Tag: close up magic

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!

A Good Card Trick for Emergencies!

Last week I finished reading Card Man Stuff by Al Leech and this week I started reading another card magic book by Al Leech called Super Card Man Stuff. This book is pretty good. I’m about halfway through it, and while I don’t think it’s as good as Card Man Stuff, it’s still pretty good and a worthwhile read.

Here’s a Card Trick I Love!

In the book, there’s a gag that’s essentially an impromptu novelty card, like the ones that came in a FAKO deck. Here’s what it looks like:

I think this is a great trick (gag) to have in your brain for emergencies. I can see many opportunities where knowing this and having it in your mental toolbox, ready to be used, would be helpful!

Many times knowing little bits like these have bailed me out of situations or enhanced them!

-Louie

The Best Card Magic Book for $10

A few weeks ago, I started reading the booklet Card Man Stuff by Al Leech. This booklet is full of card tricks that feel modern. In fact, I’d have no problem doing all of them (except for one) at a close-up magic gig! The effects are direct and have solid methods. It was written in the 1950’s so if you update a few methods to techniques that didn’t exist then, you have even better tricks!

One of the tricks, I updated by giving a theme and changing a couple of moves and the sequence, and ended up with a new trick that I call Discount Transposition.

Want to Watch the Card Tricks?

On my Facebook and Instagram, I’ve documented the whole book with the original techniques. Here are some of the videos:

Where Can I Get the Book Card Man Stuff?

This book is still available from Magic Inc in Chicago for $10! It’s totally worth the ten bucks, and you’re supporting a brick and mortar magic shop! I don’t make anything if you buy from them, I just think this is a really cool “forgotten” book and a hell of a deal at $10!

-Louie

The Nest of Envelopes – More Work!!

I’m wrapping up two weeks of performing at the San Diego County Fair and I’m learning a lot about the Nest of Envelopes routine. This is a trick that I started working on a little bit ago. It started as an routine idea as a running gag in the show, with not specific trick attached to it.

You can read about it’s journey in these posts:
https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/magic-show-running-gag/

https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/the-nest-of-envelopes-trick/

https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/nest-of-envelopes-as-a-running-gag/

https://www.magicshow.tips/uncategorized/the-nest-of-envelopes-update/

https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/ditching-the-invisible-deck/

https://www.magicshow.tips/magic-show-tips/nest-of-envelopes-single-spot/

I think I’ve finally figured out what I don’t like about the routine, and that’s the use of physical props aside from the envelopes. The challenge is coming up with a method that allows me to do that in a manner that I like.

One of the bonuses of trying different methods is that each has things that are positive and could be used in different situations. For example, the method that I was using for most of the two week run of shows I did in San Diego would be great if I were in a situation where access to the audience was challenging. Like stairs to the stage that are behind the stage.

The current method I’m really liking because it’s visually cleaner, it just uses the envelopes, and I like that! I think an important thing to do when creating magic is to try your best not to settle for what just works if it doesn’t align with your vision. Keep trying new things!

-Louie

Discount Transposition!

I’m really enjoying going through Al Leech’s card magic. His card magic is really direct, which I like. One of the tricks in his book Card Man Stuff is called A Quick Theft. It’s a transposition of a card in your pocket and a card in your hand.

Here’s what the original version looks like:

And here’s my version of the trick:

What I did was give the trick a bit of a premise with the coupon card. I also added the force of the coupon card to get the card into my pocket before the actual card was selected. Finally, I changed the card control, to something a bit more direct to get the selection in position for the trick.

I think it’s a better trick now!

-Louie

Magic Trick That No One Asked For

playing card power bank by n2g magic

Oh man, this ad for a magic prop came through my social media feed. It’s a power bank that’s decorated like a deck of cards.

That’s it.

In theory you can use it to secretly charge someone’s phone by touching it to a deck of cards. This doesn’t really pass the “walk to the car test”.

The walk to the car test, is if people on their walk to the car try to figure out how the trick works, can they?

I’m thinking that most people would draw a straight line from the deck of card that the phone was set on top of to the charging of the phone.

OK, here’s the demo video:

If you pay attention to the video, you’ll notice that it only charges 1% more than the phone already had! If I had magic and could charge your phone, it wouldn’t be just 1%!

I think it’s a fun idea for a power bank that’s “on brand” for magicians, just like a tie with playing cards on it. However, as an actual trick, it feels like a money grab versus a good idea for a trick.

-Louie