sleight of hand – MagicShow.Tips

Openers – Magic Book

I just started reading the book Openers. This book is a compilation of “openers” for magic shows. The book is mostly close up openers so far, but I’m only about 1/3 into the book.

So far my favorites are:
Virus by John Guastaferro: This is a full deck, all backs routine where one side then turns blank, then to normal playing card faces. It’s not too hard to do. I like the routine, however I think I’d need to find a new theme for it. His theme is great, just not for me.

Contender by Liam Montier: This is a quick trick where you know which card someone is thinking of. I think this is a great “bar bet” style of trick.

I should also mention that I’ve been hunting for chop cup routines that don’t use a table and there’s one in this book called The Gold Cup Con by Carl Royle. It’s a close up routine using a small chop cup that will hold a golf ball. It’s a great routine, just not for what I’m personally trying to do with a chop cup.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the book!

-Louie

Portland Society of American Magicians Meeting

Last week, I was able to attend the Society of American Magicians meeting in Portland, OR. It was their Most Entertaining Card Trick contest night.

It started with John doing a prediction that played like an invisible deck, but was a very different method!

Michael did a version of Fly Cards, where cards with pictures of flies moved around and ended with the pictures of the flies being smashed.

Vinod did a routine where the cards were shuffled by a spectator and they colors ended up separating into piles of red and black cards.

Jin did a do as I do routine where at the end he and a spectator both selected the same card!

Mel is a card trick with 3 piles of cards where a selected card jumped from pile to pile!

And the final contestant Larry did a trick where aces turned to jokers and back to aces!

The winner by popular vote was Jin!

It was fun to see all the different styles of performing card tricks!

-Louie

The Fortune Teller Card Trick

Currently I’m performing at the Utah State Fair until September 14th, 2025. I did a media spot on opening day to help promote the fair. Here’s the quick trick I did:

The full media spot was 4 1/2 minutes and you can watch it here:
https://www.abc4.com/gtu/gtu-sponsor/magic-music-and-memories-await-at-the-utah-state-fair

-Louie

Oil and Water

Awhile ago I found a set of lecture notes called Something From the East by Haruhito Hirata. In the notes there was an oil and water trick that wasn’t for me, but it did have one part that did appeal to me. The cards were dealt out in rows and then the rows were mixed. The cards then separated by color.

The method was fairly complex and involved. I thought the trick could be streamlined a little bit, so I came up with this:

Then I realized that I could get a bonus trick out of it if the cards had different colored backs, so here’s the second version:

I’d like to get a third effect out of it, but not sure what that would be. Maybe it’ll come to me one day…

-Louie

Jumbo Coins Thru Table

Sometimes I see a trick and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The effect is a coins through table, but with jumbo coins.

Watch the video:

From a magician’s standpoint the jumbo coins add difficulty. From a non-magician standpoint, I’m not sure if it enhances the effect. Sure, everyone knows that doing sleight of hand with a 3 inch diameter coin is much harder than with a 1 inch diameter coin. That difference is something that doesn’t really matter in the moment, unless you sell the trick as a “try to catch me” sort of trick.

Also, why jumbo coins?

I get that it’s a coin trick made bigger, but wouldn’t drink coasters work instead of the jumbo coins. Now you have a trick with a natural object that belongs on a table.

I think the effect in the video is very well done, however not sure how I feel about the trick.

-Louie

Challenging Stage

This is a cool looking stage, but a hard one to work on. In the picture you can’t see the depth of the stage behind the proscenium arch. It’s about 8 feet deep to the video wall with name on it, then the stage sticks out about 20 feet or so in front of the proscenium arch.

The challenge is sight lines for the audience, no matter where you stand, there are people that can’t see your face. The drawing below might help visualize what’s happening:

No matter where you are, either the side of the arch is blocking or people are behind you. That’s just the seats on the floor, there’s spots above that are almost on the same wall as the arch!

This makes showing things really difficult and time consuming as you have to show everything to the extreme right and left sides.

Challenges aside, this is a really fun room to work! I’m glad I got to do seven shows there, and was able to dial in the show to just work worked in the room. It would have been a shame if I only did one show there and that was it. This is also a good reason to travel with back up material, two of the routines that I planned to do in the room weren’t ideal for this space.

-Louie

Night and Day with Library Venues

The differences in venues for library shows can be enormous! In two days I did a library show that had about 75 people in a packed meeting room.

Then the next day I had a library show for over 300 people in an old auditorium!

The skills needed to work in both venues are very different. When you’re standing on the floor a few feet from the audience is easier to control that in a giant theater that’s super echoy and everything in it makes noise from the floorboards to the chairs.

I heard that a previous performer in the auditorium struggled with the echos and crowd control. Being armed with knowledge of this, I really had to keep on top of crowd management and my expectations of the audience. In a giant room with a lot of echo, it’s really easy to lose control and hard to get it back!

-Louie

Something from the East by Haruhito Hirata

I came across the book Something from the East by Haruhito Hirata in a box of magic stuff that I had bought recently. There wasn’t a lot of stuff that I liked in the book, but one thing did catch my eye. There’s an oil and water trick in there that has a slightly different mixing procedure that most.

Here’s what it looks like as written:

@louiefoxx Card trick from Japan! #cardtrick #magic #japan #magictrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

I like the two columns of cards and then mixing them one at a time. I don’t like how much process and how confusing the whole routine is. I also don’t like that you can’t show the second packet at the end.

I tried to streamline the effect to make it less confusing and here’s what I initially came up with:

@louiefoxx Replying to @Voyager Jim ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s not the best, but I think it’s better.

I do have two more versions that are inspired by Haruhito’s routine, and I’ll post about them later. These two version are very different in method, but keep the two columns of cards.

-Louie

Take Care of Yourself

For a few years now I’ve had trouble with the middle finger on my right hand. Sometimes when I bend it, it gets locked bent. Obviously having my fingers work is important to a magician. It’s been really bad the last few months, so I finally went to the doctor to have it looked at.

The doctor said it’s Trigger Finger and referred me to a hand specialist for the next steps. He said that the treatment is typically some sort of physical therapy and maybe an injection or two.

I really wish I had gone in over a year ago when it was clear that this was a chronic thing and not a one off sort of thing. Taking care of my hands should be a priority of anyone that’s a magician!

-Louie

Magician vs Parrot

With social media eating up content, I’m always looking for things that aren’t from my show to use. I personally don’t want to burn material from my show on social media. Recently when I was in Cartagena, Columbia there was a parrot at the port, so I did a trick for it:

@louiefoxx Magician vs Parrot! #magictrick #parrot #magic #parrotsoftiktok #cardtrick ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

It’s not the best trick in the world, but it was easy content to create and fun. More importantly, it’s not my act, so I’m not burning material.

Also, this parrot was kind of a card trick master. I put the shuffled deck down and he flipped over the four aces right away. I wish we had recorded that, but it wasn’t planned and caught us off guard!

Keep an eye out for fun moments that you can use for social media videos!

-Louie