Simple Matrix

There is nothing unusual about this. The standard one ahead. But the ending might be of interest. As it is the only, I repeat, the only justification for using a playing card. Seriously, why a playing card. Always the same. I see magicians use the playing cards simply because they are there. You know what else is there? The purse. Using the purse is not only motivated and logical, it has so many advantages. Sound, and no "floating".

Back to the routine. Having one quarter of the card not changing in the end gives you a reason to openly ditch it. Along with other stuff. I used this ending many times and it was my perfect lead in to the six coin routine that I do.

The used sleights are standard and I don't think I need to point out the one true source. *cough* Bobo *cough*

The last coin vanish is bold but somehow it seems like an increased difficulty for you, but it makes you job much easier. Have fun.

The Button Story

Going on with this notions box theme here is something with buttons. The main "sleight" is the Bold Coin Vanish from Modern Coin Magic. A underused sleight I think. Although the term "sleight" doesn't really do it justice. It's just a bold thing you do. You can reverse the "sleight" of course. That way you get loaded instead getting rid of the coins. Must be pretty cryptic reading these lines I suppose. Watch the video! The buttons going back in the box sequence is the actual reversal of the bold vanish. Pick up two, put in one. So you can choose which buttons end up in the hand in the end.

A similar routine I have seen years ago by Jay Sankey. A whole punch of paper clips are picked up one by one and in the hand they link. Cute little trick.

But you can do more of course. What about a standard Spell Bound routine? The most simple one would be copper coins turning to gold coins, which are drop in a cup. Near the end the cup is turned over and all the gold coins have become copper again. You don't see that routine very often. And here is why: In most "warm" lighting conditions the difference between copper and gold is not great. The lack of visibility of the trick is it's downfall. The standard structure is flawless I think.

Long story shot: Have buttons change into coins one by one. Logical? Check! Visible? Check! Great scope? Check!

Shrinking Coin

Basically just two Bobo Switches and a false transfer. But in terms of effect this is cute. Any regular size is boring. Growing and shrinking stuff makes it funny... or at least interesting. I've done this for normal people often enough to know that they love it. Why is that so? The premise. It is not just a vanish and a reappearance. The object is actually transformed. It is shrunken down and stays that way. Try it with different objects. Coins are great, but if you do this with SD cards... Starting with a big SD card, then a standard size one, then finally a micro SD card all of that becomes unique magic. You can talk about the fact that even though the technology gets smaller and smaller somehow the amount of stuff you can save on the card remain the same. Or even gets bigger.

The philosophical implication of the card being so small it is practically gone and what it means about the value of storage and data really should get an interesting plot going.

Or think toys. A toy car shrinking more and more. Suitable props should be cheap.

All I'm saying that the plot of an object shrinking really is intriguing as it flies off in so many directions.

Fusing Coins

Trying to come up with a routine that fools magicians is a futile task. Yet for some reasons magicians dabble into that sort of Sisyphean task. Me too. This little coin routine came out if it. Even though I think that most magicians are not fooled by this, it turned out to be a routine that is fun to do. The idea of not making coins appear, but splitting them is not new by any means. But fusing them back together... I hardly see that. (same goes for sponge balls)

In terms of method this takes from a variety of sources. There is sleight of hand involved. (palms, shuttle passes and a good old false transfer) but also gimmickery. Expended Shell and Super Coin. It's the combination of it that makes the routine very practical. The angles are indeed an issue, as that one coin, could appear as pretty thick. Even though briefly. Adding a super expanded shell would allow for a fifth coin to be there. Think about it. I guess I could put the gimmicks together and streamline the routine a little bit. Then do a video of me doing this on the street and sell the shit for 60 bucks. Of course I would go for quarter, as you can borrow them. Instantly the whole gimmick price would drop and the "flaws" would become less of an issue. Making me money. Hell I'm sure either one of those big magic companies would lick their fingers in the prospect of expected profit. Fuck those!

Growing Coin

Plucking a coin from an ear is one of those goodies, that is too underestimated. When I started that sequence of putting the coin in one ear and pulling it out the other it got me good reactions. Soon thereafter the mouth and nose bit followed. Having a beard the production from the beard was inevitable.

But how do you finish such a one coin routine? Well by the standard final load. Most often its a large coin. And that was the case for years. But when I got an even larger coin I was thinking about making big coin even bigger. The method I use actually works in the real world. It is very obvious in the video. But in real life your eyes would follow the coin in the air. The routine used to be much, much more complex. Here is a version from seven years ago:



Now the routine is much more streamlined and it is much better on the angles. The final appearance of the giant coin actually is a nice show stopper. Especially for kids who dog that sort of stuff. In fact doing this for kids I usually point out another weird connection. If I put the coin in my hand, it comes out somebody else's ear. And then I have a short sequence of plucking the coin from the kids head. Try it, it's killer material for the youngsters.

In term of method there is nothing special. Just stuff from Bobo.

Three Coin Routine

So there is a whole bunch of stuff in there. Spliced together from various sources, which have already been freakish "frankensteinian" creatures on there own. We got the production of three coins. The first one from the elbow, the second one from behind the ear. Whenever I do that routine with children in the room I produce the coin from their ear. Depending on the angle I either use the production from back palm or the production from Downs palm. Both can be found in Modern Coin Magic. (page 3 and 5) The first vanish of the third coin is nothing but a clever bluff that works as the spectators make wrong assumptions about the amount of coins. (Bluff Vanish page 59) The whole reason for the vanish is the next phase, which is Three Fly.

Troy Hooser has reworked the classic Three Fly into a routine he calls Redirection Coins Across. You find that routine in Destroyers (page 37 et seq.) written by Joshua Jay. Basically it changes the "travel" of the coins from the side to side aspect to a front and back aspect. So the whole bit becomes much more three dimensional. Clever thinking by Troy Hooser. In the video it doesn't show up that well, therefore the hands seem awfully close to each other in the sequence. The last coin uses a subtlety by German magician/mentalist Marc Gettmann who is an awesome coin worker. The standard vanish of the last coin starts from French Drop position and ends up in Ramsay Subtlety position. Marc changed it, so don't have to turn your wrist. Leading into the third part is a simple repeated coins phase. That serves the purpose of getting rid of "extras" by adding more effects and length to the routine.

The starting point for this part was ExTROYdinary also by Troy Hooser. (page 29) But his version uses a shell. I got rid of that, not because it wasn't freaking brilliant, but because I'm so lazy to take care of my props, so I rather modify the routine, so I can be rough with my props or even lose them. It also makes use of the "Flying Shuttle Pass" which is a really, really good addition by Jay Sankey on the classic Shuttle Pass.

There are a few reasons I didn't do Three Fly as the last phase. First: It's not that strong, compared to three vanish and reproductions in a row. What, what, what I hear you say. Try it, and you know what I mean. Second: The thought of perhaps more than three coins in play will come up. So I wanted to end this by just using three coins allowing for maximum exposure of the empty hands. This would not be the case if I would do Three Fly to close the routine. Third: I end clean. Fourth: Reset.

Also the routine is modular, which almost always is a good thing. I can close it very quickly and if I want to I can even make it longer by adding a one coin routine, an exposé routine (you'll see what that is, when it comes up in my schedule) or a spell bound routine. (See last week.)

Poker Spellbound

A standard spellbound routine. Three poker chips in this case one by one change into a coin. David Roth's Wild Coin routine #1 and #2 come to mind when you see this. (Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman) That routine has the coin be dropped in a cup. This wouldn't be possible in this case as the sound it would make would totally take away the presumed illusion. So I decided to be all open about it. And then I got me thinking about premises. What if magic actually happened and I fail to see that. So this is what I ended up with.

Finger Tips Coins Across aka Three Fly was the main inspiration to use that particular handling. Not being restricted to tables and to do a coin trick at chest height is always a good thing. I drew influence from Troy Hoosers coin work. The book Destroyers should be anybody read if you wanna know about direction and coin magic.

The first change is simple, the second one automatic if you a standard ungimmicked Three Fly. Same with the next two changes. The third change is a classic Spellbound change, while the last one is merely the good ol' Bobo Switch.

Placing the coins up to my eyes is not only a personal thing, it's also darn practical and funny. That way you don't need a table nor any receptical at all. Here is a suggested continuation of the effect, if you own a coin holder. Change the three poker chips into three coins. A shuttle pass will do it and it would significantly broaden the effect. As the last change will be off beat it's execution should be not really a problem.

Three Buttons in the Hand

So we all know the standard two in the hands one in the pocket routine. Usually it goes like this: Sponge balls are being used. Each sponge ball is picked up one by one and placed one by one into the other hand. Almost always the "tricky business" happens during the handling of the second ball. And while that allows for all sort of subtleties I tended to look for something else. Then I realized that one of the coin moves I've been doing for ages works great here. Surprisingly the routine becomes easier that way.

By picking up all of the "coins" at once and then dropping them in the hand and then tossing one out, the spectator is forced to make up his mind about the number of coins in the magicians hand. So if the spectator deduces the two are left the conviction is even stronger. At least that is what I think.

The moves seems to be consistent all three times which makes the vanish of the objects near the end a real surprise. I decided to use buttons, as coins and sponge balls are so common in magicians routines. Also it allows me for that rather nice ending which "kills" the audience for some iffy reason. I do have a stand up routine with "big" buttons that end the same way, so applying this to the 2H1P routine was a no-brainer. But I have never seen someone else doing that.

The final "vanish" in the cloth is a pretty old bold vanish. The first two are obvious and standard procedure, but the last one comes from the good old "Modern Coin Magic" by J.B. Bobo. (Honestly I think that the titel of the book is kind of outdated by now.) It's the Bluff Vanish at page 59. It's much more deceptive than most magicians give it credit for.

Chinese Money Mystery by J.B. Bobo

Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo 1952



Page 154 et seq.



Personal Comment: J.B. Bobo doesn't credit anybody with this. And he usually does throughout the book. He also says when he is not the originator. So I assume he made it up. I would like to say that this is a gem, and that it is seen not enough these days. I wish I could say that the effect has a heavy impact with any audience. That the scope of the trick makes the people believe that all 8 coins traveled, instead of just three of them. And I wish I could say that it is rather easy to do... but this is a lousy card trick. Where are the cards? Answer me that!



Difficulty 3/5

Coin Production from Two Cards

Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo 1952



Page 88 et seq.



Personal Comment: Good trick, a gem rarely seen nowadays. Imagine this in a Cannibal Card Routine. Instead of a coin, you can have a piece of a card being regurgitated. I always liked this, so I had to include this. There is nobody credited, but J.B. Bobo says it was published in "The Sphinx some years back" the book is old, so it is even more years. If somebody knows the source I'll change it accordingly.



Difficulty 1/5