escape – MagicShow.Tips

AKA Houdini in Appleton, WI

About a month ago I was out in Appleton, WI performing at the comedy club there. One of the main reasons I went out there was to see the Houdini stuff at the museum. If you’re reading this blog and don’t know, Houdini’s “Home town” was Appleton, WI, or at least that’s what he told people.

Before I went to the museum, I checked out Houdini Plaza in downtown.

Then it was off to the museum to see the exhibit they call AKA Houdini.

I found it interesting the disclaimer they have on exhibit telling people that magicians may have an issue with the exposure of secrets!

One of the first things you see is the “haunted” bust of Houdini!

Three of these busts were made and two mysteriously broke right after his death.

There’s some fun interactive things, like you can pick a lock, try out Houdini’s Metamorphosis trick, break out of jail and try to fit into a milk can!

Then there’s a ton of Houdini artifacts!

And of course you exit through the gift shop.

This was a super fun way to spend my day before my show at the comedy club. If you’re in the area it’s totally worth the trip!

-Louie

Escapes for the Circus

Next month my daughter graduates from College. She had an opportunity pop up to work in a circus this summer where she’ll be doing a 4-7 min act. She’s done solo stuff in my show and she has two different escape acts that she can do. The circus will be fairs and festivals, so she’ll be typically doing three shows a day. We’re working on adding a third escape act so that she can do a different act each show. That will solve the problem of repeating the same act all day. She can do that if she wants, but she’ll have options.

One of the important things is that all of the escapes feel different. They all have a different texture, it’s not just three comedy “in and out” escapes or first she escapes from rope, then the next show chain and the final show handcuffs.

I just finished up making all of the props that she didn’t have her own dedicated set for.

Now the next step is rehearsing it and writing some new jokes.

– Louie

Still Figuring Out the Thumb Tie

The last week I’ve been working on a thumb tie using electrical tape. The routine is starting to figure itself out, but I keep noticing dead spots or spots where the blocking is rough and hard for the audience to see.

One place in the routine that’s both dead time and not really audience viewing friendly is when the guy on stage cuts the tape off my fingers. About half the time they try to cut into the gimmick, which obviously is no good. Then I also have to make sure they don’t cut my thumb! While the whole process probably takes 5-10 seconds, it’s a hot mess onstage.

My solution has been to hand the guy the scissors, then take them back, but with my now free hand and cut the tape off my left hand. It gets a laugh at the surprise of my hand being free! I can cut the tape off my thumb really quickly and while facing the audience.

I think this is the solution!

-Louie

Have Some Insurance!!

In my library show this summer (which is actually my school assembly show) I do a bit with handcuffs. The handcuffs are jump cuffs with and additional gimmick that I added.

If you don’t know, jump cuffs you can show that they work, but you can instantly get out of them. They’re 99.9% effective, but there’s still a .01% that something funky could happen. Because of this very small percentage of risk, I keep a set of handcuff keys in my case.

In my routine, the cuffs aren’t part of the escape, they’re a surprise, but I need to get in and out of them quickly. No one knows they’re there until you see them, so the keys never need to be part of the routine like they would if I was escaping from the handcuff and they were the focal point of the routine.

The chances of me not being able to unlock them is insanely low, but keeping the set of keys is insurance. also the keys take up virtually no space in my case, so it’s not a big deal to haul them around.

This is a good example of what can go wrong in a trick and what would you do.

-Louie

Gimmicked Handcuffs

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about a set of gimmicked handcuffs I had made a long time about. You can read about them here. The allow you to escape from the cuffs, but they also have another feature that allows you do a thumb tie style effect.

These cuffs have two very different gimmicks in them and I finally got around to making them again!

Essentially these cuffs will be used as a gag in the show. The premise of the trick is a rope escape, however at the end I’ll say I didn’t get out…of the handcuffs. The appearance of the handcuffs will hopefully get a laugh, then I’ll go into the thumb tie bits. I’ve never really done anything like this in the show, so we’ll see how it plays out.

-Louie

Ring My Bell…

I’ve been playing with adding remote controls to things recently. The company that I get the remote controls for my Remote Control Chattering Teeth had send me the wrong ones a while ago, and instead of sending them back, I decided to keep them in case I needed them for another project.

Here’s the most recent thing that I’ve made:

The idea is that the bell is rung by the corded button. However I can also secretly ring the bell via the remote control.

Some ideas for routines to use this to add comedy to are:

Having someone ring it when a trick happens. This would probably be better for a juggling style trick.
When doing a timed trick, like an escape.
When someone does something. For example, you need a kid to stay standing on a spot, and you if they move someone is supposed to ring the bell.

Those are all routines that you could very easily add the bell into. It’s the sort of thing that can turn a 2 minute trick into a 5 minute trick. For an example of this style of trick, look into my Order Up routine from Vanish Magazine #43. It’s the Cube Libre magic trick, but I added a bell and I used a sound effect on my PA to make the ring, but it played really well.

-Louie