About a month ago, I had an idea for a routine that’s a three shell game sort of routine, but with juggling. You can read about it here. The premise is that a prize is put into a slit in a tennis ball. That ball is then juggled with two other tennis balls that also have something less valuable in them. The person from the audience needs to track the one with the prize, but can’t and end up winning the two lesser value prizes.
I had an idea, what if instead of prizes, I had predictions. Inside the first tennis ball was a piece of paper that said, “You Will Pick This One First” and the second that says, “You Will Pick This One Second” or something like that. That gives a magic (mentalism) payoff for each selection.
To my surprise, when I actually tried this, it fell totally flat. I’m guessing because the trick took the surprise turn, and the bonus effect wasn’t expected…and probably not that good.
Testing ideas in front of the audience is part of the creative process for me. Sometimes it hits, and sometimes is misses!
-Louie
Tag: three shell game
Roving Magic Show Set List
Here’s what my props for a roving magic set look like:
The bottom row is my card routine, which is modular and can run anywhere from about 90 seconds to 7+ minutes. The top row are the other props that I use. Everything goes into my pockets except for the empty chop cup.
The top row is the fortune teller (it’s in my PCAM lecture notes), then my Out for Beers trick, three shell game and a chop cup. The nice thing about these props is that there’s a lot of texture I can have with my roving magic set. The opening is always the card routine, then the next trick depends on the group.
-Louie
Three Shell Game Ending
One of the endings that I’m doing with my three shell game routine is using a small cap that goes under the shell to replace the standard shot glass. I got the idea when I was on a flight and realized the tiny liquor bottle cap would fit under a shell. (you can read the post about it here)
Here’s a demo of what it looks like:
You could put a shot glass on top of the cap and shell for a triple cover! I really didn’t want to use the shot glass, as it’s bulky, heavy, and semi-fragile. This is a good solution for me!
-Louie
Is the Three Shell Game Relevant?
Not too long ago, a magician I was hanging out with said he didn’t think that younger people understood or knew what the shell game is. I disagree; I think young people know what the three shell game is, and my reasoning is that every ballpark in the USA plays a version of it on the jumbotron. Here’s the shell game at a Cincinnati Reds game:
It’s a simple concept of a game, and younger people definitely know what it is, or it wouldn’t be played in stadiums! This is one of the things that I like about it, it IS RELATABLE because people have played it before!
-Louie
How To Create New Ideas
Sometimes an idea becomes a reality when you just notice something. Recently, I was on a flight having a Bloody Mary, and the cap was sitting on the tray table.
The idea that popped into my head was to use it for the three shell game. In the shell game, there are a lot of phases where you put something on top of the shell to create the illusion that you can’t get at the pea. There’s very few where you put things under the shell to make it more difficult.
Here’s one with a finger ring that I came up with a long time ago:
The idea with the tiny bottle cap is to cover the pea with that, then put a shell on top of it.
The first thing I had to do to make it work was file off the little metal nubs at the bottom of the bottle cap. Once it was smooth, it worked perfectly!
This is an easy to carry thing, and could be used in conjunction with a shot glass to have three things over the pea!
-Louie
How To Make a Magic Video Go Viral!
When you talk to people who are big on social media, they all tend to give similar advice:
1: Post consistantly
2: If something works, repeat that
I’m not huge on social media; I really post stuff that I think is interesting. My average Instagram post right now is between 2k and 20k views. However, recently this one hit 300k views:
That is an outlier for me, so I went to the advice of repeating what you did. The video from above is part of my shell game routine, and I have more of the same clip that I could use, so I made a second one:
This one is currently at 1.8 million views!
So when that one popped, I decided to follow the format again and use a third chunk from the video.
This one is sitting at just over 8k views. The formula worked spectacularly for the second video! I do have another phase or two from the original video, I might put them up to see what happens.
I guess I’m going to parrot the advice, that if something works, do it again and repeat until it stops working!
-Louie
3d Printed Shell Game!
A while ago, I made a set of natural shells for the three shell game, and then made a silicone mold of them. I used that mold to make a bunch of resin shells for a shell game workshop. One of those resin shells recently got 3d scanned and I’ve started printing them!
These are a great beginner set or set to throw in your backpack to carry around and not beat up a nicer set.
You can find or more or order a set at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/shell-game/
-Louie
Shell Shocked – Three Shell Game Routine
Currently I’m playing with Shell Shocked which is Giovanni Livera‘s three shell game routine from his book Confessions of an Italian Magician.
What I like about the routine is that is has an ending that’s a punctuation, not just doing the same thing under more conditions. In the book Giovanni gives you his shell shuffling sequence, but if you already have a few sequences, then you can add his ending to what you already do.
One of the changes I made to the routine is that I’m palming the P the whole routine, instead of stealing it towards the end of the routine. Doing it that way makes sense for me as I don’t keep my shell game props in a bag, so needed a workaround.
If you’re looking for a three shell game routine, this is worth checking out!
-Louie
A Peek Into My Library Show
Each year my library show is different from the previous summer’s show. I try to keep things out of the show for 2-3 years before anything can cycle back into the show.
My set list is pretty simple:
- Nest of Boxes (warm up)
- Eggbag / ball manipulation
- Rat trap
- cut and restored rope
- Dad Jokes (or three shell game if the performing area has a screen)
- Rising Card
- Silk vanish (with snake wand surprise)
- Troublewit
- Nest of Boxes (reveal)
This is a solid show and while I never plan for my show to be a pack small, play big type of show, it’s always a bonus when it ends up that way!
-Louie
New Addition to Library Shows!
Last summer when doing library shows I noticed that probably 95% of the library shows that I did (indoors) had a TV screen in the room that I did my show in. So this year I planned a trick (actually two and a half tricks) that could use the TV as projection for close up magic.
There’s really not much to my set up, it’s an iphone with a camera app, an HDMI adapter and and HDMI cord. This very basic set up allow me to do the two full trick and one revelation with the screen.
In the beginning of the show during my warm up I do my ambitious card that uses projection. Then later in the show I do my Russian Shell Game routine, which is a three shell game on steroids, and then I use it for the reveal of my nest of boxes routine.
It’s working great and every library I’m doing (indoors) this summer has a TV in the room for me. I do have alternate material in case I can’t do use the TV for whatever reason. I’ve only done it once (so far), but it plays great for those routines and I’m glad I’m using something that’s already in the room!
-Louie