It is also sometimes a mystery to me why some things receive little attention and disappear or are not noticed at all.
When I think of stuff like this, "The Dance" by Brian Platt comes to mind. I looked for your tip and found it. I wrote to Danny Goldsmith (Bounty) about the Muscel Pass pitch. Whatever happened, there is now a re-release as a co-op with Danny 's take and finally a download.
Maybe the pitch will get a new lease of life. Then you would have set the ball rolling in this thread.

Good work, my friend. Glad you took a look at Platt’s, The Dance and what Danny Goldsmith did with his Bounty. So much good thinking out there, and a lot of it kinda gets a bit overlooked at times…Darn good stuff too. Both guys are honorable men and glad they do what they do as to the art. It helps to make us all better. I like helping to sort things out by bringing it in to another view or review as it were here.

Hey y’know, I used to play around with just a couple of coins early on, half dollars to be specific. First put it out in my Short Pockets download long ago, but kept playing with the ideas of it and did some stuff that’s still fun today, still looks like a ‘whole” lotta magic in just a couple of “halves”…

Very nice! I don't know why you're so "underground" either.
Lost my short pockets. Datacrash!

Yeah, I guess the difference from the out front to the out back, or down under something or somebody or other.

Speaking of “underground,” here’s a guy that shined a light on his “slice” of all that with his coin work quite a while back now. Never did become as out there as some, but did do some wonderful work and still made his way far & wide enough with coin magic…Truly a pretty interestingly nice guy, too.

Again, pure coincidence, never heard of him. But I thought it is worth sharing.

Lawrens Godon is a very talented french magician. His routine in Rubinstein Coin Magic is perhaps the most difficult routine to perform in the entire book.

Ahhh, yes…Lauren’s definitely belongs here. He is quite an exceptional coin guy and has been around for a long time doing and creating great magic. He utilizes a great move to wonderful success in a lot of his coin magic, as does another wonderfully clever magician, Giacomo Bertini. A pleasure to call both guys friends, as well as treasured Cafe members here. Thanks for posting.

Sorry, meant “Lawrens.” Darn spellcheck!

Of late, and just thinking of magical things… I’ve found playing around with just one coin to be quite a bit of fun again. Sure, larger routines with more coins are great, but there’s something about pulling out one coin and more immediately amazing people. I’ve been doing that the past week and many times that’s all it takes. And I’m not speaking of any such One Coin Routine, but just a vanish of the coin and reproduction. Of course there’s some good misdirection in between and interaction with the specs, but it all plays rather well when you’re out & about. I was waiting on a long line at Costco the other day and decided to do something for a family trying to hold it together while they waited. Of course others begin to watch and then the magic happens and everyone is smiling and wondering. I was using a half dollar right up close, a few basic - intermediate moves and away we went. After showing my hands completely empty, I asked the mom, “which hand would like the coin to come back in?” She picked the right hand (Man, I like when they pick the right hand), and I simply said, “Observeeee” (as Sylvester The Jester would say) and the coin visibly appeared right at the fingertips as I gave it a gentle wave & blow…Right in front of them. I can do quite a bit, but it’s nice when you really don’t have to. When I finally got up to the cashier, they were all still looking at me like, “What!?!”

Happy summer everybody.

Coin falling up (muscle pass) is my 'go to' trick. I carry a couple of English Pennies with me all the time but being from the UK its even stronger if you can borrow a two pound coin and then do it. The look on peoples faces is worth the time spent learning and perfecting it.

THIS IS THE CRIMP SQUIRT MOVE https://youtu.be/bjrqa970YlA?si=xDjhj8feDzELctjr

I DEVELOPED THIS CONTROL BECAUSE I CAN NOT CLASSIC PALM .......
I TRY AND SIMULATE THE MUSCLE PASS FROM THE CRIMP PALM, THE COIN IS SHOT SIDE WAYS IN THE DEMO, BUT CAN BE SHOT BACKWARDS ALA COIN IN SHIRT [POCKET OR UP WARDS AS IN A MUISCLE PASS

VINNY

Another wonderfully deceptive move, one you don’t see everyday and won’t find much in any book, from The Godfather. You just gotta wonder why sometimes.

Here’s another guy that you might not hear much about, but he is quite good with coins. He has a different style of delivery, but the good magic is unmistakable. And again, he is also a very good closeup & parlor guy. This effect I used to play around with a bit, pretty neat and a real fooler. It’s just so clean looking and never fails to amaze…Definitely not your average two coin routine… What do you think?

Very nice indeed.

I especially liked that he spoke SLOWLY, so that everything had time to register and sink in. An excellent presentation! SETH

I guess, moving around as I often do, the higher level tricks I just don’t do much any more. Oh, I can still do them well enough and will still pull them out from time to time, but I’d much rather do the simpler things.

It is usually the quicker effects that make the best impression on people. They are more immediately amazed and it’s much easier to follow. It always amazes me on what you can do with a little good old SOH. In the beginning, it seems like a daunting task to get it down and get it working for you, but it really is the best thing to learn. Once you do, you create for yourself. All of the more intricate stuff comes out of the simpler things. And y’know, that’s all I ever really wanted to learn how to do from the very beginning, but found myself traveling through it all just to get back to understanding that less is more.

I’ve seen a lot out there big & small and appreciate it all as it all taught me a lot of this & that that I do right to this day. So, from my journey I most times carry just 2 coins on me, a dollar size brass Chinese coin and a Kennedy half dollar, and they sing for me. So much can be done with just those 2 coins, one at a time or with both.

Anyway, everyone’s journey is different and to be respected, and I’m glad for yours and for mine in this great part of the art…Ahhh, the simple things…:)



Have a great weekend guys.

I remember having something like this long time ago, but perhaps a steel ball, I think. Anyway, I found it to be a nice closeup trick to perform back then. Nice to see that the concept here used with a coin. Maybe it has been done this way already, but anyway it’s nice to see coin tricks like this that lend itself to a bit different presentation with the coin, and brings in other elements like this. I can remember quite a few coin effects from long ago that did not necessarily use SOH or gaffed coins. Nice!

Hiya guys, nothing like a little vacation time…

Hey, I was looking through The Magic Book, an old one from Harry Lorayne. It’s a pretty good book from one of the most confident magic guys I’ve ever seen, perhaps even a bit over-confident (probably that NYC edge to him) But none the less, he was quite an accomplished magic man. Anyway, I was thumbing through his book again and focused in on the coin section, though he is known more as a card guy. I was noticing that he pretty much doesn’t credit anyone much or at all as to the coin stuff. For instance, he clearly speaks of the Bobo Switch (with a drawing of the move) and never mentions Bobo, even calls it something else, the “Basic Coin Switch.” I’ve never heard of this being corrected by anybody, but maybe that’s because he’s Harry Lorayne.

Anyway, at the end of the book, he simply says something like, “…While I didn’t come up with everything here, besides a bit of my own handlings, all this stuff comes from a lot of people building one upon the other as to how things are done…” or something like that. Basically, I guess he gives a sorta “general” credit, but there is little specificity in the book as to much of any credit. I don’t think there is even an index at the end as to things? Anyway, I found that interesting, but if you got the old book, you might check for yourselves. Still, it is a pretty good book with a lot of good advice and anecdotes as to the art (best part of the book IMHO), almost 50 years old or so but still a good piece of work with lots of good magic in it from a cantankerous but also a great & gifted magician & performer.

Harry was a great guy, fun to hang out with, but was never into crediting. He indeed made several mistakes in his books, such as the Pickup move that he attributed to Dingle (which honestly may have been because of Dingle, and Harry went with it). Here is an interesting Harry Lorrayne story. David Roth used to tell a story about being in a bar, and noticed that the piano player was playing the piano with a coin in classic palm. He watched the guy, and the coin stayed in cp during the set
Finally during the break, he went up to the guy, and said that it was amazing that he could play with that coin palmed. The guy turned over his hand, and showed David that it was a silver coin tatoo! Apparently, it was really macho to do that as there are a lot of nerve endings in the palm. Yrs later, Harry wrote here on the cafe about that same story, except that it was he and not David who watched the guy! David was not amused, and Harry wrote that it was his story, and perhaps David was not remembering correctly. Who was right? Who knows, but Harry was one to exaggerate. Anyway, regardless of whose story it was, it was a good story.

Hard to call all that a mistake, especially if he didn’t seem to care that much as to crediting, but I hearya.

And yes, I seem to remember that squabble here between him and Roth. I guess it’s hard to argue with a guy with a super memory like Harry. I can see him being somewhat insulted to have one of his special gifts, his recollection questioned. Especially by a mere coin magician. Seriously, I came to that same conclusion about Harry as to crediting, and just wondered how it was in such a popular magic book, that no one seemed to correct him. I just thought it was because he was one of those guys that just didn’t take anybody else as seriously as he took himself. That example I mentioned as to the Bobo Switch just seemed so blatant by a guy that was taken as a real student, intellectual if you will, of the game. Oh well, I guess a general nod to credit is as good as it gets sometimes. Even if he chose to not acknowledge others, the actual drawing was done by Kaufman, and Im pretty sure he probably told him, because you know he knows as to such a basic move.

On the subject of crediting there is a fascinating thread on the Genii forum about Frank Garcia and his *cough* lack of crediting.