for audio and transition to that from show cues.
Put out 3 products for magicians/performers.
write better transitions for my show

That’s not a lot, and nothing it too ambitious. The big one is still going to be reading more.

-Louie

New Year’s Eve Gigs

It’s new year’s eve, and I’m at home! I’ve been on the road a lot this year and decided to not seek out work for tonight. Most new year’s eve gigs are train wrecks, and I try limit the ones that I do to ones that are First Night Festivals, or things where I’ll be done by about 10pm. I want to be home or at the hotel before the event turns into a drunk fest and before all the people who were drinking are on the road.

That said, when I was younger, doing new year’s eve gigs used to be a nice part of my income. It was one last good paycheck for the year. Then new year’s eve for me transitioned to doing alcohol free events around the country. For me this was an excuse to travel on someone else’s dime. And that brings us to now, where I’m happy to stay at home!

There’s nothing wrong with going out there and getting the money.

To everyone out there working tonight, have fun, be safe and get paid!

-Louie

Christmas Mindreading

Here’s a quick little mindreading trick that I came up with a few years ago.

Effect: You ask someone to think of one of the following Christmas things:
Gift – Stocking – Candy Cane – Santa – Snowman
You then tell them letters in the word they are thinking of, then finally the word!

This is a simple progressive anagram. There’s really not much to it, you follow the card below:

I remember the word NASM for the flow of the letters named. Then, for the order of the items, think of a “Gift left in a stocking, which is a candy cane from Santa.” Then if it’s none of those, it’s a snowman.

There you go, some propless mentalism for your family gathering.

-Louie

1943’s Color Changing Toothpick

In the first volume of The Bat magic magazine there’s a fun little close up trick. It’s the Color Changing Toothpick by Jack Vosburgh.

It’s a nice, simple little trick. The plot is clear, and it’s not hard to do. It’s something that I’m going to file in the back of my head for impromptu situations. In the video above, I colored the toothpicks with markers, so that’s something that could easily be made at a restaurant with a Sharpie marker.

This is what I love about going through old books or magazines, there are little tricks like this that people should still be doing.

-Louie

Ah Nertz: a Card Trick From 1943

In the second issue of The Bat Magazine from 1943 there’s a packet trick called Ah Nertz. Packet tricks didn’t really exist at that point, there were things like 3 card montes or tricks with the four aces, but nothing like post 1960’s packet tricks.

Here’s Ah Nertz as written:

If you think about the effect, this is an early version of twisting the aces.

I wanted to update the trick with a few modern moves, so here’s what I came up with:

One thing that the original lacked was showing all the cards going the same way. To do that I added a modified DM Move/2 for 4 Count. I also wanted a reveal of the one the upside down cards, but where you see all of the cards. That was accomplished with an Elmsley Count.

Here’s a walk through of the updated version of Ah Nertz:

What I think is interesting is that in theory you could theme the trick very easily with customizing the last card. It could be a trade show trick, “all the options for buying X got your head spinning…”. Or a story could easily be attached to it, like a kid who always felt different. Then the reveal on the final card ties it all together!

I think this trick’s premise is one of the hidden gems in The Bat magazine!

-Louie

Working Through The Bat Magic Magazine

Yesterday was the end of one cruise itinerary and the beginning of another. It looks like my theater shows this week are on the 18th, so I have a few days off. One of the nice things about doing a show later in the cruise is that no one knows that I’m the magician, so I can be anonymous on the ship.

I brought an old magic book, well bound version of The Bat magic magazine.

This bound version covers the years 1943-1945. There are some interesting things in it, and a lot of patter that doesn’t hold up in modern times. I’m going to try to make some videos of some of the tricks that I have the stuff to do or make.

I did find time to make a video using my Meta Glasses. I like the idea of performing into a mirror so the audience can see both sides of the trick. Here’s a four ace assembly:

I’m going to play with this framing a bit more this week with my free time. I like the concept for social media videos.

-Louie

Lounge Magic Show

My show last night was on the cruise ship, which was in the lounge. This is a very different feeling from the theater, but a lot of fun and more intimate. On this particular cruise line, I’m supposed to have two different 45-minute shows, so for the lounge, I did the show that I didn’t do in the theater the night before.

This show had a segment of close-up magic with the camera. Usually, I use the camera to enhance smaller things that I hold, but not to show the tabletop. For this show, I did a short sequence on the table top. The rest of the show was routines that played bigger. I remember reading somewhere about making your show big, and it went something like this:

“When it’s close up, go parlor, when it’s parlor, go stage and when it’s stage go stadium.”

I closed the show with my book test, which ended with a two-phase banner reveal. The banner is 24 inches tall and about 20 feet long; it fills the space!

Last night was also the end of that particular cruise’s itinerary. I joined the ship midway through the itinerary, so I had to get up early this morning to clear immigration. As part of this process, because of the manifest I was on, I had to leave the ship for a few hours. I had the honor of being the first person off the ship…exciting!

I’m actually writing the post at a coffee shop before I can get back onto the ship.

-Louie

Travelling Magician

I’m writing this post from the DFW airport in Texas. Last night I left Portland at 11:59 pm and arrived here at 5:17 am. With the time change, that was only 3 hours of quality sleep on the plane. Now I’ve got a five hour layover at DFW before my next flight to Mexico for a gig.

I’m not writing to complain; I signed up for this when I took the gig. This is the non-glamorous side of being a travelling entertainer, but it’s part of the job. I’m going to spend today running on fumes, get a solid night of sleep, and then get on a cruise ship tomorrow and rock two shows that evening!

Many years ago I was at Bob Fitch‘s first retreat for performers. Bob was old then (he still is!), and someone asked him how he kept up his energy with all of us during the long days, and he said, “acting”! He’s right, you can act like you got a full night of sleep and aren’t exhausted. Sure, you do eventually need rest, but you can push through a show or two. I’m glad I get a chance to get some sleep before the “work” day.

-Louie

My Impromptu Card Routine

One of the card routines I do for impromptu situations is a revelation of a selected card three times. There’s really not much to it, and I’ll give sources for what they are below, but first, here’s what it looks like:

Let’s start by me saying that in the video above, I messed up the second card revelation, but that’s OK because it still worked. The three revelations are:
1: The (Piet Forton) Pop Out Move
2: Daryl’s Hot Shot Cut
3: The old trick where you sidejog the top card and drop the deck.

It’s not a crazy sequence, but it has a feel of build with the diminishing hands for each revelation.

Have fun with this!

-Louie

Magicians From Last Week!

One of the things that I love about being a performer is the camaraderie that exists. I was just at a booking event and while all the magicians there were competing for the same gigs, we all would help each other out in any way possible!

Many magicians look at other magicians as competition. Here’s how I look at booking gigs: If someone gets a gig that I was also up for, they did something that I was unable or unwilling to do.

I don’t believe that anyone owns a gig. Just because you’ve worked there before doesn’t make it your gig, and no one else can solicit it. Yes, there are inappropriate times to solicit it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done when it’s appropriate.

Go out there an make some friends with the magicians in your market!

-Louie