Ineffective Effect

Right now I am spending all my time busking, so I have little to add. But might enjoy this, as it plays around with the premise of the usual bill switch. Admitting not being able to do that is not only a terrific joke (I've done it many, many times and it really gets a good laugh) it also nicely explains why you don't just produce money and live a good life.

Technically speaking there is nothing to explain I think. Although... may be the ditch of the bill. I rarely see magicians using the collar as a hold out. As you can see the attention is on the other hand, so the dirty hand going up is much less suspicious than the hand going down into the lap or something.

Ending the supposed bill switch with a transformation to pennies is pretty unexpected and actually feels a little more impossible. To a layperson the thought of maybe hiding a second bill seems like a plausible thing to do. But hiding a whole bunch of coins. That must at least be difficult.

In my official sets I usually borrow a 10 Euro bill. And I got ten 1 Euro coins hidden. So basically the effect is changing the bill for coins. Combine that with the initial joke and you will see that the joke actually serves as a hide out for the method. People won't think that any magic will occur right after the joke. Therefore the hands must be empty.

In my official sets I also reach of a glass right after the false transfer ditching the bill in my case while emerging with the glass. That creates time misdirection and let's me end clean. But I also like the collar method.

So there you have the trick. Nothing is gained, nothing is lost (if you change ten for ten) and people will remember you fondly...

Let me add a bonus: Assuming you do change the 10 Euro bill into ten 1 Euro coins... don't do that... actually change the 10 Euro bill into NINE 1 Euro coins. And hand those back in the glass. Ask the guy you borrowed the bill from to count the coins making sure they add up to 10 Euros. When he finds out that those are just nine coins you have great comedy potential. "Well duh.... tax?" And you can promise to make up for that in the rest of the show. Somehow making the missing Euro come back. That is a nice hook that could tie together a show.


The missing Euro could actually appear very early on during the rest of the show. But suddenly vanish as you want to give it back. Lot's of possibilities. And it feels less intrusive than the usual approach of promising to give back the vanished bill.