Hi Guys
Different coins make a difference. It all can be done with Kennedys. Please take note that I personally do not use them. I prefer to use Barber halves because they are thinner and smoother and there are a lot of benefits to them that others. The most you will need to be able to classic palm is seven in this DVD. You will need to finger palm two stacks of six in one hand. That is easy when you see the DVD. This material is not REALLY all that difficult. It will require some practice
Keep in mind that Barbers are thinner than others and make this stuff work really well.
All of you that are ordering from me thank you again I really appreciate it.
Cheers
Reed

Not sure what Barber Halves are?
Looked at Larson’s site and he doesn’t list them.
Is this a terminology I'm not familiar with?
Thanks,
Don

P.S. I have Liberty Halves.

No Barber Halves look exactly like Morgans, but in half dollar size. I just checked and four Barber halves equal to three Kennedy halves. That adds up in the long run when you are palming 20 coins. I only have four but hope to get more.

Brad

Bradley hit the nail on the head. He is absolutely right. I think Todd has and makes shells and other great gaffs with Barber coins. You may want to ask him about that.
These DVD's are going faster than I ever imagined guys. I thank all of you that are buying them from me. That really means a lot to us. Thank you again.
Cheers
Reed

Mr. Reed How many have you sold so far, if you don't mind me asking.

Brad

I have only have an idea what the Internet magic shops have sold so far. The material that I have shown around is the stuff guys say “where is that, can you hip me to it before the DVD?”, etc.
I think guys are going to freak out with this material. There is some real eye popping stuff. It was created because I could not find enough stuff I liked in print or in video, hence the development of this stuff. As far as a brand new offering to coin magic this is very fresh and new. I hope the magic world likes it. The people that have seen it so far have been very positive.
Cheers

Congratulations on the good sales Reed!

I look forward to seeing this DVD.


Add another one to your list of helping put your son in college.

Reed in an earlier post you mentioned that there would be 3 card items on the DVD. However, I do not see any mention of card items in the description on your website. Just wondering if there is still card material on the DVD or did it get edited out. Thanks a lot.

I decided to take the card stuff out of the Coin Patriot for a couple of reasons.
Reason # 1
This DVD ended up taking on a life all its own. I felt the card stuff would detract from the DVD.

Reason #2
I felt card guys would have bought this for the card stuff and could care less about the coin stuff.

Reason #3
I decided that maybe in a few years, and if people were interested then, I will do a DVD on my card stuff that would include my T&R card, Force, card Production, Card warp presentation and handling, and a few other things with a particular gimmick with cards.

These are just a few reasons why I took it out of the Patriot DVD. I talked with a few friends about this decision and we all agreed the offering on this DVD is to NEW and DIFFERENT to add some card stuff.

I hope that clarifies some things about why there will be no card stuff. In Knuckle Busters #4 I included my force. This will be the only thing in the Knuckle Busters series having to do with cards.
Cheers
Reed

If I had thought quicker I would have bought all the DVDs and had some killer coin magic all to myself. LOL

Please don't get “The Coin Patriot”, it looks to good for anyone else to see, but me.

Mr. Reed could you share what you are going through, and have gone through to get this DVD out to the Public. I think it would make some of use appreciate the DVD a little more, and it would be interesting to know what you have to deal with.
Has it been a good experience or will you just stick to writing books?

How did you come up with the idea for “The Coin Patriot?”


Thank you Mr. Reed,

Brad

WOW, a very interesting question Bradley. You are going to make me work for this. lol. The process is not easy there are an awful lot of decisions to make, and a lot of hard work. Let me explain further. I am going to have to write this in several posts because to answer it is very lengthy. I am a McClintock and we all talk a lot. Ask my friends who know us, LOL

Time
Money
Perspective
People
Angle
Goal

The first thing, why do I do a DVD on Coin Magic, isn’t there enough material out there? The answer is yes.
Here is the difference. I have something to offer that is not on any other DVD available to the magic communities. It is a fresh perspective on several years of work and thought. This warrants mention in magical history. I realize that is an egotistical thing to say. Please do not think of it that way I will explain.
When I go to the magic store I am sick & tired of buying the latest variation of such and such effect; a trick that nobody clearly put any thought into. They conceived it on their couch and said hey I bet guys will buy this lets make a quick buck.

The next night they are in production to get it out to the distributor the next day. We can all tell these kinds of tricks as soon as we read the effect, and realize immediately no this would ever work in a real world environment. We think, “ah man, suckered again.” Perfect example, if you guys read these boards from some tricks in recent past.

We are in a new millennia, magic needs to begin to take change and feel different from the audience’s perspective. Let me explain a little closer in detail.

If you do something that really fools someone, simplicity is a big part of what did it. Now please don’t take simplicity to mean lacking in complexity and difficulty in execution. Presentation also plays a huge factor, but lets get back to that in a moment. If a person is just dying to find out a secret of what the magician did, No matter how much you entertained them their curiosity is up at its peek, and he cares enough to he can go home type in magic on his search engine on his computer and, voila, the answer is in front of him at the touch of his fingertips. Now he/she can say “AHHH that’s how he did it.” Or “oh there are many others that can do the same thing”.

That magical moment has now been devastated and your work has just crumbled in the mind of that person. People are so curious and ask themselves questions these days, and they can easily get the answers to those questions. They watch a lot of television and special effects to make the movie or show more visually stimulating. So the next question is how do you create an interest in a person my generation or younger to be amazed at what you are doing.
Hit them hard and be entertaining. Many of the big guys we look up to do this by wrapping up presentation around an effect. Look at Mr. Eugene Burger. Long elaborate stories intertwined with in the magic, and the trick is not what is important, it is the story being told. I love this, and I also have the attention span for it. I love magic that is why I do it for a living.
Now living in an age where people surf the web and generally will view a site for about 15 seconds, then move on (I don’t know exactly, but it is short); advertising being shoved down our throats in a matter of seconds to get our attention to remember their product. Us, people, you and I constantly shutting it out, because it is not important to us we are becoming more and more subjective to what we let into our heads.

We are people just like the folks we are performing for, we are not different just because we are magicians. People outside of magic have problems that are on their mind, work love, money etc. they have worries, things they are really thinking about. Why should they give you their attention?
Human nature, we love to watch others doing their thing as soon as it involves us in today’s age red flags go off all over the place for them. What is this guy’s angle? What does he want from me? How do I protect myself? Etc. Please keep in mind I am talking about my venues, from nightclubs and corporate work. Not the people that know that I am at the venue and know I am there to merely just entertain. So they can choose to come over ands watch or not I am talking about approaching cold.

Times are changing and I personally am finding that many of the books I study are dwindling in truths they offer. I will bring this thought forward in a little bit. So before you start hollering I will explain in the next post. This will eventually get to where I answer your question.

Wow, Mr.Reed.
Thank you for your input to my question.
I am looking forward to your posts.
I am reading your guest section in the guest of the month section. Man, there are some awesome gems in there. Anyone can learn magic but what you know and are sharing, only comes with experience and knowledge of performing. I have learned so much from you on the magic Café. You have really changed the way I think about magic and coins. I admire you so much and hope to meet and hang out with you one day. You have become one of my heroes in magic.

Brad

Times are really changing before our eyes. The information age is now here and those people that want to know our secrets currently can. The ones who hate to be fooled by us "the modern day court jester" can locate our secrets, we had better wise up and seal our secrets.

Quit exposing them on line with video clips to showoff with. We can expand the life of this art. There was a time when this was a way of life and was viewed as real. Now you go to the jokes and Puzzles section of any bookstore and that is where you find magic. What a drag if you ask me, I guess the reality is that this is how far this art has dropped down to. From being a respected and authority to use it to control the masses in religion, to a joke in every day life.
I feel it should be preserved, I can only gather I am not the only one who feels this way. I know a few guys who still care and wont reveal the secrets.

I feel magic is a wonderful beast that is mine to hold and do with what I want. Maintaining secrets, I do with my audience, always trying to keep a mystery alive in a person mind that watches. I think many "magicians" are killing this art. To many of them pay twenty dollars for a secret. They seem to feel it affords them the right to tell their friends non-magicians what it is, and how it works.
I have done magic for people that will say they saw a trick or they have a friend who is a magician and he just did that trick and they, the audience saw how they did it, but have no idea how in the world I did it. Clearly I used the same gaff or method I just practiced and rehearsed a lot before I performed it.

If more guys would do this, magic would be a more amazing thing than what it is now. Look at television magic; I am sorry my opinion is, the shows SUCK that are on. The magic creates absolutely no mystery in my mind. People are no different than you or me and most magic is a puzzle to most people. Ever wonder why? If not it is lack of presentation and reason. I know why they dance and move about constantly trying to prove those ordinary everyday boxes that everyone of us can relate to. Especially the zigzag box, (I have one in my back yard next to my shovels and lawn mower.) How many of you close up guys have had people say to you “ you know this is the best kind of magic the stuff on stage is silly.)

I have never ever had anyone say to me, “ Well you know this close up magic is nowhere near as cool as stage magic” Why is that? Granted the money is great for a stage act. People just know, that the boxes have something to do with the secret. Even if they walk away saying that was neat but I bet there is some how a little jig that whatever, you get the idea.
They suspended their belief watched the “ magic” and now they go on their way to work out the solution, or try, worse yet come up with their own solution.

It does not matter the illusion is lost forever. People care about the method. Perhaps I am wrong and I wish I were. Many magicians are to busy running from an audience to stop turn around and grab the audience by their cajones and really give them a show. The stage magic I have seen that kills is rope; cups and balls; egg bag; gags; card tricks etc. All of those can be tricks that can be done close up.

As soon as the dancing and the music “theatrics” comes on the stage with the boxes, forget it, it is over. I just don’t believe people are that stupid that they think WOW real MAGIC BOXES, I am staying tuned for this. Please keep in mind I am not writing this to start a viewpoint topic about this. I am stating what is obvious to me, and the environments that I work. Please do not bring up Copperfield, Burton S & R etc. These points apply to them too. Otherwise they would not add close up magic effects to their acts. I hope this is clear what I am saying, inside all of that I am talking about timing, misdirection, perception, conflict, etc.
Which brings me to my point. We can do simple magic and give it a presentation that really rocks or put together routines that are so multi-layered that no matter how much they look online they can never get the answer to reconstruct the piece. Hence protecting the art and the future of this art. The offering on “Coin Patriot” will help in this discovery. I am not saying you have to agree with me, not at all. I am saying however from performing on an average of six nights a week, that these are the thoughts a guy has after he has performed for three hours straight with out a break.

What I have and am releasing to the magic world is principally old, but spiced up with new clothes and an angle with new direction. These are pieces that have all been used and are used in my performing sets. They are multi-layered, multi-structured with all sorts of dead end trails and traps for your audience.

The point of this material is to get an audience to stop trying to figure out the method of the secret, to run them ragged, slow them down, and say forget it and enjoy what they are watching. To do all of this with out confusing them on top of it. A very famous magician once told me, “Don't do tricks for tricks sake.” I had no idea what he meant. Now I do, and I partially agree with him and another part of me does not. I think building up the expectations of an audience with tricks is a great idea. It knocks their brains around leaves them spinning, and now are ready to watch and be fooled really bad. My approach works for me here is the theory in a nutshell.
In the military when you go to basic training, remember they have done this a million times, but this is YOUR first time. They build you up then they break you down, build you up, and break you even harder and so on until you are, or become a soldier. Anyone prior service or in the military can attest to this. I feel you need to do the same thing to an audience. Of course in an entertaining way, please don’t think I am asking my audience to do pushups, lol. I am not saying anything new here, but there is a major difference. I am working a lot with people in my age group and they have no discipline and focus in a nightclub They watch TV and play online, I am a prime example. People like to be led so it is your job as the entertainer to lead them to an alley and beat them up metaphorically speaking (visually with magic.)
You are the time traveler in essence you know what you are going to do they do not, use that against them and hit them over the head with it, and don’t stop until they have been completely visually devastated.

The coin Patriot is full of this type of material. It is worked out. The only problem I know there is a next step I just can not get there by myself, I need all of your help to take an effect off the DVD and have you put your thoughts into those pieces and develop your material into it, to break open the new door we are all looking for. I really believe in my heart there is new magic ready to come out but we need to dig and search and sift. Look at what is happening in the world of coin magic right now. The first ever coinvention, that has never been done before, ever in the history of magic. I am so glad to be apart of it. I want to see the next level. Coin magic is not nearly as hard as it used to be for the guys before us. They did not have the mediums we have now. I have more to right to sum up all of this and answer that tough question.


In my opinion, this DVD project is the ultimate of my work towards a new direction, in that it gives all of us something else to try and conquer. I think everyone is tired of finding the newest way to work on a classic that has been done for the last 200 years. I am not trying to say I have invented a new way to do coin magic, I am saying that there is more that can be done with coin magic. I just know it. This is the direction I am finding to get me there.
If I am trying to get to a gig and I don’t know where it is, I need a map; right? See in art there is no map we all have to pave the way, make our own road. You don’t see one soldier fighting a war, you see brigades out there fighting and making their way to accomplish a mission, but one soldier can not do it all himself. It takes a team. We are all into magic for whatever reason. Personally it is for, and to belong to, a brotherhood. A feeling of a group to belong to, and that is very sacred to me. This is what motivates me in this art and makes me want to outdo myself.

When selecting the material for this DVD I chose personal favorites of mine that I thought all of you who get it will inspire you and entertain you, the magician, to perform and knock out an audience, I imagine that is the hope of many who release material. There are just so many factors in the production of such a project.
It is not easy to shoot something for people. When you come out of the foxhole people are going to fire at you. Especially when it is new and different.

Look at the artists who tried and bombed, then look at the guys who did and succeeded. It is a risk and it honestly keeps ones nerves and stomach in knots when a release is done on a project. Imagine putting an idea out, an idea you really believe in, and find out people do not like it. That can hurt your ego and self esteem very quickly. It is a risk I am willing to take to further this art. For myself, art is self-expression; an expression of life the way you see it or anything you want right.

I practice between 6 and 8, sometimes even more, hours a day and perform all of the time. I am trying to make my own way. I can’t and won’t do anything else with my life. This is what my destiny is in this world, for this lifetime. So to create magic that fries people is a very particular mission for me. As I said earlier, we all have different reasons for doing magic. It takes all kinds to make magic go around. I am sure there are people saying, “gees there is more to life than magic.” Well for them that’s true, not for me. This is for me. I could not dream of working a job where I have to get up; go to in the morning; and punch a clock. That life is not for me.
Not that doing what I do is not work. I haven’t worked since I have been doing this stuff. I enjoy it too much.

As for production of a DVD, that is as much fun, and so I guess it is somewhat work, but because it is magic related the end result is worth it. Imagine seeing a project you worked really hard on, and the graphics and the duplication and the distributors and everything come together, the satisfaction makes it all worthwhile. I know that no matter what if I release something to the magic world, it is a best, not second-rate bit. I don’t expect it from my peers and sometimes I am disappointed, because sometimes they do. I am not and as I stated before I will not. To sell magic to magicians one cannot do it to make money as an independent person, unless you are Daryl or Ammar, and just a few others will you get rich off this racket. The money always has and always will come from performing. There are a few guys who have invented stuff and done really well financially. But, if you figure how many magicians there are in the world, then look at how many one sells of a product, come on. I am by no means wealthy or financially free from debt. But I love this art so I took a risk and got a loan, and dumped all of my money into this project. If I thought it would bomb I would not release it. I think letting other people see the material first was a wise choice also. lol
I imagine that was long winded but I hope that answered your question. If any of these things are found offensive to someone reading it, please re-read it to understand the context in which I wrote this. Nothing said was meant to be derogatory or offensive I was asked, and now I have answered.
Cheers

Reed

Thank you Mr. Reed. That was an amazing answer to my question. I am looking forward to the DVD.

Brad

People like you Reed, make magic worth doing. With all these people poisoning it, and with all the **** that is released to make money; thanks for posting all that.

Have you ever considered doing mentalism? You read my mind.

Don't turn him into another Kurtz.

Lee

I knew someone would get that reference!

Lee

Lol, it is already starting to happen guys.

Sign me up for your mentalism DVD.


Lee

Thank you Reed. Your passion for magic will easily fuel you for this lifetime.