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

Portland Magic Jam – Day 2

The second day of the Portland Magic Jam (last weekend) was a lot of fun. The day started with Daniel Garcia‘s lecture, which was great! I’ve used his One Card index since I worked with him in November. It’s great, if you need a folded card index, it’s worth looking into!

The highlight of the convention for me was watching David Kay perform for a room of 75ish kids plus adults.

For someone that’s a “kids magician” his knowledge of comedy techniques goes way beyond 97% of children’s magicians that I’ve seen. There’s soo much that any performer can learn from watching his show!

Also, working with Paul Draper the night before was great, and Paul and I are working together this week in Seattle at the Moisture Festival.

The convention venue (Portland Airport Holiday Inn) was garbage. My room had blood on the blankets, which is great if you’re a vampire! They new a convention was coming in, but didn’t appropriately staff their restaurant for use. The first night the turn around time for food was crazy long. For the second night, I drove to Costco which was a couple miles down the street and bought a bunch of pizzas for all the hungry magicians!

Then the evening show was John Shyrock, Daniel Garcia, and Rhy Thomas. The show was great!

This is a solid day of magic and learning!

-Louie

The Joseph Silk Gun!

When I was setting up my dealer table at the Portland Magic Jam, someone saw my Joseph Silk Gun and asked about it. I did a little demo for the other magic dealers in the room, here’s what it looked like:

I think that it’s crazy how good this trick looks! It’s hyper visual, and it was way ahead of its time, but using a gun in a show now isn’t something many performers could get away with.

-Louie

Portland Magic Jam

Last weekend, the Portland Magic Jam happened. This is a fun, local magic convention in Portland, OR, with around 75 attendees. For me, this was a working convention, not just for fun. I was the MC for the Friday evening show. My show set list for the show:

When you’re MC, these things are always in a state of flux, and they will change, and they sure did! The show went from four acts to two! That drastically changes what I need to do. I had a recurring gag that works when they see me 4 times, but not when they only see me twice.

In addition to the Friday night show, I also had a dealer booth.

I was selling the magic products that I make, along with some of the magic stuff I’ve accumulated over the years. Having a dealer table really makes for long days at a magic convention; you really don’t get any time off, unless you want to skip lectures or shows.

-Louie

Out of Town All of April 2026

This is a heads up that I’ll be on the road for all of the month of April 2026. If you need to order anything from me that’s not digital, do it soon!

While I’m away, you can order my magic tricks from Trick Supply in Las Vegas at: https://tricksupply.com/

-Louie

Portland Magic Jam – Day 1

The first day of the Portland Magic Jam started with the registration and dealer room being open. Then, a bit later David Kaye did a pre-lecture about what to look for in the show he was going to do the next day, which then would be followed by a post show breakdown of what we just saw.

I think that’s a great format if you’re going to do a show and then talk about it. One thing that I noticed is how much David knows about comedy. He’s a kid show guy, but all of the principles he talked about are for any age group!

Next was John Shyrock who also did a show/lecture. He did a 20 min close up show and then talked about it.

John does some really strong magic, and there’s a lot to learn from his use of music (even in a close up show). He brings a lot of bigger theatrical techniques to close up magic!

Then it was the evening show which was just three acts. I was the MC and did a spot along with Paul Draper and Richard Turner.

It’s had to do an MC spot on a small stage with no curtain, where a lot of equipment is being moved around. The spot I did was kind of a hybrid MC filling time and a scheduled spot.

The closing spot was Richard Turner doing close up tabled card magic.

To be 100% honest, I’m not sure how I felt about Richard Turner’s show. The card magic is great, but to me (this is my opinion), he really came off as a dirty old man the way he interacted with the two people onstage. The card magic was amazing, but his patter is from a different era, that’s not a modern style, especially for a town like Portland.

After the show, it was hang out time!

The late-night stuff is where all of the fun, weird, amazing magic happens! Also with this convention taking place at an airport hotel, there were some people who missed a connection at the airport and ended seeing some crazy magic tricks! I think it made their delay much more fun!

-Louie

The Moisture Festival Podcast – Juggle Jawns

In this episode, we welcome juggler extraordinaire Juggle Jawns. We discuss what makes his style so unique, the influences that inspired him, and how he incorporates a few different media into his performances.

We talk about his background in athletics and how that coordination helped him when he began juggling. We also discuss how the juggling club at his college allowed him to meet and learn from one of the most innovative jugglers working today. A great interview with a fantastic performer.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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A Toast to Nick Trost #2

Here’s the second trick in the book The Card Magic of Nick Trost. The Seven Card Trick is a “repeat” style magic effect, where you keep taking away a card, but still have the same amount. Here’s what the trick looks like as written:

And here’s my update with my thoughts on why I made the changes that I did:

Ultimately, the challenge with any “repeat” trick is the ending. I used to have a trick called Whiplash where a six card repeat was followed by a six bill repeat, then ended with the six bills turning into six cards, which gave it an ending.

With the 7 Card trick, or in the updated 4 card trick, the ending with just one card gave it a different moment. I had an idea that I like more than just ending with one card. Here’s what happens, you have one card, and you tear it into four pieces. You count the four pieces, and they are five! You then toss away one of the pieces, and when you go to count them again, the card has been restored!

-Louie

Joseph Silk Gun

Awhile ago I aquired a Joseph Silk Gun. This is a pistol that you put a silk ontop of and the silk disappears.

Here’s what it looks like in action:

The vanish looks like trick photography! Unfortunately, there’s really nowhere that I would use a gun in a performance. Maybe if you did some sort of vignette, but that’s about it.

I’m going to try to find time to make a video of it with a Crystal Cube prop. Both the vanish and production would be instant!

-Louie

Dice Cup Chop Cups!

It’s been a while since I’ve made any chop cups, and yesterday I made a batch of dice cup chop cups. I made these to take to the Portland Magic Jam this weekend.

Internally, there’s not much to it, it’s a magnet in a cup. I 3D print a magnet puck, and cover it with the same material that lines the cup.

Then I make a set of chopped dice, so one is regular, and the other has a magnet load.

I’m going to package these with an 8 Ball for the final load and sell them as a set. If I have any left after the Portland Magic Jam, I’ll offer them for sale here.

-Louie

Jack Grady – Ass Magic

A few days ago I hopped a train down to Eugene Oregon to see Jack Grady‘s show at a comedy club with my buddy Matt Baker (the juggler, not the magician). I think I had seen a video or two of his, but didn’t know much about him.

Jack’s big on the social media and his thing is “ass magic” where he puts things into his butt crack and then magic happens. That’s a quick background about what I knew about him.

This show is a great example of how a strong character can carry a show. The magic is just “meh” for the most part, but the performing persona carries the show. One thing that my buddy caught, that I didn’t, was in the fish hook roulette trick, it felt like he actually could mess up the trick. Since I was familiar with the trick and method, that thought never entered my mind.

The show’s roughness was a feature! It felt like it could really go wrong at any point. I have a feeling he hasn’t been touring with the show very long. I also think that in a few years, if he’s actively working on the show, that his show would be GREAT!

The show doesn’t over use the “ass magic”, but there were a couple of spots where it could be used that it’s currently not.

If Jack is coming to your area, the show is worth going to!

-Louie