magic show tips – Page 35

Levitations!

There’s a levitation illusion going around, and there’s something I don’t like about it. Before I go any further, the illusion is fine, there’s just a visual thing that I don’t like. If you can get past this, than it’s a great trick.

Here’s the style of levitation, I think the two pics below are different makers.

What I dislike is the cloth wrapped around the person floating. Specifically how it dangles on the end. This is also my issue with most chair suspension routines. The cloth really serves no purpose, aside from hiding the method.

I get that you can justify the cloth as it’s a magic cloth that makes people float…but then why isn’t all of the cloth floating and some of it dangling?

Yes, most levitations of a human have do deal with gravity. In my opinion the dangling of the hair and dress make the illusion look better visually. Where the cloth wrap doesn’t look anywhere are good as the person uncovered.

I understand that it’s not real magic, and you have to make concessions to hide the method. That’s a valid artistic choice, to have a purpose in your show for a levitation and due to venue limitations you need to use a method that you might not like to move the show forward.

Personally for me, I’d save the levitation for a theater where it can be done without the trade off of having to wrap the person with a cloth.

-Louie

Shutting Down a Distraction…

Over the summer I did something in a show I regretted. I was performing at a fair and there was a kid that kept coming to the show and was being a distraction. I can handle the 4H kids that come to the show everyday, but this kid would walk up to the front of the stage and block the audience and say things to me. Not things that were remotely relevant, but like, “use my pen” as he tried to hand me one of the novelty shocking pens that a booth at the fair was selling.

After numerous times telling him to “No” and to step away from the stage, it was being a huge distraction for the audiences over multiple shows. One show I took the clock that I use for a trick out of my case as asked him if he could read a clock like this. He said “yes”, and I asked him what time it showed. He told me and I said, “No, it’s time to sit down and shut up”! It got a huge laugh, and worked, the kid sat down and didn’t talk the rest of the show.

The laugh told me that the audience was on my side, but I didn’t feel good about it. The laugh didn’t move the show forward, sure it eliminated a speed bump. On stage that’s not my character, sure I’m edgy and snarky, but not mean. I honestly felt bad about it. However the kid showed up to my shows the rest of the week and sat through them quietly and enjoyed them.

I’m sure there would be a better way to get the kid to behave and in the moment I had to make a choice. I’m not sure what I would do in the future. If I waited till after the show and talked to the kid, the whole audience suffers for that show. The kid was making the show unwatchable.

Maybe that was the only solution? I don’t know. I still feel bad.

-Louie

Late Season Library Shows

Last week I did a run of library shows for an area where the kids were off school for conferences. Here’s my 50 minute show in 64 seconds:

@louiefoxx What a Magic Show at a library looks like! #magicshow #library #magician #wallawalla #LouieFoxx #magic #sizzlereel ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

My whole library shows (aside from the nest of boxes and speaker) fits inside of a “carry on” sized case. For me a pack small show is something that just happened, not a requirement. While it’s nice that the show fits in a small case, I don’t mind travelling with a larger one.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I think the key to a show that packs small is using props that give you show visual textures. The idea is to not have a show that looks like everything was selected because its flat or small. A couple of good example of things that I do that take up little space, but are visually large are the troublewit and the lasso. Both of them when I do the routine take up a lot of psychical space in the performing area.

If one of your goals is a suitcase show or a packs small show, try to avoid everything being a flat card. I’ve seen many suitcase shows where it looks like everything was selected because it was flat!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Blaisdell’s SKP

This vintage magic trick is Blaisdell’s S-K-P, and I can’t find any reference to it online. Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx What were you thinking? #magictrick #rubberband #vintage #whatwereyouthinking #magic #rubberband #louiefoxx #vintagemagictrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The problem with the trick is there’s soo many props and soo much process to make a rubber band go through a shoelace. There had to be ring on string techniques that could accomplish the same effect in a much clearer manner. One of the challenges of the trick is the audience needs to understand how the line segments that the rubber band make work. If they don’t understand that, the trick will fall flat.

I will say the move that accomplishes the trick is kinda interesting, but not enough to put out a physical trick. I think this trick would be a good magazine item, but not a full release.

-Louie

Production Totes

When making deliveries, Amazon uses these totes to haul packages:

I don’t know if they’re common enough for people to recognize what they are. They collapse flat and I think they could be converted to a magic prop. It wouldn’t be hard to make one into a tip over trunk. You would also simply put a panel that flips up on the bottom and put it on a mirror base and you’re good to go.

The challenge is that I don’t think they’re quite super common knowledge like a milk crate was. Maybe in a couple of years…

-Louie

Visiting a Fair in Arkansas

While I was on the road in Oklahoma last week, I flew in a day early to drive a couple hours to visit a fair that some friends were performing at.

To my surprise, there was also a magic show at the fair.

I don’t know Pat and Tess, but watched the show. It was interesting, it was a 20 minute show and about 6 minutes of that was a merch pitch. I don’t know how I feel about that. Sometimes what is seen as the audience lacks knowledge of whatever financial deal is happening behind the scene and the pitch being 1/4 of the is the deal that was made with the booker.

The show was a quick change act, then the multiplying bottles, the product pitch (activity book and Squirmel) and then juggling. In the show I saw Pat had a lot of drops. At the end of the show, I was going to go up and say hi and introduce myself, however he was onstage re-running the juggling stuff to work out why he was dropped. That’s the mark of a pro! He didn’t just accept the drops, the tried to fix them. That really impressed me!

-Louie

Using the Camera Cover

Yesterday I posted about my simple camera shutter that I use to keep my camera from having TVs or projectors time out due to no signal when it’s not in use. In the video below you can see the projector in use at a comedy club gig:

@louiefoxx 68 minute magic show in 103 seconds! #comedymagic #magicshow #oklahomacity #OK #comedyclub #magician #bricktown @bricktowncomedyclub ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

All of the sound/tech people on the little tour of comedy clubs I just did were amazed at how simple of a solution the little 3d printed cover was!

I feel like I should mentioned that both times I’ve flown with the iphone with the camera cover in my backpack, TSA took it out for additional screening. I guess it looks strange on the Xray.

-Louie

Simple but Ugly

In using projection at my shows over the summer I learned that some projectors or TV’s will “time out” and turn off if they don’t think they’re getting a signal. The camera I use has a black out option that I used to use, until I learned that the black out can be interpreted as no signal and the TV or projector will go into sleep mode.

To solve this problem, I 3d printed a simple camera cover for my iphone and glued it on.

This is a very simple, low tech way to solve the problem. The camera is still sending a picture to the screen, so it won’t got into sleep mode.

For these shows I didn’t want to run the camera through my laptop and use my Media Star to control it. That’s way too much set up and gear for a library show.

-Louie

Cheap Bicycle Playing Cards!

About a month ago I was told that Walmart had bricks of bicycle cards for $14! It turns out these are a clearance item, so once they’re gone, they’re gone. I’ve been buying them up whenever I find them on my travels.

There are still some out there at Walmart’s, but I’m finding them less and less now. If you go looking, they usually be with the playing cards OR in the clearance section of the store.

Just a note, if you’re going out looking for them. I found a box that was still labeled at $29, but I took it to the register and when I scanned it, it came up at $14. So if you see the higher price, it should ring up at $14!

Good luck finding them!
-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Ronnay’s Twisting the Jokers

Today’s vintage magic trick is Twisting the Jokers by Ronnay. This trick is very much the vibe of the golden age of packet tricks. It’s a trick where the four cards turn over one at a time, then turn into a different value. During this time that plot was done a ton of different ways, and here’s Ronnay’s version:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Ronnay’s Twisring the Jokers #magictrick #joker #cardtrick #vintage #packettrick #louiefoxx #magiciansoftiktok ♬ 10 minutes, meditation, sleep, mindfulness, night(951759) – Gloveity

The provided patter is garbage, it feels like rip off of the standard Six Card Repeat patter. The problem with this trick’s patter is that it uses a lot of industry terms that make it feel really clunky.

From a technical standpoint this trick is fine and it logically flows, but with a modern trick like NFW which is easier to do and much cleaner, Twisting the Jokers is obsolete…but these types of tricks were steps on the ladder to get to tricks like NFW and they have their place.

– Louie