I finally got to see the physical copy of my fourth parade in the Linking Ring Magazine!
It’s got about a 10 magic tricks in it. I think I need to write at least one more parade for the Linking Ring so that I have an even five!
If you’re a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians check it out in the March 2024 issue!
-Louie
Well, it looks like my fourth Linking Ring Parade came out this month!
I’ve only seen this online, I haven’t gotten the physical magazine yet. If you’re an International Brotherhood of Magician’s member check it out!
Louie
On Thursday night I made it out to the NW Ring of Fire magic club in Lynnwood, WA. There were about 15 magicians there. It’s been years since I’ve visited this club as it’s over an hour drive (without traffic) for me to get there .
The club president Tony Blei kept things fun, positive and moving along!
While I was there, I won the raffle and my prize were two magic VHS tapes
I don’t have a VHS player, but I discovered a long time ago that the tape can be removed from VHS tapes and they work as hat coils!
It was a fun night and if you’re not going out and meeting other magicians in your area you should! They are a good source of ideas, referrals, and people to cover gigs if you get sick.
-Louie
The 2024 International Brotherhood of Magicians convention is going to be in Tacoma, WA next summer. That’s about 30 mins from where I live, so I figured I should go.
Being local takes out a lot of the travel burden as I don’t have to pay for travel. I would really like to go to more magic conventions, but it’s difficult in the summer as I’d have to turn down a 5-10 day gig to attend.
This should be a fun convention, and you can register at:
https://www.magician.org/convention/online-registration-2024
-Louie
This summer I’m planning on attending FISM. I bought my ticket in 2018, so been waiting four years for this to happen. I realized my FISM card had expired, so I renewed it.
The card is less than $15 if you belong to another magic organization like the International Brotherhood of Magicians…and it’s even cheaper if you just want a digital card. It’s an easy way to support a magic organization, and it’s a fun, unusual thing to keep in way wallet.
If you got a FISM card when they started selling registrations for FISM to get the cheaper rate, you should check your expiration date, it’s probably expired.
-Louie
We live in a really cool time right now. I got an invite by Tommy Burnett to his lecture for IBM Ring 26 and was able to pop in and watch it while I was running at the gym! One of the the silver linings of the pandemic is that sometimes these Zoom magic meetings and lectures can be attended while you’re doing other things, like working out.
After the lecture they had their club meeting and I got to do the SD card trick I’m working on. That’s another silver lining of the pandemic, is that through Zoom you are able to get an audience almost instantly if you want to try out new ideas. Here’s my first time doing the Pin Thru SD Card trick (sorry, for some reason my screen recorder didn’t pick up my audio)
It’s always nice to get your first live performance out of the way. It’s a good way to shake the nerves of doing the trick and give you some confidence…or it’ll be a train wreck and show you the weak spots in the trick.
If you’re one of the holdouts not embracing Zoom after almost two years, you really should learn to use and perform on it. It’s a great learning tool.
-Louie
I’m honored to take part in the 2021 International Brotherhood of Magicians convention this summer! I went to my first one when I was 18 years old in Minneapolis and got to see some amazing acts! The 2021 convention is going to be done virtually and they’ve got an amazing deal on the convention!
Hope to see you there!
On Monday night I was a guest on the IBM’s facebook live where I played some online games with Billy Hsueh and Amy Nichols. Before the game, I did a cocktail demo. You can watch it here:
There’s a couple of magic tricks in the demo. I like using a loaded cloth to produce a bottle that’s not loaded in the cloth, then producing the bottle in the cloth and finally producing a third bottle, that’s not in the cloth. All three bottles use different methods, and it’s a fun little sequence.
After having done a few of these demos I’m starting to have little tricks that I like and keep falling back on. I think it’s good to have my “go to” tricks, but I still need to be creating new stuff for them.
There’s an old saying, “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” and this has really hit home for me during the pandemic. I’m having a blast making little cooking/mixology videos.
I’m doing one today for the International Brotherhood of Magicians, it’s an IBMfizz! Here’s the magic ad for it:
Here’s the recipe for it:
I think you can watch the video on the IBM’s facebook page.
I’m enjoying making these videos, it’s a fun theme to add trick to!
Something about magic that I’ve never understood is magicians complaining about people exposing magic secrets. I’m not into secrets, but will use people exposing things to prove a point. Honestly, no one is searching out the secrets to magic tricks.
Fast forward to now, when everyone is giving away a free online lecture. The International Brotherhood of Magicians is having an daily lecture, as well as pretty much everyone else. Here’s the thing, no one has a barrier to entry. It’s all free, and open to anyone. Unfortunately, it’s all potential exposure.
Here’s my issue, when the IBM is against exposure, why are they freely giving out the secrets to tricks? There’s no barrier to entry, anyone can watch these videos. I’m going to restate my position that exposure really doesn’t hurt magic. You can’t take it both ways, if you dislike exposure and like these lectures, you need to reevaluate your position on exposure.
think about it, is there a test to watch a lecture in person? The only test is if you have $20 for the ticket. Same with all magic, there really are no barriers between the general public and magic secrets.
Don’t get hung up on secrets.
