Yesterday I visited with Doug Conn on TrickSupply.com‘s live stream! You can watch it here:
It was a lot of fun to chat with Doug Conn about the Portland Magic Jam and what I’m up to!
-Louie
Tag: magic show
Spoon Dropper!
One of the things that I need for a routine I’m working on is a spoon dropper. This will allow me to steal a spoon from my jacket. The first idea was just a magnet. The issue that I encountered was that if I moved too much, the spoon would get knocked off the magnet.
One solution would be a stronger magnet, but it needed to be easy to pull off the magnet. What I did was glue some magnets to a bowl of a spoon, then cover that with black fabric.
The spoon bowl’s shape holding the spoon kept the fabric from my shirt/jacket from dislodging the spoon.
This was a fairly simply solution to the the problem!
-Louie
Portland Magic Jam – Day 3
The final day of last week’s Portland Magic Jam had the Paul Draper lecture. He does a choose your own lecture where the audience asks him to talk about things and he talks about what the audience requests.
Then there was a panel Q and A with all the weekend’s headliners.
Then David Kaye and I snuck out so I could take him for the most Portland lunch, which was eating at a food truck pod!
Then the weekend for me ended with the magic contest.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take more pictures of the contest. There were a couple of extra charge workshops going on after the contest, but I had plans with my wife, so I couldn’t do any of them.
The weekend at the Portland Magic Jam was a ton of fun! I wish I could go to more of these, however, my performing schedule doesn’t let me.
-Louie
Portland Magic Jam – Day 2
The second day of the Portland Magic Jam (last weekend) was a lot of fun. The day started with Daniel Garcia‘s lecture, which was great! I’ve used his One Card index since I worked with him in November. It’s great, if you need a folded card index, it’s worth looking into!
The highlight of the convention for me was watching David Kay perform for a room of 75ish kids plus adults.
For someone that’s a “kids magician” his knowledge of comedy techniques goes way beyond 97% of children’s magicians that I’ve seen. There’s soo much that any performer can learn from watching his show!
Also, working with Paul Draper the night before was great, and Paul and I are working together this week in Seattle at the Moisture Festival.
The convention venue (Portland Airport Holiday Inn) was garbage. My room had blood on the blankets, which is great if you’re a vampire! They new a convention was coming in, but didn’t appropriately staff their restaurant for use. The first night the turn around time for food was crazy long. For the second night, I drove to Costco which was a couple miles down the street and bought a bunch of pizzas for all the hungry magicians!
Then the evening show was John Shyrock, Daniel Garcia, and Rhy Thomas. The show was great!
This is a solid day of magic and learning!
-Louie
Portland Magic Jam
Last weekend, the Portland Magic Jam happened. This is a fun, local magic convention in Portland, OR, with around 75 attendees. For me, this was a working convention, not just for fun. I was the MC for the Friday evening show. My show set list for the show:
When you’re MC, these things are always in a state of flux, and they will change, and they sure did! The show went from four acts to two! That drastically changes what I need to do. I had a recurring gag that works when they see me 4 times, but not when they only see me twice.
In addition to the Friday night show, I also had a dealer booth.
I was selling the magic products that I make, along with some of the magic stuff I’ve accumulated over the years. Having a dealer table really makes for long days at a magic convention; you really don’t get any time off, unless you want to skip lectures or shows.
-Louie
Dice Cup Chop Cups!
It’s been a while since I’ve made any chop cups, and yesterday I made a batch of dice cup chop cups. I made these to take to the Portland Magic Jam this weekend.
Internally, there’s not much to it, it’s a magnet in a cup. I 3D print a magnet puck, and cover it with the same material that lines the cup.
Then I make a set of chopped dice, so one is regular, and the other has a magnet load.
I’m going to package these with an 8 Ball for the final load and sell them as a set. If I have any left after the Portland Magic Jam, I’ll offer them for sale here.
-Louie
Jack Grady – Ass Magic
A few days ago I hopped a train down to Eugene Oregon to see Jack Grady‘s show at a comedy club with my buddy Matt Baker (the juggler, not the magician). I think I had seen a video or two of his, but didn’t know much about him.
Jack’s big on the social media and his thing is “ass magic” where he puts things into his butt crack and then magic happens. That’s a quick background about what I knew about him.
This show is a great example of how a strong character can carry a show. The magic is just “meh” for the most part, but the performing persona carries the show. One thing that my buddy caught, that I didn’t, was in the fish hook roulette trick, it felt like he actually could mess up the trick. Since I was familiar with the trick and method, that thought never entered my mind.
The show’s roughness was a feature! It felt like it could really go wrong at any point. I have a feeling he hasn’t been touring with the show very long. I also think that in a few years, if he’s actively working on the show, that his show would be GREAT!
The show doesn’t over use the “ass magic”, but there were a couple of spots where it could be used that it’s currently not.
If Jack is coming to your area, the show is worth going to!
-Louie
Shows for Seniors
Last week I was doing a show for a senior community and here’s what my 45 min show looks like:
The props are in the bottom case, and on top of that is my Bose s1 pro. I’ve seen pictures of some people who bring in elaborate setups, and that definitely makes the show look bigger, but it’s not for me. I no longer bring in backdrops, for me, it didn’t make the show play any better. Sure, there are times I wish I had them because whatever is behind me is distracting or makes the show hard to watch, I don’t encounter them enough to make me want to pack and set up a backdrop.
I’m also using the facility’s TV or projector more and more. I don’t do close up magic to it, but I use it to make smaller things play bigger! This is easy to do, just plug a camera into their TV’s HDMI port. Boom done.
I used to take a wireless system HDMI to these shows, but it’s just easier to have 25 feet of HDMI cord. Simple and quick set up.
-Louie
PS: If you’re interested in doing shows for senior communities, check out my book How to Perform for Seniors at
https://www.magicshow.tips/how-to-perform-for-seniors-book/
A Toast To Nick Trost #1
Here’s the first videos of what I’m calling A Toast To Nick Trost. These are videos where I do a trick from The Card Magic of Nick Trost as written, and then I do a variation of the trick that I’ve come up with. Usually this is just adding a move or theme that didn’t exist when Nick came up with the trick.
Here’s Nick’s Observation Test:
And here’s my updated version of the trick:
Here’s a quick tutorial of my version:
I think what I like about my update is the final display of the cards face up, then flipping the cards face down to reveal the color change!
-Louie
Current State of Magic
Are we at the point where this is modern card magic:
I’m trying to decide whether I’m a grumpy old man afraid of change, or if something like this is a step in the wrong direction. Sure, you can do a cool trick with this deck, but is this what card magic needs?
Are we at a point where someone asks you to show them a card trick and you can’t because your deck isn’t charged?
I don’t know.
-Louie