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.

Coin And String

This is a routine I strung together using the best methods I could find for this type of magic. Let's mention the basics first: There are two ways of doing this. One is using just one object, like most ring and string routines and the second way of doing this is using a dupe. The drawback to the first one is, that you have to go through rather goofy phases of linking and unlinking, while the later version has the drawback of being to obvious. The second problem can be solved by attacking the issue with "cleanliness". And what better way to hide the second coin, by not using a second coin, but a familiar and common coin gimmick.

So going from there I went through my pile of books and read. The basic routines that I took "phases" from are by Sol Stone, Troy Hooser and Jay Sankey.

If you check out Vol.1 No.3 of the Apocalypse at page 30 you'll find the routine called "Stung Coin" by Sol Stone. Which is a nice prototype but gets needlessly lost in methods in my humble opinion. But there is a nice way to use the Downs Palm to hide the second coin. This routine was my starting point to get to the routine you see in the video. The next influence and I'd say the major influence is the "Charming Chinese Challenge" by Troy Hooser. You can find the routine in the wonderful book Destroyers by Joshua Jay. It starts at page 21. My little video doesn't do it justice, but the "Spell Bound Unlink" looks a lot better if you use a felt ribbon instead of the big string I used in the video. The ribbon seems to fall right through the coin. Another phase I took from Hooser's routine is the "Mid-Air Link" which is hard to do on camera but is so great in real life. It seems like there is no way trickery could take place. Especially if you do it with a certain level of nonchalance. And finally Jay Sankey has a wonderful routine called Leaving Home. It is published on his "The Very Best of Jay Sankey" DVD (Volume 3) He uses the Strinking Vanish by David Williamson ("Williamson Wonder" by Richard Kaufman) in a nice offbeat way to create the illusion of a link. That is the last phase I did in the video. It is the most challenging move in my routine, but worth the effort of learning it. The very first link is mine, I have not found that in any books I own, but I like it.

Triumph Display by Troy Hooser

Destroyers, The Superlative Magic of Troy Hooser by Joshua Jay
Page 139 et seq.

Personal Comment: Really nice version. I like it.

Difficulty 2/5