Y'know, I have been noticing for a good while all the new stuff that just consistently comes out from here and there...a bit of it just wondrous stuff, from the BIG, small and all of everybody. I gotta tell'ya, I like it like that because there's always interesting stuff coming out, and it don't just have to come from the more well known creators. Nowadays it just about come out of the mind and abilities of anyone.

I've seen some stuff that I just can't believe from people I've never heard of. Witnessed some of the most amazing magic from many different places in the world, when from being a kid in magic thought this was the only place in the world all this amazing stuff was happening...boy was I wrong!

At one time, it seemed like magic kept coming mostly from the same sources, but now (mostly because of the internet) it has opened its doors from many contributors, and you see that amazing minds and thinking can come from anywhere. Of course, the more mature still like to see it as it was to them and will lean mostly that way until they can stand no more, but larger part of what's coming out is coming from new thinkers mostly. I guess that's about how it should be really as it's sorta what progress is all about.

Nice that all the new effects don't necessarily have to be new ideas, just ideas used in different ways. I've mentioned the new effect, "F I T" a few times in other strings, but it is a good example of the proverbial "better mousetrap." What John Jurney did with his Triple Split Coins helped turn the corner on the better machine work as to them, and then it opened the door to other split ideas, like his new Transformer Coin System. These ideas aren't coming from the supposed "BIG Boys" in craftsmanship but from a mom & pop guy that actually wants to humbly remain as such...what a novel idea. And there are many others, and I suggest you take a look sometimes in the "Latest & Greatest" forum to see the dozens of new effects almost weekly that go through there. Now, all of them are not the next best thing, actually some can be quite crappy, but there's a lot of interesting magic that comes to light, and most times by just about anybody that just happens to love the art... I really like that.

Now, it seems sorta hard for new stuff to come up in coin magic, as there's but so many basic moves to be built upon into new offerings, but there have been some movement none-the-less. And again, not necessarily just from the usual suspects, but from a whole host of individuals out of the blue, from Ponta The Smith to Jeff Copeland & Jeremiah Zuo to Bill Citino's new book, "Sleepless" and on & on. It just keeps happening and in much bigger ways nowadays thanks to technology, and every so often you get a gem or two, maybe some new way on an old way, or even sometimes something genuinely new in one way or the other. Good ingredients as to progress, IMHO. And of course, the old stuff is still real good stuff, and usually the base level ingredients in most things we call progress in our art. And y'know, everybody ain't gonna like everything and the good thing is that it ain't necessary that they do. That way, old doors don't get shut on things that may just need the light of day to grow into something worthwhile, the person and or the magic. The good instruction of encouragement works better than the old high-handed/low brow dismissal of the intelligentsia, and with all the many doors open wide now via technology, there's more stuff than ever to choose from and to better consider, and less old clubs to be shut out or to be made not welcome to.

Just musing, I guess...But real happy at all the doors that have been flung open wide, to see all of the many layers of potential for people to better consider and enrich their love of the art. Sorta like the good and the bad that comes with eating any such apple of knowledge, and then taking the good with the bad of it and finding that through it all, there's so much good and wonderful potential out there, too.

I agree! For a few years now I've been keeping an eye out for all the coin stuff coming out of places like Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, and Japan. Those guys are insane, but you don't see much of it coming out to the western markets.

What do coins look like in those places?

Haha. I should've said "coin material" not "stuff".

MB's Krazy Coins is full of fun coin magic

Thanks so much fonda, KrazyKoinZ is indeed a fun one, so many ways to end it, in your hands, in their hands, on a table, whatever! Thanks for noticing, because I am definitely one of those people where the magic came out of nowhere, or something like that.

*Oh, and hey, 'tis written...

"Magic does not exist in the mechanics of an effect. It exists somewhere between you and the mind of the spectator. We handle the mechanics and present them to the mind and emotions of the spectator. He reacts and the illusion is born. That is magic." -- Father Cyprian, 1980


Good Day and Good Way to all.