Serious silliness

MOSES LAKE — Sometimes you just know early on that you want to spend your life doing card tricks. 

“I saw a show when I was 5, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world,” magician Louie Foxx said. “I decided that was going to be my job.” 

Foxx was at the Grant County Fair last week doing three shows a day. He’s been to our fair a few times in the past, alternating years with the North Idaho State Fair in Coeur d’Alene, he said. 

Foxx’s website describes him as the consummate kid who never grew up, and that’s the sort of energy he brings to his show. He does his illusions casually, almost offhandedly; no cape, top hat and wand for him. Besides the card tricks – using oversized decks that require a lot of dexterity to handle – several of his illusions involved long pieces of colored paper or strings. One trick had him pouring out what appears to be water from a paper cup, until you realize that it’s a single strip of paper, and the cup disappears with it. He designated one audience member at a Thursday afternoon show as his personal wastebasket, and every time a trick resulted in a large amount of paper left over, he would bestow it on that spectator, who took it with good humor. 

For all his silliness, Foxx is apparently well respected in the prestidigitation business. He holds two Guinness World Records, and the Society of American Magicians voted him the Best Stage Magician and Best Close-up Magician in Minnesota in 1996, according to his website. He’s also appeared on the TV show “America’s Got Talent,” he told his audience Thursday. 

“I was on season six of that show,” Foxx said. “On my last appearance on the show, the judges were Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel. Piers Morgan said I was an utter waste of time, Sharon Osbourne said I was fantastic, and Howie Mandel said I'd be perfect for Moses Lake. People ask, ‘How far did you make it in the show?’ I'm like, ‘Almost to Ritzville!’ So close to my dreams.” 

Foxx grew up near Vancouver in the little town of La Center, he said. He does the fair circuit from the end of April through October, and in the off-season works cruise ships, comedy clubs and corporate events.  

Foxx’s interest in show business is apparently genetic. His daughter, who’s 20, graduated college in June and promptly ran away with the circus, he said. 

“She’s (doing) three shows a day,” he said. “She gets put in a straitjacket, wrapped up in 50 feet of chain, and – in theory – gets out.”