It was bound to happen on this tour, yesterday I got my first K-12 school. These are really challenging because you essentially have two audiences, and the way they seat them, you really have two different sections you’re playing to. If they were mixed up, the energy from one group can carry over to the other, but now when the kindergarten to 6th grade is on the left and the 7th to 12th grade is on the right.
This is a situation where my thinking that no matter what, the trick has to be good is important. If you do a trick where the routine is a lot of fun, but the actual trick is just “meh”, the routine will ultimately fall flat. If the magic effect is strong, the routine will ultimately play better.
One thing that I do when I have shows like this where they are giving me groups that are over the age that the show was written for is that I give a little talk to the older kids. What I do is that I say, “This show was written for kindergarten to 6th grade. Stick with me, there will be some stuff you’ll like.” This addresses the elephant in the room. I also include the older kids in the tricks, which gets them invested early.
Hopefully, I won’t have many more groups like this.
-Louie
Tag: magic show
Magic Shops in Minnesota
When I was a teenager, I lived outside of Minneapolis, MN. There were two main magic shops in the area: Eagle Magic in downtown and Twin Cities Magic and Costume in Saint Paul. There was also a Magic Max, which was a chain of pitch shops and a store called The Fun Shop, which was a novelty store that had a magic counter.
When I was a teenager, I primarily went to Eagle Magic, which is run by Larry Kahlow. Larry’s shop was very old school; people smoked in the shop, and there was a ton of props everywhere. The main reason was that the shop was easy to get to by bus! Sadly, this trip, I didn’t get to visit Larry at Eagle Magic.
I had completely forgotten about Twin Cities Magic and Costume. I was running some errands with my mom who lives in Saint Paul and drove by it!
This was a different location than it was at when I was a kid, but I swung by on my way out of town.
I really didn’t know Jim and Fred when I was a kid, but it was great chatting with Jim! He’s super knowledgeable and they have a great selection of magic there! I picked up a few older magic tricks for my collection!
I’m glad I stopped by and if you’re in the Twin Cities be sure to visit Twin Cities Magic and Costume and drive down to Eagle Magic as well!
-Louie
BEKOS Smiley Face FTW!!
Right now, the only trick left in the school assembly that I didn’t really create is Jeff McBride’s BEKOS (Smiley Face Version). It’s the closing trick for the show, and it hasn’t been hitting all week, and I was going to cut it.
I rewrote the routine and took it from a different direction from the previous script, and it worked really well yesterday! The routine before was stuck with the theme and a loose “goodbye,” and I rewrote it as a heartfelt message. It isn’t a BS message that’s written to get a reaction; it’s something I truly believe in.
In one of the first shows that I did, the kids were seated in bleachers, and at the end of the trick, about 25 kids spontaneously stood up and cheered! It got an unprompted standing ovation from elementary school-aged kids!
I’m a fan of BEKOS (smiley face version)!
-Louie
Cutting Routines From the School Assembly
Yesterday was the second day of doing my school assembly show. I’ve done some reworking of the show. The bit I was doing with the egg bag wasn’t really hitting how I wanted it to, so I cut it out of my last show yesterday. The show felt like it had a better flow without it.
The last show of the day also ran long, even with one less routine in it. I think this was because I had a sign language interpreter at this show. Whenever I have one, I try to slow down a lot so their job is easier.
After two days of shows, I’ve streamlined a lot of what I’m doing. Prop management and packing are something you can practice at home, but you really figure it out doing shows. You realized why a particular spot isn’t the best for a particular prop, or that if you turn a prop 90 degrees, it makes picking it up much easier.
I’ve recorded most of my shows over the last two days, but haven’t really had a chance to review any video. That’ll be something that I do this weekend, and I’ll probably make some changes based on what I see!
-Louie
First Show of the School Assembly Tour
Yesterday was my first show of the school assembly tour. Most of the stuff I thought would play well did. One of the things, which is an egg bag, I felt fell flat. When watching back the video, it was just OK, not great, just OK. I’ve got to make the hard choice between cutting it and rewriting it.
The show ran a smidge long, and I skipped a routine today, so I’m not worried about time if I cut the routine. I do have an idea to fix it and give the ending a bit of a emphasis. I’ll try that at tomorrows shows.
That’s the great thing about tours like these, you do a lot of shows in a short amount of time. This gives you many chances to change things!
-Louie
Any Card At Any Number
One of the days I was performing at the Moisture Festival, there was a delay in starting the show. The producers asked me if I could fill some time to keep the people in the theater occupied. I did my Any Card At Any Number (ACAAN). Here’s the full spot because there’s a joke that’s a callback and doesn’t make sense if you don’t see the beginning before the trick starts.
For me, ACAAN is a great stage trick; it’s solo with just me onstage, but it involves the audience, and it’s a good trick!
-Louie
New School Assembly Show
Well, tomorrow is the first show of my new school assembly show and the first show day of this month long tour! The show is designed to set up and strike really quickly, in less than 15 minutes. The show will run 40-45 minutes in length and will have to play for 150-500 people per show.
Here’s the front of the case:
I have a screen on the front of the case for visuals if the school doesn’t read my requirements list and doesn’t provide me with a projector or TV. The visuals aren’t necessary, but they help make the show feel bigger.
Here’s the view of the back of the case:
The props in the case are laid out for the show. The only thing missing from the picture is my snake box, because it’s not in the case during the show. The snake box sits on a table (provided by the school) during the show.
I’m very excited to see how this plays. This show is 95% new to me. The 5% that’s old are a couple of jokes/gags that I’m recycling. Hopefully, I won’t have to change much. When I was writing the show, I was worried that it wouldn’t be long enough. Now that I’ve been practicing it, I’m worried it will be too long! Having too much material is a way better problem to have than not enough.
-Louie
Creating With Rules
I’m out on the road for all of April doing a new school assembly show. This show is called Amazing Americans and is about Americans who have done cool things.
When I create, I like to have rules. Without rules, I find it hard to create. When you can do anything, I can’t create anything. Starting with basic rules helps, like since it’s a school assembly, that means:
1: Geared toward kids ages 5-12
2: Be presented in a gym
3: Big enough for 200-500 kids to see
These are really logistical things, but things that will limit what can be done. I can’t do a card trick where the cards lie flat on the table, or even card tricks with standard-size cards, if the card needs to be correctly identified from the back of the room.
Next, I’ll look at the show’s theme: Amazing Americans
Here are my rules for that:
1: No flags: I want to highlight the people, not the country.
2: Must have female and minority representation: I don’t point out these, but they are represented.
Finally, some other rules:
1: No brands: That means I can’t do a trick about Coke.
2: No counting that involves the numbers 6 and 7: This really limits a lot of things, like cards across.
3: No action happens on the table top, everything is handheld
4: Show follows the format of alternating routines that are me solo onstage, followed by a volunteer, solo, volunteer…
With those rules in place, it’s much easier to select material (subject and trick). I instantly know whether a trick will fit into the show. Sure, I can break the rules; it’s a very conscious decision to do that if I do.
-Louie
A Toast to Nick Trost #3
In the book The Card Magic of Nick Trost there’s cool trick called Double Pinochle with an Elevator Finish. Here’s what the trick looks like as written:
It’s a nice change of four cards. What I don’t like about it is that it’s themed with the game of Pinochle, which isn’t as common as it was in the past.
Here’s what I came up with to update it:
The first change I made was for it to use four jokes, instead of two queens and two jokers. Then I used my Elmsley For Video move that allows you to show all four kings when you do the Elmsley Count and not have to show one card twice. Then procedurally, I needed to add a displacement so that I could get a clean display at the end, so I did a weird sort of top change off the bottom of the packet to the top of the deck.
Hope you like my changes
-Louie
Out of Town Shipping Notice
**The daily blog will continue to be updated below this notice**
I will be out of town for all of April 2026. That means no orders will ship until I return on May 4th, 2026.
I recently shipped a bunch of my magic products to TrickSupply.com in Las Vegas. You can order my magic from them at:
https://tricksupply.com/product-category/louie-foxx/
Any orders placed directly with me in April won’t ship or work to build won’t start until I return on May 4th.
**The daily blog will continue to be updated below this notice**