sleight of hand – MagicShow.Tips

Magic Show or Wrestling Match?

Last week I was performing at a fair, and a couple days into the run, I walked to my stage like I do everyday and this was my view from the stage!

The previous days I had rows of chairs, but this day I had a wrestling ring!

If I asked this on a social media magician’s group, people would say “put it in your contract that people are seated in rows” or something like that. That’s easy to say, but in reality, it’s not that simple. I’ve already got a couple of days of work into this gig and a couple more to go. That wrestling ring isn’t going to move for me. All the people who say it violates the contract (if written), what are they doing to do, walk away from the gig. If you do that, they’re not going to just hand you a check; you’re going to have to fight to get paid if you walk away.

What would you do in this situation?

I simply converted my stage show into a hybrid street/close up magic show.

This worked great, and this is why I always think that if you do stage magic, you should be able to do close up magic as well. Sometimes it just works better to do some card tricks!

I’ve done many shows with stages and situations that varied a lot, I can adapt to pretty much any situation.

-Louie

Here’s how I handled another difficult stage.

Stage Show Props

These are the props that are in my hands or pockets when I walk onstage. This is for a 90 minute theater show.

The paper will have a person’s name under “congrats”, but that will be filled in right before showtime. The paper goes in the envelope, and that, along with the mic, goes in my hands. Everything else is in a pocket or under my coat.

I will say that switching from putting the ball in my back pocket to a ball dropper to steal the tennis ball is a game changer for me! I use it in my Stand Up Chop Cup routine (from my 2025 lecture notes). The steal is cleaner, with less motion and I don’t have a lumpy butt for half my show!

-Louie

What’s the Out?

Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with magic props that use electronics. There’s so much that can go wrong, and when it does, how do you still do the routine? For me, I usually run two different methods at the same time and can switch from the cleaner/easier electronic method to the analog method instantly.

I’ve got a bit in my new show that uses an electronic magic prop, and the easiest solution to it failing is to have a second one running at the same time!

I do have a third backup method that’s analog; however, the more efficient way is two of the electronic gimmicks.

With magic methods moving towards apps, and electronic gimmicks, I think it’s important to look at your show and figure out where the potential failure points are for tech and how you would deal with them when it happens.

It will happen!

-Louie

Magic Show Consumables

Last week, my magic show did 12 shows at a fair in California. When I was packing to go there, I took a picture of all the consumable stuff in my magic show. This is stuff that isn’t reusable and I have to replace each show or every few shows:

Here’s what’s in that picture:

Pad of paper
Dollar bills
decks of cards
Gift bags
wet naps
confetti
garbage bags
paper plates
throw coils
produce bags
evidence bags

It feels like a lot of stuff, and it kinda is when you’re seeing 12 shows worth of stuff, plus a couple of back ups. For a single show, it’s not a lot. The nice thing about having stuff that gets used up in the show is that my case going home is a little bit lighter!

-Louie
PS: I have written tons of posts about traveling with a magic show on this blog!

Wrapping Up the School Assembly Tour

The month long school assembly tour is finished! I learned a lot doing the same show 2-3 times a day.

1: Simplify the setup and take down. The fewer “parts” a show has to assemble, the better. This show traveled by car, so it was easy not to have a lot of things to put together, unlike a show that travels by plane.

2: Hold the final magic to display what has happened up high and for way longer than you think you need to.

3: Find ways to be present in your show, and not just a robot reciting lines. This can get hard after doing the show for the 40th time in three weeks. Try to look for real moments that are happening and play!

4: Be on top of prop maintenance. If you notice something wearing out, fix it! Don’t try to get two more shows out of it. It’ll break when it’s not convenient for you to fix.

5: When the school (really the teachers) seat the kids in a way that doesn’t make sense for a crowd, tell them to move them. I’ve had the weirdest crowd configurations, and teachers fight hard to not move kids. I push back, because the audience seated as a group and not a bunch of individual units will make the difference just a show and an amazing show.

It’s great to be back home!

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

The Show I’ve Been Dreading!

Yesterday my itinerary had me doing my show that was written for an audience that’s kindergarten to 6th grade for an group of seventh to eight grade kids. No younger kids, just the middle school kids. When I noticed this show on my schedule, I was dreading it.

I’ve done shows for middle and high school kids on this tour, but they were mixed in with elementary school aged kids. You can read about that here.

The show went great!

What I did was start by mentioning that this show was written for younger kids, but if they stuck with me, they’d like the show. The show was rocking! I mostly did the show as written; I did cut a few things that I knew wouldn’t hit for this older group.

This is a good example of why I disagree with people who say, “it’s the journey, not the trick”. The trick needs to be good, and so does the journey. Just because one is great, doesn’t mean the other can’t also be great! Sure, it takes a bit more work, but it’s worth it!

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

Any Card At Any Number

One of the days I was performing at the Moisture Festival, there was a delay in starting the show. The producers asked me if I could fill some time to keep the people in the theater occupied. I did my Any Card At Any Number (ACAAN). Here’s the full spot because there’s a joke that’s a callback and doesn’t make sense if you don’t see the beginning before the trick starts.

For me, ACAAN is a great stage trick; it’s solo with just me onstage, but it involves the audience, and it’s a good trick!

-Louie

New School Assembly Show

Well, tomorrow is the first show of my new school assembly show and the first show day of this month long tour! The show is designed to set up and strike really quickly, in less than 15 minutes. The show will run 40-45 minutes in length and will have to play for 150-500 people per show.

Here’s the front of the case:

I have a screen on the front of the case for visuals if the school doesn’t read my requirements list and doesn’t provide me with a projector or TV. The visuals aren’t necessary, but they help make the show feel bigger.

Here’s the view of the back of the case:

The props in the case are laid out for the show. The only thing missing from the picture is my snake box, because it’s not in the case during the show. The snake box sits on a table (provided by the school) during the show.

I’m very excited to see how this plays. This show is 95% new to me. The 5% that’s old are a couple of jokes/gags that I’m recycling. Hopefully, I won’t have to change much. When I was writing the show, I was worried that it wouldn’t be long enough. Now that I’ve been practicing it, I’m worried it will be too long! Having too much material is a way better problem to have than not enough.

-Louie

A Toast to Nick Trost #3

In the book The Card Magic of Nick Trost there’s cool trick called Double Pinochle with an Elevator Finish. Here’s what the trick looks like as written:

It’s a nice change of four cards. What I don’t like about it is that it’s themed with the game of Pinochle, which isn’t as common as it was in the past.

Here’s what I came up with to update it:

The first change I made was for it to use four jokes, instead of two queens and two jokers. Then I used my Elmsley For Video move that allows you to show all four kings when you do the Elmsley Count and not have to show one card twice. Then procedurally, I needed to add a displacement so that I could get a clean display at the end, so I did a weird sort of top change off the bottom of the packet to the top of the deck.

Hope you like my changes

-Louie

Meta Glasses Gag Idea

Here’s a gag idea: You call attention to your glasses and mention that everyone has cameras in their glasses now. You then pull/shake a camera out of the glasses.

That’s it, a quick sight gag.

To do it, the easiest way would be to palm a small camera and produce it. More complex methods would be a camera that collapses. A simple, but pain to make would be a latex or sponge camera.

There you go, if this idea interests you, go out and do it!

-Louie