MagicShow.Tips – A daily blog about magic by Louie Foxx

Valentine’s Day Magic Trick

Here’s a “touch the screen” style magic trick for Valentine’s Day. You have a list of five words in this order:

Kiss | Heart | Love | Roses

“These are all things that I can give my wife“

They touch one of them and spell that word, JUMPING, one word per letter. They can move back and forth, but once they hit an end (kiss or roses), they must turn around and go the other way.

They do that, and if they follow directions, they will be on either the world Kiss or Love.

Eliminate the word ROSES. What’s left is:

Kiss | Heart | Love

“Valentine’s Day isn’t about exclusion, so we’ll still use roses. Spell that word, jumping one space per letter.“

When they do that, they will be on the word Heart.

Eliminate the word LOVE. What’s left is:

Kiss | Heart

“Spell the name of person you love, jumping one word per letter.”

At this point, they could be on either Kiss or Heart. For this example, they are on Kiss. You call attention to an envelope that’s been on the table the whole time.

“In this envelope is what I gave my wife on our first Valentines Day Together”

This is a multiple out at this point, the envelope has two openings with each option on its own side. You simply remove the matching prediction and the two prediction are:

“Tickets to KISS!”

There you go, a fun magic trick for Valentine’s Day!

-Louie

Old Stock Bicycle Playing Cards

My favorite playing cards are Old Stock Bicycle Playing Cards from Cincinnati. As I travel I find sealed decks in junk shops and always try to buy them. Sometimes people want way to much for them, but usually I get them for about $2 a deck, and never pay more than $3. Over the years I’ve filled a bin of them!

These decks faro beautifully out of the box! They also last longer than the Bicycle Cards that are currently sold. I don’t use these for shows, they are for practice / play for me. When I have a good deck, I’m more motivated to practice than with a deck that’s inferior.

For shows I use new decks, these are good for about an hour (or one set), which is fine because so many cards will get destroyed in that set that I replace the deck each set.

-Louie

Mr. Fingers: The Magic of Irv Weiner

The book Mr. Fingers: The Magic of Irv Weiner came in the mail the other day and I’m excited to start digging through it!

I’ve done Irv’s Red Tape Thumb Tie in my show for a while and have read many other the booklets of his routines. Somehow books that I’m excited to read show up when I’m not in a position to read them for a while. I’ve gotta finish up reading The Bat, which I’m almost done with and have a few projects in the workshop to finish up before I can start this book.

Once I get into it, I’ll write a review.

-Louie

Out of Context Vintage Magic Illustrations!

On my Facebook page I’ve started posting OUT OF CONTEXT VINTAGE MAGIC ILLUSTRATIONS. These are pictures from old magic books that I’ve come across that without context look strange. Here are the ones I’ve posted so far:

I normally post these on Sundays on my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/louie.foxx/
Pop over there, all of these are public, however if we’re not friends, shoot me a friend request!

-Louie

1940’s Magic Show Review!

I’m still working through The Bat magic magazine and I can across this notice about a magic show:

It’s crazy how bad this magic show must have been that the local magic club had to take out an ad to say they had nothing to do with it! It’s also a flash back to a time when magic clubs were bigger and had some more “influence”.

Today most magic clubs struggle with getting/keeping members.

-Louie

That’s Magic!

I don’t think I wrote a post about seeing the That’s Magic at the White Rabbit Theater in Reno. This is an illusion show presented by Kaileigh and Chase Hasty. I saw the show with 17 magicians!

They do a great job with the magic show. It’s a fairly standard magic show, but they have some original “bits” with the effects they do. Chase does a great job of being in the moment during the show. With a seven day a week schedule, I’d imagine it’s easy fall into being robotic onstage.

The show is more than illusions, Chase shows he has some skill doing ball and card manipulation and Kaileigh does the aerial silks, so it’s not just “store bought” stuff, which I appreciate!

The show uses a lot of lighting cues, which really adds to the theatricality (Is that a word?) of their magic show. Lighting cues really make a show feel bigger. At some point, I should find someone to write some basic ones for me to use when I work in theaters. Just one or two, so it adds visual texture to the show.

I really enjoyed the show, and it’s worth checking out, there’s a lot you can learn by watching it.

-Louie

Snake Basket Magic Trick V2

This snake basket magic trick I’m working on feels like a “project car” that’s in someone’s garage that they are constantly working on. It’s something I keep finding ways to improve. The first version is barely finished, and I’m working on a second one!

The big change is that I’m going to move it away from a card trick. I’m going to merge it with Terry Seabrook’s Chattering Teeth Routine. The snake will chew holes in the paper, and the reveal will be when the paper is opened. A paper is physically larger than a playing card, even a jumbo playing card. Bigger is better for a reveal!

Moving to paper also allows me to customize the routine to a show. For example, if I were doing a safety-themed show for kids, the snake could chew a stop sign in the paper. It could still be a card a la the original Seabrook routine, or spots (like on a die) or even the image a piece of art!

I’m liking flexibility of this idea!

-Louie

A New Routine with a Block

This is an idea I had a while ago, and 3d printed it:

This is a three phase mental magic type routine. I read someone’s mind, then they read my mind, then a magic trick happens. I took it to a magic meet up and here’s what the magicians think of it:

Billy McComb, in one of his books, mentions an easy way to create new routines is to combine two tricks. I think his example is a thumb tie and card to wallet. The block trick I came up with combines the Color Vision Block with a super old stage magic trick. I don’t think people are expecting the part that uses the old stage magic effect, and by the time that part is revealed, I’m way ahead of them. Also, people newer into magic may not recognize it as it’s not really used much anymore.

-Louie

Snake Basket Presentation

The snake basket magic trick that I’m working on won’t have a basket or any of the old snake charmer tropes. The main reason is that after reading about snake charmers and their rise in pop culture, I don’t think my personal values align with that imagery. It’s like “yellow face” Asian stuff that used to be popular in magic. The original intent of it was not positive.

Another reason I’m not using the basket is that it’s a trope that no longer exists. It’s not something that appears in modern pop culture. I know it was in every Bugs Bunny cartoon, but kids haven’t watched those for decades. There’s really no reason to have a basket today.

If you see a reptile show at a school or library, none of the snakes are in baskets; they’re all in boxes or tubs. That’s what I want my snake basket to look like, a box, well, specifically a wooden crate. I’m waiting on the supplies to make it, but the box will be cardboard, so it packs small and light. I’m going to cover it in wood grain contact paper and then add trim with wood grained duct tape.

I’ll post pictures of it when it’s finished!

-Louie

Snake Basket Demo!

The snake basket that I’ve been building is finally starting to take shape! I have a completely functional version of it! Here’s what it looks like:

I’m going to make a small change to the code. I’m going to add a three second delay after the button push for the action to take place. I want to be able to have some physical distance between my hands and body when the actions take place.

-Louie