CoinTopia

ForCoinvention

2003

By Kainoa Harbottle

Photos by Kainoa Harbottle

Illustrations by Laura Simo

This collection is dedicated to the most devout student of magic I know, George Wang, and his lovely fiancé Shiho. May your life together be a thousand times more magical than anything done with mere sleight of hand.

Thanks again to the incredibly talented and beautiful Laura Simo for her artwork. The cover itself is worth a trip to Hawaii.

A word of warning: I’m through being nice to you people. No, really. Rather than do what I did with Coins on Edge and risk making more left/right mistakes than I have to by translating all the moves for Righties (Rightists? I’m actually a Righty as well in real life, but not with my coin magic), I leave that arduous work to the reader. Have fun!

© Copyright 2003 by Kainoa Harbottle. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, now known or to be invented without the prior written permission of the author.

Contents

Air Click................................................................................................... 1

Plural Push-Through Changeover............................................................ 3

Slapping Mutobe...................................................................................... 5

Slapping 4 Compliments.......................................................................... 9

Upside Down Spellbound .......................................................................11

J.W. Grip Spellbound ............................................................................. 13

Mutobe-esque Spellbound ..................................................................... 15

Fingertip Muscle Pass ............................................................................ 17

Rolling Stone ......................................................................................... 20

Wolverine ............................................................................................... 22

1

This is going to make someone sad they didn’t think of it themselves. I did it as an accident, but immediately recognized the potential of the move for a click pass. Unlike most, this click pass doesn’t require any twitching or palming motion to create the "click" but instead uses the coin magician’s usual enemy: gravity.

For the sake of argument, pretend you have two coins in left Nowhere palm (third finger curl palm). You have another coin held in Standard Display Position (at the fingertips as if about to perform a retention pass) in the left hand and yet a fourth coin held in Standard Display Position in the right. Perform a Retention Pass to Edge Grip 1 vanish (see Coins on Edge 7-8) with the coin displayed at the left fingertips. Briefly, the second finger steals the coin behind the cover of the right fingers and pivots it into left edge grip by lightly clipping it between the tip of the second finger and the lower side of the first finger.

Position check: Your right second, third, and fourth fingers are now closed, pretending to hold a coin. The right index finger and thumb are still displaying a coin (ala the standard hanging coins moment). You also have three coins concealed in the left hand: two in Nowhere palm and one in edge grip (fig.1.1). Hmm.....look at the air between the coins. I think you know what’s coming.

Now take the right hand’s displayed coin at the left fingertips between the thumb and index finger. The right hand fingers can now close completely over their non-existent coin. You’re going to drop the coin from the left fingertips to the right hand, quickly opening and closing the right hand so as not to expose the fact that one coin has already vanished. As you drop the left hand’s displayed coin, simultaneously drop the coin in left edge grip on to the stack held by the third finger (fig. 1.2).

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This only takes a small amount of motion that is completely justifiable by the action of dropping the coin on display. The clink of the coins in the left hand simulates the sound of the airborne coin contacting the coin that is supposedly still in the right hand. You can easily play with the timing of dropping the coin from the left to the right and making the clink at the appropriate moment. Obviously the farther you hold the hands apart, the more of a time-delay you’ll have to effect by releasing the coin from edge grip a moment or two after you release the displayed coin.

A few words of advice: First, it does take a little practice to get the edge gripped coin to fall flush onto the stack in Nowhere palm. Sometimes when I release the coin, it doesn’t fall flush, but actually falls with the edge of the coin stuck on the flesh of the second or even third finger (fig. 1.3). Strangely enough, this usually doesn’t make the coin's position unstable, but rather ends up keeping it in place, until I can surreptitiously adjust the coin with my thumb.

Second, you might consider simplifying all these transfers: just release the coin held by the right index and thumb, opening and closing the right hand quickly to both catch the coin and conceal the otherwise empty hand from the audience. The misdirection to get away with this is perfect: simply raise the right hand and focus your attention on the displayed coin. The left hand lowers slightly and releases its coin just as the right hand coin contacts the right palm. The audience members fool themselves with the auditory illusion that all the noise comes from the right hand.

Enjoy using this move as well as applying your own ideas to it.

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A move from Shoot Ogawa’s beautiful routine “Neo Purse Frame,” published in The Penumbra during the fall of 2002, served as the inspiration for this changeover. In this routine, Shoot transfers a coin invisibly from one hand to the other by pushing the coin between his fingers to where it is clipped by the other hand. If you’ve ever seen this performed, the steal is swift, sure, and . . . well . . . a fooler to say the least. As soon as I read this move I realized that it had to be doable with more than one coin (as should the entire routine). This move applies the idea of sending a stack through the plane of the hand, and CoE readers will recognize it as cousin to some of the changeovers featured there.

A stack of coins is held in left third finger curl palm or Nowhere palm. Another coin is displayed at the right fingertips (fig. 2.1). The right hand and the left hand come together, the displayed coin brought close to the back of the left fingers (fig. 2.2). The index finger of the right hand should be slightly higher than the index finger of the left. The best way to be sure you’re in the right position is if the space between the left middle and third finger is lined up with the right third finger. As the hands touch, the right thumb keeps its coin against the right fingers until the back of the left index finger can keep the coin in place (the coin is momentarily held between the two index fingers).

Now both of the thumbs begin to move simultaneously: The left thumb reaches up and contacts the top edge of the displayed coin, preparing to flip it over the top of the left index finger. The right thumb quickly slips past the tips of the left fingers until it can contact the edge of the stack of coins in Nowhere palm (fig. 2.3). The left third finger relaxes its tight hold on the stack and lowers slightly as the right

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thumb pushes away from your body and slightly upward, sending the stack as a whole through the space created between the left middle and third fingers (fig. 2.4). The right third finger can quickly and with a minimal amount of movement “catch” the stack in third finger curl palm as the left thumb completes the flip of the displayed coin over the left index finger. The hands immediately separate with the left hand now cleanly displaying the single coin.

This changeover can obviously send a stack back and forth between the third finger curl palms of both hands with the apparently simple transfer of the visible coin. You might also try doing this move without the visible coin, using it as a changeover done while handling an “invisible” coin. When I use this changeover without the visible coin, I often use the thumb of the hand holding the stack (rather than the opposite hand's thumb) to push the stack out between the fingers.

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This is another little accident that I’m now doing regularly. Like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always liked the vanishes from Michael Ammar’s Topit Tapes (now I believe a DVD--yea Michael!), particularly the ones that emphasize their cleanliness by allowing the magician to slap his or her hands together. I’ve always wanted to be able to clap with coins palmed, and I finally realized that Mutobe palm solves this problem by providing a generous amount of fleshy surface area to help make a louder noise. Now while the idea of performing violent hand gestures while concealing coins in a somewhat awkward and potentially angley palm might not appeal to some people, it does make me quite happy--especially since the action of the slap actually assists in keeping the coins in place.

What you’re going to do is perform The Stealth Steal and a Drag Transfer from CoE with a loud slapping flourish in between, as well as a slap reproduction. I include below a shorter version of the discussion of Mutobe palm from CoE, as well as a reedited version of the Stealth Steal from the same book.

As has been described in Palms of Steel II, the purpose of the Mutobe palm is to conceal a coin or coins while keeping the hand as flat as possible (fig. 3.1 shows the stack from your view; fig. 3.2 shows the audience’s view of the back of the hand while the coins are concealed). The hand appears to be very empty since none of the muscles seem constricted in a way that would enable them to conceal anything. The crotch of the thumb does most of the hard work of holding the coin(s), but the thumb itself can remain fairly relaxed. 3.2

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The Slapping Mutobe move begins in the same place as “The Silent Steal” from Derek Dingle’s routine “Copper Silver Brass” found in The Complete Works of Derek Dingle. A stack of four coins held in the right hand will be worked into heal grip position in order to be stolen. As the right hand closes over the coins, it turns palm down, and the middle finger sneaks on top of the stack as the thumb pushes down. The index and third finger straddle the stack opposite to the middle finger, keeping the stack squared and silent as the middle finger continues to push up from underneath. The stack is thus clipped between the middle finger on the bottom and the first and third finger on top, freeing the thumb from any duty whatsoever (fig. 3.3). The stack is then pressed by these three fingers against the heal of the hand (fig. 3.4), levering it silently away from the first and third finger until the stack is held clipped between the middle finger and the heal of the palm (fig. 3.5).

From this position the stack will be stolen directly into Mutobe palm. The palm up left hand crosses the center of the body, approaching the closed right hand. As the hands near, the left hand begins to turn palm down as the right hand turns palm up (fig. 3.6). The left hand covers the audience’s view of the stack as the rotation of the right hand would otherwise make the stack visible. As the right hand turns palm up, it brings the stack in perfect position to be stolen into Mutobe palm, feeding it directly into position (fig. 3.7).

Once the coins are secured in Mutobe palm (which should only take a split second), the left hand raises up about three inches while the right hand remains closed. The left hand quickly comes down as the right hand opens, creating a loud slap. The contact point of the stack on the right hand is very important (otherwise this gesture may very well propel the stack out of palm position and on to the floor, which isn’t as magical as some people suspect). The fingers of the hands are pointed at ninety degree angles

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to each other, the right fingers pointed toward the audience and the left fingers pointed to the performer’s right. The Mutobe palmed stack actually contacts the fleshy part of the skin at the base of the right thumb as the left thumb muscles contract to steady the stack (fig. 3.8). For me, the contact of the stack on this part of the right hand doesn’t threaten the certainty of the palm; in fact, when done correctly it feels as if the stack is being pushed “deeper” and more securely into Mutobe palm. The noise of the clap is made by the hollow middle of the left hand contacting the fleshy part of the right palm at the base of the fingers.

The slap only takes a second, and the left hand can either lift slowly to reveal the vanish of the coins or it can immediately recoil with the slap to add an element of instantaneousness to the vanish. Wiggle the fingers of both hands at this point—if you’re feeling like adding a bit of a sucker element to this vanish, you can keep the fingers of the right hand tightly together for a moment before wiggling them. The left hand now immediately drops downwards as the right hand begins to turn palm down in preparation to perform a Drag Transfer.

The right hand rotates inward as the stack of coins swings down out of Mutobe palm into an angle palm (fig. 3.9). Note that throughout the right hand’s present action its index finger remains in contact with the fingers of the left hand. This turns the right fingers into a wall of flesh that keeps the audience members to your right from seeing the stack.

The right fingers will now scoop or drag (hence the name) the stack out of Mutobe palm and into right hand finger palm. When the left thumb touches the right pinky, the right middle and third finger contract, stealing the stack out of Mutobe palm and into right finger palm (fig. 3.10). With a little practice this can be accomplished with just the third finger, taking the stack into a Ramsey finger palm.

This transfer is surprisingly fast and both hands separate and turn upwards in a Ramsey display of empty palms (and thumbs, for the suspicious magicians). The left hand then crosses back over to the right of the body, turning palm down and mimicking the position of having a stack of coins Mutobe palmed. The left hand again slaps the right hand; just before the hands contact each other, the right

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thumb kicks the stack of coins backwards out of Ramsey finger palm (fig. 3.11), so that when the left hand now raises up, the coins seem to have appeared in a row on the palm of the right hand (fig. 3.12). Audiences are usually surprised by this (as was I the first time I did it), and this almost instantaneous vanish and reproduction of a number of coins can look like real magic. This Slapping Mutobe move also can be used in a more subtle way (as you will see in the next piece), as the final vanish after a series of vanishes.

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What I call “Slapping 4 Compliments” is simply a very quick vanish sequence of four coins that applies the three techniques just taught. I will assume for the first two vanishes and the following changeover that you’ve read CoE. If you haven’t you can either order it or just use your own sequences to vanish the first two coins and get in position for the Air Click.

Begin with a fan of four coins held in the right hand in position for an Edge Flip Steal (CoE 23-24). Briefly, mime taking the lowest coin of the fan with the left hand, as the right middle finger flips this coin directly into right edge grip. Open the left hand to reveal the vanish. Take two of the three remaining coins at the index finger and thumb of the left hand and perform a Retention Pass to Edge Grip 1 with the right hand (CoE 7-8), retaining the coin in right edge grip beneath the coin already vanished while the left second, third, and fourth fingers pretend to hold the coin. The right hand takes the two coins back at its fingertips (ala the typical back and forth motion of the Hanging Coins plot) and waves them over the closed left hand, which then opens to reveal the second coin has vanished.

You’re now in position to perform a variation of the X for X X-change (CoE 32) that places the right hand’s two visible coins into left third finger curl palm. The hands come together, the left hand shielding the two coins from the audience’s view. The middle finger goes to the inside of the fan and pushes forward, causing the two coins at the right fingertips to immediately flip towards you clipped between the index and middle fingers (fig. 4.1).

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The right fingers extend so that the two coins can be fed directly into left Nowhere palm (fig. 4.2). The right index and middle fingers then quickly retract, straddling the coins in right edge grip. The right fingers clip these two coins and bring them to the fingertips of both hands (fig. 4.3).

You’ll note that you’re now in perfect position to do Air Click; perform the click pass taught above. When you open your right hand to reveal the vanish of the third coin, your left hand is concealing a stack of three coins in Nowhere palm. Now perform the Plural Push-Through Changeover

also taught above, transferring the stack of coins from left to right Nowhere palm as you take the remaining coin at the left fingertips. Show this coin (and the left hand) cleanly as you close the right hand into a fist, tipping the stack from Nowhere palm into finger palm. By placing the coin slowly (perhaps melodramatically) into the right fist through the thumb hole, you can add it to the stack of three as silently as possible.

Show the left hand completely empty as the right hand performs the get ready for Slapping Mutobe (now you can understand why the transfer of the stack from the inside of the hand to heal grip is best if silent). Perform Slapping Mutobe, revealing the last coin has cleanly and quickly vanished. The cleanliness of this vanish makes the previous vanishes even more convincing. Transfer the stack from left hand Mutobe palm to right hand finger palm by performing the Drag Transfer taught above. You can either reproduce all four coins at once as taught above, go into your own reproduction sequence, or get out a deck of cards and do a card trick.

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This idea stems from the technique used for my final vanish from Another Flipping Three Fly found in CoE. Quite simply, it’s a spellbound change (and changeover) performed while a coin is held in a modified spellbound display—the hand holds the coin with its palm down rather than up. This makes the standard technique that uses the convenience of gravity impossible. It also makes for a rather startling change.

Begin with a copper or Chinese coin in left edge grip and a silver coin displayed in right upside down spellbound position (fig. 5.1). You’re going to begin by transferring the palmed Chinese coin over to the right hand’s finger palm in the act of spinning the silver coin. The left hand crosses over in front of the right, fingers extending ostensibly to turn the displayed coin from the far right hand side. As the left hand extends, the coin in edge grip shifts to second finger fingertip rest, lightly clipped between the index finger and middle finger (fig. 5.2; right hand removed for clarity).

As the back of the left hand completely obscures the coin from the audience’s view, the left middle finger pushes upwards on the Chinese coin, feeding it directly into right finger palm (fig. 5.3 shows the

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view from beneath). The left hand now begins to travel to the left, the middle finger contacting the right edge of the displayed coin and turning it one rotation as it comes back into view (fig. 5.4). The key to making this changeover smooth and natural comes from moving the position of the right hand as little as possible--the pose of your upside down spellbound display should look the same whether it's palming a coin or not (and you can see it’s more of a Ramsey finger palm than a standard finger palm).

Immediately show the right hand empty because you can. If this move is used as a middle sequence in the midst of a number of spellbound changes, your apparent cleanliness may surprise your audience.

This basic gesture of your right hand represents how the following change appears to the audience--the right hand passing in front of the left and then showing itself empty. The mechanics are different because now we have to switch the location of the two coins as quickly and as (apparently)

effortlessly as possible. The right hand again crosses over in front of the left hand’s displayed coin. The right middle and third fingers curl in slightly, just beneath the left hand’s finger palmed coin (see fig. 5.3 for the basic idea; now you're recieving, while earlier you were placing). The Chinese coin immediately drops out of finger palm, landing in right fingertip rest. With the left finger palm now clear for palming silver, the left hand performs the vanish of the final coin from “Another Flipping Three Fly”: the left thumb contracts, squishing the silver coin from upside down spellbound until it’s held flat against the left fingers (fig. 5.4). The left thumb now slides the coin up into left finger palm. The right hand immediately begins to move back to the right again, bringing its Chinese coin to the left finger tips. The Chinese coin remains at the left fingers in upside down spellbound position as the right hand finishes its journey back to the right, revealing the changed coin.

And yes! You may now perform this move till the cows come home since it is yet another continuous spellbound change--one that does not require any shifting of palm positions in order to perform it again.

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This is a useful change if you have the angles to make J.W. Grip work. From the distinct work of Reed McClintock to the stylings of Shoot Ogawa, J.W. Grip has become more and more popular with a variety of coin magicians. This move attempts to bank on the apparent cleanliness of both hands when the palm is used to create a spellbound effect.

Begin with a Chinese coin in right finger palm and a silver coin at the left fingertips. Perform Nabil Murday’s change, taught in Apollo Robbins's wonderfully illustrated lecture notes Time for a Change or your favorite technique for changing the coin from silver to Chinese while getting the silver coin into left J.W. Grip. You end up with the silver coin in left J.W. Grip and the Chinese coin displayed at the left fingertips (fig. 6.1 shows your view). Note that the displayed coin is held near the very tips of the fingers.

The right hand now covers the view of the coin from the spectators, the right fingertips arriving just under the coin in J.W. Grip (fig. 6.2). The right thumb also extends at this point, contacting the top of the silver coin. With a slight flick (that looks from the front like the beginning of a squeezing motion) the right thumb guides the coin out of J.W. Grip and on to the waiting right fingers, which bend slightly towards you to catch the coin in a sort of vertical fingertip rest/friction palm (fig. 6.3). Whiel you look very dirty from behind, you appear surprisingly clean from the front.

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Now the left thumb is going to going to perform a version of the one-handed vanish Shoot Ogawa teaches in his lectures. Briefly the left thumb and left middle finger then squeeze the Chinese coin so that it pops flat (fig. 6.4), and the left thumb then quickly pushes the coin into left J.W. Grip. Notice that when the coin initially pops horizontal that this “popping” has already moved the coin from the very fingertips of the left hand about three quarters of an inch to the left where the index finger will have an easier time pushing it into J.W. Grip (compare figures 6.3 and 6.4).

Once the Chinese coin is secured, the right hand moves slightly to the right, positioning the silver coin where the Chinese coin was just held (fig. 6.5). The right hand continues to slide to the right to reveal the change, as well as the fact that it is empty.

A few things to keep in mind with this change: 1) This change does not really require the assistance of the right thumb in order to accomplish it—the thumb can help to “steal” the coin out of J.W. Grip, but with a little practice the left hand can simply release the coin as the top edge of the right middle finger provides a gentle pivot point to make sure the coin doesn’t just fall to the ground. 2) The style of the change allows you to do a few feints—in other words you don’t always have to get the coin into J.W. Grip. After you have done the change cleanly once or twice, feel free to simply take the visible coin in right finger palm while levering the concealed coin to the left fingertips. The left hand can then be shown on both sides while the right hand

takes advantage of a Ramsey display and the implied emptiness of the previous displays. You can then pop the displayed coin back into J.W. Grip as the right hand covers the action and leaves the concealed coin in its place. 3) Obviously this is another continuous spellbound change, which gives you a lot of cleanliness to work in and routine from.

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One of Mutobe’s few publications in English, “Quadruple Spellbound," is probably one of the scariest routines I have ever seen. This next move is not so much inspired by this routine as it is an attempt to use Mutobe palm as part of a continuous spellbound change. While this move can at first appear quite clunky, its cleanliness is well appreciated by lay audiences and my final point might actually convince you to use it.

Begin with a Chinese coin in left Mutobe palm and a silver coin in right spellbound display. The left hand moves towards the right, the fingers beginning to obscure the silver coin from view (fig. 7.1 shows the audience’s view). Note that you must be extremely aware of your potential angle problems while performing this gesture; unlike the usual spellbound change, the covering left hand cannot turn completely perpendicular to the floor, but must remain in a position that conceals the coin in Mutobe palm.

As the left hand continues to the right, the right middle and third fingers eventually end up directly beneath the coin in Mutobe palm. Under the cover of the left hand, these fingers reach up and clip the coin out of Mutobe palm (fig. 7.2). They curl inward as the left hand continues to move to the right. The right hand turns slightly inward to the left as the left thumb contacts the edge of the displayed coin now concealed from the audience’s view by the back of the left hand (fig.7.3). The displayed coin rotates inward (counterclockwise) until it aligns with the inside of the left

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thumb into Mutobe palm position (fig. 7.4). As soon as the coin is secure, the left hand begins to slide back to the left. Still under cover of the left hand, the right hand middle and third fingers extend until the right thumb can contact the edge of the coin and the far edge of the coin can contact the side of the left index finger (fig. 7.5). As the left hand continues to move, the left index finger pushes on the edge of the coin turning it on the axis of the thumb and middle finger so that it will face the audience ala typical spellbound position. The right thumb then rolls the coin over the tip of the right middle finger towards the tip of the right index finger (fig. 7.6; note that the coin can remain in contact with the left index finger to help steady it).

The nice part about this move is the display during and after the change, for it looks as if the left hand really couldn’t conceal anything. The right hand fingers can immediately open to display only the single coin. With the fingers extended I even briefly rotate the hand palm down, bringing them back together as the hand turns palm up to repeat the move.

You really should consider this move because of its triple spellbound application. Instead of a silver coin use a copper/silver coin. The Chinese coin sits in Mutobe palm, the copper/silver coin showing copper is in right spellbound display. Now mime the actions for the change, but don’t let the left hand cross so far across the right. Let it cross just enough so that it obscures the copper/silver coin from view. You'll find the spot for minimum travel with maximum coverage by playing with the angles during practice. As the left hand begins to move back to the left, allow the left index finger to catch the edge of the copper/silver coin, spinning it around so the silver side now faces the audience. The left hand continues to move to the left, revealing the change. Now do the change as taught above, exchanging the copper/silver coin for the chinese coin and again showing the right hand clean afterward. Fun, huh? You might also consider using the action of stealing the coin out of Mutobe palm as part of a production sequence.

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The first time I performed this move for some magician friends they spat and said that they hated me. I figured this is a good sign. It also gets a nice reaction from laypeople. The Fingertip Muscle Pass creates a very similar illusion to the Coin that Falls Up except (as I use it) it works horizontally rather than vertically and occurs at the fingertips of the hand rather than on the palm. The theory behind the method for this technique is the same as the blatant exhibition of the muscle pass--a minimal amount of muscle motion creates a larger than expected amount of propulsion, thereby creating the illusion of impossible motion.

I will first teach the move and then describe what context I use it in. A number of years ago Curtis Kam showed me a technique that he used to propel a coin from the fingertips of one hand to the fingertips of the other. The receiving hand held a coin at its fingertips, and the effect was that one coin would visibly jump to the other as if the two coins were magnetic. He would refer to this as the Tiddlywinks move, named after some archaic game that existed long before Game Boys or even Ataris.

A coin is held at the fingertips of both hands. Both hands turn palm up as they were performing a Kaps subtlety, fingers below, thumbs on top (fig. 8.1). The left thumb is positioned right on the edge of its coin and the left index and middle fingers curl upwards so that only the very tips of the digits are holding the coin (fig. 8.2). You’re now going to build up as much pressure as you can comfortably between the thumb and these two fingers: it’s as if the coin is that 8.2

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flea that’s been bothering you all day long, you animal you, and you’re trying to pop it. The index and middle fingers are pushing upward and to the right while the thumb is just pushing downward.

Now very quickly push the thumb downwards and towards the palm of the hand harder than your fingers are pushing upwards. This doesn’t mean the index and middle fingers should go slack—they should remain quite tense (they’re really the source of the energy you’re going to use to propel the coin). Because of this change in pressure and the angle of the thumb’s movement inward, the thumb slips off the end of the coin, causing it to fly to the right. Now I must warn you that some people pick this up quite quickly and some people have a hard time. Your goal is not to have the coin flip end over end as it flies (which it might do at first) but to propel the coin hard enough so that it remains flat (like you would skip a stone on the water) from one hand to the other. Remember that the fingers of the left hand are not supposed to look like they’re pushing or flicking the coin to the right hand. They should just barely move (and they will) when the coin is released: it’s the built-up momentum of the fingers and the sudden release of the thumb that does all the propelling and not any additional movement that occurs after the thumb is released. If any digit performs a large movement at this moment, it’s the thumb and not the fingers.

The right hand’s job is to catch the coin, by simply raising and lowering the thumb (fig. 8.3). The flying coin then comes to a quick stop and smacks loudly onto the other; this looks kind of cool (and rather magnet-like), and the suddenness of the coin’s stopping helps to create the illusion that the coins are gaffed in some strange way.

Now this is all just preamble for how I’m applying this move to a moment that usually gets thrown away in everyone’s favorite, done to death routine, Three Fly (for more general grumpiness about the mutations of Three Fly, see CoE and my routine “Another Flipping Three Fly"). The only real adjustment to the above: instead of doing the move with the hands palm up, turn the back of the hands to the audience ala traditional Three Fly position. Since this simple position change now conceals the action of the thumb behind the fingertips, the move can look quite a bit more magical. So imagine: you’ve just sent two coins across using your favorite method. You’re going from right to left, and you have two coins displayed in a fan at the left fingertips and one coin displayed at the right fingertips. A fourth (gasp!) coin is concealed in your right hand’s favorite palm position (lets pretend that’s edge grip). Now you’re in position to use everyone’s favorite cheesy joke of making the last coin go “visibly” in order to get one ahead for your ending. But wait! Why not really send the coin across visibly, because now you can? Perform the Fingertip Muscle Pass, sending the visible right hand coin to the fan of coins in the left. Now you must be certain that your coin is going to fly flat because you’re going to catch it in place in the fan. Your left thumb should lift up slightly, creating a wedge by which to catch the flying coin (fig. 8.4). The coin really

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goes across and, when it stops dead in the fan, looks quite magical.

For CoE readers, I use this in the middle of my false explanation phase where that bad joke used to go. The line I use is

. . . and some people seem to think the coins have little magnets in them so that one coin can really jump over to meet the others . . . .

As I say this sentence, I wave both hands up and down. At the end of the sentence, I stop suddenly with the hands centered and at the same level about five inches apart. Once all motion ceases (you don’t want the audience to think you’re using the momentum of the hand to propel the coin) I perform the Fingertip Muscle Pass, sending the coin across and hopefully catching it.

Enjoy this move. Of course it has other applications as well. With practice, the coin can fly very far. I originally started re-experimenting with this technique after seeing Sylvester the Jester’s technique for making a coin jump away from the spectators. You might also want to try doing it upwards, but I find it then looks like what people think you’re doing (perhaps you should do this and then do the traditional coin that falls up). Due to the limited nature of the propulsion, the horizontal just seems to work better than the vertical.

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I’m including a brief write up of a routine that really isn’t mine. It belongs to David Stone--“Never 2 without . . . 4” from volume 1of his Basic Coin Magic. I'm including it because, if you perform it with techniques based on my Steeplechase Discrepancy (taught in Palms of Steel I as well as CoE), it takes on a different tempo and aesthetic. If I do one routine for every table, this is usually it, and I’ve had enough knowledgeable magicians ask me if it was mine to make me feel like including it. I find it to be a good example of taking another person’s routine and turning it into your own. This write up also relies heavily on the reader’s knowledge of CoE (specifically, the Down the Edges section), and I certainly don’t feel bad about that. J

In this routine four coins are produced, vanished, and then reproduced. The great thing about Stone’s blocking is that the last coin appears on the table in front of the spectator not once (as in Garrett Thomas's routine), but twice. This requires a bit of misdirection, and rolling a coin at high speed on the back of your fingers makes for excellent misdirection as well as an aesthetically pleasing look

One coin is already in play, rolling on the back of the fingers, while three other coins are concealed in finger palm in the left hand. Perform the Steeplechase Discrepancy until people bother to notice how cool you are. Perform a Rolling Shuttle, finger palming the coin in the right as you produce one of the coins from your left hand. Roll this coin down your left fingers (still performing a Steeplechase Discrepancy....of course you can throw in a One-Handed Steeplechase Discrepancy here as well) as your left hand lowers to the table. The pinky releases the coin about half an inch from the table. The left hand then immediately picks up the coin, turning it over once. As you’re completing the turn over, look at your right hand, which raises to your right side. Push the concealed coin to the fingertips and then roll it on the fingers. I usually have just enough time to roll the coin twice down the right hand as the left hand comes up in order to perform another Rolling Shuttle. Again the right hand’s coin is concealed in finger palm as the left hand produces another coin out of its finger palm and heads to the table. This coin is is placed next to the one already there and then turned over by the left hand. Your eyes now shift

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from this turning action to the right hand, which again produces its concealed coin. As the attention of the audience focuses on the production, the left hand, just finishing its turn over of the second coin on the table, quickly and quietly places its last concealed coin on the table next to the second coin just tabled. The left hand now raises to point at the right hand as you shift your body weight to your right, moving you subtly away from where the coin will appear on the table to your left. Transfer the apparently last coin to the left hand and then point with the right hand to the coin on the table.

I now pick up all four coins and perform a vanish sequence: sometimes "Slapping 4 Compliments," sometimes "Pendulum Hanging Coins 1." I sometimes will vanish three of the four coins using "Pendulum Hanging Coins" and then do "Flurious Four" (both described in CoE) before proceeding to the reproduction sequence. Whatever you do, you need to end up the same place you began, with three coins concealed in the left hand and one displayed to the audience. Perform the exact same reproduction sequence as you did before with this minor change: Rather than load the coin as you produce the third coin from the right hand, wait, focusing the audience’s attention on the rolling third coin. Actually take it with the left hand, simulating a Rolling Shuttle as you then place this coin on the table. Turn the coin over as your empty right hand again reaches out into the air. The left hand NOW loads its last concealed coin on the table as you look at your right fingers, which can help the situation by simulating the rhythm of a coin roll (spectators have claimed that they see the coin go before it vanishes....ha). Close the right hand at the end of the feigned roll as your weight again shifts to your right. Open both hands to show them empty and point to the coin on the table next to the spectators.

As with most of these effects, choosing the spectator you make the coins appear next to is one of the keys to milking audience reactions. I've found that if you perform "Flurious Four" after the vanish sequence, people are very surprised by the return of the other three coins during the reproduction sequence. I’m keeping my patter to myself, mainly because you should enjoy coming up with that on your own.

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This is an eight coin production sequence inspired by Reed McClintock’s funky productions from Knuckle Busters and The Coin Patriot. I will first describe the production technique (since both hands do exactly the same thing); then I will describe the rhythm to the productions as worked out by Curtis Kam.

A stack of four coins are held in Nowhere palm or third finger curl palm. The thumb of the hand contacts the top of the stack, pulling it back towards you slightly before pushing the coin forward (fig. 9.1), through the space between the middle and third fingers until it can be clipped between the second and third fingers on the outside of the hand (fig. 9.2). The tip of the thumb now contacts the side of the stack, levering it up into finger palm. Once the stack reaches finger palm, the pad of the thumb contacts the coin on the face of the stack, pushing it up as if you were going to perform a Steeplechase Discrepancy (fig. 9.3). The coin tips over the side of the index finger and does one “roll” before it’s caught between the index finger and middle finger (fig. 9.4).

9.29.1

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The pad of the thumb again contacts the next coin on the stack, this time pushing downwards as the pinky lowers slightly to create a gap between the third finger and the pinky. The thumb continues to push the coin against the edge of the remaining coin (fig. 9.5), until the coin can ease out through the gap and finally end up clipped by the third and pinky fingers—this is basically the action used at the beginning of a reverse coin roll, where the coin rolls up the back of the fingers rather than down (fig. 9.6). The thumb pushes the final coin again up the inside of the fingers, just as it did with the second coin, until this coin can be clipped between the thumb and index finger. You’re left with a display that is vaguely X-menish (fig. 9.7).

So now you’ve learned to do this with both hands, right? All we need is a bit of presentation and a rather stylistic means of performing the production. My idea for presentation is, since I roll coins so often when performing magic, a false explanation as to how coin rolls are done. Just as a movie requires a frame for every moment on the screen, every finger requires its own coin. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but interests people enough so that they watch.

Curtis came up with the idea that the productions should take place indirectly—i.e. the coins shouldn’t really be seen appearing but should just seem to have materialized pinched between the fingers. So here’s how we worked it out: Four coins start in finger palm in each hand. I produce one of the coins from my left hand, performing a Steeplechase Discrepancy with both hands as the coin rolls back and forth. I then perform a Rolling Shuttle with the right hand, producing one of its coins without stealing out the coin already in play, performing a sort of rolling split. I then perform a One Hand Steeplechase Discrepancy with both hands before I stop and ease both of the coins back on to their stacks as silently

9.69.5 9.7

9.3 9.4

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as possible. I then tip the stacks and begin the production sequence.

Now there’s a certain rhythm to the production sequence where the hands slowly rotate around each other as the coins come into view. The idea is that you produce a coin with the hand that is concealed behind the other as the hands spin. I tend to do a reverse hustle, hand-jive sort of motion, starting with the right hand going behind and then under the left hand. The right hand produces (really reproduces) the first coin between the middle and third fingers; the left hand conceals the moment the coin actually emerges from the audience (fig. 9.8). The right hand continues on its journey up towards your face and then downwards close to your body as the left hand moves behind the right. It’s at this moment that the audience really becomes aware of the coin in the right fingers. Both their focus and your focus should be here as the left hand performs the first production behind the cover of the right hand. Both hands continue to rotate, the left hand moving down and towards your audience as the right hand continues to move up and towards your face. The left hand’s coin is now visible as the right hand descends behind the left hand, producing its second coin. Continue to perform this rotation, producing the coin with the hand that is momentarily concealed from the audience.

The slow pace of the rotation really makes this production looks strange and almost magical. Once you’ve produced the coins, you can attempt to roll them one at a time on to the table, or just drop them all at once to make a very loud clank. Enjoy!

9.8

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They had gone over the edge. The party was

falling, falling down the sides of a deep chasm that seemed without

end. Then suddenly, they landed. The ancient scrolls had not lied!

Spread out in the clearing beneath them was the shimmering

metropolis of Cointopia! It was the lost

civilization of magical coins. It was a place where coins were free

to fly and multiply...and dream.

Here was richness indeed!