magic show tips – Page 58

Four Nightmares DX – Rope Routine

One of the tricks that I’ve always wanted in my show is a rope trick but I’ve have trouble making them work in my show. I think part of why rope tricks don’t fit is partially my performing style and part trying to find the framework for the trick. I have trouble finding the “why” I’m sharing a rope trick with the audience.

Recently I was playing with Daryl’s Rope Routine and while it’s a great routine for Daryl, it really doesn’t fit me AND one it has a Professor’s Nightmare phase. While I think that Professor’s Nightmare is a good trick, it’s way too overdone and I don’t want visuals that are common in my show. Unfortunately not doing the Professor’s Nightmare phase in Daryl’s Rope Routine cuts the routine in half and the routine lacks something…which is a second half!

A couple of years ago I remember Ken Scott doing a rope routine called Four Nightmares DX at a virtual magic convention. There’s a video of Ken doing it on his website, and here’s the video of it that I could find on YouTube:

What I like about this routine is that it can be done solo onstage, so you don’t need to bring someone onstage to help you like in most cut and restored rope routines. It’s also has a lot of effects that are pretty visual and fairly different. Lots of effects using the knot, but they are different effects with the knots!

My fear with this trick is that its’ something that I will end up liking, but then it will become unavailable. Also keeping the rope clean and white. If I end up liking this routine, I’ll have to learn to make my own gimmicked rope.

-Louie

Giant Dice Hat Load

A couple weeks ago when I was roving I threw a giant die into my bag. I was going to play with a hat load to produce it. I’ve done hat loads in the past and familiar with many techniques to get the giant die into my hat. I didn’t have a plan for the load, I just used the appropriate technique at the right time and if that opportunity didn’t present itself.

Here’s a highlight reel of some close up and the giant die production is in it:

I don’t know if this is something that I’ll actually add to my show, but it was fun to play with for a few days!

-Louie

Learning to Perform in Spanish

Recently I’ve been and will be working a lot in Arizona and California. There’s huge Hispanic population down here and I’ve been trying to work on doing parts of my show in Spanish. I’m not good at it, but showing that I’m trying goes a long way endear myself to audiences that may not speak English well.

It’s not a bad idea to learn bits of your show in another language, it makes you a lot more versatile if you’re a talking act. I’m getting to the point where I can communicate ideas in Spanish, not really do the full routines, but can get the point across.

It’s also fun when I say things wrong or when the audience corrects my pronunciation. It shows that what’s happening is real and opens the show up to some unexpected moments.

Awhile ago a juggler friend of mine said, “If you don’t know two languages, you’re lazy” and I agree with him. It’s soo easy to learn a little bit of a second language and you don’t need much to start putting bits into your show!

-Louie

ProMystic 50/50

ProMystic just put out a new trick called 50/50 and it’s great! It’s basically a location of someone holding a stack of your money.

The base routine is someone out of a group holds some money of yours. You say you’re betting your money that you can find it. You then narrow down the group until you have one person left and they have your money.

What I like about the routine is that it really fills the stage with a few bills. It also has a feeling of a chance of failure and while the method isn’t 100% is is 99.9% surefire. There is a strange scenario that I can imagine where it could fail, but it’s very unlikely.

I’ve done this three times as preshow and it’s worked great! I need to do some writing and hopefully can move it into the show soon!

-Louie

Obedient Walnut

A few months ago I found some Obedient Walnut tricks in a bin of junk magic at a magic shop. This is a version of a classic trick where you have an object with a string running through it, in this case it’s a plastic walnut. As the walnut slides down the string, it stops whenever you want it to.

Honestly, from a magic perspective, it’s not really a good trick, it’s pretty obvious how it works. I did pick up three of them out of the junk bin as I had an idea for a routine with them. The routine is an interesting idea, but still a bad trick.

I did it once, it confirmed it’s not the best idea or trick and now I can throw away the Obedient Walnuts.

-Louie

No 25 Gilbert Mysto Magic Show Set!

Recently when I was travelling, I came across this magic set in a junk shop

And here’s the picture of the lower tray

They really don’t make magic sets like this anymore. Everything has it’s own neat package, there’s some glass props, if I had the space to properly display it, it’d probably be more interested in it. However I think a bit overpriced at $795! I’m not a magic kit collector, but based on the people I talked to it priced about double what it’s worth.

-Louie

Coin Transposition

I’m working on a coin transpostion, it’s essentially something that I used to do a long time ago. I was inspired to play with it again after getting Craig Petty’s Apparition. This two phase routine uses just the two coins (and a shell).

The effect is a silver dollar and an Asian coin with a hole in it change places. First in your hands and the second time with one in your hand and one in someone from the audience’s hand.

Here’s the routine:

This is my Nana’s coin purse, do you know what’s inside it?

That’s right coins! I had a kid say, “your nana”…That’d be messed up if I just poured out her ashes.

There’s a silver dollar. That’s Dwight Eisenhower, he was a four start general, the 34th president of the United States and he did all of that while bald!

This is an ancient Asian token, it dates back to the Nintendo Dynasty. It says, “Our princess is in another castle”.

The Asian token goes in this hand and like the movie Freaky Friday, they change places!

Here you hang onto the coins. I’m going to take one from your hand…it’s the silver dollar.

Fist bump!

I’ve got the Asian token and you have…

…The silver dollar!

I feel like this needs a third phase. It’s a great two phase routine, but feels unfinished. I might play with adding a one coin routine to the end of it. That may give it a sense of closure.

-Louie

The Fog Machine of War by Matt Disero

On a recent flight I read The Fog Machine of War by Matt Disero. This a great book full of short essays / stories by Matt about his career and experience as a full time comedy magician.

There’s a ton of great stories in the book, but the value of the book is the advice. It goes from everything from working with agents, to using production elements, to trying out new material onstage.

There’s tons to learn from Matt’s failures, which he openly shares. Failures are things that magicians don’t talk about enough, especially in print. With magicians and their egos, most put out the facade that they always crush every show and have never bombed. Matt opens up about bad shows and that’s were the learning happens.

I highly recommend The Fog Machine of War if you’re a comedy magician of any level!

-Louie

Junk Magic from a Junk Shop

I was killing time between shows and was walking through a junk shop and they have a briefcase full of magic. They wanted too much for it at $60, so I negotiated a bit and got it for a reasonable price.

Most of the stuff was garbage, but there were a few cool things. There were four sets of Johnson Scotch and Soda sets and I have a buddy who uses that, so he now has a lifetime supply of them!

One of the interesting things was a trick called Space Coins.

It’s essentially a boston box, but it’s got the fake see through bottom that’s “black art” or more like red art. I’m not a fan of the fake see through thing were you needed to put the prop on a specific surface.

I will say I was super surprised when I tried it out of people that it got great reactions, so I’m not always right. It’s always good to be proven wrong.

-Louie

Roving Close Up Magic

In my roving magic shows in Arizona, my set was essentially two parts. The first part coin magic, which is about one third of the close up set. The second part is my card set which in the remaining two thirds of it.

Here’s a little highlight reel of my close up roving magic set:

@louiefoxx Close Up Magic at the Yavapai County Fair! #closeupmagic #cardtrick #cointrick #magician #sleightofhand #louiefoxx #yavapaicountyfair #prescott #arizona ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Sometimes I will another part to this, and that is the shell game. I don’t do the shell game for every group as it really needs to be the right group for it to play how I want it to play.

Also, I’m really digging Craig Petty’s Apparition coin set! One thing with it is I’m trying to use the purse less. Right now the coin set I’m doing with it has four parts and only the first two use the purse. I’ll probably write a bit more about what I’m doing with the Apparition coin set and why I’m doing it the way I am.

-Louie