Trick Trend at Magic Live…

One thing I noticed at Magic Live was a trend of tricks that use a penis. That’s right, tricks then ended with the production of a penis…and not the old Goshman sponge ding dong trick. Most of them had a component of Bob Farmer’s Little Hand trick, however there were a couple that completely different.

Let me start by saying, I’m not a prude, and I’m not sure how I feel about these tricks. I dislike Goshman’s sponge ding dong, however I do like some of these new penis tricks more. At the end of the day the strength of the trick is in the shock value of the production of the penis, so no matter how good the trick is magically, it will be overshadowed by the penis.

I will say that every time I saw the trick, it was in an appropriate place (informally at the bar). My worry is that someone that’s a less “aware” magician would do it at the wrong place and give magicians a bad reputation. So if you do decide to do a trick with a plastic penis, make sure you pick the right situation!
-Louie

Still Working On It…

Months ago I started working on my version of Goshman’s Cards Thru Newspaper trick. My version ended up taking out everything I didn’t like about the trick, which are the cards and the newspaper. I ended up replacing them with Polaroid pictures and an envelope. It’s still a work in progress.

A couple weeks ago I was invited to be a guest at a magic club meeting that took place over zoom. One thing they did was allow people to perform and get critique from Patrick Martin, who also did a presentation during the meeting.

Only a handful of people took the club up. I volunteered to do something if they had space and wouldn’t get in the way of club member’s having the chance to be critiqued. They had plenty of space, so I did my trick with Polaroid pictures.

There was some great feedback, mostly with how bad my pictures were and how they showed up on the screen. They are 100% correct, here’s a screenshot:

magic trick

The reflection from my ring light made the picture hard to see. There are a couple of solutions for this:

  • Spray them with matte spray to dull the gloss
  • Have the camera behind the ring light and bring the pics past the ring light
  • Have more contrast between the animal and background in the actual picture
  • Remake the picture so that it’s not glossy (i.e. fake Polaroid)

I think the final solution will be a combination of all of the above.