J. B. Bobo Modern Coin Magic

You could call this book the Royal Road to coin magic. It has every thing you could need to get started and much like the Royal Road to Card Magic comes highly recommended. I'll be honest when I say I'm skipping whole sections. I guess I need to learn the skills but I'm rarely dressed with sleeves and cuffs and I don't own a coin box or any of the gimmicks mentioned. But as far as the sleight of hand is concerned there is plenty in this book and one will not find themselves bereft of effects. I'm already practicing a few to add to my repertoire and I'm not half through with book. I'll definitely be using the coin through ring, and coins to glass. This book is a must have and I won't be surprised if I wear it out and have to get another.

Worst spectator ever.

I've had bad spectators before, I don't count hecklers in that group. When I say bad spectators I usually mean someone that is uninterested but agreed to see what's up anyway. They don't really want to watch so they don't pay attention. I had this one spectator that spent the whole time I was performing staring at a girls ass so far to my left that I wasn't in his peripheral vision anymore, and then he told me he knew how the effect worked. I'd be surprised if could even describe the effect.

But he wasn't the worst. Last week I attended a friends birthday party. We were out on the patio and I had just finished giving my friend the gift of magic for her birthday. Her neighbor came by walking his dog (apartment complex) and as I already had my cards out I went to show him some magic. So the first bit of annoying was he called the effect a joke and immediately showed me the card I had him take. He said "I forget how this joke goes." I though maybe he was talking about the old gag where you fan the cards facing you and have someone take one and you tell what it is. So I laughed and played it off. I started over and he said it was a joke a few more times before I realized he did not know what was going on. I explained to him that it was a magic effect. And started over I had him take a card and I had him show the birthday girl for validation later. He kept glancing at her the whole time like checking for permission to interact with me, she was kind of ignoring him and I was too busy trying to do magic to read into it. I was doing the Biddle effect  (for those don't know the Biddle effect is a magician in trouble plot where the magician doesn't find the card and has to recover through magic) and I turned up the indifferent card and acted like it was his like I'm supposed to, and instead of correcting me he confirmed that it was his card. I was flummoxed, I knew it wasn't but everything about him said he believed it to be his card, his tone, his body language, so either he was an very good liar or truly didn't realize that it wasn't. The only other person who knew what his card was projecting sod off at him with her body language so I wasn't about to ask her. I slid into a few phases of my ACR so that there was at least some magic happening and then bid him farewell. I later inquired about him to the birthday girl and it seems that he has a huge crush on her and she does her best to ignore him so as not to encourage him. So far he was the worst spectator ever.

*Update: Recently had a new worst.*

Tony Clark Victorian style close up pad

http://shop.dananddave.com/close-up-pad.html

I don't have one, so this is not a review. I kind of wish I did though. Why only kinda, well when you're trying to sell me a $250 anything, is more than four black and white photos too much to ask for? If I'm going to buy something I need to know how it looks I need to be able to picture myself enjoying it. See if it fits with my mental image of my act. The more an item cost the better that mental picture needs to be. Now if you google around for it you can find some color video of it. But I shouldn't have to go out of my way to sell myself a product.

Shame on me?

So I was at a friends going away party and I don't like parties. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs, and my interesting in nailing drunk chicks is surprisingly low for my age range and peer group but parties are a good opportunity to practice my magic. Well I approached one person to inquire if there were interested in seeing some magic. The were surprised not at the opportunity to see magic but that there were two magicians at the party. I was surprised myself, of course I had to seek out this magic man. I found him and he was a bit too drunk for magic but still doing it anyway, by too drunk I mean he couldn't still perform his slights and he had this color change he though was all that but I couldn't see it fooling a sober person. Most of what he showed me (and that I saw him show others before I approached him) was packet tricks even that color change he use the jokers and carried them separate from the deck. As far as I can tell he used the deck one time. And card magic was all I saw him do. I was polite watched everything he wanted to show me and the harshest thing I said to him was "Probably works better when your spectator isn't a magician." When he showed me that horrible color change.

Now where is the shame on me part that gave the post it's title? Well later as I was heading out one of my friend stopped and inquires if I had found the other magician and what I thought of him. My reply among other comments was "I'm a magician, he's just a guy with a magic hobby." Oh the hubris. I know I was once like him in skill level at the very least. Saying something so derisive is not to be done, although I still stand by that statement. I know there are various ways people define what makes a magician. But at least to me its more than someone that knows a few packet tricks.

I have a character, I do more than card effects, and I've practiced my effects so much that even when I'm fall down drunk (I got drunk to please a depressed friend, it was not fun, but I do not regret it) I can still do my sleights flawlessly. I'm committed to magic and performing. I study and practice every day. That makes me a magician. One day I will be a professional performer.

Learning magic is tough.

In following the advice of coin magicians to palm a coin all the time, after a drive to town and back I found two bruises on my palm.

Three fry by Chris Kenner from Theory11

Hello, my name is Magnus and I am a magic addict. But Seriously this purchase was a feel good purchase I was feeling down and just wanted to buy some magic. It was in my price range so I got it. Its a nice effect, like all Three Fly effects it involves the disappearance and reappearance of three coins as they travel from one hand to the other. Its been a pain to learn cause the slights involved mean I have to do it left handed. But I like Chris Kenner as a teacher, he does a good job he's likable, easy to understand, and offers good advice. He recommends dollar sized coins for this effect and I don't have any nor the finances to get any in the near future. It will work with half dollars, even easier with halfs he says but it loses a little something visually. None of the slights are too complicated, the hardest move is combination of two sleights that have to happen together with good timing.

I'd like it more if it were more visual, most of the vanishes happen out of sight. The first two vanishes happen in a closed hand. That is you toss the coins to the other hand and then open it to find one missing. The last one is more of retention vanish. Then it moves rather fast after the last vanish, like you take all the time you want vanishing the coins but after that last coin is seen gone you're off to the races. The coins are reproduced quickly and as soon as possible to give the spectators no time to think. I'd like to be able to slow it down and produce the coins in a more visual fashion.

If you found this review to helpful or you thought it sucked let me know in the comments section.

Weak Performer

“Magic is a powerful art that can support a weak performer.” – Ricky Jay

It's true, I've found that there are effects that if I don't feel like performing that I can just do them going throught the motions and they will be enjoyed by the spectator. Sometimes I don't feel like performing and in those times I can't seem to muster up all what ever it is that I need to perform and it sucks for my spectators because they are the ones that lose out. I need to get over it, but at least there are effects that will prop me up untill I can learn how to do better. The Biddle trick is such an effect.