packet trick – MagicShow.Tips

It’s the Same Trick!

Last summer when I decided to build up my TikTok account, I was told that posting consistently was the key. Posting something everyday is a ton of work and it burns a lot of material. I didn’t want to post just the current new trick that everyone was doing. What I settled on was original material and historical (vintage) material. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the vintage magic tricks! For the original stuff, I’ve found that I can get more mileage out of things if I can use the same trick in different forms.

Here’s an example of a packet trick with cards that I came up with:

@louiefoxx the purple #cardtrick #magictrick #cardmagic #magician #purple ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

And to get more than one video out of it, here’s the same trick done with money:

@louiefoxx What’s up with stocks? #stocks #stockmarket #money #magictrick #magician #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

For me this is a great way to get double the mileage out of something! Not only that, but it helps me create magic that’s not card tricks!

-Louie

Original (?) Packet Trick

If you follow me on TikTok, you know I’m into vintage magic tricks and really into old packet tricks. I’ve wanted to come up with an original Emerson and West style packet trick with full story patter. I didn’t want to come up with a variation of something that already existed.

The other day I threw some cards into my backpack and with my time between gigs I came up with this:

@louiefoxx A Car Buying story with Cards! #cardtrick #carbuying #magic #magictrick #sedan #sportscar #carsalesman #story #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

This is actually the second version of the story. The first version is more personal to me and my story, where the one above is more generic. I think this is fairly close to the Emerson and West style, it’s got all the mini effects and the pun/kicker ending.

The handling sequence just worked itself out. It was too easy, so I’m assuming someone has to have come up with it before, but it’s original to me.

This was a lot of fun to work out!
-Louie

Packet Tricks with Money by Larry West

Recently I’ve been playing with packet trick techniques using money instead of cards. I discovered this set of lecture notes by Larry West that has two trick using bills like cards for a packet trick style effect.

The two tricks is the lecture notes are very similar, in fact they are the same effect, but with different methods. One uses a gaffed bill and the other doesn’t. I think that one of the reasons that money packet trick magic isn’t really a thing is because to make any gaffed bills, like a one dollar bill with a ten on the backside might be crossing the line with what’s legal or not. Also the cost to put them out as you’d have to add the cost of the bills to the trick.

Anyway, here are the two money tricks from Larry West’s lecture notes:

@louiefoxx Cheating the con man! #magictrick #magic #money #conman #counting #math #magiciam #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

@louiefoxx Hustling the Hustler! #magictrick #money #magic #moneymagic #hustle #con #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I’m not sure which version is better.

-Louie

More Money Packet Tricks!

A few days ago I posted a video of a packet trick where 4 one dollar bills turned into 4 two dollar bills. It’s essentially a packet card trick with dollar bills. Turning $1’s into $2’s is alright, but I got to playing with a slightly different arrangement that I like more:

@louiefoxx How to make money with bad math! #money #magic #math #magictrick #dollar #hundred #moneymagic #badmath ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The bills changing into different bills makes the trick feel a little less like the same trick four times. Also the ending with the hundred dollar bill seems like more of a finish to the trick.

-Louie

One Dollar Bills to Two Dollar Bills

Yesterday I posted about a thing I was playing with using money instead of playing cards for packet tricks. I’ll give a walkthrough of how to do it, but first here’s the video of the routine:

@louiefoxx Double your money! #money #double #magic #moneymagic #dollar #twodollarbill #magician ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

Needed: Three one dollar bills and three two dollar bills. These must be crisp, and the fake movie money works great for this.

Set Up: From the top down: A single one dollar bill, then the 3 two dollar bills and the remaining 2 one dollar bills.

Working: Show the packet of bills face down and then turn them face up. Do an Elmsley Count to show what appears to be the faces of 4 one dollar bills.

For the first change you will do another Elmsley Count to show that one of the one dollar bills has turned into a two dollar bill.

Repeat that, doing another Elmsley Count for the second one dollar bill to change into a two dollar bill, but this time put it the final bill bottom instead of the top of the stack.

For the third change you will do another Elmsley Count, however this time when you get to the single one dollar bill outjog it about an inch. Set the final bill (two dollar) on top of the stack.

Strip out the one dollar bill with your right hand and show it on both sides. As that his happening your left hand buckles the bottom bill creating a gap between it and the rest of the bills above it. Your right hand puts the one dollar bill into this gap above the lowermost bill in your left hand.

For the final bill to change, simply do a modified Elmsley Count to show four two dollar bills on both sides. Do the first two counts Elmsley Count, leaving you with the block of bills in your right hand and 2 two dollar bills in your left hand. Your left hand spreads its two bills and turns over to show both sides. The left hand then puts the two bills UNDER the bills in your right hand. The whole packet of bills is then flipped face down and Elmsley Counted to show four backs.

That’s it, a change of 4 one dollar bills to 4 two dollar bills. Nothing really ground breaking there, but I think this will be a stepping stone for something better…I hope!

-Louie

Queens to Queens

One thing I realized when posting on social media is that a lot of standard techniques that work in an in person show don’t hold up to video. One example is using an Elmsley Count of four of the same cards, but you’re passing one card off as two. You say you have four queens, and count through them, and don’t call out the suits, so one suit shows twice. This doesn’t hold up to repeated watching.

Here’s my solution to it:

@louiefoxx Super Quick and Stupid Card Trick! #cardtrick #magic #magictrick #cards #playingcards #queens #red #black ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

In the trick above at the end you see all four suits, however you I’m only showing three cards. The solution is something that I stumbled on and it’ll be in the February issue of Vanish Magazine.

It’s a small thing and won’t improve or apply to every trick where you’re passing of the same card as two different cards using an Elmsley Count, but it’s a nice thing to be able to add when it makes sense!

-Louie

Emerson and West Presents Jim Callan’s Soup to Nuts

I love my vintage magic, especially old card tricks! Today I’m going to look at Emerson and West presents Jim Callan’s Soup to Nuts. This is a classic Emerson and West style packet trick that’s uses a handful of themed cards. Here’s what it looks like per the directions:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick – Emerson and West's Soup To Nuts! #vintage #magictrick #magic #magician #louiefoxx #closeupmagic #vintagemagic #emersonandwest #packettrick #vancouverwa ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s a decent trick, and here are my thoughts on it:

While I personally wouldn’t really use these novelty type cards, it’s great to play with them! I think anytime I learn a new seqeunce, it gets filed somewhere in my brain and it may help me out some day. Realistically it probably just get purged from my short term memory…but who knows.

-Louie

The Family Card Trick

One of the things that I do for fun is learn old packet tricks. One of the tricks that I as messing with was Karl Fulves Mexican IV. This is a three card monte style trick, then has a “surprise” ending. When I go through the packet tricks that use playing cards, I try to think of how I could theme them as if they were an Emerson and West packet trick. Then when I go through Emerson and West packet tricks, I try to figure out if I could turn them into tricks with normal looking playing cards.

With Mexican IV, I think I got a fun them out of the trick:

@louiefoxx All about the famiily! #family #dog #wife #magic #baby #cardtrick #magician #louiefoxx #car #surprisebaby #story ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The trick came out well, and it’s a fun creative exercise!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Trick: Ronnay’s Twisting the Jokers

Today’s vintage magic trick is Twisting the Jokers by Ronnay. This trick is very much the vibe of the golden age of packet tricks. It’s a trick where the four cards turn over one at a time, then turn into a different value. During this time that plot was done a ton of different ways, and here’s Ronnay’s version:

@louiefoxx Vintage Magic Trick! Ronnay’s Twisring the Jokers #magictrick #joker #cardtrick #vintage #packettrick #louiefoxx #magiciansoftiktok ♬ 10 minutes, meditation, sleep, mindfulness, night(951759) – Gloveity

The provided patter is garbage, it feels like rip off of the standard Six Card Repeat patter. The problem with this trick’s patter is that it uses a lot of industry terms that make it feel really clunky.

From a technical standpoint this trick is fine and it logically flows, but with a modern trick like NFW which is easier to do and much cleaner, Twisting the Jokers is obsolete…but these types of tricks were steps on the ladder to get to tricks like NFW and they have their place.

– Louie

Packet Trick in Spanish

Earlier this summer I started doing a packet trick in Spanish. The trick is Emerson and West’s Gourmet Mouse. What I like about this trick is that it’s very simple and I can do it for kids. The plot is easy to follow, you have three cards. One has a picture of a mouse, one cheese and one a slice of cheesecake. The cheese ends up disappearing and the mouse ends up changing to a picture of a cat (that ate the mouse).

The trick is pretty simple to speak in Spanish and that’s helping me connect with audiences that I’ve struggled with in the past due to language barriers.

Here’s what the trick looks like:

@louiefoxx Help me learn spanish! #spanish #learnspanish #helpme #magictrick #rat #gato #cat #cheese #cardtrick #louiefoxx #learnalanguage ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

To learn Spanish, I’m using DuoLingo and asking for help from people I work with who speak Spanish. I’m getting better, nowhere near conversational, but getting better.

-Louie