magic show tips – Page 43

Look It Up!

This summer teenagers have been saying, “That’s soo sigma” or just “Sigma” when I perform close up magic for them. I had a feeling that “sigma” meant cool, based on the context it was used in. However, to be sure, I did a Google search to figure it out.

Nothing in life has made me feel older than researching slang on the Today Show’s website!

That confirmed what I thought, and now I can use it correctly. While I think that when a older magician uses kid slang it feels like they are trying to pander to the kids and never seems cool.

In my close up I now say, “that’s soo sigma” but I do it in a way where I’m almost making fun of saying it. Very tongue in cheek, and not using it like it’s something I would normally say.

It’s important to keep an eye or ear out for these trends that kids do and figure out how you can use them to your advantage. For example, there’s the trend of kids asking you to “do a backflip”. I came up with two version of this trick to do when they ask:

@louiefoxx Do a Back Flip! #doabackflip #backflipchallenge #backflip #louiefoxx #magic #magictrick, #surpriseending #old #magician #cardtrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The other version and the one that I use is published in Vanish Magazine about a year ago.

Simply knowing how to respond to these things will put you ahead of the game!

-Louie

Hanging Out

Yesterday I mentioned supporting shows when they are in your area. Another thing that I do is I hang out with magicians that are passing through my area. I hang out with magicians who are in town to hop on/off a cruise ship or have a long layover.

Recently I hung out with Christopher Weed who runs Showtime Magic (in addition to a lot of other things) when he was in Seattle doing a Foam Event.

It was a blast hanging out with him and Cesar. If you see on social media that someone you know is in your area, shoot them a note and offer to meet up. This is how community gets built.

-Louie

Supporting Live Magic

I’m amazed at how many magicians don’t go out and support live magic shows when they’re in their area. Personally, I try to go out and support as many people out there doing their craft.

A couple of weeks ago I had a bunch of magicians come out to visit me at the fair that I was performing at. I was bad at taking pictures, so I only have a pics of a few of the people that swung by.

If you have a magician passing through your area, buy a ticket and go out and see them or shoot them a note and offer to hang out with them!

-Louie

New Opening Bit For My Card Set!

Last week when I was playing with a idea for a trick where a card changes to a selected color, I hit upon a new bit for the beginning of my main card set. The first phase is a multiple card force, so they keep picking the same card.

It begins by asking the person picking the card their name. As they are picking the card, I say, “People named _____ always pick the five of spades.” Then they look at the card and that’s what they pick. We repeat this and they pick the same card again and I say, “See…people named ___ always pick that.” Then I have someone else pick a card, and I repeat the same bit with the their name and the same force card. This is fun, and it get’s me using their names.

I’m really liking this!

– Louie

Packet Trick in Spanish

Earlier this summer I started doing a packet trick in Spanish. The trick is Emerson and West’s Gourmet Mouse. What I like about this trick is that it’s very simple and I can do it for kids. The plot is easy to follow, you have three cards. One has a picture of a mouse, one cheese and one a slice of cheesecake. The cheese ends up disappearing and the mouse ends up changing to a picture of a cat (that ate the mouse).

The trick is pretty simple to speak in Spanish and that’s helping me connect with audiences that I’ve struggled with in the past due to language barriers.

Here’s what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Help me learn spanish! #spanish #learnspanish #helpme #magictrick #rat #gato #cat #cheese #cardtrick #louiefoxx #learnalanguage ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

To learn Spanish, I’m using DuoLingo and asking for help from people I work with who speak Spanish. I’m getting better, nowhere near conversational, but getting better.

-Louie

Color Changing Card!

Here’s what I’m started doing with the Bicycle NERTZ cards. There’s every color of the rainbow, except for orange, and there’s also black. What I’m doing is that I took out all of five of spades and put them in rainbow order in my pocket. This is my pocket index of the colors. I’m not using the black card. I’m also using a blue backed deck with the five of spades on top. The blue card that came with the NERTZ card set is a different blue than the standard bicycle card blue deck color.

When I start my card routine, I ask what the person’s favorite color of the rainbow is. I then force them the five of spades that on top of the deck as they are picking the card, I say, “People who like yellow (or whatever color they say) always pick the five of spades.” Then I proceed with my multiple force routine and my three locations of a card routine. During the three locations, I’ll pull the yellow backed fived of spades from the middle of the stack in my pocket and move it to the top.

After the three locations routine, it feels like the trick is done. The deck is on the the table and the selected card is face up next to it. I’m stealing the yellow five of spades from my pocket and loading it face up six cards from the top of the deck.

I show the tabled blue backed five of spades, put it into the deck and side steal in into my right hand as I hand the deck to the person who said “yellow”. I ask them what color they said, and they’ll repeat “yellow”. I have them deal down cards spelling yellow, dealing one card per letter. When they hit the W, their card will be face up! I use the time when they’re dealing cards to ditch the palmed card in my pocket.

Now all that’s left is to turn the card over to show that it’s back is now their named color!

A couple of notes about this, first of all, obviously use whatever color they say, not just yellow. I have yet to have someone name orange, if they did, I’d just use that as the premise for the multiple force. Next, it’s easy to know the letters. If they name any color except for red or blue, put the card in the 6th position. If they name red or blue, put the card into the fourth position. That will have the selected card end up face up at either the last card of the deal, or sitting face up after the deal.

Hope you enjoy it, it’s a lot of fun to day, the only downside is the pocket space it takes up.

-Louie

Bicycle NERTZ Playing Cards

I finally broke down and bought a box of the NERTZ game playing cards that Bicycle puts out.

They’re $24.97 and you get six deck of cards, each is a different color.

What I don’t like about these is they’re jumbo index and not regular index cards.

I’m going to try to come up with a trick that uses these cards. I’m trying to avoid coming up with a packet trick where the payoff is the cards aren’t red or blue.

-Louie

Know Your Audio!

A couple of weeks ago we went to a “drag brunch” and I’ve always said you can learn a lot from watching any type of performance, not just magic.

One of the things at this venue was the audio. They had two speakers running and the preshow music and host mics were fine, but they act’s music was only coming off of one speaker. That lead to soo much less energy being put into the crowd with the music when you can hear forks clink on the plates.

With my basic knowledge of sound, I can tell you whatever program (or cord) they were using for the music for the acts was sending the signal to the speakers with one side of the stereo output. When I was waiting for the bathroom, I was chatting with one of the acts and mentioned that whoever was running the sound needed to bump their music as it was only coming out of one speaker. The act asked me if I could fix it, I told them that “While I work in live events, it’s not my gig or my place to tell they sound person how to do their job….But if you tell them what I just told you, it would make it better.“

This is why you need a basic knowledge of things like sound, if the sound is bad, or not enough, you need to be able to communicate to whoever is running sound what you need. Frequently a lot of sound companies send out people whose job isn’t as a sound engineer, but more someone whose job is to load in/out the equipment and make sure that no one steals it.

The second half of the show was soo much better as the music filled the room much better. The “sound guy” had to work a lot harder than the first half because they had to turn the volume up for music and turn it down for the mics In reality, it’s barely any work, but a lot more than the nothing they were doing before.

-Louie

Need a Coin Tray

The “need a penny” tray that I’ve been playing with for a little while has been getting good reactions. It was time to tweak the design to make it look better and slightly more deceptive. The new one (on the right) is next to the old one:

The two main changes that I made was that I beveled the edges of the tray and I printed the bottom portion in black. Here’s a few more views of it:

The beveled edged and black bottom make it look soo much thinner. This is a great example of why you should learn about all types of magic. Essentially I took some stage illusion principles and applied them to a close up magic prop to make it more deceptive. I guess reading Rand Woodbury’s Illusionworks book when I was a teenager finally paid off!

Don’t Let Them Intimidate You!

Last week I had a gap in my schedule, so I threw my crank organ in the car and went to the Pike Place Market to busk with it.

The market has a permit system and rule about how long you can be in a specific spot. When I got there, there was a piano player in the spot I wanted to use, so asked him how much time he had left and put my name next in line. The piano player was visibly annoyed that I got in line to perform at that spot. I should say that since he has a piano, he’s very limited on spots he can do. Me getting in line, cuts down the amount of time he can perform that day.

When he time was up, he angrily packed up his piano. I set up my organ and started to play, and I quickly noticed he was glaring at me from across the street! I took a pic, and you can see him circled in red.

He stood there for about half and hour, then walked by me twice after that to look at my permit. Here’s the moral of the story, don’t let anyone intimidate you when you’re street performing…especially in a permitted situation where there are rules!

-Louie