I'm on the road from July 12th to August 17th.
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-Louie Foxx Dismiss
One trick I learned as a teenager from Al Schneider was the Zombie Floating Ball. It’s also trick that I’ve never really done as more than a one off sort of trick. In the school assembly tour I’m doing in April I need to make a rock float, so the zombie method is what makes the most sense.
My gimmick is based on the Tommy Wonder style gimmick from his books, but modified to something that I could make and it’s detachable from the sponge rock.
I’ve also never really had any levitation’s in my show, so I’m excited to learn the ins and outs of performing one!
I’ve got the current version of the snake basket and aside from some potential minor changes, this will be the final version (for now). For context, here’s the first version:
And here’s the new version:
You’ll notice a couple of changes from the original version. The first version was a card trick, and this isn’t. The original ending, with the snake jumping out with the card in its mouth, always felt anticlimactic to me. The ending is the snake jumping out; the card was a lower point than the surprise of the snake jumping out. Using the snake jumping out as the end to close the routine makes more sense to me.
With this no longer a card trick, I could get rid of the card fountain. That’s good, because when the cards shoot out, they need to be picked up. With confetti, it’s just swept up after the show.
I also like that the ending plays bigger than with a card. A card is hard to see clearly what it is from a distance, this will play much further back!
I’m still working on the show I’m doing for a school assembly tour in April. One of the tricks that I had planned is a cards across type effect using postcards. I had a method worked out, then I realized the trick involves counting to ten.
Counting to ten means I’ll have to deal with kids and the 6/7 trend that’s still happening. It’s not as crazy as it was a year ago, but it’s still a thing.
In the past, I’ve used the Piano Card Trick‘s method of pairs to do an object across types of trick. That version has no counting, just moving pairs of cards. That eliminates using the numbers six and seven in sequence.
The downside of using the pair method is that only one thing moves instead of two or three cards. I guess the big plus is that since I’ve used this in shows before, I have a lot of the “bits” built in, so I don’t need to do a lot of figuring out gags. That’s also a bad trap; I shouldn’t be lazy and should be writing new gags.
-Louie PS If you’re interested in using the piano card trick onstage, look into Jim Steinmeyer’s Apples and Oranges trick.
A couple of nights ago, I went out to see Magic Uncorked in Portland, OR. This show happens every few months at a wine bar called Ora et Labora. It has close-up magic in the bar, then a parlor-style show in the event space.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to see any of the close-up magic as I rolled in a bit late. I thought it started at 7 pm, not 6 pm, however Jacob Grier showed me a cool card trick in the hands triumph as everyone was moving from the bar to the event space.
The show is hosted by Dave Gregory, who, along with his wife, owns the wine bar. Dave is a great host, and does a trick to open the show and after intermission.
The first half of the show is done by John Stevens. John does a solid show and one of the highlights for me is the version of 100th Monkey he did! Most of the versions of it that I had previously seen fell flat, but not this one! The only other version I’ve seen was the one Darren Brown did at the Cort Theater on Broadway.
This month’s show had Jonathan Molo as the headliner. I’d briefly met Jonathan somewhere in CA (probably Fresno) a few years ago, so I was excited to see his show. Jonathan puts on a fun, high-energy show. The show’s frame is really his family, which is a super relatable throughline!
One thing I noticed was that both John and Jonathan use handheld microphones rather than headsets. More and more performers are moving away from the headset mics. It takes a bit more skill to use a handheld mic as a magician, however, it allows you to have conversations with people onstage and easily get them mic’d.
I’m still working on my Snake Basket Magic Routine. The basket won’t be a basket; it will be a box. I’ve written on this blog before about why I’m not using a basket for the snake. I want the box to look like a shipping crate, but it also must be light and pack as small as possible. I started with a cardboard frame with gaff tape hinges.
I then covered the middles of the panels with wood patterned contact paper.
Finally I did the corners with a wood patterned duct tape to give it the crate look.
This gave me the look that I was going for without the weight of wood, and it packs flat!
For a show I’m doing in a couple of months, I needed a way to force a number (really a position in a row of things). I didn’t want to use the Hot Rod Force, and my normal default is the Quinta Force, but I wanted to try to figure out something new.
My idea was to put a die in a film can and have someone shake it, and that would force the number.
First of all, I didn’t want to use a die that’s missing a number, and you eliminate numbers as they’re rolled. I’ve seen too many shows where that method is used, and it takes forever to get the last item eliminated, as that number just doesn’t come up.
Other methods I didn’t want was to use a die that’s all the same number or a magnetic die. My goal was to try to come up with a NEW method before I resorted to old methods. Even if I don’t use the method I came up with, it’s fun to try.
Here’s what I came up with:
I think this method had potential. Is it a lot of work to accomplish what a magnetic die could do? Yep. Is the method interesting? Yep!
I’ve done Irv’s Red Tape Thumb Tie in my show for a while and have read many other the booklets of his routines. Somehow books that I’m excited to read show up when I’m not in a position to read them for a while. I’ve gotta finish up reading The Bat, which I’m almost done with and have a few projects in the workshop to finish up before I can start this book.
On my Facebook page I’ve started posting OUT OF CONTEXT VINTAGE MAGIC ILLUSTRATIONS. These are pictures from old magic books that I’ve come across that without context look strange. Here are the ones I’ve posted so far:
I normally post these on Sundays on my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/louie.foxx/ Pop over there, all of these are public, however if we’re not friends, shoot me a friend request!
I don’t think I wrote a post about seeing the That’s Magic at the White Rabbit Theater in Reno. This is an illusion show presented by Kaileigh and Chase Hasty. I saw the show with 17 magicians!
They do a great job with the magic show. It’s a fairly standard magic show, but they have some original “bits” with the effects they do. Chase does a great job of being in the moment during the show. With a seven day a week schedule, I’d imagine it’s easy fall into being robotic onstage.
The show is more than illusions, Chase shows he has some skill doing ball and card manipulation and Kaileigh does the aerial silks, so it’s not just “store bought” stuff, which I appreciate!
The show uses a lot of lighting cues, which really adds to the theatricality (Is that a word?) of their magic show. Lighting cues really make a show feel bigger. At some point, I should find someone to write some basic ones for me to use when I work in theaters. Just one or two, so it adds visual texture to the show.
I really enjoyed the show, and it’s worth checking out, there’s a lot you can learn by watching it.
This snake basket magic trick I’m working on feels like a “project car” that’s in someone’s garage that they are constantly working on. It’s something I keep finding ways to improve. The first version is barely finished, and I’m working on a second one!
The big change is that I’m going to move it away from a card trick. I’m going to merge it with Terry Seabrook’s Chattering Teeth Routine. The snake will chew holes in the paper, and the reveal will be when the paper is opened. A paper is physically larger than a playing card, even a jumbo playing card. Bigger is better for a reveal!
Moving to paper also allows me to customize the routine to a show. For example, if I were doing a safety-themed show for kids, the snake could chew a stop sign in the paper. It could still be a card a la the original Seabrook routine, or spots (like on a die) or even the image a piece of art!
