I was testing this great routine on my 11 year-old daughter.

During the final phase when she puts the coin into my hand, she TWICE pulled the top coin (and gaff) from the stack, two fingers on top, thumb below, despite me miming that she LIFT it off.

Amazingly, the gaff didn't separate, so she's still unaware of the existence of a gimmick!

Has this happened to anyone else? I'm nervous now of taking the routine out for further testing...

Never Has It happen with layman! But A magician or to has done it! I always say! " just take Your thumb and 1 st. Finger And lift off the top coin! " And as I say it I show the grip At the same time!

Thanks. I was wondering if the words I said might help. I was wanting to avoid being too prescriptive - I mean, why should it matter how the heck they pick it up?! But it probably flies past...

I don't have this and haven't performed it but have followed along some of the discussion.
Maybe the time to emphasize the specific pickup is when picking up the imaginary coin.
You may be able to embellish the description more without notice since you are getting them to pick up an imaginary coin.
Yet, if David Neighbors implies it is not necessary, I'd go with him on this.

Randy

Hi Ross,

Yea that's what I have Done for over 20 years ( when Bob Bangle 1 ST.showed it to me! ) And yea it Fly's Right by! I pass it of as a joke! I say " Yea it a motor skill! "

I have never had a layman Think any thing about it! And they Always Just Pick up the shell!

I had this happen to me too - from someone around the same age! I really love this trick and I am working on it with spectators every chance I get. The thing that's interesting about this compared to other types of coin routines is that the sleights aren't particularly difficult, but it's trickier than it seems to get the spectator to handle the coins exactly as needed. For instance I've had some awkward moments when asking the person to stack the coins in the hand at the beginning. They don't always know exactly what I mean even though to me it seems as if I'm being pretty clear. I've had to refine my language and motions to get more specific about how to do it. It's the same thing with the phase you are asking about. The last time I was very specific in my motions about how to pick up the coin - I kind of mimed a claw coming down from top and I think I even said "lift it up from the top" and it went fine. I too thought I was being a little overly-prescriptive about it, but it didn't seem to bother the person I was doing the trick for. I think that all of this will smooth out in time. I feel that with much more experience with the trick I will figure out the subtleties that convey the right actions from the spectator. I will say this - the last time I tried it, even though it wasn't anywhere near perfect, the person was really blown away by it - that was the first time I had the really giddy and excited response that I think the trick merits. Another little sticking point has been getting the timing down on the last move. Done correctly it's a very convincing vanish, but I find that too takes some practice -with spectators-to get smoothed out.

I think in general that this is a remarkably well-thought-out and very magical routine. There are very few of the false moves that are necessary compromises in many other routines. And the fact that so much of it happens in their hands, of course, is part of why it is so effective.

When at the beginning of the routine you tell them to imagine they put a coin in your hand, this is where you need to prep them how to pick the coin up so at the final phase they have already practiced. Just my 2 cents

Honestly, I think the miming thing works far better on adults. 11 years isn't incredibly young, but it's still the point where even if you show them how to do it, they will do it their own way anyway. I have only had what happened to you happen to me once, and I remember breaking the pace to "let everyone come in and see" so I could reset the coin in their hand and do it again.

There is another idea that will make it work but it isn't as clean. If she pulls the gaff and coin together, secret separate the two in one hand, and add the additional coin back to the stack in the hand as you turn all the coins over together in her hand, then help her close the hand and finish as normal.

Watching the DVD that came with this, I wondered if anyone ever had a complete crash and burn, where the spec turned the coin over and the jig was up. Garrett said he came close once to exposing the method due to the instructions he gave a spec, therefore he was more careful going forward. But has anyone actually had mid-effect exposure, and if so, what did you do?

I guess that if you believed that only the one spec saw it, you could move to a different volunteer and finish up. Or if that's not an option, you'd have to just get a laugh out of it and move on (ie, "Dear Lord, what did you do? That's amazing!"). But has anyone had this happen in performance?

No It's Never Happen to me! But it about WHEN you do it!

I've had an adult do that. And I think, as Ross says, I was trying not to sound too picky about how they hand me the coin. I have found two things that help:

1. Tell them to square the coins into a nice pile, and mime that. They should do that correctly, since they've been coached to do that before. As they finish, but before they take their fingers away from the coins, add, "...and take the top coin off the stack". I'm not sure if Garrett talks about this on the DVD but I assume he does.

2. Here's an excuse for why you're being picky about this--you want the real action to look "just like" the action you had them only imagine a few moments ago. This "makes sense" since the routine is about confusing their sense of what's real and what's imagined.

Anyways, that's been enough for me. Hope it works for any of you who are having the same problems.

I would just make sure that I hit it hard in the first phase when I am having them hand me the imaginary coin. I you instill the movement then, that might help.

I've performed a routine similar to this that has the exact same last part. The routine itself has way more 'risky moments' than this one and I have had people turn over the coins... but they really don't know what they are looking at and it just flies by. Ive had someone literally tell me that my "coin is broken" and not associated it to the travelling. He forgot ever seeing it later on.

Yes it did happen to me by a drunk. lucky he had a buzz on lol. he didn't see anything..