emerson and west – Page 2

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

Vintage Magic Trick: Emerson and West Presents Gene Anthony’s Pentra-Bill

A while ago Matthew Johnson’s trick Melt got the modern card thru dollar trend going. It feels like since Melt came out or so there have been a lot of version of the trick. The plot is much older and here’s Gene Anthony’s Pentra-Bill trick from 1983!

The plot is very simple, a card is pushed thru a bill. No strange folds, it’s a very clean effect. Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Penta-Bill by Gene Anthony #magictrick #magic #moneymagic #cardmagic #louiefoxx #emersonandwest #closeupmagic #vintagemagictrick #antiquemagictrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The cool thing about the trick is that the card can be examined before and after and the bill can be borrowed. There is a gimmick you’ll add to the card, and the instructions hint at how to do it with the card examined before the trick, but don’t go into details on it. It should be pretty obvious you simply stick the gimmick onto the card after it’s been examined and you’re folding the card in half.

I like the opening the flap of the dollar to show the card in the dollar before the penetration. It very much feels like Timothy Wenk’s Misled trick from the 1990’s. Here’s David Copperfield doing Misled:

Pentra-Bill is a great way to do Card Thru Bill and I think in many ways it’s superior to the modern ones. Also it’s fun to see an Emerson and West product that’s not a packet trick!

-Louie

Trimming Cards

I really want to be out working on my routine for The (W)hole Thing and with the miscut cards I got from the printer, the set I ordered won’t work. To make them workable, I trimmed 1/4 inch off of the three cards that weren’t miscut and now I have a workable set.

This set works, but I’m not a fan of the card with the red rectangle being off center. However this is giving me a set to work with until the printer sends me cards that aren’t miscut.

-Louie

Making Cards Opaque

The custom set of cards I had made for The (W)hole thing were a bit too thin as well. If I’m backlit, you can see through them. I anticipated this problem and had thought of a plan.

How most playing cards are made is that they have two layers and in between those two layers there’s a layer of black glue. This glue makes it so that you can’t see through the card when it’s backlit.

I’m taking two of my custom printed cards and gluing a layer of black construction paper between them. This makes it impossible for the back image to be visible when I’m back lit AND the three layers makes the cards nice and rigid.

-Louie

Almost The (W)hole Thing…

The custom cards I had printed for my The (W)hole Thing showed up and they miscut one on the cards!

It’s not off center, the card is the wrong size. It should be 8.5 x 5.5 inches, but it’s 8.25 x 5.25. The rest of the cards are the correct size, so this one card is physically smaller than the rest and doesn’t look right.

I just contacted the printed and hopefully they can send me a replacement fast as I’m hitting the road for over a month and I would like to be using them while I’m out!

-Louie

The (W)hole Thing for Kids

The routine I’m working on for The (W)hole Thing by Emerson and West is intended for for family/adult audiences. The other day I threw it in my case when I went out to do some summer camp shows:

I thought the concept of the whole/hole wouldn’t hit with kids. Much to my surprise the kids liked the trick and got the idea of the verbal concept behind the routine. For the trick to work, the kids need to be able to read, so I probably wouldn’t do it for kids much younger than second grade.

Now I’m just waiting for my custom cards to arrive from the printer, so that I have a fancier set that what I made for myself.

-Louie

Sympathetic Cards by Ronnay

Here’s another visit with an old packet trick. It’s Sympathetic Cards by Ronnay, that was put out by Emerson and West. The trick is a “follow the leader” effect where two packets keep matching when one is turned face up or face down, then there’s a couple of kickers with jokers appearing and backs changing colors.

The problem with the trick as written is you end up with two more cards than you start with. It’s a small problem, but also something that I feel needs to be addressed. However there’s a lot of magic that happens in it and it’s pretty good magic, so it’s not a bad trick…

If I was to improve it, the main thing I would do is try to figure out a way to get rid of the two extra cards. Other than that, it’s pretty good.

-Louie

The (W)hole Thing For Me!

I had a day off last week and finally made a prototype of my custom props for The (W)hole Thing which is Daryl’s version of an Emerson and West packet trick.

The main differences is that the circle around they hole is a donut, the spots are arranged like an X and the cards are black. The main reason that the cards are black is that I might have a line about a black hole. With the cards in black I’m sacrificing some visual clarity of what’s a hole and what isn’t. I think if I end up not using the black hole line, I’ll switch the colors back to red as it visually pops!

-Louie

The (W)hole Thing

An idea for a presentation of The (W)hole Thing by Daryl came up in my daily writing a bit ago. I managed to fill out the idea a bit and do some writing. While I was in the Bay Area, I had Joe and Misdirections Magic Shop order me a set of the cards in.

One thing I found interesting was that there’s no mention of Emerson and West in the ad copy for the trick. This is essentially Daryl’s routine for the original trick. I’m guessing this is a Murphy’s Magic copywriting thing, as Daryl was pretty good about crediting things.

Here’s Daryl doing the routine:

For the routine that I want to do, I will need to make some custom cards. For now I’m working out the muscle memory for the routine!

-Louie