I came up with a trick a while back (I'm pretty new to magic) and I think the name is a little odd. I'll give you my patter/presentation and see what you pros think of it.
I bring up geneaolgy and listen to what others have to say, then I say "You know I'm actually 1/50th English. Yeah I'll show you how I figured this out. One day I was playing with a half dollar <Pull a half dollar out of my pocket> and discovered if I throw it 1...2...3 times into my left hand and give it a little squeeze" <open left hand to reveal> "it changes into an English Penny" (I don't know the exchange rate but most Americans have never even seen an English Penny) "Here check it out. But here is the most surprising thing. If I take the English Penny and throw it 1...2...3 times into my left hand and give it a little squeeze it changes to an Eisenhower dollar, because although I'm 1/50th English...I'm 100% American."

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Magic Dean

Nice patter

Hi Magicdean,

How nice that you are, at an early stage, reaching to create your own presentations. I commend you on this!

You might like this move, is it a Bobo Switch, and so are looking for a presentation for it. You might alternately be part English and wish to share that with your audience. Which is your motivation for performing this?

If the latter, then I believe your presentation is not quite finished. How can you be part English and 100% American? How does this coin play a part? Is the coin special or is it any half dollar you can do this with? Why the throwing? YOUR answers to these questions will tighten your presentation and give definition to your routine. And your answers should not stop there. You might also consider if this is the right move (maybe a spellbound move is better) and how are your actions made to be natural.

If we are talking about the first case, however, consider the following. Being new to magic you have probably run across lots of tricks like this, they have the performer say what they are doing... "if I throw it 1...2...3 times into my left hand and give it a little squeeze..." I would ask if you have experimented with not narrating your actions. It is a question of where you want the focus; on the throwing 3 times, on the changing coin, or on the information in your script. The basic system is the same as above, ask yourself questions about every aspect of this move. What else could I call the throwing? Does the change have to be to an English Penny?... or to a coin at all for that matter? What other items could I use in this move to change to?

It sort of depends on your wish. Do you want to keep the move and adjust the script, or do you want to keep the script idea and maybe adjust the move?

Always keep in mind this is your magic and your presentation. Thoughts of others are great but make your own decisions on what you will do. You have begun the journey of becoming an artist. The process will be more involved than I have space to shed light on here. If you would like further thoughts or to share your answers feel free to PM me. What we discuss might be too specific or too lengthy for a public topic.

Cheers,

Tom

I'm 1/32 Chickasaw Indian, the rest of me is a mixture of Alpine Swiss, Irish and Scottish. But I'm 100% American. One is lineage and/or ancestry, the other is nationality. I'm also 100% Texan.

One does not preclude the other. It's not a zero sum game.