Hi, I just got a Johnson C/S/B and was wondering what routines you guys do with it, I like the one that came with it but the ending is terrible. Thanks

Reed McClintock has some nice ideas for the thing. At least they are not offering the 'Chinese bit' patter. That was scary. If you gold plate an English Penney and get a ], you could do something clever and vanish all four coins. Word to the clever.

Check out some of the amazing stuff Dan Watkins does on his website http://www.coinvanish.com

Jonathan also had some very clever applications for the gaff, way back in the day. He's either too modest to mention them, or has forgotten. One involved the visual transformation of the coins on the spectator's hand. That makes for a nice ending.

James Lewis' routine substitutes a coin purse for the pocket, and this greatly improves the effect. He also has a remarkable triple change Spellbound routine that he uses in conjunction with the S/C/B that makes for an excellent ending. I hope his tape "Million Dollar Mysteries" is still available.

Roger Klause has also routined the heck out of this gaff, or, more accurately, the "two copper one silver" setup. See "The Operator" in his book "Roger Klause in Concert".

Reed McClintock's routines follow Gary Kurtz's "Trio in Three", a routine that has influenced many of the top coin guys active today. These routines use playing cards instead of the pocket, and add a "matirx" like feel to the usual transpositions. Better endings are also part of the bargain.

The James Lewis routine is stunning. I wish he put out more material!!!

I have a routine in my sound routines book that uses the rattle gimmick. So, you not only see the coins change places but you hear the coins change places!

Two handlings: One, they all vanish at the end! And the other, all three coins change at the end!!! That is if you are looking for a changing places routine.

I also have Matrix, Coins across, coins thru the table, coins to pocket, and portable hole routines with it.

Best David Neighbors
The Coinjurer

Paul Green has a nice routine on his "In the Trenches" dvd. He uses a coin purse to end clean and avoid the unsatisfying "false explanation" ending that ships with the Johnson set. (Green uses 2 copper, 1silver, but the concept is the sames as for CSB)

Finally, you may want to check out Roth's Ultimate Coin Magic, Volume 1. Roth also ends with the phony explanation, but he offers some nice moves and ideas for this set, as well as for other gaffed coins and coin sets.

Both of these dvds have plenty of great material in addition to the CSB routines.

There is always the orginal routine given with the C/S/B gimmick, which I believe Doc Eason said on his third teaching video, that Bob Sheets wrote up the routine for it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Derek Dingle has a nice kicker ending with vanishing the coins and making them appear on the table, while he is nowhere near the coins.

Its in his Complete Works book.

I use a purse instead of a pocket, an open handed change instead of the coins changing inside of two closed fists, a real take/ fake load to vanish the copper and brass coins but leave the silver, and I throw in a Chinatown half gaff as a final silver / brass kicker. But aside from those changes, my standard routine follows the basic Johnson routine ideas fairly closely.

I use an "Elemental Transfer" / "Quantum Mechanics" premise.

Best,

Mike

I'm a big, big fan of Cody Fisher's CSB routine. Starts and ends examinable. Brilliant handling and the patter is clean and makes sense. He has a video detailing the routine and I think a DVD in the works. He also has lecture notes on it. It's not too knucklebusting either. He's also a Café member. I've asked him a couple questions and he was very quick to respond back and help.

http://www.codyfisher.com/home.htm

The biggest issue is still the presentation. The gaff lets you make one coin change into two coins in a VERY visual instant. The gaff also allows you to make two coins change into one in a puzzling moment. Impressive if you like puzzles, though beyond that, empty.

WHY do the coins change places?

Can we do better than simply having the trick as a simple transposition? The gaff can manage some things. What's missing is a basic motivation. The clever performer knows that audiences relate more to a premise and presentation than to the small effect with the coins.

I've bounced that thought around quite a bit, mostly because I love the effect. but to be an effective routine, it does need a compelling premise / reason to be. Not an easy effect to explain however. Copper, brass, and silver coins that seem to bounce here and there, changing places with each other as they go. Not a lot of logic or reason to that.

Curtis' take on that in his CSB routine on POS - Silverado really seems to flow nicely. The repeated assertion that the coins couldn't be in same place at the same time works very well. The actions themselves become the premise.

I've tossed around premises that involve traveling, betting, tips that I got one night working in an airport bar, etc, etc, etc, and still have not found a better way to do the CSB then the quantum physics method or the "Check out these coins, they do some crazy things..." version. I just don't do the latter as well as Curtis does

Mike

Not to leave folks in the lurch... but

Remember those word problems from high-school math? They all sounded the same... if we let x be the number of peanuts in the mixture and y be the number of passengers in the train... and the mixture costs less than four dollars on tuesday... then how many hours would it take for the raisins to catch up with the train?

Not too much worse than what I've read recently.

I tend to shy away from anything that sounds too much like a locker room chalk talk for this trick, however, as I hold the coins in my hands right now I see coins from the many nations of the world. For whatever reason, the American coin goes off and starts acting on its own. The other countries are unconvinced that the action is necessary, but they eventually decide to join the US, for one reason or another. However, by the time they show up, the US position has shifted....

Sound Familiar?

I call my latest routine China Con. I use a 3 card monte type patter as to why the coin change places!


Best David Neighbors
The Coinjurer

Curtis, that is awesome! That fits perfectly with today's politics/war, which as we all know, more people are apt to discuss than magic. What a great walk-around. They'll be baffled, then get into fisticuffs arguing over politics as you're walking away.

I was wondering, when you keep the set not in use, do you keep it together or separated?

The routine by Wagner that comes with the set is really not so good. It basically screams, "I've got extra coins in my pocket."

One routine I do to start and end clean is this:

Have the 3 examinable coins on table. Flip them end over end. Talk about how you used these coins as a kid to learn sleight of hand. You can mention how in the beginning you weren't so good. Do some basic french drop stuff. Then you got better. Hold the silver coin back with a thumb palm and make it(poorly, of course) appear in your pocket.

Now you're all set to stun with a standard CSB routine. Talk about how then you really got good, etc... Do the standard move a few times spreading your hands further and further apart each time. Then you can say: people still think I'm quickly chucking the coins through the air, so let's eliminate the air. Solid through solid. Do the transposition through your pocket and you're clean.

I'm sure this basic handling is nothing new, but I find the patter justifies every move.

I like that line of thought. A historical account of a magician's progress from start to present. The only thing that troubles me is the final go to pocket. Perhaps a purse instead? Something that, even though a go to pocket is performed, takes the focus from the pocket and places it on the object taken from the pocket, a purse in this case. I use this type of misdirection all the time, and many times people will swear that I never put my hands in my pocket. Strangely, they remember the purse, but seem to forget from where it came

Best,

Mike

Hey, that's a great idea.


A lot of people like John Bannon's routine which uses the standard set and it can be found in one of his fantastic books Impossibilia or Smoke and Mirrors.

I think it's the latter. It's called
"The Aztec-Orient Express"


I'm also fond of G. Latta's CopSilBrass which does not use the standard set. This routine can be found in Kaufman's "CoinMagic" is well worth your study!!!