magic show tips – Page 54

Make It Easy For Me!

A couple of months ago I was contacted by a state run veterans home to perform for their group. They were super upfront with a very low budget, and for veterans, I’m OK with that. I consider this type of gig “volunteering”, however every time you volunteer, there has to be an exchange of some sort. Otherwise you’ll frequently be treated as a volunteer and not talent. They’ll change dates or times or scope of work on you at the last minute or worse without letting you know! Once they are invested in the show, they stop treating you like a volunteer.

Once I agreed to the show they emailed me a lot of paperwork to do to get paid a fraction of the fee that I would normally get. One of these things involved me setting up an account as a vendor, waiting 7-10 business days to get a vendor number, then once I get that number I need to send it into the veterans home. This wasn’t simply a fill out paper work and send it in. It was send it in, then wait and follow up about the status of my vendor number, then I needed to forward that. Sure that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s work that takes place over multiple days…and that’s assuming they are no delays or problems with my paper work. All of the following up is on ME to do. I have to remember to check the status in a week, I need to make calls if there’s a delay.

Oh, then they say that I submit an invoice the day of the show and they mail me a check. So for me when that happens, they get moved into my “payments not made” system and I automatically have points in time that I follow up to figure out the status of the payment.

In my experience the only payments that are mailed to me that I need to chase are from low paying gig. Rarely (I can only think of once, and it was a crazy circumstance with the organization) do I ever have to hunt down a check 30 days after a gig at my normal rate.

I was told that all of this was mandatory. The paper work, the sending of the check after the gig. Here’s what I emailed them:

Within an hour after sending that email they replied stating that they would like to book the show and they’ll have cash waiting for me.

It’s crazy how mandatory, and the only way we do it can change.

Here’s advice to anyone who is trying to get a performer for lower than their normal rate or a charity, or whatever: Make it easy for the performer!
I’m not going to do more work for less money…and the more work which isn’t even the fun part of the gig!

Oh and in a fun side note, in the time between when I sent the above email and when they replied, I booked a gig for another date at my full rate. This communication was that I answered an incoming email with a price quote and needed info to book the gig. They replied with the info. I replied with a square link and they paid it! It took about 10 minutes start to finish to book and get paid for a gig at literally 10 times what I was getting paid for the veterans home!

Don’t let people make it hard for you do be nice to them. Once they make it more work for you to do a discounted show, lay out what you’re willing to do and be willing to walk away from the gig!

-Louie

Call Backs in magic

I was watching Tom Papa’s latest Netflix stand up comedy special and he uses a technique called a “call back” a couple of times. If you don’t know what a callback is, it’s where you reference something that was said or happened earlier in the show.

There really are two kinds of call backs, planned ones that are scripted, and unplanned ones, that are spontaneous. Both are great, but the unplanned ones are the best. They are an “inside joke” that exists only with that audience.

For example at a comedy club a couple of months ago, a lady was clapping by tapping two chicken wings together. I mentioned it and it became something that I referenced a couple of times in the show that got a big laugh. Those tell people that they’re seeing a show that’s unique and that’s really one of the draws as to why people come out to a live show, to hopefully something that will never happen again!

Look for those moments in your show and use them!

-Louie

My Favorite Trade Show Trick!

Right now is booking season for the summer of 2025 and I’m going a lot of booking conferences and trade shows. My absolute favorite trick to do at these is my Out For Beers trick.

This trick leaves buyers with an item that has been magically altered, that they can show people. More importantly, they trick still works when they bring people over to me who know what will happen in the trick!

This routine starts with a gag and ends with a trick where picture of a full pitcher of beer empties itself!

Out for Beers is $19 and includes free shipping in the USA!

If you order Out for Beers anytime in November 2024, I’ll throw in and extra 25 of the empty beer cards! You don’t need to do anything to get these added to your order, they’ll automatically be included!

Click here to order Out for Beers!

Showcases to book your show

Last week I went to a booking conference to work on filling up my summer schedule. One of the things that that happens besides a trade show where different acts have booths are showcases. The showcase is one of the best ways to schedule work as you can actually show potential bookers what you actually do!

This one had some awesome acts!

Depending on the rules where you’re showcasing, your showcase set can be between 10-20 minutes, with most being about 15 minutes.

My showcase at this conference was with my crank organ.

Honestly, I was super nervous. The organ is newer to me and I don’t know it inside and out like I do my show. With my magic show almost everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong. That means I know how to deal with problems if they occur in my magic show. With the organ I’m positive that there’s a lot that can go wrong that I haven’t encountered. And of course problems tend to appear when there’s a lot riding on that show. Luckily nothing went wrong and I had a good showcase set!

I personally think that going to showcases is one of the best ways to book work. You can book a lot of work in a short amount of time. Most industries have some sort of showcase.

-Louie

Nothing New…

I hate the saying that “everything has been done before” when talking about creating magic tricks. A few years ago when Watch This, which is a card to watch came out that was sort of a “new” thing!

I just stumbled across this trick from 1910 that’s basically the same trick! It’s Card to Baby!

It’s basically the same thing, but instead of a watch, it’s a freaking baby!!!!

I guess there really isn’t anything new under the sun!

-Louie

Magic Club – SAM #59

A couple of weeks ago I popped by the Portland SAM magic club. It was their close up contest night! There were three contestants that all did card tricks, and all with very different styles!

Then after the contest we saw some magic by Gaeton from France and a demonstration of the Vampire Block Escape!

The Vampire Block Escape is a trick I’ve seen on shelves of magic shops, but had never seen any actually do the trick. This particular one was homemade and probably 60 years old!!! The trick looked great and while the style of prop isn’t modern, the trick is still great!

I’m a huge fan of magic clubs and if you aren’t popping into your local magic club, you should. Contribute to your local magic community.

-Louie

Vanishing Birdcage Repair!

A while ago I bought a couple of vanishing birdcages and one of them turned out to be a vintage Owen vanishing birdcage. Unfortunately this cage had a bad corner joint.

I sent it up to my birdcage guy in Canada and he fixed the corner and gave it a quick polish and it looks fantastic and works great!

I’m glad I took a gamble on this cage, it’s a great addition to my collection and a good example of an older Owen vanishing birdcage!

-Louie

Halloween Shows

Happy Halloween, and be safe out there to everyone performing tonight! I won’t be doing any shows tonight and that’s by choice. Years ago I decided I didn’t enjoy Halloween shows, so I don’t really do them. Sure, there are reasons that I would still do them, like an insane paycheck, but for the most part I say no.

I decided I don’t like them because people act strange when they’re in costume. Whether it’s kids or adults. And people aren’t necessarily comfortable when they’re in costume watching a show. The amount of people that will watch a show wearing a giant mask with limited vision is very high. However they won’t take the mask off.

Speaking of masks, that’s a challenge, as an audience you want to see people’s faces. As a performer you want the audience to see the face of anyone onstage and how they react. The amount of times in the past, where I would ask a kid to come onstage specifically because they weren’t wearing a mask, only to have them stand up, put a mask on and walk onstage it staggering! Or people who act the character of how they’re dressed. I don’t want to do a trick for Darth Vader, I want to do it for a human.

I think that having an audience in costume makes my show not be as could as it could be because of elements out of my control. My solution is to turn them down.

I wasn’t having fun, and there’s plenty of other things to do.

-Louie

EDC for TV spot

Yesterday morning I headed down to the local TV station to promote National Magic Week. I was on their morning “lifestyle” show and it was a lot of fun. One of the challenges of doing TV is that you don’t know how much time you have, they tell you about how much time, but you never really know for sure.

Here’s what I had in my pockets right before the start of the segment:

These props would keep me covered for most situations that I could encounter. You may also notice the deck of cards isn’t a bicycle deck, it’s the Penguin Marked Deck. When I do TV spots, I try to always use a marked deck. That can potentially bail me out of some situations, like when the weatherman grabs a card and tell me to name it.

The other thing that I threw in my backpack was my vanishing birdcage.

Sometimes they ask you to do a quick trick as part of a teaser segment. These are usually a 5 – 10 second bit where you don’t talk, the host is introducing your segment. You need a very visual bit to be able to do in the background.

What I ended up doing for the show was my close up card set. I didn’t do the whole thing, but the reason I chose that was that it’s a modular trick. I can take things away from in to shorten it and it has multiple points that feel like the end. That makes that routine very useful for TV spots!

-Louie

The Jigsaw Puzzle Coin

About a year ago my buddy Rolando Medina started selling jigsaw puzzle coins. It’s a coin that’s been cut into a little 16 piece jigsaw puzzle. He sells the coin as a novelty, but I thought there’d be a cool trick in there.

When I first got mine, I posted a few ideas of things that could be done with it. You can read them here. The coin has been sitting on my desk for a year and I finally took it out and made a video with it!

@louiefoxx Most puzzling magic trick ever! #puzzle #magictrick #wtf #puzzling #coin #magic #cointrick #louiefoxx #crazy #wow @RM🐇💀🐇 #redmond #magiciansoftiktok #nocameratricks ♬ Believer – Imagine Dragons

I think this coin makes a great little social media video. Doing it in a normal roving close up setting wouldn’t be practical. It’s just the reset of putting it back together takes too much time when going from group to group. It would work in a formal close up magic show.

You can get these and a ton of other cool stuff from Rolando at: https://rolandomedinamagic.com/

-Louie