Looking forward into 2025 my new year’s resolution is to read more. That’s it, nothing crazy, just to read more and scroll (on my phone) less. One of the best books that I read last year was the Wayne Dobson’s Legacy book set.
It does a great job telling his story and his thinking behind many of the tricks. Soo many of the tricks are very “wayne” however there are a couple in there that have me thinking of ways to adapt them for me to do.
I’m going into 2025 reading Steve Spill’s book Magic is My Weed. This is a great book so far. Steve does a great job telling his story, but more importantly he tells why he does things and how he got there.
I think this is a missing thing from magic books, the journey of how the everything developed and the tools the author used to get there. Much of what’s in print is simply how to do the trick, but I find how the trick was created much more interesting. I’d day 99.9% of the stuff that I read and work through are tricks that I’ll never do. Yes, there is value in working through a trick even it you won’t perform it. You’ll learn new techniques or maybe an old technique that you can apply to something you’re already doing. It also puts things in your mental toolbox that you may need to get you out of a situation!
In the past on this blog I’ve written about my thoughts on magic apps. I personally don’t use any that need to be connected to the internet in my shows. It’s just too risky, especially at large events when the internet will frequently run very slowly.
As of writing this, we’re on day four of the Inject 2 app being down. According to Greg Rostami, Google has suspended the app and it’s not working on any platform (android or iOS).
**I want to note that I own Inject 2, I don’t use it, but I paid for it. So this does affect a product that I paid for. **
This really highlights what to me what the problem with app based and that’s there’s soo much out of your control. What I mean by that is if my thumb tip breaks I can tape/glue it together or have a back up one. If an app stops working, there’s really nothing you can do. You can’t go through and look at the code and fix it or pay for a server that the app creator didn’t renew.
Here’s one of Greg’s updates:
There are many back up plans? Why aren’t they being activated?
We’re on day four of Inject 2 not working. If the power went out at my house and I had multiple power sources that worked that I could use as a backup, I would have switched to one of them by now. Why haven’t we switched to a back up plan as New Years Eve is tomorrow and that’s probably the busiest single night for performers worldwide. I seem to remember years ago an app (I don’t remember which one) was running very slowly and not usable in real time because everyone was using it and overwhelming the server it was on.
Now we get this update that Matt (I’m assuming he’s a partner on the tech end) is unavailable to help sort this out. I heard that Greg posted on the Magic Cafe that he expected this to be resolved in 1-7 days, we’re at halfway through that time table. I don’t know if Matt being unavailable changes that time table.
In the Inject 2 Facebook group people are saying things like, “If this is the end of inject, I did it thousands of times and I got my moneys worth.” or “you can’t expect apps to last forever“. I do agree with both of those…for those people, but what about the people that Inject 2 for Christmas and had 3 days with it or someone that bought it today and it never worked?
One of the things that bugs me is that the Inject 2 app is NOT working as of right now, it’s still being sold! A known, non-functioning app is still being offered on the app store, and at major magic shops. This is creating a HUGE customer service nightmare for shops that sold the download card for Inject 2.
How do they handle it?
I don’t think they can return it as if Inject 2 ever gets working again, then their app will work. As a magic shop how would you handle it? The customer deserves a refund if they just bought it and it didn’t work or stopped working after a couple of days.
I hope all of this makes you think real hard before using an app and not having solid billet technique or whatever is your backup plan that can be implemented on the spot with zero notice. Practice what you’d do during a performance if the app just stopped at the critical moment when it was supposed to do whatever it does.
I honestly hope that Inject 2 gets fixed as a lot of people love it.
While I was running at the gym I had an idea for an interactive “touch the screen” style trick for this new year. It’s pretty simple, you’re going use 2025 and New Year
2 0 2 5
The audience touches any one of the numbers in 2025. They are going to jump the number they are touching. The rules are you can go left or right, from block they are on is touching to the block next to it. If they are on the 0, they don’t move.
After they finish moving, they stay on the number they ended on. You will remove the 5 as they’re not on it and it’s no longer in play. What’s left is:
202
They will then spell NEW jumping one space per letter, going back and forth for each letter. You now eliminate the the one of the 2’s (could be either). What’s left is:
20 or 02
They then spell YEAR jumping one space per letter like before. Now you eliminate the O and all that’s left is the 2 which they should be on.
There you go, an easy little interactive math trick!
Many, many years ago when I was a teenager I was given a set of paperback books (lecture notes?) by John Fedko. There was a lot of stuff in those books that I learned, but there was also a lot of stuff that I didn’t learn because it used gimmicks that I didn’t have.
One of those tricks was Ultimate Aces, which is an ace assembly. I was excited when I came across a set of the cards and could try out the trick. I did the trick as part of my “vintage magic tricks” series on TikTok. If you’re on TikTok please give me a follow at: https://www.tiktok.com/@louiefoxx
Here’s what John Fedko’s Ultimate Aces looks like:
I’m kinda amazed at the response from magicians who messaged me asking where they can get the cards. This surprised me because on PenguinMagic.com there is only one review and it’s one star.
I think this is a case of the person who ordered it thinking the gaffs were something different, or they never tried the trick out. I think it’s as good as any ace assembly out there.
A couple of weeks ago an unusual vanishing birdcage popped up on eBay. It’s a brass cage made in the Simms style (like the Milson Worth Silver Meteor vanishing Cage). Based on the pictures on the listed it looked mostly homemade, but there were a couple of things that didn’t look like an amateur made it, an this was interesting to me. It was listed at less than an hundred bucks, so I bought it.
When it arrived, the first thing that I notice was the solder blobs on the bar looked giant and sloppy in the pictures were much smaller and fairly well done. The cage needs some work, there’s a bunch of corrosion on one corner of it.
The solder on the tops and bottoms of the bars on the sides of the were really smooth and the side bars were soldered shut. The cage would stand up on its own, but also collapses really quickly. I wasn’t expecting this cage to be as good as it is.
Another interesting thing about this cage is the clip where the pull would attach.
It’s a hook, which implies that whoever used it was hooking up to it during their act/show. This hook feels like it was adding later by the user an not the maker. While the hook is thought out, the part that sticks out of the top of the bar is bent backwards to reduce snagging, it doesn’t feel quite like the same build as the rest of the cage.
If you know anything about this cage or who made it, please let me know!
About 50 years ago Paul Harris put out the Paul Harris Vanishing deck. This is the vanish of a full deck of card. Well, almost a full deck of cards, here’s what it looks like:
The weak point of the trick is the card that’s removed. I guess if you gave the trick context, like that’s a chosen card then it makes more sense. The improvement with the trick came about 20 years later was when Steve Bedwell put out Reboxed.
The huge improvement that Steve gave the trick was context. The deck didn’t disappear it went through the box! That change in effect from a vanish to a penetration also cleaned up the weak point of having to remove the card from the deck.
Then about ten years ago they improved the Reboxed gimmick to clean up the handling.
The new gimmick made the handling a little bit cleaner.
That’s a 40 year evolution of the Paul Harris Vanishing Deck! This is a good example of why nothing should ever be considered finished.
This morning I was doing my daily writing and came up with a little routine for a number prediction. Here’s the rough routine:
“My third grade report card said my handwriting was bad, and only suitable if a grew up to be a doctor or serial killer. One time I turned in an essay and Ms. Smarr said it was illegible…It was typed, double spaced.”
“The only good thing about having bad handwriting is when I find a note a wrote a long time ago I feel like Indiana Jones trying read a document written by a lost civilization of serial killers. My handwriting looks like the handwriting that on the Magna Carta, if it got wet and put in a blender!”
You then show you elementary school signature, which looks like the bottom line below:
“It’s not that bad. I guess that’s why I preferred math, numbers are easy.”
You then do a calculator force and in my case I’m forcing the number 311707. I then flip over the LOUIE to show it’s actually 311707 (see the top line above).
There you go, it’s a routine, it’s not a great one, but it’s a routine that gets the prediction into play with a personal story. I may revisit this later, but it was a fun surprise that came out of my morning writing!
In December everyone is a corporate entertainer. There’s more work out there than there are performers. It’s not hard to be working evenings Thursday thru Sunday, but the off peak time gigs are what separate the pros from the warm bodies!
I did a holiday party at 7:30am!
Being able to be ready and “on” that early and getting an audience to laugh is a probably one of the hardest things for a performer. Most of these people are having their first cup of coffee while you’re trying to tell jokes.
One of the challenges for shows this early is to not try to push the audience too hard. You really can’t hype them up like you can a show that would take place at 7pm. The 7am energy is much more laid back, no matter what you do! You gotta embrace it!
For 17 years there’s been a circus show in Portland, OR called the White Album Xmas. I’ve heard about it and finally got to go see the show!
The show is a circus show to the soundtrack of the Beatle’s White Album, which is played by an amazing band! The show has a story that is the throughline and it loosely connects the circus acts.
This is a super fun show put on by super talented people and it’s clear that it’s a labor of love. I was chatting to a friend of my who has been in the show for 17 years and he said there’s about 65 people involved in putting the show on! That’s a major undertaking!
What really surprised me is that the demographics for the show was essentially two kinds of people. People who are into the circus and people who are into The Beatles. For each group, the other thing was a bonus. My wife and I were a good example of one person from each group!
The thing that really struck me about everyone in the show was that they all appeared to be having the best time they’ve ever had in their lives! Everyone in the show looked like there’s no where they’d rather be than on that stage. That’s something 99% of magicians should learn to do: look like they’re having fun onstage!
Sometimes I see a show and want to be a part of it and this is one of those shows. The reality is that my style of performing doesn’t really fit into the show. Sure I could create an act for the show, but the other problem is that the show runs during prime holiday party season and I’d be missing out on a lot of high paying gigs. I’ll have to settle be being a part of the show by buying a ticket and possibly volunteering as an usher or whatever on my day of.
If you’re in the Portland OR area in early December, you should check out this show!
