coin magic – MagicShow.Tips

Does Flash Paper Go Bad?

Recently, I bought an old box of magic props from the late 1950s/early 1960s, and it contained some 65ish year old flash paper. People frequently ask in magic social media groups, “Does flash paper go bad?” Well, let’s find out!

I’m amazed that it worked as well as it did and that it didn’t burn my fingers!

I think the issue that people have with flash paper is that they store it wet for safety, which is absolutely what you should do. Then dry out what you need to use a few days before you need it. That said, I think the paper sitting wet in a sealed bag over time will deteriorate. That takes years, and you really should be buying decades worth of flash paper at one time. It’s something you really should be buying a few months supply at a time. I personally wouldn’t want to store a ton of it at home.

Be safe.

-Louie

Jumbo Coins Thru Table

Sometimes I see a trick and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The effect is a coins through table, but with jumbo coins.

Watch the video:

From a magician’s standpoint the jumbo coins add difficulty. From a non-magician standpoint, I’m not sure if it enhances the effect. Sure, everyone knows that doing sleight of hand with a 3 inch diameter coin is much harder than with a 1 inch diameter coin. That difference is something that doesn’t really matter in the moment, unless you sell the trick as a “try to catch me” sort of trick.

Also, why jumbo coins?

I get that it’s a coin trick made bigger, but wouldn’t drink coasters work instead of the jumbo coins. Now you have a trick with a natural object that belongs on a table.

I think the effect in the video is very well done, however not sure how I feel about the trick.

-Louie

Coin to Key Chain!

I’ve been doing a coin to key chain for a while now and I love it! The effect is you show your lucky coin that’s permanently embedded in a fob. Then another coin is signed and reappears as your lucky coin that’s permanently embedded in your key chain!

The lucky coin could be given out in its holder as a souvenir!

What I love about this trick is that it lives on my keychain, all I need to do is borrow a marker! I’ll probably make a batch of these at some point and offer them for sale.

-Louie

The Miracle Pad by Mike Giles

A while ago I came across the Miracle Pad that was put out by Mike Giles. I remember being a teenager when this came out. I think in the late 1990’s this was something like $60 or $75, which was a lot of money for a close up pad!

This is a fancy close up pad, and it will facilitate a production of four half dollars and a jumbo coin.

I’m playing with it and the routine that I came up with is a matrix, that ends with a production of four coins and the jumbo coin. My routine isn’t quite at straight forward as you’d expect it to be with this prop. I had to add in an additional think to make it happen.

I never really intended to use the Miracle Pad as a gimmick. I put a table base on it and it’s my close up magic table that I use with projection. Since I had it with me on the ship I’m performing on, I got to playing with it.

Honestly I don’t think I’ll ever use it as a gimmicked pad in my shows, but it’s fun to play with!

-Louie

MAK Magic’s Mint Condition

My best guess is in the late 1990’s MAK Magic put out Mint Condition. This is an expanded shell coin that had the back of the coin on the inside. That allows you to show both sides of the shell when it’s empty.

I’ll admit that when it came out I thought it was a dumb idea. It was an improvement that didn’t really improve how a shell coin is used. For most close up magic, I still think it’s not necessary.

The place where this coin is great it for social media videos. Where is someone knows about a shell coin, it removes that when you show both sides of the coin. Social media is a great place for things that correct little details in magic tricks that are overkill for an in person performance.

The other thing is that I don’t think that Mint Condition was a huge seller, as a there’s not a lot of mentions of it when I do a Google Search and I can’t recall seeing one pop up on a used magic site. I guess them being uncommon is good for people who are using them!

-Louie

Lucky Penny Magic Trick

A trick I’ve been doing as part of my EDC magic is signed penny to key fob. The effect is a signed coin ends up permanently sealed inside of a “lucky coin” holder on your keychain. The nice thing about this is that it’s almost 100% self contained. I have everything I need to do the trick on my keychain, except a marker.

I’ve been using my original first design for a little bit and spent a little bit of time other day tweaking the design. The colors are just what was in the printer and have nothing to do with the design, besides making it easier to tell them apart.

The first redesign was good, the second was better and the third was a huge step backwards. I went back to the second redesign and it was the best of the three. That’s the great thing about 3D printing, it’s easy to tweak designs to get them where you want them!

-Louie

Penny Assembly

Many years ago there were several matrix effects using pennies. I think Bruce Kalver and Steve Duschek both sold versions. If I’m remembering correctly, both used steel pennies. I was cleaning up and found some copper plated steel pennies and wanted to put together a little coin assembly. I don’t think it’s technically a matrix as the coins aren’t in a square.

@louiefoxx Almost Worth a Nickel! #magictrick #magic #coins #nickel #coinmagic #cards #pennies #magiciansoftiktok ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

What I like about this is that it has an ending, while the ending isn’t very magical, it’s an ending and it has a tag line. As for method, there’s really nothing new here.

It was fun to work out a routine for this!

-Louie

Ali Baba Box!

Inside a box of old magic I bought I came across an strange coin box which I later learned was called the Ali Baba Box and it appears it was originally created/made by Eddie Gibson in the UK. The one I found was made by Paul Diamond and was originally part of a larger set.

The basic effect is you open the box and take out a sponge sponge ball, then close the box and when you reopen it, it’s full of coins. There really was no context to the sponge ball aside from filling the space inside the box. Here’s my attempt to give the box some sort of context:

@louiefoxx Tooth fairy doesn’t always have cash! #toothfairy #cointrick #magictrick #coins #quarter #payday #magic ♬ original sound – Louie Foxx

The tooth fairy theme with the sponge tooth kinda makes sense to tie it all together. I’m sure if I thought a bit more I could come up with something better…

-Louie

Coin Tray Updated!

The original version of the Bodega Coin Tray didn’t have the letting colored in. That was intentional as I personally wanted mine to look like it’s been on a counter for a while, so I only colored mine in lightly. However I’ve had a lot of people ask me for one that’s colored in so they don’t have to do that.

If you want one colored it, simply shoot me a note before ordering and I’ll make yours that way.

– Louie
PS Click here for more info, or to order the Bodega Coin Tray!

Nickel To Half Dollar by Joe Berg

I was playing with Joe Berg’s Nickel to Half Dollar and it’s an interesting gimmicked coin. Essentially it’s a coin that turns from a nickel into a half dollar. What I like about it is that the coin expands to the larger size. What I don’t like about it is the strange two handed grip you have to have on the nickel and that there are better ways to turn a nickel into a half dollar.

I came up with little transposition routine that uses the coin.

@louiefoxx Easy magic trick! #magictrick #cointrick #magic #nickel #halfdollar #coins #louiefoxx #switch #how #magiciansoftiktok ♬ Money – Pink Floyd

It’s not much, however I think the clean up at the end where I steal the the half shell off of the card is interesting and then allows me to show “both sides” of the Nickel to Half Dollar gimmick.

This is a video only trick, it really wouldn’t play in the real world as the Nickel To Half Dollar isn’t really practical to set and then properly hold with people watching you.

It’s a fun gimmick to play with!

-Louie