I really interest about pickpocketing, but it's hard for me to find a great effect for card and coin to misdirect. If you have an idea please just post me..

thanks,
realfake magic

Copper/Silver in the spectators hands.
Put a coin in each of his hands and say you want them to change places. Hold around his wrists as you shake his hands to "make the magic happen".
First effect: the coins changes places in spectators hands
Second effect: You give him his watch as a present

Of course, you steal it while you hold his wrists.

I never steal anything but watches. I don't want to be mistaken for a criminal.

Some material to look at would be Apollo Robbins stuff.


He's america's most famous pickpocket at the moment.

Anything you can put in their hands can take watches. (I.E. coins, spoons, cards, ninja rings)

But other things take a bit of audience management.

If you want to take ties, a nice idea from James Freedman is to do the gag of 'unraveling a thread' from the end of the tie.

It gives you a chance to see which side the tie goes. Then you can pretend to straighten the tie, and instead take it from him.


Cigerette in shirt/jacket is great, you can see the idea of pickpocketing from Derren Brown's book Absolute Magic.

Syldini's paper balls over the head might give you a chance to reach inside of pockets to look for the ball.


Chris Korn has a great trick with pens, that you won't be able to do all the time, but is worth learning when the oppertunity arises.


If you have any other questions, PM me, we'll discuss.


James

I think gregory wilson has a pickpocketing trick in his "On the Spot" videos/DVDs and anything by gregory wilson is top quality...check it out...there is a demo of it on penguin

There are some nice ideas on On the Spot, but even Greg says that its not a full fledged pickpocket tape, just some ideas for taking items.

I find that leading a volunteer up by the wrist (ever so gently) onto the stage is a great time to make the watch steal.

You could also help the volunteer take their jacket off before you escort them up onto the stage. Of course, in the process, you can easily dip into all the pockets of their jacket, then hand the jacket over to their table neighbor (often their trusted colleague or friend) for safe-keeping. Cell phones, glasses hankercheifs and much much more can be "stolen" during the taking off the jacket process. Dipping into their back pants pocket is also facilitated and kept "under cover" by this method.

For mingling magic, you could:

Show the volunteer how you can make a coin vanish in your hand, then have them hold the coin and close their fist around it. Under the guise of "helping" them to close their fist "just so", and attempting to "help them" make the vanish, you make the steal.

Of course, the coin vanish doesn't work for them. As they open their hand to reveal that the coin is still there, you take the coin back apologetically, letting them know you had really hoped that they could succeed with the vanish, but reassuring them that it's okay, since --after all... "you" are the "magician". As a follow-up, the watch can be found in a watch box, or anywhere else you please for that matter. However, it will have greatest impact if you delay the production by a few "beats", for example, produce it only after you have performed one more effect with the coin.

Best wishes to those who wish to entertain with the art of pickpocketing!

Yes Gregory Wilson's On The Spot Videos have a watch steal on them that is good.

Look for Apollo Robbins! he really made a reputation out of pickpocketing.
Also try the video called Stealing the Show..

I read an excellent idea somewhere else on the forum about after having stolen the watch you then launch into a chop cup routine and have the watch as a final load! You could use the line : "Have you been folowing the ball? Because if you WATCH....reveal"

Kevin Courtney
:kewl:

Very good line, Kevin. Speakingof the on the spot videos, do they come in DVD out of curiosity?

Matthias

Never mind, I found it. Sorry.

Matthias

I also recommend you strongly to get both Gregory Wilson "On The Spot" DVDs

Though its been almost beaten to death, On the spot gives you some great routines to get you into your spectators space.


This easiely sets up the steal.

Though you want to look into any kind of routine that is in the spectators space, some routines are not gathered into one spot for easy access.


Though Cultural Xchange 1 and 2, some of those routines help get into their space, and can be adapted to pickpocketig ( not all the routines, but defiantly some of them)


Happy hunting.

Apollo uses a reel I believe and made the coin float everywhere, this was a masterful approach to misdirection.

You can see it on the Animal Magic Special.

Oh my..try to find some info re Paul Potassy...
He was the BEST...and he did it the way it should be done..
Yes, the best pickpocket ever was a magician..
I'll not explain *how* he did it, because it is so obvious how to do it..
Try to find info re him, try to find a video showing his act where he did pickpocketing..the video is best in this case, the book didn't explain it well enough..
Good luck...

I use spoon bending for stealing peoples watches.

Oh my...

James Freedman (I think) has an excellent method for stealing a pen out of a pocket. it is really good! but I forgot the name of the video...

Astinus

Apollo does the muscle pass, its not on a thread, he may have an I.T. routine, but on the Guerilla Magic special it was a muscle pass.


James Freedmans dvd is called Stealing the show. Well worth looking into.

Doesn't anyone read Stars of Magic anymore? There's a great watch steal in there that's matched to a wonderful coin routine...

Lee Darrow, C.H.

The one I saw was an ITR...I believe. It was great..