There has been some exchanges lately on The Café about the classic Hopping Halves effect. It's a cool effect but some have felt that it becomes too much of a guessing game. Jason Madsen has created a series of three effects that might just make you dust off the old Johnson lucre and give Hopping Halves a shot.

First off I love the whimsical title; anyone who alludes to Lewis Carroll (himself an amateur magician) already rates highly to me. Jason, if you are reading this consider titling your next series of effects The Jabberwock.

The sharp readers among you noticed the word "series"; good catch! Down the Rabbit Hole is the title of one of three effects that Jason teaches using the Hopping Halves (hereafter known as HH). Let's look at the production values first then get to the effects themselves, for the time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things!

Down the Rabbit Hole is a video download. There are no fancy titles and there is no faux urban tough guy techno music. (ed. note: techno ain't tough! Gimme that ole time rock n'roll). This is a no nonsense magic video that gets straight to the magic. I have harped on this so many times and I give serious props to Jason Madsen for resisting the inane video schtick that is quite frankly ... schtick! Note to the eleven theorists of magic: nausea inducing camera antics do not enhance magic.

Brief descriptions of each effect with some general comments then onto some thoughts relating to the series as a whole follow ... wait for it ... now!

The effect titled Down the Rabbit Hole opens the trifecta. The effect is a three coin matrix and backfire. This is highly visual stuff and the handling is clean. The routine is so well structured and there is sound motivation for every action.

Next up is Wild Matrix. This is a variant of the first effect with the added punch of a change of the coins. The effect again is a three coin matrix and at the backfire, the coins - English pence for example - have all changed to Kennedy halves. The handling again is just as clean as the first effect and I should mention here that Jason does a cool adaptation of a Bro. John Hamman card count for coins. It's a nice convincer and that little count seems to have a lot of possibilities in gaffed coin work.

Finally we have Wascally Wild Coin. The effect is that three English pence turn into Kennedy halves one at a time and are popped into a cup. When the coins are dumped out, they are pence again.

I will get the negative out of the way first and this has nothing to do with the routine or Jason's approach to it. I do not like the wild coin plot. I am certain that I will get deluged with tons of references to check out and videos to watch. Please save yourself the trouble? The original plot is of course done with cards and magicians have labored long to find a strong ending to the effect and have come up with some great routines. But there is just something lacking for me concerning a wild coin plot. Jason does it well but the effect just is not my pint o' Guinness.

The other two effects however are truly beautiful and highly magical. These two routines could very well be performed silently or to music with no patter and your audience will able to follow along with nary a word said by you. Jason does a splendid job of teaching the routines. There is nothing hurried about the instruction and the camera angles are excellent for the job at hand. The pace is just right in that I could follow along with coins in hand without having to pause the video.

These two are not beginner's effects but I would say that they ARE effects that an advanced beginner should work on if he/she desires to do some serious coin work. While HH is gaffed, the routines rely heavily on sleight of hand. There is nothing here that is Curtis Kam or Reed McClintock knuckle-busting but the two routines do require that you work holding out with both hands and have the ability TO hold out equally well with both hands. (Vlad note: can you tell that I still haven't acquired the knack of talking about method without actually talking about it to avoid exposure)?

HH is in my humble hack opinion still one of the great gaff sets ever made. Jason Madsen has taken the guessing out of the usual HH presentation and has provided some creative approaches that are well worth the study. Even if you don't perform the routines - although I think they are worthy of repertoire addition - the skills you will pick up especially if you are wanting to get serious with coin work will serve you for your magical life.

I don't have a beautiful Samoyed like Craig and Dave at World Magic Shop nor am I as funny - although my hair is longer than both of them combined! I do have a long furred black and silver kitten named Metro who thinks the effect is cool. Metro's edge grip technique almost rivals that of David Roth and he and I both highly recommend this product. Meow.

Available at http://jasonmadsen.webs.com/ for a mere 7.99 USD

Ahimsa,
Vlad

I realize I’m a little late, but I wanted to thank you for the kind review. I’m glad you and so many other magicians are enjoying the effect. I’ve always loved the HH set, but felt like there was a lack of material on the market. I’m working on some more effects with the set, and I’m liking the Jabberwock idea. Thanks again.
Jason Madsen

It was a privilege to review it Jason. Keep up the superb work!