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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

Joseph Silk Gun

Awhile ago I aquired a Joseph Silk Gun. This is a pistol that you put a silk ontop of and the silk disappears.

Here’s what it looks like in action:

The vanish looks like trick photography! Unfortunately, there’s really nowhere that I would use a gun in a performance. Maybe if you did some sort of vignette, but that’s about it.

I’m going to try to find time to make a video of it with a Crystal Cube prop. Both the vanish and production would be instant!

-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

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

The Ice Cream Cup!

One of the tricks that I’m working on for a tour in April needs an opaque, tall, tulip-style ice cream cup. I spent hours searching thrift stores online and didn’t quite find anything I liked…well I did, but I also didn’t want to buy 36 of them!
I finally gave up on trying to find one that already exists and decided to design my own. The nice thing about this is that I get something that is what I want, instead of the potential limitations of gimmicking something that is already made.

Here’s what the trick looks like in my garage:

The ice cream scoop is something that Dan Harlan sells called The Scoop and he even posted this on his social media:

The cup is my design, and here’s what is it:

Obviously, you don’t need to use The Scoop with it; it would work great with a loop ball or just sleight of hand with a ball. Anything you can fake put into it would turn to the streamers.

Ok, so why did I make a full glass, when I don’t show it empty at the start and could just put confetti in it?

Simple, clean up.

There’s no cleanup with streamers; no one needs to sweep or vacuum them up.

For me, this is the perfect solution for the second half of turning ice cream into something exciting!

-Louie
PS: If you want one of these, contact me for pricing!

The Speed Bump That is 6/7

I’m still working on the show I’m doing for a school assembly tour in April. One of the tricks that I had planned is a cards across type effect using postcards. I had a method worked out, then I realized the trick involves counting to ten.

Counting to ten means I’ll have to deal with kids and the 6/7 trend that’s still happening. It’s not as crazy as it was a year ago, but it’s still a thing.

In the past, I’ve used the Piano Card Trick‘s method of pairs to do an object across types of trick. That version has no counting, just moving pairs of cards. That eliminates using the numbers six and seven in sequence.

The downside of using the pair method is that only one thing moves instead of two or three cards. I guess the big plus is that since I’ve used this in shows before, I have a lot of the “bits” built in, so I don’t need to do a lot of figuring out gags. That’s also a bad trap; I shouldn’t be lazy and should be writing new gags.

-Louie
PS If you’re interested in using the piano card trick onstage, look into Jim Steinmeyer’s Apples and Oranges trick.

Talking To Strangers – Magic Podcast

The magic review site Magic Orthodoxy has a blog about getting started performing magic for people you don’t know. It’s called Talking to Strangers and I was a guest on it!

You can listen to my episode on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7nX5NWXTQ2TmoX52uyPjhj
and you can watch it here:

Hope you learn something from my past experiences!

-Louie

Dice Force

For a show I’m doing in a couple of months, I needed a way to force a number (really a position in a row of things). I didn’t want to use the Hot Rod Force, and my normal default is the Quinta Force, but I wanted to try to figure out something new.

My idea was to put a die in a film can and have someone shake it, and that would force the number.

First of all, I didn’t want to use a die that’s missing a number, and you eliminate numbers as they’re rolled. I’ve seen too many shows where that method is used, and it takes forever to get the last item eliminated, as that number just doesn’t come up.

Other methods I didn’t want was to use a die that’s all the same number or a magnetic die. My goal was to try to come up with a NEW method before I resorted to old methods. Even if I don’t use the method I came up with, it’s fun to try.

Here’s what I came up with:

I think this method had potential. Is it a lot of work to accomplish what a magnetic die could do? Yep.
Is the method interesting? Yep!

-Louie

3d Printed Shell Game!

A while ago, I made a set of natural shells for the three shell game, and then made a silicone mold of them. I used that mold to make a bunch of resin shells for a shell game workshop. One of those resin shells recently got 3d scanned and I’ve started printing them!

These are a great beginner set or set to throw in your backpack to carry around and not beat up a nicer set.

You can find or more or order a set at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/shell-game/

-Louie

Valentine’s Day Magic Trick

Here’s a “touch the screen” style magic trick for Valentine’s Day. You have a list of five words in this order:

Kiss | Heart | Love | Roses

“These are all things that I can give my wife“

They touch one of them and spell that word, JUMPING, one word per letter. They can move back and forth, but once they hit an end (kiss or roses), they must turn around and go the other way.

They do that, and if they follow directions, they will be on either the world Kiss or Love.

Eliminate the word ROSES. What’s left is:

Kiss | Heart | Love

“Valentine’s Day isn’t about exclusion, so we’ll still use roses. Spell that word, jumping one space per letter.“

When they do that, they will be on the word Heart.

Eliminate the word LOVE. What’s left is:

Kiss | Heart

“Spell the name of person you love, jumping one word per letter.”

At this point, they could be on either Kiss or Heart. For this example, they are on Kiss. You call attention to an envelope that’s been on the table the whole time.

“In this envelope is what I gave my wife on our first Valentines Day Together”

This is a multiple out at this point, the envelope has two openings with each option on its own side. You simply remove the matching prediction and the two prediction are:

“Tickets to KISS!”

There you go, a fun magic trick for Valentine’s Day!

-Louie