Great Expectations

This is part of my show about magic. And it is a combination of several effects. I was trying to have a similar handling leading to better and better results.

First phase: A card is selected and the prediction matches. This is a fairly good trick. I have two cards selected and throw in a little magicians choice. Not that that matters, but it keeps a certain consistency within the "Handhabungsgestalt" of the whole routine.

Second phase: This is where it gets interesting. "Monarch's Quartet" by Larry Jennings. I substituted the Jinx Switch from something I came up with, as I never felt good about the Jinx Switch. But this certainly breaks the expectation of the spectators. And it elevates the effect from a sheer improbability to an impossibility.

Third phase: Harry Anderson's "Gang of Four" really breaks the mold here. You tear the card, which always so something that people remember. The pieces change. The element of fail brought back full circle. This certainly plays so well.

Please excuse my patter. I was not able to translate my script properly, but you can see how the tricks built on top of each other.

As said in the beginning, this is part of my show about magic. The basic theme about the show is that magic is more than just a bunch of tricks. It's about taking several principles and turning them into deceptive performance pieces. A chapter is all about how expectations can generate awareness and confusion. This card routine is demonstrating that breaking the expectation can be more rewarding than meeting the expectations.

Three Ways to Produce a Coin

I love problems... no wait... I love solving problems. Getting ready for most coin productions is one of those problems. You need to get the coin into your hand secretly. So how do you do that. Well the most common method is putting away a certain prop stealing the coin along the way. Then you hold out until you start producing the coin. And you know what. That is perfectly fine. But I felt like toying around with different premises.

So the first one is by Harry Anderson. It is taken from "Wise Guy" published by Mike Caveney. The book is all about the magic of Harry Anderson. On page 22 you'll find the routine entitled "Sewing A Coin". But it has also been published under the name "As Ye Sew, So Shall Ye Reap" in "The New York Magic Symposium Collection Two". I like the fact that it starts off so playfully. It requires you to use your imagination. So it is not taken seriously and therefore the attention is very low on the actual dirty work. I can tell you from the many times I have been doing this, that the appearance of the coin generates a pretty strong reaction.

The second one is by Jim Abrahams. He does it not with a coin but a metal disc, claiming that this is part of a UFO. One side invisible and one side visible. After that he demonstrates a few other things with it to prove that amusing premise. But the boldness of showing your hands empty is something that others might appreciate. You basically do the exact opposite of what you are claiming to do. You don't pick up the coin, you place it. Which is hilarious I think. A good swindle and the appearance of the coin also works well.

The last one is my own. Actually I use this to produce sponge balls. But you can produce just about anything. You need a key, but putting the key away after you turned the lock is a good motivation to go into your pocket. In fact it is so good, that people don't even take note of it, because it is so natural to do that. So the initial conviction of the hands being empty remains. So the actual production of the coin is a strong one. And putting away the invisible box gives you yet another reason to go into your pocket. Again it kind of goes unnoticed. Which puts you in the perfect position for just about anything. The coin split was an obvious choice, But Spellbound, Karate Coin or tons of other ideas come to mind.

One Coin One Pen

This is my opener for the small stand up show. If the crowd is larger I change the coin for a sponge ball. Works about the same. Let me go into the details here. The initial production of the coin is something I used to do a lot, but not as often today. It taken from "Wise Guy" published by Mike Caveney. The book is all about the magic of Harry Anderson. On page 22 you'll find the routine entitled "Sewing A Coin". But it has also been published under the name "As Ye Sew, So Shall Ye Reap" in "The New York Magic Symposium Collection Two". Briefly: it's a lovely little close up production of a coin. The first two phases of the coin and pen bit are almost directly inspired by Rick Merrill's 2006 FISM Routine and by Scandinavian Magician Run Klan. Love both guys to bits. The change overs of coin and pen are based on the Sylvester Pitch, but I modified it a bit, because the original technique doesn't seem to work for me. The rest is rather self explaining. Simple transposition stuff combined with Flip Sticking.... personally I think it is much more deceptive to do the Flip Stick Move not as a vanish, but as a transformation.

The very last bit with the setup of the premise (burns through and moves) nicely foreshadows the end. The Smoke Gimmick by Alan "the hobbit" Rorrison is such a nice way to enhance the effect of the coin coming out of the mouth.

All in all. It's a good way to start a show. The angles are fairly good, the effects are clear, it's faced paced... cool stuff.

The Gang of Four by Harry Anderson

Wise Guy, from the street to the screen by Mike Caveney
Page 86 et seq.

Personal Comment: This is NOT The Gang of Four, it is a variation. But the main effect remains the same. A card is torn into four pieces and revealed as the four corners of four other cards. The original effect goes like this. Four cards are peeked at, the magician then removes a card and says, that it would be great if all had picked the same card. A quick look through the deck and all four spectators agree that their card is missing. When asked for the name of the card it turns out that all had different cards. Then the magician would tear up the card removed earlier and the turn out would be the same as in the version that I recorded. Here is what I never liked about it: The setup and that most of the effect is not seen in a strange way. What if the spectators forgot the card... all am saying is, that there are a few things that could go wrong.
I changed the effect slightly. A prediction is introduced and four cards are picked. Basic motivation: The spectator gets four tries to get the matching card. But he utterly fails. (The slow reveal of the wrong cards also has some nice built in drama)
Then it is the magician's turn to find a "magic" solution to the problem. And I have been doing this effect for a few years now. To borrow a term most often used by Harry Lorayne a Reputation Maker.... or a Show Stopper. My version is practical, just get out the card from a different deck, and all you need is a cull and a force, making the routine a piece of cake.

Difficulty 2/5