Eye Ball Magic Tricks

Recently I saw a social media post about someone trying to come up with magic with eyeballs.

In the post, the list a few trick ideas which include:
-zombie eyeball
-sponge eyeballs
The thing is that all of those have been done…I don’t mean that those tricks have been themed with eyeballs before (they have), they’re things that exist as a trick. When creating, why not go beyond your “magic vocabulary” and create something new, or at least try?

Here are a few ideas:

  • Plastic Eyeball and plastic letter “I” switch places.
  • Plastic eyeball turns into a plastic letter “I”
  • You take your eyeball out of your face, it changes into a letter “i” and you put that back into your eye socket and instead of your eye, it’s the letter “i”. Method would use a contact with an i printed on it?
  • You make a circle of objects on the table and one is selected. You have a plastic eyeball and spin it around, when it stops spinning it’s looking at the selected item
  • Your hands are shown empty. You then take a bottle of eye drops a put a drop into your palm. You close your hand and when you open it an eyeball has appeared.
  • You have a plastic eye that you balance on a salt shaker. You take out some eye drops and have the spectator hold the bottle upside down. Whenever they want, they squeeze the bottle. The moment they do and the eye drop hits the table, the plastic eyeball also falls off the salt shaker.

Ok, those are just a few ideas that I came up with sitting in front of my computer writing this. I did have an idea Googly Eye Trick that I wrote about in the past as well. The point is that we need to push past standard things. YES, there are reasons to do standards, but the more we try to get away from them, the more we break the stereotype of “all magicians are the same”.

-Louie

Tape Measure Magic Trick

A couple nights ago I was hanging out at the First Tuesday Magic Jam at the All American Magic Shop in Portland, OR. One of the magicians had a a tape measure on their keychain and it got me thinking of things that could be done with a tape measure.

magic jam in portland OR

I do a tape measure magic trick in my stage show, and didn’t want to reinvent that. I did have an idea for a stage trick: Walking Thru a Tape Measure

The effect would be: there are two posts onstage about 3 feet apart, one has a notch to hold the tape measure, and the other has a hole in it. The tape measure is secured in the notch on one side and it’s extended to the other pole and thru the hole. You stand behind it and a cloth that’s maybe 2 feet tall covers your middle where the tape measure is. You make a sawing motion with the tape of the tape measure and then the cloth is dropped and you’re on the other side of the tape measure.

The method isn’t anything crazy. The tape is cut about 4 or 5 feet into the tape, and then tabs are cut out.

tape measure magic trick

The tabs go through the tab of the other end, so they are joined together. This joint is then rolled back into the tape measure.

During the effect, then you are doing the sawing action, you’re extending the tape measure, undoing the joint, moving the tape behind you and then rejoining it. All that’s left is to let that part retract into the tape measure to hide it.

I have no idea if that will actually work, if you try it, let me know if it does!

-Louie

Snake Wand Surprise!

It really makes me happy when I see pictures or videos of performers using magic props that I’ve created! I just came across this picture of Magic Monty Reed using my Snake Wand Surprise!

snake wand surprise

I’ve had magicians ask me if it’s OK to use a prop that I sell, and I say “yes”. I think that’s an interesting question. If I sell it or have published it, and you bought a legitimate version of it (not a copy/knockoff), then feel free to use it!

There have been plenty of times when I had to share the stage with someone using one of my props or routines, and I’ve got no problem with that. I’m honored that people think my magic tricks are good enough to put into their shows!

If you have any pics or video of you using anything I make, I’d love to see it!

-Louie

Magic Shows at Fairs

In about a week, my season of performing magic shows at state and county fairs begins. The show transitions from indoor audiences to outdoor, transient audiences. These shows can be challenging and are very different from most indoor shows.

When performing at fairs, some of the challenges are:
-An audience that doesn’t necessarily arrive at start time, and won’t necessarily stay till the end. They’re leaving early or arriving late because they have/had other things to do, or be at.
-The weather that can beat up your props. Rain is bad for most props, but so is the sun! If you use your phone to play your music and it’s sitting in the sun, it will overheat!
-The wind, this is its own challenge, it comes out of nowhere and can ruin tricks, especially if you’ve got something hidden behind a silk!
-You’re competing with the noise of the rest of the fair, so it’s hard to have quiet moments in the show.

Despite all of these challenges, I love performing at fairs! It’s one of the few places where you can do a lot of shows every day and really polish material! Performing at fairs is where I developed my 6 R’s to Working on Your Show system for improving my show.

Every summer, I get multiple routines that go from an idea to a polished A level trick by performing at fairs!

-Louie

Sideshow Book

A couple of months ago when I was performing on the Oregon coast, I picked up the book Step Right Up, which is a memoire about the author’s time performing with a sideshow.

Step Right Up by Dan Mannix

This book is a fun, but in my opinion, simplified journey of how the author learned sideshow acts. He does talk about injuries and close calls, but pretty much every time he tries, he’s great at it, which isn’t how it normally happens in the real world!

The book goes into some magic and mentalism, including the author learning a two person code and Q & A act!!

This book does highlight the colorful characters that perform in and work around sideshows! A few years ago I did 10 days performing in the longest running 10 in 1 side show in the USA, and it was a blast!

I think I paid $4 for the book, and I’m happy with my purchase!

-Louie

Can’t a TV Just Be a TV?

On the school assembly tour, I used a screen provided by the school. This could be a smart board, TV or projector, anything I could plug an HDMI into. I did have a backup if they didn’t have a screen.

At my last show of the tour, a few minutes before show time, the TV they gave me decided it was a good time to update.

magic show projection onto screen

I had been plugged into this TV, and it was turned on for probably 20 minutes when the update started. What I didn’t like was where it said the TV might restart after the update. That could have been during my show!

Luckily, the update completed right before start time, and the TV didn’t need to restart. That’s just something to be aware of when you use other people’s tech. When it fails, and it’s not your fault, but the audience doesn’t know that!

-Louie

Where Evaporation Began!

When I created the Evaporation trick, I was out on the road performing. I tried many different methods of making liquid disappear, however it was a trip to this Menards hardware store in Minot, ND where it all came together!

magic trick inventions

Whenever I’m in the area, I always stop and walk through the store. This hardware store has a special place in my heart! It’s what put me on the map as a magic trick creator.

-Louie

Wrapping Up the School Assembly Tour

The month long school assembly tour is finished! I learned a lot doing the same show 2-3 times a day.

1: Simplify the setup and take down. The fewer “parts” a show has to assemble, the better. This show traveled by car, so it was easy not to have a lot of things to put together, unlike a show that travels by plane.

school assembly magic show

2: Hold the final magic to display what has happened up high and for way longer than you think you need to.

3: Find ways to be present in your show, and not just a robot reciting lines. This can get hard after doing the show for the 40th time in three weeks. Try to look for real moments that are happening and play!

4: Be on top of prop maintenance. If you notice something wearing out, fix it! Don’t try to get two more shows out of it. It’ll break when it’s not convenient for you to fix.

5: When the school (really the teachers) seat the kids in a way that doesn’t make sense for a crowd, tell them to move them. I’ve had the weirdest crowd configurations, and teachers fight hard to not move kids. I push back, because the audience seated as a group and not a bunch of individual units will make the difference just a show and an amazing show.

It’s great to be back home!

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

The Show I’ve Been Dreading!

Yesterday my itinerary had me doing my show that was written for an audience that’s kindergarten to 6th grade for an group of seventh to eight grade kids. No younger kids, just the middle school kids. When I noticed this show on my schedule, I was dreading it.

I’ve done shows for middle and high school kids on this tour, but they were mixed in with elementary school aged kids. You can read about that here.

The show went great!

What I did was start by mentioning that this show was written for younger kids, but if they stuck with me, they’d like the show. The show was rocking! I mostly did the show as written; I did cut a few things that I knew wouldn’t hit for this older group.

This is a good example of why I disagree with people who say, “it’s the journey, not the trick”. The trick needs to be good, and so does the journey. Just because one is great, doesn’t mean the other can’t also be great! Sure, it takes a bit more work, but it’s worth it!

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

The Snake Box

One of the tricks that I made for this school assembly tour is a snake box. This is essentially a “snake basket“, however, I’m not using a basket as I think that’s an old trope, and one that kids don’t have a point of reference to. The routine in my show started out as a card trick, but it’s now something more, and something that plays bigger!

I was thinking about Terry Lunceford’s The Viper trick and it’s great. If you haven’t seen it, here’s what it looks like:

It’s a great routine for its time. Personally, I think that trying to use a phobia someone has for a laugh is an older style of performing and not modern. Doing a danger trick is one thing, a French Arm Chopper isn’t a common fear, but snakes are.

My snake basket does have the snake jump out, but with only me onstage, and guess what, it gets a great reaction!

As someone who has an irrational fear of something, I try to show some compassion to people in the audience and not put them in a position where they will laugh at them being scared.

That’s just my opinion. I still think it’s a great effect, just not the part where you jump scare someone in front of an audience.

-Louie