magic show tips – Page 44

Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s Geo-Metrick

Nick Trost’s Geo-Metrick interesting trick, it’s essentially a packet version of Paul Curry’s Out of This World, using ESP cards. The packet is only 20 cards, ten are of one ESP symbol and the other 10 are of another ESP symbol. You and the spectator each get five of each symbol, they are mixed and you deal out ten of them face down in a row. The spectator then deals their ten cards face up on top each of your face down cards. When you flip over the pairs of cards they all match!

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx The Bacon and Square Magic Trick! #magictrick #bacon #square #cardtrick #magic #mindreading #mentalism #outofthisworld #louiefoxx #nicktrost ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

For me, this trick isn’t strong enough to justify carrying around a packet of 20 cards just for that trick. However this method would work with just red and black playing cards, so that would make it something you could do with any deck of cards. It’s a good thing to have in my head for an impromptu situation, but I’ll never do it with the ESP cards. I should say that if I came up with a great way to theme the trick for a gig, it’s something I would do.

For example, if I was performing at a pet adoption event, instead of wavy lines and as square, I used pictures of families and pets. Each family was matched to a pet! That makes sense and it’d be an easy way to add a custom trick for the event.

-Louie

A Bad Laugh in the Show

One of the things that Charlie Frye mentions in his book Sleightly Absurd is that you should have no descriptive patter. Since reading it I’ve been looking for places to replace or remove patter that is simply descriptive.

There are reasons to leave in descriptive patter, like if you’re doing cards across and the audience has to know there are 10 cards in each packet.

In my kids show I do a blendo with three silks. In an attempt to remove descriptive patter, I changed to calling them tissues. I give them one at a time to the kid and say, “The yellow tissue if for you to blow you nose. The red tissue I used to blow my nose. The green tissue my dog used to blow her nose.”

All of those get a laugh from the kids, so that’s three reactions I didn’t have before when I simply told the kid to hold the “red, yellow and green handkerchiefs.“. HOWEVER the new laughs weren’t good laughs. I noticed what while the kids laugh, the adults pulled back and for them it was almost a cringy moment. I tried it at several shows and each time I got the same reaction from the adults. That led me to removing the line.

This is a good example of why you should remove a line that gets a reaction from the audience, but isn’t necessarily a line that moves your show forward.

-Louie

Stay Safe Out There

Recently there was a shooting at a fair I was performing at. You can read about it here:
https://columbiabasinherald.com/news/2024/aug/16/grant-co-fairgrounds-evacuated-after-shooting/

This happened on a day where my last show was an hour earlier than the rest of the week, so I was offsite when it happened. When you’re performing at a large event (especially a multi day event), do you have a plan in case of an emergency? You don’t need a formal plan, but just to think it through once when you load it. This isn’t just for an active shooter, but for something as simple a wind or lightning.

Do you know where the exits are?
If you’re onstage, do you have any duty to direct people to exits?
Do you know what the venue’s lightning or wind policy is?
If there’s a medical emergency, do you have the onsite first aid phone number?
If there’s a police emergency, do you have the onsite police/security phone number?

Also I should mention that for many large events, that police and medical’s phone numbers usually aren’t 911. There’s usually a phone number for the onsite team that will respond much faster!

Spending 30-60 seconds just looking at the venue can be super helpful in an emergency!

-Louie

Egg Bag Routine

For some reason I’ve been dinking with the egg bag off and on for the last 10 months. This summer I have the egg bag in my library show, it’s a non-traditional routine, that is really more like a miser’s dream with with balls.

When I was reading Charlie Frye‘s book, he had his egg bag routine. It’s got the standard “sucker” phase, but then his ends with a production of four eggs from the bag, with them all between your fingers like a multiplying billiard ball routine. I like the ending, and I got all the stuff to do the routine. I also got a new egg bag as I’m not sure that I like the standard black egg bag that I had been using. I wanted a color that’s more visible.

I’m trying to work out a routine when I have time that has Charlie’s ending. I’m not positive how I’m going to do the first parts. I just need to play with it more.

-Louie

Using Projection in my Senior Show!

Last week I had a travel day where I got into the city a day before a week long gig. I booked a show at a retirement community that day as I wasn’t doing anything but loading into the fairgrounds.

My current senior show equipment is essentially a briefcase show. Here’s what I bring in with me (not including my audio equipment)

One element that I’ve added to the show is using projection in the show. I have two bits that use a TV screen.

Most senior facilities will have access to a screen in the performing area. Before I rely on it, I always ask to confirm that they do. I also have alternate things, so that if there’s an issue with the TV or whatever I still can do my time.

Here’s my theory on using projection, I don’t use it as a “look at this cool thing I can do“, everything I do on it is very interactive. The two tricks I do are my That Way More card trick, and my Russian Shell Game. The card trick uses someone in the audience (who stays in their seat) and the shell game uses the entire audience.

-Louie
if you want to learn more about performing for seniors in retirement communities, check out my book How to Perform for Seniors!

Trick from Ginosko

Here’s a trick from the book Ginosko. It’s called Blackjack for Brother John and it’s a packet trick that has a story that has a very 1980’s packet trick feel to it. That’s not a bad thing, but it feels like something Nick Trost or Emerson and West would have put out with novelty cards.

Here’s what it looks like:

@louiefoxx Blackjack for Brother John from the book Ginosko! #blackjack #cardtrick #magicbook #magic #magictrick #closeupmagic #gambling #louiefoxx #ginosko #idahomagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s a great story packet trick, and you only need four cards to do it with. That makes it impromptu, just pull the cards from the pack and you’re good to go. I would probably palm them out and remove the cards from my pocket, as you start by showing four of the same jack.

I recommend you pick up Ginosko, it’s only $25!

-Louie

Magic Trick Premise Idea: The 5 P’s

This is an idea for a presentation to frame a magic trick. The premise is that you’re going to help the audience be better viewers of magic tricks. To educate them, you are going to teach them the 5 P’s that ever magic trick has.

1: Preamble: This is where you introduce the props.
2: Premise: This we were you set up the effect.
3: Prestidigitation: This is the magic moment
4: Proof: This is where you show the magic has happened
5: Payoff: This is the Tah-Dah moment.

Depending on the trick , you may only need four of them and not all five. For example a card appearing on to of the deck would only need four. However a card under glass would have all five. Number four would be the card appearing under the glass, and number five would be turning the card over to show it’s the selected card.

This is kind of a generic presentation that you could plug many different tricks into.

Creating a Bit From Reality…

Last month I was at an AirBnB. I was sharing the house with a bunch of the other performers at the Ohio State Fair. Behind the painting on the walls we found strange “Alien Postcards” from October of 2016

The first one was behind the paint of an apple, then we started searching the AirBnb and found the second one inside of a picture of Groucho!

OK, so that’s what happened in real life, now how do I turn it into a bit for my show?

I started by telling the story.

I’m staying at an AirBnB with some amazing performing, acrobats, jugglers…and a mime. He’s not even performing here. But that guy never shuts up.

One night I was looking behind the paintings and found some “alien postcards”. When I mentioned it to my wife on the phone she said, “why were you looking behind the paintings”, not “what’s an alien postcard.

I was looking for my keys.

Here are the postcards. On the front they say, “Materials deployed for reflective and connective purposes”. On the back this one says, “Thank you for signaling that you are anticipating my transmission”.

The other says, “Thank you for sending the signal that you are invested in receiving this signal…You’re going to die…JK, LOL LOL…but seriously, we’re watching…no parties!”

So now I’m searching the AirBnB for cameras, and you know what I found?
My KEYS!

That’s the story. I’ve embellished it a little bit added some punchlines. The nice thing about being in a house with other performers is that we could workshop the story a little bit.

The next step is going to be figuring out what to do with this. Is it a little stand alone bit, or is it a segue to something else. Like a trick with a key and/or postcards?

One idea is to have borrow a key, cover it up with a handkerchief and have that held by someone in the audience. Then 5 postcards are shown, each has a place where I’ve found my keys. These could be funny places, like in pie, or whatever. One is selected, and the key disappears and ends up inside of the postcard.

I don’t know what will happen with this bit…

-Louie

Billy Kidd’s Show

Last month I got to work with Billy Kidd for a week.

Billy does a great show, and has a strong stage presence and persona. Off stage she is super cool as well!

If you get a chance to check out Billy’s show, I highly recommend it! You can learn a lot about performing from it. Like how she talks to the audience, not at the audience, which is a skill a lot of people need to be aware of!

-Louie

Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick: UPDATED

When I was performing at a 12 day gig, I was playing with Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick. I liked the sequence, but thought the ending was just “Meh”. Here’s what the original trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick: Nick Trost’s 1-2-3-4 Trick! #cardtrick #closeupmagic #magic #magictrick #vintage #columbus #louiefoxx #nicktrost #packettrick #cards #foxlake ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The main change was the theming, and I kinda changed the end. Here’s what I came up with:

@louiefoxx The One Dollar Card Trick! #cardtrick #magic #onedollar #cointrick #louiefoxx #magictrick #magician #what ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like the ending being a picture across the four cards, instead of four separate cards. I think them being one image wraps up the trick nicely.

-Louie