Tag: roving magic

Be Self Sustaining…

I love tricks that have unusual visuals.  Here’s one of my favorite “novelty” card tricks that I do:   The problem with it is the recent batch of gimmicks that have come in have had a very short lifespan compared to the ones I was using a year or two ago.  I bought a bunch … Continue reading “Be Self Sustaining…”

I love tricks that have unusual visuals.  Here’s one of my favorite “novelty” card tricks that I do:

 

The problem with it is the recent batch of gimmicks that have come in have had a very short lifespan compared to the ones I was using a year or two ago.  I bought a bunch of them over a year ago and down to my last one.  I have a feeling that the glue that was used had degraded over time and that’s why they gimmicks aren’t lasting as long.

 

Luckily I know how to make this style of gimmicked card.  I started playing with them when I was a teenager when I got the book Gaffed to the Hilt.  If you’ve never made your own gaff cards, the DVD Gimmicked by Andost is a great resource.

I have some time today and am going to make up some of the cards for the hole punch trick.  The main reason I’m making instead of buying is simple, I have one left and they’ve been lasting me 1-2 shows, I won’t have time to order more and have them by when I’d need them.

Making my own makes me be able to operate without being a slave to shipping times.  I’d still rather order them than make them myself, however that’s not an option if I want to do the trick at my gig today and tomorrow.

 

The moral of the story is that if you are going to have a prop that you use a lot of, have a back up, or if it’s like this card that has a limited life buy a bunch of back ups.  Better yet learn to make and repair them!

Louie

Play Around…

When I’m out performing mingling magic (aka roving close up) I frequently throw something into my pocket that’s not part of my normal set.  It could be a full trick, gimmick, prop, or whatever.   A couple of nights ago I  put a pair of blank dice in my pocket.  Years ago I published a … Continue reading “Play Around…”

When I’m out performing mingling magic (aka roving close up) I frequently throw something into my pocket that’s not part of my normal set.  It could be a full trick, gimmick, prop, or whatever.

 

A couple of nights ago I  put a pair of blank dice in my pocket.  blank dice magic trickYears ago I published a trick with blank dice in the Linking Ring Magazine.  Basically the gist of it was someone selected a card.  They rolled the blank dice, told you the number they rolled, and you dealt down the number they rolled.  The selected card was at the number.   This is based on an Eddie Fields trick that uses a name.

 

Here’s video from the first table I did it at the other night…it’s been years since I did the trick:

After I did the trick in the video above, I realized it needed another phase.  For the next phase I added this trick that’s part of my normal card set, but using the “rolled” numbers instead of any number:

Now I’ve got a little routine…but it needed an ending.  So I’m ending it with a third phase where they shuffle the cards, roll again and deal down to that number. This time the card is not there.  It’s folded up in my wallet.

 

I like that in this routine, each time the card is found it’s in a different state.  First it’s face down, next it’s face up and finally it’s folded up.  By the end of the night it went from OK to pretty good!

 

So the moral of the story is don’t be afraid to play around!

 

Louie