stage magic – Page 7 – MagicShow.Tips

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

Creating With Rules

I’m out on the road for all of April doing a new school assembly show. This show is called Amazing Americans and is about Americans who have done cool things.

When I create, I like to have rules. Without rules, I find it hard to create. When you can do anything, I can’t create anything. Starting with basic rules helps, like since it’s a school assembly, that means:
1: Geared toward kids ages 5-12
2: Be presented in a gym
3: Big enough for 200-500 kids to see
These are really logistical things, but things that will limit what can be done. I can’t do a card trick where the cards lie flat on the table, or even card tricks with standard-size cards, if the card needs to be correctly identified from the back of the room.

Next, I’ll look at the show’s theme: Amazing Americans
Here are my rules for that:
1: No flags: I want to highlight the people, not the country.
2: Must have female and minority representation: I don’t point out these, but they are represented.

Finally, some other rules:
1: No brands: That means I can’t do a trick about Coke.
2: No counting that involves the numbers 6 and 7: This really limits a lot of things, like cards across.
3: No action happens on the table top, everything is handheld
4: Show follows the format of alternating routines that are me solo onstage, followed by a volunteer, solo, volunteer…

With those rules in place, it’s much easier to select material (subject and trick). I instantly know whether a trick will fit into the show. Sure, I can break the rules; it’s a very conscious decision to do that if I do.

-Louie

Out of Town Shipping Notice

**The daily blog will continue to be updated below this notice**

I will be out of town for all of April 2026. That means no orders will ship until I return on May 4th, 2026.

I recently shipped a bunch of my magic products to TrickSupply.com in Las Vegas. You can order my magic from them at:
https://tricksupply.com/product-category/louie-foxx/

Any orders placed directly with me in April won’t ship or work to build won’t start until I return on May 4th.

**The daily blog will continue to be updated below this notice**

Abbott’s Surrounded Livestock Vanish by Arturo

Thanks to the power of social media, I figured out what the magic prop that I found at a junk shop yesterday is!

It’s an Abbott’s Surrounded Livestock Vanish by Arturo!

After reading the description, I’m amazed that I pretty much nailed the handling of the box with my guess!

-Louie

Vintage Magic Junk Shop Find

Magicians always ask me where I find all the vintage magic tricks that I have. The answer is simple, I hunt for them. Recently, I was performing in a small town and was walking through a junk shop and found this box:

It’s clearly an older prop, my guess is 1960’s. Here’s a pic in the mirror of my hotel room so you can see the front and back:

What’s really weird about this is the arrangement of the window and door. Here’s a video walkthrough of the prop and what I think is going on:

It’s definitely interesting….

-Louie

Opening Night at the Moisture Festival!

Last week was the opening of this year’s Moisture Festival! I was part of the cast of the opening night show, then I’m back on March 28th and 29th. The Moisture Festival is a fast paced variety show. Each act does about 5 minutes.

Everyone in the opening night show was super cool, and were also amazing acts!

Doing variety shows that have other magicians in the cast is where my style of doing non-standard magic in non-standard ways really helps me. I don’t really have to change what I do because there’s another magician in the show. Last week at the festival, I did my marshmallow act. For the 28th and 29th, I think I’m MC for two of the shows, and the last one, I’ll probably do my bullwhip act.

Hosting the shows at the Moisture Festival is a lot of work, but the host is really the glue that holds the whole thing together onstage! You need to be able to fill time for the stage crew to set/strike props, which can sometimes be fairly involved!

One of the things that the Moisture Festival does really well is create a family backstage! Everyone is super friendly, and it’s just fun to be there!

-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

Postcard Magic Trick

I’m working on a trick where I need to make a postcard disappear from one stack and reappear in another stack. Here’s what I came up with:

The reason I’m going with a gravity flap instead of an elastic flap is that I don’t need a visual change of the card. Also, with gravity, there’s less to break. There’s nothing worse than restringing an elastic flap card has broken right before a show!

-Louie
Click here to learn more about building your own magic props!

Take Up Reels

Today I’m making a couple of take up reels! These are reels that are typically used for the vanishing birdcage. They don’t have anything to do with the actual vanish of the cage, they simply take up slack in the pull and lock it short. This allows you freedom of motion before you do the cage vanish.

People frequently ask me what kind of cage this will work with, and the answer is that it’s great for any cage that works on a wrist to wrist pull. That means an Abbott’s style will work as well as an Owen vanishing birdcage.

The take up reel can be used for more than the birdcage. The Chimney Vanish with a silk will work or pretty much anything that goes up your sleeve. If you have any question about if this will work for you, feel free to contact me!

-Louie