Why Not Make it More Deceptive?

Before I start, I want to mention that this is not a knock at the performer in the picture below. OK, so now that that’s out of the way, look at the picture below:

zig zag lady

This is an image that’s heavily edited (before I blurred out the faces), which is fine; it’s a show poster. The Zig Zag Lady illusion uses an optical principle (black art) to make it more deceptive. It’s not really black art in the sense of a black art act, but it’s used to make something less prominent.

My thinking is, as long as we’re altering the picture, why not remove the black art part? I’m sure this poster was made from an actual picture of the illusion, and the marketing person for the event didn’t notice…but why would they?

Is it Ethical to Alter the Picture of Illusions?

Is doing little things like removing something that the audience doesn’t realize they see from a promo picture OK to do? I think so. In promo pictures for shows, typically you aren’t doing a live show, so it’s already an unrealistic situation. You can retake the picture dozens of times. I think as long as the illusion is presented accurately, it’s OK. If you Photoshop out the chairs in a chair suspension, that’s not ethical, as you’ve substantially changed the illusion.

That’s my opinion on that!

-Louie

What is the Greatest Packet Trick of All Time?

Of the hundreds of packets tricks I’ve learned and tried, last week I took out an old one that I really haven’t done since I was a teenager, and was amazed at how much people loved it! That packet trick is COLOR MONTE!

While it’s not my style to do, I also can’t deny how great it is! It’s really the sponge balls of packet tricks!

There’s so much action in it; you get a lot of magic effects in a short amount of time. Plus it has a story that’s easy to follow and makes sense. Not some wacky story about bigfoot or splitting breakfast with a football team.

This post is just a shout out to an amazing routine!

-Louie

How to Keep Them in the Moment

Right now I’m on an airplane writing this post, and watching a movie about a plane disaster probably isn’t the best choice for a movie. The movie is about Pan Am 103, and at one point an FBI agent goes into a door and “center” was spelled “centre” which took me out of the story when I saw it. Clearly that sign was made by someone who is a UK based English speaker, and not one from the USA.

magic show props



Why does that matter? It’s a prop that’s pretending to be something and while I have to suspend disbelief for the movie, it’s a moment that took me out of that suspension of disbelief.

When I watch magic shows, one thing that takes me out of the moment with the performer is when they take out a prop and say it’s something, let’s say a bucket. However, that bucket looks nothing like a bucket I’ve ever seen in my life. Sure, it has the elements of a bucket, but it’s not a bucket. It takes me out of the world the magician has created.

This is why I prefer tricks that use props where the method is created around a real-life item, instead of a trick where the item is created around the gimmick. A good example is my Take Out Box, the gimmick is built into a real take out box.

Take a look at your props, what pretend to be a real life item, but isn’t? Can you rebuild it so that it actually uses what it pretends to be?

-Louie

A Simple Way to Reduce Distractions at Outdoor Magic Shows

bubbles in a magic show

One of the things that I hate when performing at fairs is the vendors that sell bubble guns. People will give them to a toddler, and the kid will just sit there and shoot bubbles the whole show. This is a HUGE distraction.

Not only is it a distraction, but the bubbles can also get on my glasses and smudge them (which is super annoying) or my props.

How Do I Politely Get Them To Stop?

Here’s what I started doing when there’s a kid with a bubble gun at my show: I say (on mic), “No bubbles during the show, I’m allergic to the detergent in them”

That’s it, super direct and simple. Sure, it’s a lie; however, it tells them that not everyone wants bubbles blown into their face. It also gives a reason they might not have thought of for why they’re being inconsiderate by letting their kid spray bubbles everywhere.

Give them a reason for the request and they’ll (usually) follow it.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Paul Magid – part 3

On this episode of the Moisture Festival Podcast, we finish up our conversation with Karamazov Brother Paul Magid. We dive into stories about living with Ken Kesey, opening for the Grateful Dead, crashing their bus into Jerry Garcia’s car, and how they ended up on an episode of Seinfeld.

Paul talks about some of his favorite achievements and shares some of his most memorable bad shows. We also learn about how one of their most famous routines, “the gamble,” was created. A great wrap-up for one of the most famous modern vaudevillians.

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Easy App Magic Trick without a Magic App!

It’s no secret that while I have used phone based app magic, I’m not a huge fan of them. They are frequently abandoned by the creator once sales slow down or are affected by a lack of internet connectivity. Recently, I posted about a trick with my phone that doesn’t go the traditional magic app route. Here’s what the first version of the trick looked like:

The first version needed some double lifts, which is fine, but I learned they are totally unnecessary. There’s no reason to have them, and they could be eliminated with a slight adjustment. Taking them out, really streamlined the trick, and the adjustment allows me to do it with a borrowed deck!

This is a good example of looking at a trick and trying to improve it past the “it works” phase to make it work better!

-Louie

Performing on National TV!

Doing a national news spot can be very challenging when doing magic. A while ago, I wrote a post about doing them with some behind the scenes video. One of the biggest challenges is how fluid they can be. With magic, it’s fairly easy to be prepared with a couple of tricks that run different lengths of time.

Recently I did a national news spot at a gig where I was doing my street organ. This is a bit more challenging for a news spot. I was told we’d have 30 seconds, so the reporter, producer and I planned the bit and here’s how it came out:

Unforeseen Challenges of Performing on Live Television!

Those 30 seconds ended up being over a minute! I was rushing because I thought we didn’t have much time. I was also getting a weird vibe from the reporter and wasn’t sure what to make of it. In my past experience, the weird vibe means we have to wrap up. After we finished, he mentioned he lost the audio in his earpiece, so he didn’t know how we were doing on time. We both were kinda flying blind!

Given the situation it turned out well.

-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

Should You Wear Sunglasses Onstage?

I wrapped up twelve days of performing my Vintage Organ at a state fair. This is very different than performing magic. The booker didn’t want a show, but something more ambient, like a stilt walker. You have interactions with people, but you’re there to create a vibe, not do a show.

When I started doing the Vintage Organ, my costume (outdoors) had me wearing sunglasses. That was intentional; it was so that I could look around and not look bored or distracted.

The sunglasses do their job of making it harder to tell how mentally engaged you are. However, the drawback is that people don’t want to engage you as eagerly as if they could see your eyes. You lose how you initially connect with people. If I took my sunglasses off and just wore my normal glasses, the percentage of people who would approach me versus me calling out to them was higher.

Whenever I see stage magicians or jugglers wear sunglasses, I always wonder why they’re wearing them. They are cutting off how humans initially connect with each other…eye contact!

-Louie

“Weird Al” Yankovic: Bigger & Weirder 2026 Tour

Yesterday I wrote about Puddles Pity Party, who was the opener for “Weird Al” Yankovic, and today I’m writing about “Weird Al”. He’s an example of giving 110% onstage! He’s 66 years old, and you couldn’t tell it by how he performed; he’s got more energy than some magicians I’ve seen in their 20s.

The show was interesting as there was a lot of prerecorded video that played for decent chunks of time. The videos were fun and/or funny and used to cover up costume changes. I remember the first time I saw David Copperfield, he showed a video of one of the big tricks from a TV special right before his closing trick (flying), which I’m assuming was for a similar reason to Weird Al.

Like Puddles Pity Party, the main video screen at the back of the stage was used to enhance what was onstage, and it did a great job of that. He played clips of videos he was parodying at one point. I think that was an excellent use of the screen for comedic effect.

For me a HUGE takeaway was that everyone looked like they were having an amazing time onstage and that energy carried out to the audience.

In the show, there were two musicians behind Weird Al who were frequently on camera. They looked like they were having a better time than the audience. I think I figured out what carried the fun further out into the audience: they weren’t smiling with their lips, they were smiling with their mouths. What I mean by that is they were doing smiles with their mouths open a bit.

The next day, for all of my shows, I started smiling with my mouth, and it made a huge difference! I’ve written in the past about smiling onstage, however sometimes a reminder is great!

Go out there and put your heart into your art and smile!

-Louie