travelling with magic show

Test Travelling With a Show

I’m heading out to travel internationally to do some shows in a few days. The show I’m travelling with is packed differently than I normally travel. Normally I check my show and not carry it on. However, for this trip I will need to travel with some of it carried on.

My past travel experience has told me I’d have no issues flying with what’s in the carry on. To be safe, I was doing a domestic trip recently and I packed the show like the international one to see if I had any issues with TSA.

The show breezed through TSA, and there were no issues! It was nice to take a little bit of stress out of the upcoming trip!

-Louie

Getting Around With A Magic Show

For my summer gigs that I flew to, I tried to rent cars less this year. It’s mostly because they just kinda sit there all week while I’m performing. Most places I stay within a couple of miles of the venue. That means I can walk or use things like the Lime eScooters to get around.

Normally I’ll take an uber/lyft to load in and out of the venue. However the last fair I did, it the ride share wait time was a lot and was super busy when I left, so I tried putting my case on the lift and zipping up the road to the hotel. Much to my surprise it worked!

I’m going to say that it’s probably fairly dangerous to do this, however in a pinch it worked for me. With that said, DO NOT DO THIS!

-Louie

The Porter Case!

Last spring I picked up a Porter Case. This is carry on luggage that converts to a luggage dolly. I haven’t needed to use it, until my recent trip to Canada to get on a cruise ship.

Here’s the case in its three positions:

After using it to get from home to the airport, the airport to the hotel, and the hotel to the cruise ship, I’ve decided I like it! Since they haven’t made these in a long time, the challenge will be to find another one as a backup.

-Louie

Travelling with your Magic Show

When I travel with my magic show, I put colorful zip ties on my show case. The reason is that when I pick up my cases at baggage claim, if my zip ties aren’t on the case, then I know I need to check them.

Recently I flew and when I got my bags my zip ties had been replaced and inside my case was the TSA letter.

This tells me that when I get to the hotel I need to do inventory on my show to make sure that everything made it back into the case.

In the past I’ve had my checked baggage screened by TSA and the forgot to put my two table tops back into my case! It was an ordeal tracking them down and getting them back.

Knowing something is missing before I start setting up the show is a huge help!

-Louie

A Simple Trick to Not Forget Anything

One of the challenges of doing your show is packing up. Specifically not forgetting anything. One thing I do is the “Dummy Check” where after you’re packed out, you visually look where your stuff was one more time to look for anything you forgot.

One of the challenges with this summers library show is that the show used a lot of power and I tried to charge the batteries while I was packing up a show. For a normal day of two to three libraries, it’s not a big deal. However there were many days where I had four or five shows in a day. That meant that if I could charge the batteries for 10 or 15 mins while I packed up, it made a huge difference for that last show.

The technique I would use to not forget to the batteries was to put my keys near where they were charging as the plug wasn’t always near the performing area. Without my car key, I couldn’t load out. For me this was a fool proof system to make sure I left with the batteries!

If you’re worried about not packing something, put your keys near it!

-Louie

Travelling with a Magic Show

Recently I hit the road for a short three day run of out of town shows that were done by car. Then I flew out out of an airport a few hours from home to another gig on the other side of the country. That meant that I had to leave my car parked at the airport with a lot of my show gear in the car.

When I do this I lock all of my gear to the car. This isn’t going to stop someone that REALLY wants to steal it, but it will make it harder! If someone’s going to a quick “smash and grab”, then they’re not getting anything. I want to make them work to steal my stuff.

Once everything is locked to my car, I then cover everything with a black sheet.

The black sheet combined with the tint on the windows makes it hard to see anything in the trunk of my car. While this doesn’t make it 100% invisible, it does a really good job of hiding my gear and definitely gives me some peace of mind that I at least tried to deter people from breaking into my car.

-Louie

Apple Air Tag Saved Me!

AirTag in my wallet saved my butt last week!

Recently I left my wallet on the desk in the motel room. I got 2 blocks away and got the alert on my phone that I left it.

If I didn’t get that alert, I probably would have been 2-3 hours away and noticed that I didn’t have my wallet when I went to get gas!

Something people don’t think about is what would you do if you lost your wallet while performing for multiple days while on the road. I keep an credit card that’s not on me with my gear in case my wallet gets lost, in addition to keeping enough cash to fill my gas tank on hand. For longer distances, I try to keep enough cash on hand for gas to get me home. This is insurance for unplanned things like losing my wallet.

-Louie

Magic Travel Tips

When I travel I hand carry my audio/electronic stuff box. I’m paranoid about losing this, so I put an Apple AirTag in it. I set this AirTag to alert me if I leave it somewhere. So if I walk away from the audio case, my phone will let me know!

While I’m mentioning travel tips, I don’t use luggage tags on my bags. Instead I write my name and phone number on my luggage with a marker!

Now there’s no luggage tag to get ripped off, my info is on my luggage permanently!

-Louie

Road Hack – Extra Room Security

Sometimes when travelling you end up in sketchy hotels. Sometimes this is by choice when you just need a cheap/close place to crash and sometimes there’s only one place in town. Recently I had a sketchy hotel in a sketchy part of town. Normally I travel with a little door lock that I can add to the door for extra security, but took it out of my bag and forgot to put it back in. This is the temporary solution:

It’s not much, but better than nothing! Stay safe out there!

-Louie

Trying to Save Travel Time

When I travel I’m always looking for ways to save time in lines at the airport. Little things can make a huge difference. One of the things is to know the weight of your luggage and how heavy it can be without an additional charge before you get to the airport. This saves you having to move stuff from bag to bag while you’re checking in.

Something new I’m trying is an electronic bag tag. Mine is specifically for Alaska Airlines, which is the main airline that I use.

Alaska Airlines has allowed customers to print a bag tag for years, but you need a printer and I don’t always have access to one. The advantage of using the electronic bag tag is that I can update it with my phone. This lets me skip the line where you print your own bag tag and I can proceed direct to the bag drop.

I’ve taken this on two trips and it’s saved me a lot of time! I’m a fan…until it gets ripped off of my luggage. The strap seem secure, but I’m predicting the worst!

-Louei