I needed a new prop case cover that would cover the front and sides of my case. I bought a few yards of fabric and got to sewing and this is what I made:
It turned out fine and will get the job done. I think I’ll use this for a bit to see if there are any design changes that need to happen.
-Louie
When I was in Billings, MT I visited the magic club and someone had an Appearing Aquarium. Here’s what I looks like:
@louiefoxx There are only two magic tricks in history that are worse than this one! #magictrick #magic #magician #fishtank #aquarium ♬ som original – 𝑷𝒆𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒂𝒔🎵
It seems that the one I saw was a knockoff of a trick called Pisces.
It’s a fun trick to do, but it’s not a great trick. When I posted the video, I thought the title “The 3rd Worst Magic Trick Ever” was a funny title. Now thinking about that, it could be a fun hook for a routine in the show. I liked the idea for that as a hook, and I ended up buying the one that I saw at the magic club.
I think it needs an ending of some sort. Maybe producing a fish bowl, or even something like a gold fish production into a wine glass.
-Louie
Last week we went to see Nate Bargatze at the Moda Center in Portland OR. One of the things that was interesting was how many signs there were for no cell phone use AND people followed the rules!
If you ask people to live in the moment, they are more than willing to! This applies to more formal, ticketed shows than other shows. I think no cellphones is an unreasonable ask for something like a state fair show, where you have a transient audience.
The show was great, but it’s strange seeing a comedian in an arena (over 21k seats), I think stand up comedy is best experienced with 350 people packed into a comedy club that’s got a max occupancy of 283.
-Louie
There’s the old trick in many beginner magic books where you have a dollar bill right-side up. You fold it, then unfold it, and it’s now upside down. I had an idea for that, and something like this has probably been done before.
Effect: You show a dollar bill that’s right side up. You fold it and unfold it, and now it’s upside down. You do it again, but this time you draw arrows pointing up on it. You fold it up again, and this time, when you unfold it, the arrows are pointing down, but the bill is still right side up!
There’s not much to it; it’s just a bill switch and two bills. The second bill has the arrows pointing down drawn on it. Any bill switch should work, but ideally, one that only requires you to fold the bill 2-3 times would be best.
This trick could also be done with the bill turning upside down, but the arrows still pointing up.
This is a fun little kicker trick to the old gag. As I said earlier, something similar to this has probably been done before.
-Louie
One of the best things that I ever learned to do was frontload my day with things that I don’t want to do. These are things that if I did later in the day, they’d never get done. The first thing I do every morning in my daily writing, followed by business emails. Then anything else that I don’t want to do.
Here’s me doing my morning writing on a cruise ship:
From a productivity standpoint, I get a lot more done this way. It also frees up most of my day past noon, so it’s great for me from a lifestyle perspective!
Get your hard tasks done first thing in the morning!
-Louie
Last summer I did a show at a summer camp at a child care center. They said they had a large group asked me if instead of one large show, if I could do five short shows. I declined saying that they one show they booked was 40 mins and that’s all the time I have, so they can chop up that 4o mins however they want, and suggested we do one big show (like we originally agreed on). They said how about two 17 ish mins shows because they were such a large group. I agreed to that.
The first show was about 60 kids ranging in ages from about for years old to about 10 years old. I’ve done this a thousand times, no big deal. Then the second group came in and it was four toddlers.
FOUR TODDLERS!
There’s really nothing I can do for a group like this. When the kids are two years old, I’m a scary stranger, unless they have visual cues from older kids that I’m OK and that this is a fun thing.
When booking these shows I’m very clear that the show is written for ages 4 and up, however younger kids can attend with the older kids. Developmentally a lot happens between two and three years AND between three and four years of age.
Here’s a sample of what happens when a kid turns about four years old:
Those are at four years old, imagine what a two year old doesn’t under stand!!!
Well, since they were there and I was there, I just blew through the show. It was a emotionally very unfulfilling, but I got through it. That was rough and I learned my lesson if this ever comes up again to ask the age groups of each group and specifically remind them that I won’t take a group of kids that are all three and under.
-Louie
When I open a new deck of cards and have them shuffled by someone in the audience, 90% of the time they will comment that they’re slippery. That’s where this gag comes in.
When they comment on the cards being slick, I take out a little caution sign and set it on the table. That gets a laugh, and it’s a gag that will introduce the prop. I like using a gag to introduce a prop, another example of this is my Bodega Coin Tray. Also, when you use the prop for a gag, it serves a purpose and is less suspect later, since the audience thinks it’s already fulfilled its role.
What happens is that during your card tricks, at one point, the signed card appears under the little sign (like card under glass). Then later, you say the card is under the sign, but it’s not; however, the sign has changed to say the name of their card! Then, a moment later, the signed card has reappeared under the sign again!
I’m having a lot of fun with this little prop!
-Louie
One thing I don’t like about the chop cup is the metal cup that most people use. It looks classy, but that doesn’t fit the aesthetic of my show. When I did the PCAM convention, I was chatting with James Cielen, and he mentioned the metal cup doesn’t fit. He was 100% right, and I didn’t like using a metal chop cup.
I finally found some time to make my own chop cup out of a coffee cup. I started with two matching coffee cups. The reason I started with two was in case I messed one up, I wouldn’t have to start over. If both turned out, I would have a backup.
I glued the magnets into the bottom of the cups and for what I wanted, I glued them off center. Then I poured some resin inside the cups to make a new bottom and to hide the magnet.
In the picture below on the right, you can see the resin about halfway cured.
One of the chop cups I poured too much resin into and the magnet wasn’t quite strong enough to hold the ball like I wanted it to. The other cup turned out perfect!
Now I need to figure out what I’m going to do with the ball. Is it going to stay a ball or something else? At the very least I think I’m going to switch to a rubber ball. For my Stand Up Chop Cup routine from my 2025 lecture notes I need a ball that doesn’t bounce as the ball gets dropped. I just bought a set of yellow Bounce No Bounce Balls and I’m going to try to put a magnet inside of it.
-Louie
I’ve got the boxes for the Applause Please 2: The Encore from Ackerly Builds and they look great!
I need to add the electronics before I can ship them.
I’ve only got a dozen of them, and if you want one, you can preorder one here:
https://www.magicshow.tips/applause-please-2-the-encore/
The estimated ship date will be November 28th, 2025.
I’d have them ready sooner, however, I’m heading out on the road to perform, so Iwon’t be able to work on them for a little bit.
-Louie
The last few days, I’ve posted about working on a trick with a wavy arm guy. The effect is that I’m handcuffed, and the wavy arm guy is inside the circle created by my arms. A cloth is raised, and when it’s lowered, the wavy arm guy is no longer inside my arms.
One of the things that I want with the trick is a defined effect.
The effect is a penetration, and that needs to be clear. The thing I need to be careful of is not blurring that with an escape. If someone thinks I can get out of the handcuffs, the effect changes, as it is no longer a penetration.
What that means is that at the end of the trick, the person from the audience needs to let me out of the handcuffs. While that’s a slower moment, I think it’s an important moment to make the penetration effect clear.
-Louie
