I agree with Eric, that was a wonderful highlight. Cheers,

Bill

I also had the privilege of attending the coin seminar. I’ll give you a summary of the day (as much as I can remember). I was planning on taking notes, but we were encouraged to get the coins out and try the stuff as it was being show, so this will be from my memory only.

It was supposed to start around noontime, so I planned on getting there around 11:30. I had never been to Marc’s, but I’m from Harrisburg, so I was familiar with the basic area. I arrived with several other individuals and we made our introductions and received our special packages. These were in special carry cases and included the various lecture notes, DVD’s and videos as well as notebook, highlighter and pen. The carry cases doubled for a laptop table while we were “trying out the moves”.

I knew Marc from various conventions, met Dan Watkins for the first time and also met some other magicians at this point. Also met Dr. Rubinstein, David Roth and Geoff Latta. We had time to explore Marc’s great library and see some of his magic collection. Some of the stuff Marc has could be in a museum. Tons of old posters, huge numbers of different types of linking rings, cups and balls and other classic magic props.

We started a little after noon as we were all asked to go into Marc’s theater. I was lucky enough to get a front row seat. It is a great theater with stage, lights, great movie seats with drink holders and again, tons of magic posters.

Then the magic began. It was a very informal setup where we could ask questions as David, Michael and Geoff first performed, then explained their routines. It was very logically set up. We did a lot of work with the coins across trick with each magician showing different ways to accomplish the trick. The best thing I liked about this was the many different ways to show that you were putting three coins in the spectator’s hand, when you are really putting the four coins in the hands. Dr. Rubinstein’s cover move out of the purse palm was great. I don’t remember what he called it, but it is all in the notes. While we were trying to do the moves, Michael, David and Geoff were going out into the audience to help us. Geoff’s Han Ping Chein move was also great and David Roth’s routines were beauty to the eyes.

We took breaks every hour or so. The breaks were about 20 minutes. There was soda, pretzels and chips to munch on. During this time, some of us would session with other magicians and the teachers. I saw Dan Watkins showing his new coins across in the hands for Michael and Eric Godhandz showing some of his stuff. We also got to explore the library and magic collection more during these breaks.

After the coins across, they concentrated on copper/silver and spellbound moves. It is amazing how many different ways there are to do spellbound moves. There were breaks to watch rare video footage of long gone coin masters. We saw Arthur Buckley, Dai Vernon, Slydini, Ramsey and a host of others. Some of the stuff they were doing was simply amazing. If they were around today, it would still be amazing. Of course this was on a drop down screen in the theater, so it was easy for everyone to see.

At around 3:00 we took lunch break. They had Pizza delivered and everyone chowed down and did more coin talk and sessioning. Mike Gallo has transportation problems and didn’t arrive until around 4:00. He then did some of his coin routines with the explanations. He did the trick that comes with the Johnson shell and it was a masterpiece. He has a small brandy glass that would roll right over after the coins were revealed. Looked very classy. Again, he explained everything he was doing and took questions. It should be noted that during all the performances, the different teachers would inject comments to help you learn or think about the move differently, tell funny stories about old coin magicians or things that had happened to them. They would tell you how they worked on the logic of the moves or the routines. Like I said, it was very informal and a great learning experience.

Then Kainoa Harbottle came on. He did a lot of amazing edge work. The coins in his hands seemed to have a life of their own on his steeplechase coin role. Again, people said he “pissed them off”, but that was only because of how easy he made these impossible looking slights appear.

It was supposed to end around 6:00, but they just kept on going with more and more information. I drove down for the day, so when it was around 8:00 and they were just coming back from a short break, I had to leave to drive back to Harrisburg. Michael was nice enough to get the other lecturers to sign my certificate before I left. I know that next year I’m going to make plans to stay to the end.

All in all, I have to say it was one of the greatest learning experiences on coin magic I’ve ever had. I even got to show David Roth and Michael a coin “pop-up vanish” I had learned years ago, but didn’t remember where I had learned it. David wasn’t sure where it was written up, but did tell me it was a very, very old move. He also told me that he liked the way I was doing it, so that alone made my day! Michael told me he thought it was in Bobo and called the pop-up vanish.

I would highly, highly recommend that anyone interested in coin magic attend the next one. Your skill lever doesn’t matter. There were some people there that were very accomplished, and others that were just learning. It was a great mix of guys.

Hope to see everyone there next year.

Craig Pontz

When is the next seminar?

We look forward to holding another Seminar at some point, but right now we are involved in a project, which will be a nice surprise for all when it is done. Listen carefully, you may soon hear the whispers.......

Mike, I am straining, but still do not hear the whisper How about a little hint?

PLEASE take the time off to do another seminar! It was great to meet everyone there, see everyone perform, and the material reviewed there along with the enthusiasm of everyone has motivated me to practice, practice, practice! I did put on a small show for a bunch of neighborhood 6 year olds (I am definitely an amateur) and got through a probably not very well done miser's Dream but the kids loved it! Unfortunately, they were so worked up from that I was completely unable to do any of the other coin stuff I had worked on. They practically broke my table trying to figure out where the hole through which the coins traveled in a coins through table routine. It was a lot of fun, though, and I am putting together a show for the parents with ideas I got from the seminar.

This amateur loved it!