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

Can’t a TV Just Be a TV?

On the school assembly tour, I used a screen provided by the school. This could be a smart board, TV or projector, anything I could plug an HDMI into. I did have a backup if they didn’t have a screen.

At my last show of the tour, a few minutes before show time, the TV they gave me decided it was a good time to update.

I had been plugged into this TV, and it was turned on for probably 20 minutes when the update started. What I didn’t like was where it said the TV might restart after the update. That could have been during my show!

Luckily, the update completed right before start time, and the TV didn’t need to restart. That’s just something to be aware of when you use other people’s tech. When it fails, and it’s not your fault, but the audience doesn’t know that!

-Louie

The Magic Guys Podcast!

Recently, I listened to an episode of The Magic Guys Podcast, and in the random episode I listened to, they talked about one of my tricks! It always blows my mind when magicians talk about my stuff…of when I meet magicians and they’ve heard of me!

In this episode, they talk about my Remote Control Chattering Teeth and brainstorm a bunch of routines to do with them. A lot of what they initially come up with is basically Terry Seabrook’s Chattering Teeth routine. But then keep brainstorming and come up with some really cool ideas!

One of the things that I think I heard Mel Brooks say in an interview, is that you need to exhaust your vocabulary of things you know to get to the new idea. It’s work, you have to push past what you know, or what’s known to get to the fresh idea! It was cool to listen to it happen in real time!

-Louie

Where Evaporation Began!

When I created the Evaporation trick, I was out on the road performing. I tried many different methods of making liquid disappear, however it was a trip to this Menards hardware store in Minot, ND where it all came together!

Whenever I’m in the area, I always stop and walk through the store. This hardware store has a special place in my heart! It’s what put me on the map as a magic trick creator.

-Louie

Wrapping Up the School Assembly Tour

The month long school assembly tour is finished! I learned a lot doing the same show 2-3 times a day.

1: Simplify the setup and take down. The fewer “parts” a show has to assemble, the better. This show traveled by car, so it was easy not to have a lot of things to put together, unlike a show that travels by plane.

2: Hold the final magic to display what has happened up high and for way longer than you think you need to.

3: Find ways to be present in your show, and not just a robot reciting lines. This can get hard after doing the show for the 40th time in three weeks. Try to look for real moments that are happening and play!

4: Be on top of prop maintenance. If you notice something wearing out, fix it! Don’t try to get two more shows out of it. It’ll break when it’s not convenient for you to fix.

5: When the school (really the teachers) seat the kids in a way that doesn’t make sense for a crowd, tell them to move them. I’ve had the weirdest crowd configurations, and teachers fight hard to not move kids. I push back, because the audience seated as a group and not a bunch of individual units will make the difference just a show and an amazing show.

It’s great to be back home!

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

The Moisture Festival – Live from the 2026 Festival Part 2!!

We’re back with another live episode from the 2026 Moisture Festival! In this episode we’ll chat with:

This is a fun chat with new members to the Moisture Festival family and an old favorite!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The Show I’ve Been Dreading!

Yesterday my itinerary had me doing my show that was written for an audience that’s kindergarten to 6th grade for an group of seventh to eight grade kids. No younger kids, just the middle school kids. When I noticed this show on my schedule, I was dreading it.

I’ve done shows for middle and high school kids on this tour, but they were mixed in with elementary school aged kids. You can read about that here.

The show went great!

What I did was start by mentioning that this show was written for younger kids, but if they stuck with me, they’d like the show. The show was rocking! I mostly did the show as written; I did cut a few things that I knew wouldn’t hit for this older group.

This is a good example of why I disagree with people who say, “it’s the journey, not the trick”. The trick needs to be good, and so does the journey. Just because one is great, doesn’t mean the other can’t also be great! Sure, it takes a bit more work, but it’s worth it!

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

The Snake Box

One of the tricks that I made for this school assembly tour is a snake box. This is essentially a “snake basket“, however, I’m not using a basket as I think that’s an old trope, and one that kids don’t have a point of reference to. The routine in my show started out as a card trick, but it’s now something more, and something that plays bigger!

I was thinking about Terry Lunceford’s The Viper trick and it’s great. If you haven’t seen it, here’s what it looks like:

It’s a great routine for its time. Personally, I think that trying to use a phobia someone has for a laugh is an older style of performing and not modern. Doing a danger trick is one thing, a French Arm Chopper isn’t a common fear, but snakes are.

My snake basket does have the snake jump out, but with only me onstage, and guess what, it gets a great reaction!

As someone who has an irrational fear of something, I try to show some compassion to people in the audience and not put them in a position where they will laugh at them being scared.

That’s just my opinion. I still think it’s a great effect, just not the part where you jump scare someone in front of an audience.

-Louie

Handheld Microphone

On this school assembly tour, I’m controlling my music with a Flic Button that’s taped to my handheld microphone.

I don’t hide that I’m pushing the button, or that the button is there. I did try to make it less obvious by covering some of it with black tape. After just about every school assembly, I’ll have a teacher or staff person ask me how I’m controlling the music!

Initially, when I started this tour, I was using a combination of the Flic Button on the microphone and my Media Star as an ankle switch. I’ve phased out using the media star ankle switch, and I’m just using the Flic Button on the microphone.

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

Final Week on the Road

Today is the beginning of the last week of this school assembly tour. It’s crazy how doing 2-3 shows a day for 3 weeks (so far) will tighten up a show. That is if you actively try to make the show better, and not just go out and do it.

These shows are supposed to be 40 minutes long. For the first week or so, I was constantly cutting out bits or routines, and the show seemed to consistently run long. That was because what I was cutting wasn’t working; however, at the same time, I was making what was working better!

To me, the real value of taking a tour like this is taking a show from OK to great in a short amount of time! It is a lot of work to do this; you have to objectively look at the show, and every day, try to find something to improve or cut.

-Louie
PS: You can learn about my system for working on my show by clicking here:
https://www.magicshow.tips/how-to-work-on-your-show-the-6-rs/

Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!

School Assembly Audience Layouts

On this school assembly tour most of my audiences are seated in bleachers, with me standing in a basketball court.

On the West Coast, most school assemblies have the kids seated on the floor with my back to a wall. The kids on the bleachers are a better setup. It gives them tiered seating, like in a theater. This makes it easier for everyone to see everything.

The big challenge for me is getting them to pack kids into one section. Here’s an example, let’s say these are the bleachers in the gym and it’s a small school with about a 150 kids.

They will come in and some classes the top row, some the bottom and the rest in random spots in the middle. That’s spread out over all the bleachers. That doesn’t give you a crowd, it gives you 7 groups. It’s hard to get any energy going. When I try to pack them into on section of the bleachers, they always fight me on it. Telling me they won’t fit (they always do), or that they keep the grades separate because the older kids get bored. I bet the do, because they’re not part of the crowd! It’s easy for them to disengage from what’s happening if they’re off in their own corner. It takes a lot of work to convince these schools to move the kids into a crowd, but it’s worth it.

-Louie
Click here for more information about how you can learn this School Assembly Show check out the School Assembly Set!