I'm reading all these posts about missing. I don't mean to talk down to anyone, but with a bit of practice (which every move requires) you will never miss. The pumpkin seed vanish is 100% when you've really got it. Start with a dime, then a quarter, and finally a half dollar. And with the lighter coins you don't need a big droopy coat sleeve. You just need a long sleeve of any sort, even if it's very tight fitting. You'd be amazed how accurate you can get.

I think you would have to consider who the show is for and if you would risk a one in a hundred chance of blowing it. If it's not an important show, blowing it won't ruin the entertainment a bit. If it's the president and first lady....

The other area I would not risk, is a Gospel performance. I won't risk any trick or prop that may fail during these, or anything that would cause the message to not be conveyed in a proper, well above average manner. For these, nothing less than your very best is acceptable.

Besides, most folks so far don't wear long sleeves.

Sleeving is great for switching coins, I use Dr Roberts method. If the item to be switched in, is in classic palm and you miss, you haven't exposed anything, you apparently just dropped the coin. Or it flies away behind you. In a bar situation you can sometimes get away with that. It's an excellent method for doing a very clean coin bend. Use the coin toss from Bobo to show the coin, then Dr Robert's, then Sankey's TV bend and you end with a bent coin and otherwise empty hands. It also makes a very nice visual change of one coin into several other different coins.

I got many routines and some good tips from J.B. Bobbo's Modern Coin Magic, but I also figured many out on my own, I mainly use them for transpositions, and such, they can be a valuable tool, but shouldn't be over used.

Magicman01462

I saw Bob Fitch lecture a few days ago, and he got great mileage out of the Dingle Bounce Change, a sleeving method.

Bobo teaches the Dr. Roberts method, and for me it was definitely worth the practice. To avoid a lot of legwork chasing after coins that you shoot all over the room, stand in front of a bed; your misses will land on it.

Sample sleeving effect: You pick up a silver dollar, toss it from hand to hand, tap it on the table to prove it's solid, then close your hand. When you open your hand, it has changed into two halves -- and your hands are otherwise empty. This sort of effect is worth practicing some sleeving to achieve, in my view.

Also you can clean up many coin routines via sleeving.

If you're nervous about missing, sleeve before (not after) making an apparent transfer from hand to hand. If you mess up the sleeving, it just seems like a clumsy moment but doesn't tip anything to the spectators.

Jerry

On cuffing, First find the right pants! Then toss a little above the cuff on the pants leg
and let it slide down the leg in to the cuff.
if you try to hit the cuff itself, it is very hard! This way is much more easy to do! I don't do cuffing anymore. None of my pants have cuffs! But that's what I used to do and it worked great! Now how to get the coin back, that's the hard part!!! And yes I have worked a handling or two!!!

Best David Neighbors
The Coinjurer

Jerry, you mentioned the one coin changing to two coins, that is one of the first things I started doing with sleeving and it is an excellent effect, can be made into a *visual* change if you use Kaps subtlety, the hand seems to be shown palm up before and after the change. The sleeve is done as the hand turns a little palm down and boom there's the change. I also have some moves for putting the two back into one using a click pass, i.e. you hear the coins hit each other and when you open your hand it's the dollar again. This 1-2-1 routine to me is one of the best non gimmicked coin effects I've found.

Another thing you can do with Dr Robert's method in short sleeves is to use it to ditch a coin behind you when you're sat on a sofa.

When it comes to cuffing I think that it is so difficult these days due to the style of most pants. A lot of magicians, myself included, like to wear relaxed fit pants. These tend to be a little "baggy" and the coin will not slide down them into the cuff. I have played with cuffing a bit, but decided not to continue with it at this point in time.

As far as sleeving goes, I like to roll my sleves back a bit and I can still make it up my sleeves. And I still get the reaction of
"His sleeves are rolled back!?!"

Another thing before I go, David Stone has a great way to produce a coin using his cuff. It is in one of his lecture notes.

Corey B.

The only sleeving method I use is from Bobo's. It's the coin vanish and return with a pencil, popularised by Rosini. Haven't got the book by my side, so I can't tell you which page it's on, but it is in the sleeving section.

I very rarely wear sleeves (the "Wow! His sleeves are rolled up!" syndrome). However, I've found that trick a useful impromptu trick, for when the need arises!

Andy -- I also love the "splitting a dollar" effect, which I learned out of Sawa's book and have since elaborated so I have 4 or 5 different methods.

A good basic method that uses sleeving is to show a silver dollar on your left palm, cover the palm with your right hand briefly (Slydini sleeving method), and reveal two half dollars (previously in classic p**m).

If you want to chat about other methods, PM me and we can bat it around.

Cheers,
Jerry

I came in late, but let me add my 0,02$...

Sleeving is just GREAT. For me, it's becoming more and more of an asset, in close-up as well as in walk-around situations. Don't know which techniques you guys prefer... but as for me, I'm using two...
that snapping technique (I think it's in Bobo, gotta look it up) and a wonderfully natural technique taught to me by Alexander de Cova (he's brilliant) where you just open and your hands palm up with a very casual gesture.

Of course, sleeving's not limited to coins and cards, cigarettes, pens & pencils, ice and sugar cubes, balls, whatever... all this can and should be (???) sleeved. I'm kidding, of course, but I admit that my number 1 coin routine uses sleeving quite a few times (especially the jumbo coins ...a tribute to Carl Cloutier).

And one VERY IMPORTANT POINT: I most often (except from that coin routine) don't use sleeving to vanish something but to hide it for a moment, for instance, instead of palming a card and getting burnt by the audience, I keep it in my sleeve while they shuffle like mad.

As for cuffing, there are several points I'd like to add to the above discussion.
First of all, in middle-European countries like Austria (where I am), Germany, France and the UK many people are still all suit and tie. Hmmm, that's not true of everyone but the so-called white-collars (horrible term) certainly dress quite well. And as far as I know, my two or three "nice" trousers (thanks, mum) indeed have cuffs. So, it probably depends on which country you are in and in what kind of venues you perform.

I had the extraordinaire privilege of spending a few days with Bobby Bernard (I asked this question before but does anyone know whether he's still with us?) and he himself taught me the art of cuffing. It really is a great way to do short sleeved magic and it can be the most magical experience for your audience...
Ok, I just re-read the Bobo section on cuffing and it's not at all what I learned from Bobby.

Bobby's version goes something like this...
"Hey, magic man, can you vanish that coin, with no sleeves and without putting it from one hand into the other?"
"Sure" magician takes off his jacket and his left hand he casually puts into his trousers' pocket (this helps straightening the trousers' left leg).

You start out with the coin in your right hand, you close it and start that ever-famous rubbing move as if the coin de-materialized in your hand. Very, very slightly (only about 4-5 inches in total) move your hand up and down in a diagonal way (thus getting nearer to your left leg) and one time, when you are really close let go of the coin (which was clipped almost only by your pinky). It should hit your leg about 4 inches below your knee and slide down into the cuff.

Now don't open your right hand immediately!! Keep on rubbing, blowing, singing, whatever is magical in your eyes and then, and only then, slowly open your hand. That's magic!!

Last point: keep your weight on your right foot, this looks even more laid back and this should be the attitude behind the whole trick.

Hope this was somewhat understandable.

Best, Chris

That would be Dr. E.M. Roberts sleeving method.

Dan wrote:
"That would be Dr. E.M. Roberts sleeving method."

"That would be "Full Frontal Assault" and it uses one coin up each sleeve once in the routine"

What would the Magic Café be without its wandering magic encyclopedias?

Thanks, Dan!

I was taught cuffing by Lou Tannen, who amazed all with it, though done behind the counter and can assure that the Bobo technique--as I recall (I'm too lazy to recheck it first) is all wrong.

To have almost 100% accuracy
(1) put left hand into left pocket and twist hand counter-clockwise to tighten up the pants, removing folds in the leg--or just pull up with left hand. You want the pants to be pretty flat.

(2) Put weight on left foot, same purpose.

(3) Hold coin with second finger, one top edge and thumb on bottom edge (now called Spellbound type hold) Put index finger on the flat side of the coin and toss coin so that it hits flat against pant leg.

Do NOT aim for cuff!!
Aim for a few inches above (between knee and cuff) and it will SLIDE down into the cuff. (similar to a basketball aimed against the backboard rather than the basket itself.)

As you toss, body twists so you are looking to the right, hand goes up to shoulder height and as body turns back to ace front, the arm descends in a semi-circle and releases coin as hand comes down so that the palm is facing to the left. Release coin at lowest point in the swing, and then turn body back to the right, and hand back to shoulder height.

Voila! you will succeed almost immediately.
And if you don't?? Bend down, shoot coin between your legs into left hand hiding behind legs and "vanish" it with a toss into the air.

I learned cuffing as one of my first sleights, and sleeving, learned from a series in the then monthly Hugard's

Marty Kaplan

P.S. Just read Chris's description and it is quite good. I would not have written had I paged through the entire thread first, it is so similar. However, his (Bernard's) method may look more subtly close-up and magical; tossing the hand up to shoulder height strikes me as theatrical, for bettr or worse. I just never thought of doing it any other way.

Oh, also, the rubbing of it in the hand, ditto. I love the idea of the weight being on the rear foot. This should indeed look more casual than my method but mine is accurate so often that I'm a bit fearful of changing it.

Thanks Chris.

Marty K

New dress code at work. I now have cuffs and sleeves. Will have to see what happens as the cuffs on my slacks can only hide a quarter. I got sleeves though.

I recently met someone who cuffed coins...Wow! I had always pressumed this to be a silly pipe dream idea...But having seen this all I can say is I am impressed. The guy did it as part of his whole routine, and although the remainder of the routine wasn't that good, his full vanish of a dollar was really impressive. I asked him after and he demonstrated it to me...Well I am going to have to go and practice this one...But believe me, this works!
Owen

When it comes to sleeving I use load before you go. I use the sleeve as a utility to deliver objects to the hand rather than a vanish.

You can also sl.... with old turtle necks and sweatshirts.

I wear long sleeves most of the year.
The middle school I work with(even in summer school) tends to run on the cool side. Perhaps a "trick" to keep students and staff awake.

Coin magic is a great way to connect with the students I work with.

Laughologist and Nearly Normal Counselor

My favorite impromptu coin bit is to switch, say a quarter for a penny using a nice sleeving move.

Dr. E.M. Roberts' method of sleeving gives me the greatest flexibility. It can be found in Bobo's COIN MAGIC.