Recently I did my clock prediction at a virtual magic open mic. I stumbled on a couple of jokes and probably could have “listened” more, but I think it went well.
One thing I that wasn’t really possible due to me being in a hotel room was that I couldn’t have the clock displayed the whole time. I kinda had it balanced on a chair, but it kept falling off. The routine still has a bit to go, but I like it!
-Louie
Right now I’m reading Doc Dixon’s book The Show is the Mother of Invention. It’s about having a show that you can take as carry on luggage onto a plane and making that stuff play big. I’m about 2/3’s of the way through it right now and I really like it!
For me this is a very interesting read as I do travel a lot, both by car and by plane. Even when travelling by car, it’s important to try to pack small, or at least efficiently!
I used to be a “Pack as small as your artistic vision will allow you to…” sort of person. That led me to travelling around the country with a four foot metal spoon that required it’s own case! And that prop was used only for a 15 second gag! I’m no longer that person, I still have that spoon and case, and can do the routine whenever I want, but the it’s not currently in my show.
Doc’s book has a lot of strategies for getting more time out of what you already have, and how to make small things play larger. There are many techniques that I already do, that I didn’t know were techniques, like telling stories about what’s happened when you did the trick at another show.
Making a show that I can hand carry onto a plane is something that I’ve been playing with for a while now and you can see my current version at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/tag/carry-on-magic-show/
One thing that’s important to me is texture. I don’t want the show to feel like it was designed to fit into a case…even though it was. For example one of the things that’s in my show is my Applause Please trick, which is an applause sign that’s part of a larger routine. This is technically an “illusionette” in that it’s bigger than a hand held item, yet smaller than a zig zag. This prop has a lot of negative space that I can use to fill with other things when it’s packed up.
In addition to confirming what I was already doing, I’ve learned several new things that make Doc Dixon’s book totally worth buying for me! If packing smaller and getting more mileage out of what you already are doing is something that interests you, I highly recommend getting this book!
Louie
**The Daily Blog is below this notice**
Just a heads up, I’m on the road performing right now. Normally my shipping department when I’m travelling is my daughter, but she’s on vacation now through 9/12/23, so all orders placed for in stock items wont’ ship until then.
Digital products will still be emailed within 24 hours of placing your order.
Physical products that I currently have in stock are:
How To Perform For Seniors book
Cee Lo
Out For Beers
Take Up Reel
Evaporation
If you need something sooner than 9/12/23 you can order from Hocus-Pocus.com as they have most of my products in stock and ready to ship.
Thanks for your support!
Louie
About a month ago I worked with Roy McCoy, The Quick Draw Cowboy in Wyoming. Roy is an cartoonist, and his show is him drawing stuff (there’s a couple of other things in it as well). Roy only does the fair where he lives, however he has one of the best stage set ups that I’ve seen.
I think if he was doing more than one fair, he’d probably have less stage dressing to lug around, set up and strike. The show was probably as good as it could get for someone who doesn’t do a lot of shows. It’s missing a lot of the bits to fill dead time, however for what it is, it’s fantastic!
I really enjoyed this show, it was something different and fun!
-Louie
Last week the fair I was at had a very long walk from the audience to the stage. This made bringing someone up from the audience a bit of a speed bump in the show. The general format in my magic show is every other trick has someone from the audience onstage. Figuring out how to deal with the time that it takes to bring someone onstage was a challenge.
The first thing to fill the time was simply writing jokes to address the issue and fill the dead space. I wrote lines like, “The walk to the stage is longer than the line at the DMV“.
One of the emergency props that I have in my case is a thumb tip with a silk. I can do a solid 5 minute routine with that that’s full of laughs. That routine uses two people from the audience.
Obviously, bringing two people onstage wasn’t he solution to the long walk to the stage, but the silk was. I started simply vanish the silk while the person walked to the stage. It filled the dead space, but needed more. Then during my morning writing I came up with the idea of doing silk in balloon. That gave some sort of a payout to the vanishing silk. However, the breakthrough was the next day during my morning writing I had the idea of silk in selected balloon.
I had a line of balloons tied to string from my case to the microphone stand. The silk vanishes while they are coming onto the stage. Then a balloon is selected and when popped the silk appears inside that balloon.
What I ended up with is a routine for when there is a long walk to the stage (or any show), but not a solution to fill that time for existing routines that I do.
I’m not disappointed that I didn’t come up with a solution for the long walk, as a routine that fills the stage and packs very small is still a win!
-Louie
The 2024 International Brotherhood of Magicians convention is going to be in Tacoma, WA next summer. That’s about 30 mins from where I live, so I figured I should go.
Being local takes out a lot of the travel burden as I don’t have to pay for travel. I would really like to go to more magic conventions, but it’s difficult in the summer as I’d have to turn down a 5-10 day gig to attend.
This should be a fun convention, and you can register at:
https://www.magician.org/convention/online-registration-2024
-Louie
When I do TV spots, I try do more than just a magic trick, I try to make it a moment that’s memorable. Sure you can do sponge balls and it’s fine, however I try to do things that are fun.
Here’s an example from a media spot a few weeks ago where I’m doing the Three Shell Game:
@louiefoxx News Reporter Hustled with Classic Con Game! #reporter #game #gambling #congame #cantwin #pushups #shellgame #hustle #newsreporter #louiefoxx #sleightofhand #payyourdebts #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx
It’s not always possible to do more memorable or fun spots due to time, or other circumstances. However, when I get a chance to do a little bit of planning, I try to do something fun!
-Louie
After adding a second transmitter to the Anverdi Color Match pens, I’m not having any issues in the show with not getting a signal. This is something that I think that most magicians wouldn’t do because of the cost. It’s literally double what it should cost.
Somehow both sets of transmitters are signaling one receiver, I’m not sure how that’s happens, but it is. I independently tried the transmitter and they are all signaling the same receiver.
This is a good development, however I’d prefer that I have two complete systems running, and not one and half. With two independent systems, I have a backup if the receiver fails.
Hopefully this is the solution for me…
-Louie
Last week I was performing at Montana Fair in Billings, MT. One day the news was there taking video for their fair highlights. This is always tricky for me as if I don’t talk to them, they will always use a super wide shot that’s out of context and makes no sense. In a highlight reel, stuff doesn’t need a lot of context if the content is chosen correctly.
What I do is try to talk to them or whoever the media coordinator is and do staged video where I act like I’m performing for a crowd and we put the camera onstage to get video that’s better framed and I use tricks that you don’t need much context to understand what’s happening.
Here’s the video from last week:
Whenever possible I try to show or tell them what I’m going to do so that they know what to expect and can put their camera in a good spot. I will also tell them the bad spots to record from if there are any.
-Louie
Last weekend I had to deal with a crazy interruption during my show. It’s something I’ve never really had to deal with during a show. Independent of the fair that I was performing at was an airshow….and my show was the same time as the Blue Angels!
There’s really not much that I can do, the planes are loud and let’s face it, way more exciting than my show. I made a few jokes about, and stopped the show while they were performing, that’s really all that I could do.
“That’s the most expensive opening act I’ve ever had!“
It was only two days of an eight day gig, so there were plenty more shows to do without conflicting with the air show!
-Louie
