This is a heads up that I’ll be on the road for all of the month of April 2026. If you need to order anything from me that’s not digital, do it soon!
While I’m away, you can order my magic tricks from Trick Supply in Las Vegas at: https://tricksupply.com/
-Louie
Tag: magic shop
Hocus Pocus Closed!
Well, it’s public now that Hocus Pocus in Fresno has closed. For me, this is the end of the “family magic shop” era. Aside from Stevens Magic Emporium, there really aren’t any prominent family run magic shops in the USA anymore. Yes, there are some smaller ones, but not really any with national/international reach.
I first met Paul and Betty Gross when I was performing at The Big Fresno Fair about a decade ago. They came to the fair and watched my show, and then they introduced themselves. I had done business with Paul Gross long before that. Hocus-Pocus was the second shop to sell my Evaporation trick. The first was Max Krause’s magic shop, but he called me at around 10pm, right after I had sent out an email to magic shops announcing the product. Paul put in an order the next morning and he immediately sold out and reordered.
After Paul’s passing, I continued doing business with Hocus Pocus when Max took over. Max was involved before that, but he became the face of the business at that point. For not being a magician, Max knew a lot about the industry and a ton about collectible magic!
That brings us to today (technically last night) with them officially being closed. Last week I got a call from them giving me a heads up about it, and I immediately booked a flight down to say good by to them. Every magic product I’ve released for the last decade has been through them, and it’s been a great relationship.
It’s sad to see this shop going away, and it was great to chat with them about what’s next. Max is a super smart guy, and he kept his Dad’s dream alive and now he’s working on his dream, and I wish him and the rest of the family the best!
-Louie
Out of Town Notice
This is a quick heads up that I’m out of town December 10th, 2025 through December 22nd 2025.
No orders will ship during that period or work on products will happen while I’m away. In stock items will ship on 12/22/25.
**The Daily blog will continue to be updated below this pinned post**
Trick Supply in Las Vegas
During a break in the Magic Collector Expo, Brian, Brett, Terry, Chris and I headed over to Trick Supply in Las Vegas. Wolfgang the owner who was running the booth at the expo said it was “10 mins away”, so we hopped in a 20 minute $40 Uber to his shop’s location.
It was worth the trip! The show was run by Doug Conn and it’s a super well stocked magic shop, we all picked up a few things.
Personally I love production items, I’m not sure why, but I do. I was looking at this skull, light bulb and corn.
I ended up buying the light bulb and the corn. I’m not sure how I’m going to use the corn, but I have an idea for the light bulb.
If you’re in the Las Vegas area, it’s a great shop and totally worth a stop!
-Louie
Shipping Notice: Out of Town
Just a heads up that I’m out of town from today (3/5) until March 13th. During that time no orders will ship or work will be done on orders. If you place an order during this time, in stock orders will ship on March 14, 2025.
Also while I’m away, you can get many of magic products at Hocus-Pocus.com!
The normal daily blog will follow below this pinned post.
-Louie
Big Guy’s Magic in Milwaukee, WI
Last month I was out in Wisconsin performing at the comedy club in Appleton. It was a fun gig, and on my way back to the airport in Milwaukee I stopped by Big Guy’s Magic.
I’ve heard a lot about this magic show, so I was excited to stop by. However the guy working (who wasn’t “Big Guy”) was really disappointing. He kept telling me how nothing new was in magic (which I totally disagree with) and how live shows don’t hold audience’s attention and that no magicians tour anymore because no one wants to see a magic show. He never asked why I was in town… I was a magician ON TOUR and had about 150 people at my show at the comedy club the night before. Of all the places where someone should be enthusiastic about magic should be the person working at a magic shop.
When I travel I try to support magic shops by spending money at them. Normally I try to make a meaningful purchase, not just a deck of cards, but a book or some antique prop if they have one. I really didn’t want to spend any money here based on how the guy was bad mouthing magic, but I did make a small purchase.
I do understand that sometimes a “warm body” is needed to run the magic shop when the owner can’t be there. I hope that was the situation, and I’ll probably give the magic shop another chance next time I’m in Milwaukee.
Now for what’s good about the magic shop, it was really well stocked!
They had a ton of current magic as well as vintage magic! They also had some of the world’s largest mouth coil!
It’s always good to see an older style magic show that has a lot of stuff in stock!
-Louie
Magic Shop Fires
Within the last 12 month’s there have been three fires at magic shops. Last summer there was the fire at Steven’s Magic Emporium. Then this month there was the fire at Vanishing Inc‘s warehouse and the fire at Magic Shop San Diego.
These could be completely unrelated incidents, or there could be a link. I have zero information about any of these fires, but I wonder that with more and more magic using Lithium Ion batteries in the trick or in the packaging (like Murphy’s Anverdi Color Match package) that these could be the cause. I have zero evidence and this is just my personal theory as to a possible cause. It’s too much of a coincidence to have three of the few remaining magic businesses in the USA all have fires in the last 12 months.
It’s good to hear that no one got hurt in the fires and hopefully all of the businesses will make a full recovery!
– Louie
Tokyo Disneyland Magic Shop!
I just got back from Tokyo and one of the places I visited was the Magic Shop at Tokyo Disneyland.
One of the cool things about the magic shop at Tokyo Disneyland is that it has a custom Disney branded magic tricks made by Tenyo and a couple of items exclusive to that magic shop.
The one that caught my eye was The Magic Churro!
The Magic Churro is basically the Silver Scepter but with a churro!
The magic shops at the different Disney properties always have a couple of things that feel out of place and Tokyo was no exception.
The Larry Jennings book probably doesn’t sell a lot of copies as these shops are primarily pitch shops, versus shops for someone like me. The guy demoing stuff was great!
If you’re ever at a Disney property that has a magic shop, definitely swing by!
-Louie
Steven’s Magic Emporium
A couple of weeks ago I was travelling from Nebraska to Arizona and drove a few hours out of my way to visit Steven’s Magic Emporium in Wichita, KS. I’ve gotten their catalog since I was a teenager and attended several of their Desert Magic Seminar conventions in Las Vegas as a teenager.
I think with my visit to Steven’s Magic Emporium I’ve hit all the major magic shops in the USA. I guess the only one that I haven’t been to is Daytona Magic, but I’ve worked their convention, so I feel like that counts.
Unfortunately when I was there, there weren’t any “magicians” working, so I had to tell them what I was looking for. That’s fine, however chatting and then having the person working the counter say, “have you seen…” is very helpful!
I did pick up Craig Petty’s Apparition. When I was in Grand Island, NE, Nate Myers showed it to me and it was similar to something I was working on. I also picked up a couple of other things, like some Hypno Heat for an idea I have.
This is a pretty cool coin transposition using a silver dollar and a Chinese coin. There’s a lot that can be done with the coin set, and I’m excited to start playing with it!
-Louie
Astoria, OR Magic Shop
A few ago I was in Astoria, OR performing and that small town has a magic shop! It’s called The Magic Shop & More run by Seth Howard.
It’s a great shop, it’s mostly geared as a “pitch” shop, which makes sense as there’s not really a magic population. That said, he still has things of interest to a more experienced magician and Seth is very knowledgeable. He and also order things in for you to pick up if you know you’ll be in town.
It turns out I was familiar with Seth’s trick Howard’s Hustle and was recently thinking about it, so it was good to chat with him about it. Howard’s Hustle is a two card monte routine that has an ending and begins and ends with showing both sides of the cards. It’s really clever and I have an idea for using the general idea for what Seth’s doing in the trick for a very different routine.
If you’re passing through Astoria, OR you should swing by and say hi. His shop is in the tourist area, so you’ll probably walk by anyway.
-Louie