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.

travelling with magic show

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

travelling with magic show

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.

travelling with magic show

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!

Magic show audio

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!

Magic show suitcase

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

Take Your Show on the Road!

Tips for Travelling With Your Show!  

My “summer season” started early with a 10 day outdoor fair in Southern California in February.  Normally my outdoor season doesn’t start until March or April, so I’m out working on my tan early!

Amazon Lockers: Most cities have Amazon lockers and they can be a lifesaver if you’re flying to a gig or staying at an AirBnB.  Amazon Lockers are around town at things like gas stations and grocery stores.  You can order things to be delivered to them the day before you get into town and everything will be waiting for you. No more running around to stores to get things you don’t fly with.  For example, I’m at a 10 day gig, and will use probably 20 decks of cards.  I don’t want to fly with them, it’s too much weight, so I simply ordered two bricks of cards to an Amazon Locker and they were there waiting for me.

Cash: I always try to have $100 on me at all times for emergencies. That will get me to the next gas station and it’s handy just pay cash for your portion of dinner if you go out with other people. I also try to have five $20’s as it’s more versatile than a single one hundred dollar bill.

AirTags: These are GPS trackers that work with iPhones (there’s an Android equivalent).  It’s always nice to know that my show that’s checked luggage made it on the plane!
Roadside America:  This is an iPhone app and website that has all sorts of quirky and unusual things around the USA (and a little bit of Canada).  It’ll help you find cool things in to see or do in the area you’re performing in.

Magic Clubs: When I travel to cities I look up local magic clubs and try to visit them. You can find lists of them on the S.A.M and I.B.M. websites.

AreoPress: This is a small little gadget that makes great coffee and is easy to travel with!  All you need is ground coffee and hot water.  No more gross hotel coffee!

Hope there’s a tip in there that makes travelling with you show a little more fun!

-Louie

Travelling with my Magic Show

When flying to gigs, I used to check my audio gear inside of my suitcase. Then one time TSA damages some stuff repacking it and I now always carry on my audio box. The box is kinda a pain to lug around, not just the airport, but hotel, or around the venue.

About a year ago I had an idea to put a strap on my audio case, so it can attach to the handle of my Pelican Air case. I finally got around putting a strap on it and it’s fantastic! I wish I would have done this a long time ago.

entertainer luggage

I simply riveted a piece of elastic onto it. Well, there’s a little bit more engineering than that. I put a rectangle piece of plastic under the roll of the elastic to even out force of the elastic being stretched. Without the plastic, the elastic would probably tear at the rivets.

entertainer luggage

It works great!

entertainer luggage

I’m glad I finally did this!

-Louie

Final Kid Show of the Summer!

In the summers I do shows for kid’s summer camps. I just did my last one of the summer! My goal this year was to create a show that was something that I could set up and pack up in 10 minutes.

kid magic show

The case that the show fit into is the size that fits into the overhead bin of an airplane. I don’t fly with this show, but wanted it to take up minimal space in my car.

The tricks in this show don’t borrow props for any other show that I do, so what’s in the case stays in that case and it has it’s own audio gear. The only thing in that show that I use that’s in other shows is the speaker.

It’s super hand to just grab the case and go!

-Louie

Leaving Your Magic Gear

When travelling on the road with my show, one of the biggest pains in the butt is when I’m at a hotel for one night just to sleep and having to completely unload my car. The full unpack was to make sure I don’t lose my show if my car get broken into.

This year I started locking my gear to my car and leaving it in the car.

Magic show cases

The theory is the person going through the parking lot of the hotel is looking for a quick smash and grab, not something involved. The longer they’re there, the more likely they’ll get caught breaking into cars.

All of my shows cases are locked shut and then the cases are all locked to my car. I then cover all of this with a black cloth, so it’s hard to see at night if you’re looking in the window of my car. Sure someone with bolt cutters could get this stuff, but I’m going to make them work for it, it’s not going to be easy!

I’ve been doing this since January and while I’m unaware of anyone trying to break into my car, I personally feel confident in this system!

-Louie

Carry On Audio Box

The last time I flew, I had some of my audio equipment damaged that was in my checked luggage. What I think happed was when TSA screened my show case, they did a horrible job of repacking my stuff, which led to some stuff being damaged.

I’ve decided that I’m going to carry on my audio gear from now on…or until I get lazy. I went out to harbor freight and bought a Pelican Style hard sided case that has foam inside.

live show audio

I’ve used the “pick n’ pluck” style foam before and it has never really lasted for me. For this audio box, I cut cardboard to reenforce the foam walls, and hopefully this will add some durability to the foam.

I’ve just finished my first round trip flight with this case and it seems to be holding up…

-Louie