Remove the Loss In a Shell Game Routine

Yesterday I wrote a post about the idea of doing a three shell game type routine onstage using tennis balls, and you can read it here. The tennis balls have slits cut in them that I put money into, and the audience has to follow the one with the money.

One of the problems with this style of routine is that the spectator loses. I’m trying to take the sting out of that. My idea isn’t that they win; they still lose, but ultimately, as losers of the game, they still win.

How Do They Lose, But Still Win?

I’m not sure how this will play with an audience, but here’s the idea:

I show a two dollar bill and put it into one of the tennis balls. I tell the audience that it’s “My lucky two dollar bill” and you won’t win it. I’ve played this game hundreds of times; each time I lose two dollars, but I have never lost this two dollar bill!”

The bill is put into a tennis ball, and they’re juggled. Someone from the audience selects one of the balls, and it’s tossed to them. They open it, and it has one dollar in it. You give them a second chance, and they pick another one, and when they open it, that one has a one dollar bill in it as well. That leaves you with the two dollar bill!

Ok, so they lost in their objective; however, they still walked away with the same amount of money that they would have won if they found the two dollar bill.

I think this idea takes the sting out of the spectator losing at the end.

-Louie

The Shell Game Onstage

The idea of doing a three shell game style routine onstage has been in my head for a little while. Onstage, a shell game type routine typically manifests itself as a Bank Nite type routine, where money is mixed with worthless prizes. The spectator picks all but one envelope, leaving the magician with one, which has the money.

There are two challenges with a Bank Nite style of routine:
1: The spectator loses (usually)
2: The final reveal is anti-climatic, the audience knows what’s in the last envelope, so opening it isn’t really a moment.

A good example of ending the routine with a bit of a moment is telling the audience that money is in one of the envelopes, but not showing them. A good example of this is John Archer’s Blank Nite routine:

What’s the Solution to Doing The Shell Game Onstage?

This doesn’t really solve the problem, but here’s the idea I came up with: You have three tennis balls with slits cut in them. You put the $100 into one of them, and the audience has to follow that one while you juggle it.

This is nice and visual, and it has the mixing element of the three shell game. The audience is involved in trying to follow it.

This doesn’t solve the two main problems: the spectator loses, and the final reveal is anticlimactic.

I like the visual…but now to try to figure out how to solve the two issues.

-Louie

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