One of the things I love when I’m home is being able to get together with other magicians.
While magic jamming with Jonathan Friedman and Chris Beason, we came with with this strange little coin trick:
It’s not really practical, but a fun little magic trick for a video.
-Louie
Awhile ago I had picked up some Milk Caps and rigged one up like a split coin so that I could do a Three Fly style routine. Here’s the routine with some patter:
These milk caps are as unusual of an object as something like a silver dollar to anyone under 30 years old. People get hung up on what’s an ordinary object, and a large size silver dollar isn’t an ordinary object. The USA stopped using the large size dollar coins in the late 1970’s or over 40 years ago! The audience has to make a leap in time for either prop. I’d argue that the milk cap is easier to justify because it’s something they haven’t seen before. Where a large size dollar coin is similar to something that exists, but not the same. You can justify the milk caps through presentation, however most magicians don’t justify why they have old coins.
-Louie
Yesterday I wrote about a Cork To Coin effect (read it here) and I’ve taken it a bit further than a simple 2 second trick. It’s not gone much further, but here’s where it’s at:
I like the idea of a transposition between the cork and the coin. It adds a layer of less obviousness to how the trick works. I think I may flesh it out a bit more and rerecord it with better lighting and put it out as a social media video.
In yesterday’s blog post, I mentioned it took a bit of work figuring out what to do with the penny in the trick where a penny changes into two silver dollars. The challenge was that the coin change happens immediately, however I need to keep the coin hidden for the whole routine. Based on the conditions I posted I can’t just ditch it as my hands need to remain in the frame. Adding to the problem is that I also have two coins finger palmed the entire routine (until the end).
The solution I came up with, which should have been pretty obvious was to attach attach a magnet to the penny as the silver dollars already have magnet in them. I took the penny shell from a Dime and Penny set and used teflon tape to hold the magnet.
I figured using a shell would allow the penny to sit flat on on the silver dollar. The flatter it sat, the less chance there would be for me to accidentally knock it off, and it won’t rattle as the coin moved.
The “penny solution” brings me back to something Nick Lewin always says, I love how elaborate this 30 second coin routine has become!
Recently someone asked me about what size coins I use. Personally I use silver dollar size coins, and I believe you should too. The reason is simple, they are bigger and more visible. There’s really no reason to use anything smaller. Sure some things are easier with smaller coins, but if you take that argument … Continue reading “Coin Size…”
Recently someone asked me about what size coins I use. Personally I use silver dollar size coins, and I believe you should too. The reason is simple, they are bigger and more visible. There’s really no reason to use anything smaller.
Sure some things are easier with smaller coins, but if you take that argument to cards you’ll see it wrong. Poker sized cards are what 99% of magicians use, however there are bridge size cards which hardly anyone uses for magic. These cards are smaller making a lot of card magic easier with them.
Currently it’s easier than ever to get gimmicked coins custom made and they aren’t that much more expensive than standard gimmicked coins. If you wanted a larger size gimmicked coin you can do that. You’re no longer limited to what’s a stock item.
You owe it to yourself and your audience to use dollar sized coins…Unless you are making an artistic choice to use a smaller coin. For example my coin in bottle routine uses a half dollar, but there is a reason I’m using that coin in the presentation. This also doesn’t apply if you are using a borrowed coin for something like coin in ball of yarn.
