Using the Flic Button

Someone asked me about how the Flic Button works for controlling music. It’s pretty simple, the button has three things is can do which are triggered by a click, double click and press and hold. For me I use those as Play/Pause, Next Track, and Previous Track.

You can use multiple buttons, so I may use a second one for volume and up and down, but for now one is working.

For a simple and cheap audio device for smaller shows, I’m really liking the Flic Button!

-Louie

Vanishing Bird Cage Costume Tip…

I’ve been doing the vanishing birdcage for years, and have never buttoned up my coat when I did the vanish.

@louiefoxx Taking my bird out for a walk between shows at the San Mateo County Fair! #sanmateocountyfair #countyfair #sanmateo @SanMateoCountyFair #magic #magician #birdtrick #louiefoxx #magictrick #parakeet ♬ Stolen Dance (Instrumental) – Milky Chance

Traditional advice is that you button up the coat as it takes away the idea that the cage goes into your coat. Last week when at a few library shows I buttoned up my coat before the vanish and at all three shows a kid said out loud that the cage went into my coat. It was handy that I could open the front of my coat to show nothing is there and that got me out of that.

I’m trying to decide if the kids thought that the cage went into my coat because I buttoned it up before the trick, or if something else is at play. However doing it at three shows and getting the same unwanted response tells me that I don’t need to button up my coat for the vanishing birdcage.

-Louie

Simple Audio Set Up

In my attempt to have all of my different shows as self contained units, I’m working on having separate sets of audio equipment for some of the shows. My kid show that I’m doing for summer camps has just gotten it’s own sound set up.

MAGIC SHOW audio

The only thing not dedicated to this show is the speaker. Here’s the gear list:

Good Structure, Okay Routine…

There are two things that are surprising me about performing for kids on this tour. The first is the lack of rules that I have to go over and the second is that I’m not needing to coach applause. I don’t know if it’s me as a performer getting better, or if it’s them being used to watching TV shows where people applaud for variety acts.

I figured out that the first real magic trick in the show I do is a production of a tennis ball. If I display it and just freeze, they will clap. This is done with no coaching or bits that tell them how to respond. It’s kinda blowing my mind that they are doing it on their own.

I’m closing the show with the vanishing birdcage and I’m getting kids to jump up to their feet and clap…also without any coaching. I’m essentially getting partial standing ovations from kids at a school assembly. I will say that my routine for the vanishing birdcage is structured fairly well, with how it’s paced and with the music cues. Also unlike most vanishing cage routines, my has a reappearance. It’s just the bird that reappears, but it’s a release of the audience’s tension and gives them a moment where they know they are supposed to applaud. I will say it’s the structure of the routine and not the routine that is what’s getting the reactions. The routine is just okay.

I’m working on the routine this tour and it’s getting better, but still has a lot of work that needs to happen. Most of the new bits I’ve been trying have been falling flat. This is just a case of continuing to write and hopefully it will eventually stick.

This is the work.

-Louie

School Assembly Tour Day 1

Today is the first day of the school assembly tour and the first full performances of my new show called Incredible Idioms. This show is themed about the language we use and it’s been a lot of fun to work on.

The whole show fits inside one case and here’s what it looks like:

school assembly magic show

Unfortunately it doesn’t really travel set up. It’d be nice to just open the case and go, but there’s a lot of crushable things in there AND that picture doesn’t show things like my mics and audio cables which need to travel in the case.

The show is going to probably go through a lot of changes over the month of performing it on this tour. This is where the work comes in. I need to record, at least audio record and hopefully video record as many shows as possible and review them as often as possible. This is how a show gets good in a short amount of time.

Well, off to the first gig…

-Louie

Take It Further…

If you’ve seen my magic lecture you’ve heard my favorite quote, which is essentially what my lecture is about. If you haven’t, here’s the quote:

Go past crowd pleasing and into real comedy…

Mel Brooks

He says it on Tom Papa’s podcast, it’s a great interview and you should listen to it. In my lecture I use the quote not just for comedy, but for magic. Sponge balls are crowd pleasing, how do you go past that and get into real magic?

Let’s get back to what I’m writing this post about. Someone in a magic forum had posted a picture of the nest of wands comedy prop that was broken.

nest of wands

If you’re not familiar with the Nesting Wands trick you have large diameter wand and smaller wands keep coming out of it. If you’re not familiar with the prop, here’s it in action:

The sets that are common in the USA have one end that’s sealed, and the person who wrote the Facebook post thought that they were broken and need to be fixed. For me whenever a prop breaks, I look at it as a chance to p lay with the prop and figure out things that may not have been possible before. I’ve had a bunch of cool things come out of props breaking and getting a new view of them.

When I was younger and did magic shows at kids birthday parties, I used this prop. However the set I had were made by Tops Magic in Europe. Most people in the USA didn’t like this set of Nesting Wands because they were open at both ends. I loved them because there was a lot more you could do with them. Here’s some ideas:

  • When the kid tries to “one up you” and restack them, they will fall out the other end.
  • You renest them and they all fall onto the floor.
  • You renest them and they slide out the other end and land in your case, but you don’t notice that. Then once they are all in your case, you look at the wand in your hand and see it’s empty. You then look around for where they went.
  • When the kid hands them back to you, you drop them all over the floor. You pick up the biggest wand and ask the kid to hand you another wand. They do, you put it into the wand in your hand and it just falls out the bottom ( you don’t notice that) and have the kid keep handing you wands and they keep falling through. Repeat till it’s not funny and at that point start holding the wands in with your finger at the bottom. Once they are all nested, let them drop out and onto the floor!

Look a prop breaking as an opportunity to do something creative and new with the prop. Sometimes you’ll just have a broken prop…other times you’ll have gold!

Kid Show vs. Family Show

One of the big changes in my career happened when I learned the difference from a Kid Show and a Family Show. A kid show is when the audience is a large majority of children, so something like a school assembly or birthday party. A family show is when kids are about less than half … Continue reading “Kid Show vs. Family Show”

One of the big changes in my career happened when I learned the difference from a Kid Show and a Family Show. A kid show is when the audience is a large majority of children, so something like a school assembly or birthday party. A family show is when kids are about less than half of the audience. This is an important distinction.

Yesterday I did a show at a community center and the audience:

The audience was mostly adults. For a show to be successful you need to be able to engage the whole audience. In family shows there really aren’t any “kid magic tricks” that have low magical effect. Every trick is a good trick.


The humor is aimed at the adults, I make the kids step up, instead of making the adults step down for laughs. I don’t do any “turn it around” type gags, I have to dig a bit deeper for the laughs. For me this is the secret to my success on a local level.