Recently this ad came across my social media:
The headline with the picture made me laugh. He’s telling you about using or creating NEW magic routines; however, the video’s cover shows him doing a very common trick!
I don’t know what product he’s selling; I didn’t click the link. I just thought the headline of not using common tricks really contradicted the image of him using a very common routine.
-Louie
PS: You can learn about my process for creating unique magic here!
In my daily writing, I’ve been trying to come up with something to do with a couple of sponge donuts that I picked up in a box of vintage magic about a month ago. They’ve been sitting on my desk, or in the box of magic tricks that I travel with.
It hit me that they’d be great for some sort of ring on a string sort of magic routine. I played with a couple of things and quickly realized it needed something else, so I added a real bagel, and here’s what I came up with:
It really surprised me how much people liked it! I thought it’d get a “that’s neat, what else do you have…” sort of reaction. I need to try to figure out some sort of ending for this, right now it’s got a good opening line, the trick, but I feel like it needs something else.
-Louie
Yesterday I made a post about David Regal’s Off With His Head. I wanted to add a third beat to it, and one of the ideas I mentioned was making the three cards that weren’t selected blank. This is really following the B’wave format.
Here’s it with the three blank cards as the ending:
I think it’s (for me) a better trick than the original and away to turn B’wave from a mindreading trick to a magic trick.
-Louie
Here’s what my props for a roving magic set look like:
The bottom row is my card routine, which is modular and can run anywhere from about 90 seconds to 7+ minutes. The top row are the other props that I use. Everything goes into my pockets except for the empty chop cup.
The top row is the fortune teller (it’s in my PCAM lecture notes), then my Out for Beers trick, three shell game and a chop cup. The nice thing about these props is that there’s a lot of texture I can have with my roving magic set. The opening is always the card routine, then the next trick depends on the group.
-Louie
In the past I’ve made Dice Cup Chop Cups available every now and then. They were never an item that I offered on my website. I would just post them to my social media or mention them in my email list. I’ve gotten a lot of people asking about when I’m making the next batch, so I’ve made added them to my shop.
You can get them at: https://www.magicshow.tips/product/dice-chop-cup-with-eight-ball/
-Louie
When I made a small batch of dice chop cups last week, people asked me for a video. Honestly, I thought everyone knew what a chop cup does, but I was wrong. If you don’t know what a chop cup is, it’s a gimmicked cup that will hold out a ball, or in this case dice.
Typically, this is one with one visible ball; however, in routines like my CeeLo routine, it uses three visible dice. How the normal routine goes is that a ball keeps disappearing and reappearing under a cup, then at the end, there’s a giant ball or whatever under the cup.
Here’s a quick video of a chop cup routine that I made for the people who asked:
I was just improving and did this sequence. It’s actually a pretty good sequence; it has a lot of effects.
1: Teleportation: Die goes from pocket to under the cup
2: Penetration: Die goes through the top of the cup
3: Vanish: Die disappears from my hand
4: Production: Eight ball appears
That’s a lot of magic in less than 20 seconds!
-Louie
Occasionally I’ll make a batch of dice cup chop cups. These are chop cups made from dice cups and use a die instead of a ball.
I prefer using a die over a ball for a couple of reasons. First, it makes sense when the cup is a dice cup; all of the props belong together. Next, dice are white, so they are easy to see. Finally, with dice being flat, they don’t roll as much, so you won’t have them roll off the table as easily.
When you use a prop, like a traditional magic chop chop that visually looks like nothing that exists in world, I try to find things that look real to build the trick into. It’s not always possible, but it’s something I try to do. I should mention that there is value in an unusual prop as a presentation hook. For example, my O-Korto Coin Box Routine uses small brass Okito Box style coin boxes. I introduce it as my “Grandma’s Coin Box”, then there are a few jokes that go along with it. There are ways and reasons to use unusual props.
-Louie
The final summer camp magic show of the year is done. That means my busy season is starting to end! I still have a very full September; however, it’s not as crazy as it was since mid-May!
I’ve been doing summer camp magic shows for a couple of decades. At one point, they were my main market in the summer; now they are mostly shows that fill in holes in my schedule between five (or longer) day contracts.
These shows are a ton of fun; it’s interesting how they’ve changed over the years. When I first started doing them, there were a lot more older, school-age kids; now they’re predominantly younger kids in the 3-6 year old range. That means the style of material has really shifted from what was more of a school assembly type of material, which was a bit more sophisticated, to a lot more silliness. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it can be a very different gear.
-Louie
The Juggling Monte routine that I’m working on has taken another step closer to reality. One of the challenges that I identified early on was how to make a two dollar bill visibly different from a one dollar bill onstage. The solution was to write “lucky” on the back of it. Originally I thought writing it in pink, sparkly ink would be good, however I just made one with white ink with a black border and I think it looks great!
There’s not much to making this prop. I took a white paint pen and wrote lucky on the bill. Once it dried, I used a black Sharpie to do the outline. Finally, I took some matte clear spray paint and gave it a light coat to seal it. Hopefully the sealant will protect it from dinging or chipping.
I still need to write some jokes and figure out the routine, but it’s off to a good start. We’ll see how it actually plays for an audience.
-Louie
The ending to a card trick is one of the most important things. Does the ending have punctuation, or is it just “meh”? A card trick routine that I’m working on ends with a prediction of the selected card. I’m not going to get into the routine in this post, but just the ending. Here are the three options:
Option 1: direct and clean
Option 2: has a little bit of suspense
Option 3: has a gag, then a trick
I think each has merit, but ultimately I’ll have to go out there and try all three to see which plays best.
-Louie
