Film Can Refurbishing

The film cans that I use for my Film Can Dice Force aren’t made anymore. They still make film cans, but the ones currently made don’t work for the gimmick. I have to source mine on the “used film can market”.

The last batch that I got were super beat up and I had to refurbish(?) them. The can on the left is what they look like when I got them:

The middle can is after I gave them a wipe down, and the can on the right is after I buffed them with my Dremel! The amount of labor that goes into making the Film Can Dice Forces is way too much for what I charge for them!

-Louie

Magic Poster Museum in Everett, WA

There’s a restaurant in Everett, WA that has a magic poster mini museum! Here’s a quick tour of it at Shawn O’Donnells!

Here’s a close up of a few of the pics:

vintage magic posters
vintage magic posters
vintage magic posters
vintage magic posters

If you’re in the Everett, WA area, swing by and check it out! Also, Shawn (the owner) is a magician, so you’re supporting magic!

-Louie

Close Up Pads as a Disposable Item

Close up pads used to last me for years, now not so much. The difference is that I use them frequently for roving magic, not just practicing at home. That means they have to look clean or at least not gross.

Between replacing these for my close up/roving magic and my stage magic show’s consumables, my show generates a lot of trash. I wish it was less, but that’s how it is.

I’m really liking the economy close up pads. They’re not the best, but for an item that I replace sometimes after a single gig, I’m willing to compromise for the price. Also they’re slightly lighter than the nice close up magic pads, so that’s handy if I’m flying to a gig.

close up pad for magic

If you use a close up pad in your work, really look at it closely and see how clean it is. Sometimes comparing it next to a new one will show you how beat up your old one really is!

-Louie

Vanishing Birdcages – Don’t Buy The Hype!

Vanishing Birdcages from India have been popping up on eBay with way too high prices and descriptions. Here’s the image on one that recently popped up:

vanishing birdcage

Let’s take a closer look at what those instructions say:

vanishing birdcage

There’s so much wrong with that ad copy!
1: That cage isn’t a “Lindhorst Style”
2: That cage hasn’t been used thousands of times
3: Gene Anderson has never really been associated with the vanishing birdcage trick
4: Highly unlikely that this cage belonged to Gene Anderson
5: How has it been used by Gene thousands of times, if it’s “never used”

Then the red flag is the $110 price point, those cages are less than $50 new and still being made and easily available!

If you’re looking to buy a vanishing birdcage and aren’t sure if it’s a good one, feel free to contact me and I can give you my opinion on the one you’re thinking of.

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Oroki

On this episode, we welcome Oroki. We discuss the many aspects of Oroki’s performance life. We learn how it started on a date to an aerial class and how that led to producing theatrical shows all over Seattle.

The Moisture Festival Podcast - Oroki

We dive into Oroki’s background in dance, choreography, and a little parkour. A great conversation with a fantastic performer.

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Strait Jacket Escape Routine

I was driving home the other day, and I was thinking about the strait jacket escape. In the past I’ve done the Strait Jacket Escape with 50 Feet of Chain. Many routines are done against a clock but I like the idea of doing it against someone else doing something (completing a task). It sets up a head to head sort of challenge. My buddies Scotty Walsh and Steve The Pretty Good both did that in their routines.

The routine I was thinking about would be:

  • There’s a box or container of some sort that has a lock in it.
  • $100 is put into the container and locked.
  • The key is mixed with other non-working keys.
  • I’m put into the strait jacket.
  • I have to get out before someone from the audience find the correct key and opens the box.
  • I get out when there it one key left.
  • The final key that they didn’t try opens the box, and I get to keep the $100
  • I offer them a 2nd place prize, which is another box with a lock.
  • They pick any key they already tried and it opens that box, inside is $5 that they can keep!

I think it reads a bit more convoluted than it flows, or how I think it will flow.

I need to go out and try it out and start figuring out if it works or doesn’t.

-Louie
PS: There’s an essay in one of my older lecture notes about how I created my comedy escape The Straight Suit.

Knife Swallowing Magic Trick

Recently, I was on a quick vacation to Chicago, and one of the things we did was go on a Pizza Tour. At our last stop on the tour, we were sitting at a table with a family that had a kid who was probably six years old. This was a great moment for sneaking in a magic trick. The family didn’t know I was a magician, so it would be a surprise.

What trick did I do?

Since I didn’t have anything on me, I did an impromptu trick where it looked like I swallowed a knife. I learned at a Tony Clark lecture when I was a teenager at Bob Goodsell’s West Coast Wizards Magic Camp in the early 1990’s. It’s a great trick and if you don’t know it, it’s worth learning!

I asked the kid how he liked his pizza, then I said that I loved it so much I wanted to eat the knife (that I cut it with), and then I did! I played it for real and that’s one of those moments of pure wonder that I created!

As a magician, you should be able to do something at any moment, sometimes it’s an improvised trick and sometimes it’s a planned trick that you carry with you. Also, just because you CAN do a trick and any time, it doesn’t me you have to!

Moments like that are great and perfect for impromptu magic!

-Louie

Have Fun Onstage!

One of the things that I see a lot in magic shows is a performer who doesn’t look like they’re having a good time. I get that there are some characters where this makes sense; however, I frequently see it in comedy magic. You absolutely should look like you’re having fun if you’re a standard comedy magician.

The other night I saw The Return of Jackie and Judy, which is a Ramones cover band that’s made up of Fred Armisen and most of the band Sleater-Kinney. One of the things about this show was everyone onstage looked like they were having a blast!

the Return of jackie and judy - fred armisen and sleater kinney

When you’re onstage, in most cases, you should look like you’re having fun! It shouldn’t look like a chore; even doing openly difficult things can look fun, or at least like you enjoy what you’re doing.

A few years ago I wrote a blog post about The Secret to Likability, which is worth a read.

-Louie

Card Man Stuff by Al Leech

I picked up the booklet Card Man Stuff by Al Leech recently and I’m digging it!

Card Man Stuff by Al Leech

The stuff in it is older school card magic, and the clunkiness, I think, can be easily fixed. For example, he used the cut deeper force to have a card selected, and that’s a move that I really dislike. I think the problem with that force is that when the cards aren’t in face up and face down clumps, it kinda gives it away. There are better forces that can be done in its place.

The first trick is the production of a four of a kind, and that naturally flows into the second trick, which is a transposition of the two four of a kind sets of cards. I like things in books that can be routines that flow from one to the next to eliminate set up in the second trick, but still work as stand alone magic tricks if needed.

Despite the clunkiness, the tricks are pretty direct, which I like!

-Louie