close up magic – Page 9 – MagicShow.Tips

Flippy Triumph

For years I’ve been playing with flippy thing that I read in the book Underground Man by Lou Gallo. Here’s what it looks like:

Recently I’ve put in some dedicated time to get it pretty consistent. Then the next thing is to figure out what to do with the move. Lou Gallo uses it as part of a two card production. A while ago I came up with a four ace production that uses it, and I’ll write that up sometime.

The other trick I came up with using it is this:

@louiefoxx Always shuffle the cards! #cardtrick #magic #magictrick #shuffle #triumph #cards ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like this routine, it’s not harder than a traditional Triumph…once you learn to do the flip over move. I’ve been out doing this a lot recently and just wrote it up and it’ll be in the December Vanish Magazine!

-Louie

Splitting Creamer

While I was a hotel, I accidentally discovered you can split a coffee creamer lid!

How would I use this?

Essentially you could reseal something inside the creamer pod and keep the integrity of the original seal.

Do what you want with this new found knowledge!
-Louie

Making it “Easy To Do”

Sometimes there are magic tricks where the instructions are the least effective way to do the trick. Then you realize they are dumbed down to make them easy to do. One trick is The MisMade Card by Daryl.

Here’s how the trick looks when done how the instructions say:

@louiefoxx How to turn a playing card into amazing art! #art #diyart #craft #creatingart #howto #asmr #louiefoxx #impossibleobject #1990s #magictrick #cardtrick #daryl ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I did make one change, there’s a discrepancy in the instructions. You can’t do the trick as written. When you tear a card into 4 pieces, you cannot make it form the same pattern as the final mismade cards. The two backs visible will have the borders on the inside. I added a switch of the quarters that show backs.

However the whole, put the card in a sleeve, then wrap it in paper is soo much process and weakens the trick. A better method would be to tear the card in quarters, do the JC Wagner torn and restored card switch and unfold it show the card is restored. It’s a much more direct trick AND you can actually do it.

I do understand why making the trick easy makes it a lot more marketable as a lot of people don’t want to learn a sleight of hand move to do a trick. One of the things I do whenever I get a new trick and start to learn it, is try to figure out a more direct way to do it!

-Louie

My Favorite Trade Show Trick!

Right now is booking season for the summer of 2025 and I’m going a lot of booking conferences and trade shows. My absolute favorite trick to do at these is my Out For Beers trick.

This trick leaves buyers with an item that has been magically altered, that they can show people. More importantly, they trick still works when they bring people over to me who know what will happen in the trick!

This routine starts with a gag and ends with a trick where picture of a full pitcher of beer empties itself!

Out for Beers is $19 and includes free shipping in the USA!

If you order Out for Beers anytime in November 2024, I’ll throw in and extra 25 of the empty beer cards! You don’t need to do anything to get these added to your order, they’ll automatically be included!

Click here to order Out for Beers!

Magic Club – SAM #59

A couple of weeks ago I popped by the Portland SAM magic club. It was their close up contest night! There were three contestants that all did card tricks, and all with very different styles!

Then after the contest we saw some magic by Gaeton from France and a demonstration of the Vampire Block Escape!

The Vampire Block Escape is a trick I’ve seen on shelves of magic shops, but had never seen any actually do the trick. This particular one was homemade and probably 60 years old!!! The trick looked great and while the style of prop isn’t modern, the trick is still great!

I’m a huge fan of magic clubs and if you aren’t popping into your local magic club, you should. Contribute to your local magic community.

-Louie

Magic on the Morning Show

Last week I did a TV spot to promote National Magic Week and here’s the video of the spot:

Here’s where I could have improved:

I should have asked to do a run through so that the camera man and director knew what was going to happen. That would have had way less clunky wide shots.
I should have held the display of the card a lot longer. My displays were too fast.

It was a decent media spot, not great but not bad either.

-Louie

The Bodega Coin Tray – Reviews

About a month ago I started selling The Bodega Coin tray. This is the classic multiplying coin tray magic prop, but with new clothes. It’s designed to look like the “need a penny” tray on the counter of a corner store.

The problem with the classic version is there’s really no reason to hold a handful of coins on an ornate wooden tray or a shiny chrome one.

Since I released it I’ve gotten a ton of cool feed back. Doc Dixon gave it a shout out in his newsletter

Doc’s newsletter is great with a lot of solid advice, you can subscribe here.

These are getting out there in the world, and it makes me happy!

I’m glad I put this magic prop out there into the world as soo many people who were aware of the Multiplying Coin Tray, but never did it are playing with it now!

-Louie
PS: You can get The Bodega Coin Tray here!

EDC for TV spot

Yesterday morning I headed down to the local TV station to promote National Magic Week. I was on their morning “lifestyle” show and it was a lot of fun. One of the challenges of doing TV is that you don’t know how much time you have, they tell you about how much time, but you never really know for sure.

Here’s what I had in my pockets right before the start of the segment:

These props would keep me covered for most situations that I could encounter. You may also notice the deck of cards isn’t a bicycle deck, it’s the Penguin Marked Deck. When I do TV spots, I try to always use a marked deck. That can potentially bail me out of some situations, like when the weatherman grabs a card and tell me to name it.

The other thing that I threw in my backpack was my vanishing birdcage.

Sometimes they ask you to do a quick trick as part of a teaser segment. These are usually a 5 – 10 second bit where you don’t talk, the host is introducing your segment. You need a very visual bit to be able to do in the background.

What I ended up doing for the show was my close up card set. I didn’t do the whole thing, but the reason I chose that was that it’s a modular trick. I can take things away from in to shorten it and it has multiple points that feel like the end. That makes that routine very useful for TV spots!

-Louie

The Jigsaw Puzzle Coin

About a year ago my buddy Rolando Medina started selling jigsaw puzzle coins. It’s a coin that’s been cut into a little 16 piece jigsaw puzzle. He sells the coin as a novelty, but I thought there’d be a cool trick in there.

When I first got mine, I posted a few ideas of things that could be done with it. You can read them here. The coin has been sitting on my desk for a year and I finally took it out and made a video with it!

@louiefoxx Most puzzling magic trick ever! #puzzle #magictrick #wtf #puzzling #coin #magic #cointrick #louiefoxx #crazy #wow @RM🐇💀🐇 #redmond #magiciansoftiktok #nocameratricks ♬ Believer – Imagine Dragons

I think this coin makes a great little social media video. Doing it in a normal roving close up setting wouldn’t be practical. It’s just the reset of putting it back together takes too much time when going from group to group. It would work in a formal close up magic show.

You can get these and a ton of other cool stuff from Rolando at: https://rolandomedinamagic.com/

-Louie

The Family Card Trick

One of the things that I do for fun is learn old packet tricks. One of the tricks that I as messing with was Karl Fulves Mexican IV. This is a three card monte style trick, then has a “surprise” ending. When I go through the packet tricks that use playing cards, I try to think of how I could theme them as if they were an Emerson and West packet trick. Then when I go through Emerson and West packet tricks, I try to figure out if I could turn them into tricks with normal looking playing cards.

With Mexican IV, I think I got a fun them out of the trick:

@louiefoxx All about the famiily! #family #dog #wife #magic #baby #cardtrick #magician #louiefoxx #car #surprisebaby #story ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The trick came out well, and it’s a fun creative exercise!

-Louie