Tricks – MagicShow.Tips

Lounge Magic Show

My show last night was on the cruise ship, which was in the lounge. This is a very different feeling from the theater, but a lot of fun and more intimate. On this particular cruise line, I’m supposed to have two different 45-minute shows, so for the lounge, I did the show that I didn’t do in the theater the night before.

This show had a segment of close-up magic with the camera. Usually, I use the camera to enhance smaller things that I hold, but not to show the tabletop. For this show, I did a short sequence on the table top. The rest of the show was routines that played bigger. I remember reading somewhere about making your show big, and it went something like this:

“When it’s close up, go parlor, when it’s parlor, go stage and when it’s stage go stadium.”

I closed the show with my book test, which ended with a two-phase banner reveal. The banner is 24 inches tall and about 20 feet long; it fills the space!

Last night was also the end of that particular cruise’s itinerary. I joined the ship midway through the itinerary, so I had to get up early this morning to clear immigration. As part of this process, because of the manifest I was on, I had to leave the ship for a few hours. I had the honor of being the first person off the ship…exciting!

I’m actually writing the post at a coffee shop before I can get back onto the ship.

-Louie

My Impromptu Card Routine

One of the card routines I do for impromptu situations is a revelation of a selected card three times. There’s really not much to it, and I’ll give sources for what they are below, but first, here’s what it looks like:

Let’s start by me saying that in the video above, I messed up the second card revelation, but that’s OK because it still worked. The three revelations are:
1: The (Piet Forton) Pop Out Move
2: Daryl’s Hot Shot Cut
3: The old trick where you sidejog the top card and drop the deck.

It’s not a crazy sequence, but it has a feel of build with the diminishing hands for each revelation.

Have fun with this!

-Louie

Your Act Will Never Be This Edgy!

Right now, one of the trends in magic (that’s not mentalism) is being edgy. Magicians are trying to get away from the cheesy stereotype of a magic show.

No matter how edgy you think you are, you’ll never come close to this description of a magic show from the late 1700s!

That’s crazy! I’d like to know what it actually looked like.

I did have a trick (I think I published it) where I took a tooth out of my mouth, did a trick with it, and then put it back into my mouth, filling the previously empty gap in my smile. It was a weird trick.

-Louie

Test Travelling With a Show

I’m heading out to travel internationally to do some shows in a few days. The show I’m travelling with is packed differently than I normally travel. Normally I check my show and not carry it on. However, for this trip I will need to travel with some of it carried on.

My past travel experience has told me I’d have no issues flying with what’s in the carry on. To be safe, I was doing a domestic trip recently and I packed the show like the international one to see if I had any issues with TSA.

The show breezed through TSA, and there were no issues! It was nice to take a little bit of stress out of the upcoming trip!

-Louie

Applause Please – Back in Stock!

I’ve got a batch of Applause Please 2‘s back in stock and ready to ship!

I only have five of them ready right now. If you want one, get your order in soon. I head out for two weeks on December 9th, so your order needs to be in by the end of the day on December 8th, 2025 if you want it to ship before Christmas.

You can get them at:
https://www.magicshow.tips/applause-please-2-the-encore/

-Louie

Folded Card Magic Trick

Sometimes I have a great idea, I send it to my workshop group, and they tell me it’s been around for a while. My idea was to do a trick after revealing a card that’d been mercury folded. Occasionally, after the card has been revealed folded, someone will ask if you can fix the card. The idea that hit me the other day that if I drew lines on the back of a card with a white pen, it would look like the creases.

I could then top change the folded card for the card with the lines drawn on it. Then I could wipe the lines off, and the card is flat again!

It’s a great idea. I wish I’d been the first person to think of it. I’m still going to play with the idea.

-Louie

Another TV Spot

Recently, I was invited to be a guest on a local TV show, where I was supposed to do a 20-minute spot. This was a longer form interview type show. I wasn’t doing a 20-minute show for them, but a more informal performance throughout the interview.

Here’s what I packed with me:

This was more than enough material for the gig. However, right before I left for the show, I was texting with some friends, and one suggested that I bring my marshmallow routine, so I also grabbed that.

It was a different mindset coming into this interview, as it’s not a linear show. I had to have a lot of versatile stuff and things that would make sense to do if they came up. It was a lot of trying to guess where the interview would go and plan for that. The nice thing is that I can do a lot with a deck of cards.

I feel like the spot went well, and I’ll post video when they send it to me!

-Louie

Flying Spots by Lubor Fielder

A couple weeks ago when I was in Las Vegas, I visited Trick Supply. One of the tricks that I picked up was Flying Spots by Lubor Fielder. There’s nothing crazy about this trick, it’s a paddle trick that I’m guessing he put out in the 1980’s.

I had an idea with it. Here’s my idea:

I’m not sure where I’m going to go with this, however I do like the look of the googly eyes a lot more than the black spots. Now I just need to write a routine!

-Louie

Magic as an Art

Magicians love to complain about how no one takes magic seriously as an art. Usually, those are the people who aren’t out there creating art, they’re doing cover band magic. Those are the people who buy a routine and do it word for word.

There’s nothing wrong with buying a routine and performing it. Just like there’s nothing wrong with doing a paint by number painting. If that’s what brings you joy, by all means, do it. It’s just not (in my opinion) creating art.

How do you become an artist? That’s a hard thing to say, and honestly I barely consider myself one and really hate it when I refer to myself as an artist. One place to start is figuring out who you are and how to convey that to your audience.

Do you like movies? Talk about that in your show.
Do you have kids? Talk about them in your show.

Another way is to have a point of view.
Are you Anti Tax? Talk about that in your show.

The more of you and your worldview you put into the show, the closer it starts moving into art.

Also, I should mention, art isn’t just presentation, it can be the sleight of hand.

-Louie

Devil’s Wand!

I came across a vintage magic trick that Royal Magic put out called the Devil’s Wand. This was sold as a beginner’s magic trick and looks a lot like the Pom Pom Pole; however, it’s a close-up version. This differs slightly from the modern stage version at the end.

Here’s a demo video of it:

@louiefoxx Magic trick is still great after 75 years! #magictrick #magic #magician #vintage #vintagemagic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

In case you didn’t notice, this is totally examinable at the end! When I first found this trick, I watched a couple of online video demos, and all of them skipped that part. That’s the most interesting thing about the trick! That’s a great feature that no one does anymore. I’m not sure how the gimmick would scale to a larger stage-size pom pom pole, but it’s sure cool for this smaller-sized one.

That’s one of the fun things about vintage magic tricks: you find little things that got left off of the more modern versions.

-Louie