Hi
I have just finished Bobo's and would like to know a couple of good books that are going to teach me some more slieghts and a couple of tricks.
Thanks

Expert Coin magic. I believe this is by David Roth. I have heard wonderful things about it.

David Regal's Close Up and Personal has a large section on coin routines and some sleights.

Stars of Magic has coin effects by Scarne, Carlyle, Vernon, and Bertram. A must read.

Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman is a compilation of effects and sleights by Roth, Latta, Sol Stone, Slydini, Dingle etc.

Encyclopedia of Coin Sleights DVD has over 100 coin moves on all phases of coin magic. Availale through myself, L&L, or your local magic dealer. This set will give you the versitility to improve the magic you already do, and work on new effects as well. Good luck!

Finished Bobo? You mean you can do all the tricks there?

Good luck finding one. They're out of print. If you find one however, don't blow your money just yet. There is talk of it being put back into print. You should wait to see if that's true, then buy a copy. That's what I'm doing.

Go to magic books by post...they will probably have coinmagic in stock.

There's so much excellent stuff in Bobo that its hard to "finish" it but here are some things after that.

Books:

Coinmagic by Richard Kaufman(which was reprinted a few months ago).
Expert Coin Magic by David Roth, this is excellent(but its out of print)
Stars of Magic has lots of great coin stuff

Dvds:

Expert Coin Magic Made easy vol. 1-3 by David Roth
Ultimate Coin Magic by David Roth vols. 1-4(from L&L publishing)
Basic Coin Magic vols. 1-2 by David Stone
Encyclopedia of Coin Sleights by Rubenstein
Knock-out Coin magic by Rubenstein

that's off the top of my head

Josh

Are the DVDs mostly just the moves or actual routines?

I have a question about Bobo's book. I have the original edition (hardbound)published in 1952. (Did I just date myself?) I understand that this is the same as the paperback and that there is a lot more in later editions. Is this so? Should I buy a later edition, or would it not be a worthwhile investment for someone my age?

Disregard my question. I found the answer in another thread.

I'd look into Al Schneider's work with coins, if I were you. His "On Coins" used to be available from his website as a pdf download. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

He's been around the Café lately.... try contacting him.

Bob

Hi guys!

Gotta agree with jrandcc, here. For the LONGEST time I thought my most valuable Coin Magic source was Bobo (original Hardbound). Then I went to L & L Publishing, and bought The Encyclopedia of Coin Sleights VHS tapes, by Michael Rubinstein, and Knock-out Coin Magic by Rubinstein, and this has opened up a WHOLE new world of coin magic for me.

A couple years ago, I saw a name here on the Café I thought I recognized. Then, digging through my VHS tapes, I found a Videonics tape from 1984 with the name "Michael Rubinstein"...THAT'S IT!!! I watched it, and was amazed.

Now, after purchasing the above sets by M.R., I've discovered moves I could NEVER have found in Bobo, plus, my retention of vision coin vanish was mediocre, at best. Now, we see Mike show us the R.O.V., and so many variations of retentions, I found one that fits PERFECTLY! Mind you, it's never going to come CLOSE to Mickey Silver's S.U.V., but I am satisfied (for now, until Mickey decides to share his S.U.V., LOL!), and it's the perfect last vanish for Coins Across, or similar.

Kirkmax, to answer your question, "Are the DVDs mostly just the moves or actual routines?"...well, both, actually. Vol's 1, 2, & 3 of the Encyclopedia, is just that. The Sleights. No routines. But that's the value, there. Now if you want to put what you have learned from the 3-volume Sleights, then see the Knock-Out Coin Magic set (3 volumes). That will give you ideas for routines. I like that. Doesn't just GIVE you routines, it INSPIRES your OWN creativity.

If you are serious about Coin Magic, amateurs and pro's alike MUST have those sets in their library. Mind you, Roth, Ammar, Al Schneider, Dan Watkins are also GREAT sources, and, in my opinion, are must-haves, but for the basic to advances sleights, I have found no better source than the Mike Rubinstein material.

The above is my opinion only. I'm not being compensated by Mike in any way. I'm not shy about promoting him, and if it helps ONE beginner on his/her way to being an expert on coins, I'm satisfied. Great to see you guys!

Doug

There are plenty of goodies in the old Hoffmann book, and in Downs's books. Have you tried the stuff in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft?

Good morning, Jonathan!

Welcome back Doug

I found that after bobo's Richard Kaufman's book is excellent.

Troy Hooser has done some great stuff too, try his book desTROYers or the total destruction dvd set.

Kainoa Harbottle has done some really good edge based sleights (and routines) in his books (coins on edge etc).

Jay Sankey's revolutionary coin magic is full to bursting with ideas for application and some great performance ideas.

In general I would agree with the other comments here, David Roth's expert coin magic book (if it comes back into print) and his Expert Coin Magic Made Easy dvd's.

I would be interested to see which you choose and how you get on with it, post your findings

If you want to see a review of some of the stuff mentioned here you should try Dan Watkins’ site. He has reviewed virtually every peice of coin magic material out there. http://www.coinvanish.com

Jez

Thanks for all your help.

Hmmmmmm
Not sure what to say. You all have brought back a lot of memories.
And I would like to say a few things. These are pretty direct. I do not mean to insult but I attempting to be realistic. I hope you understand. And I hope you understand some of the disappointment in the events I have experienced in the past.

You must understand that I was once like many of you. Young and eager to master the wonderful world of manipulation.

I began with Bobo's book.

I have spent a great deal of time practicing the material in Bobo's book. In fact almost all of my material has its roots there. In fact, Matrix was born of the book. Matrix is simply a version of Sympathic Coins.

Here is the problem. A great deal of the material in Bobo's I could not do. I found it extreamly difficult. Trust me when I say I devoted many, many hours to mastering some of those moves. Many of them I never have been able to. A result is that much of my material is in fact an attempt to make many things from Bobo's book doable.

One day a unique event occured. I was at a magic convention at which Bobo was a featured act. I actually had a chance to see him in action. While walking around many people approached me and said that I should get together with him for a session. Everyone thought that the two of us would work out wonderful miricles or something.

Then someone introduced us. He tilted his head back, looked down his long nose, stuck out his hand and shook mine exactly three times. Then, he turned his back on me and walked away.

Trust me when I say that this is not a problem. I thought that probably was the best way to handle the situation.

(An aside here. If I am at a conveiton and you are also, please introduce yourself to me and let's have a chat. I actually live to talk to people like you. This is what I love about magic. People like to talk to me. I find that amazing.)

Anyway, he performed that night. I had a chance to see him perform all those things in the book that I found impossible to do. I discovered that he could not do them either. During the performance he picked up a deck of cards. He slid off a card from the top of the deck and squeezed it so hard the card was bent in half at an angle. Then he put the card onto the table. I wondered what in the world he was doing. He did that with a second card. It is very difficult to explain how odd this looked. This was done four times. The cards were taken off the deck one at a time and bent at alomst a ninty degree angle. When the cards were resting on the table they remained to be bent at about a thirty degree angle. Then he said in a deep voice, "Some coins." Then, he turned over the cards and there were half dollars under each card. I then realized he was performing a sequence from the book.

I know I am being cruel here. But what was I to think? You see I had worked for hours and hours attempting to do those very moves. I tourted myself for not being able to do it correctly. Whatever I did looked real bad. After the show I felt as if I had been severely deceived.

How do you feel when you pay money for a trick and finally get it to find that it is a piece of junk?

Is Bobo's book good? Yes it is. But it would be nice to know that things that are in print are not always as they are protrayed.

After all my experince in magic I have vowed that anything I sell well be worth many times more than the price it sells for. I understand what it feels like to be new at all of this. I understand the desire that flows through one's body to accomplish this stuff. And I know the frustration that comes when those fingers cannot do what a book says they should do.

I am not sure why I have even said all of this. I hope you found it fascinating.
Al Schneider

Thank You, Al. I, for one, found it fascinating, and reassuring that your experience matches my own. Sorry to say, I never got to meet Bobo, but the disappointment in some of the material was the same. MCM is a great example of the old expression, "keep an open mind, but not so much that your brains fall out."

On the other hand, there is also material in MCM (like much of Milt Kort's stuff) that works Better than described. At least, that's what I've found.

I'm reviewing and annotating MCM from a more literary direction (as opposed to anecdotal) in The Buffet section. I hope you will drop by if you have a moment. And if you have any more to add about MCM, please PM me and I'll include it.