Well, I've finally got my three coins across looking good sleight-wise (goshman pinch, etc.) but have yet to come up with a decent justification other than the old "affinity of coins" premise.

Is it just one of those tricks that should just be done and get on with it? Does it need a premise? If so, any other ideas for a premise? If not, why?

Would love to hear your thoughts,

thanks,
Jack Shalom

Truly depends upon personal style.

For most, the "watch clever me" approach seems to suffice.

Eric Grossman has a nice line... in Channel One I believe.

I personally just start out "I'm going to make these coins jump one at a time into my closed right fist" and demonstrate that.

I really don't see any need for further justification, I mean obviously I'm a magician and work with coins, what else do you expect me to do with them except jump around and whatnot?!

This is a stupid question but,where can I learn the Goshman pinch?

Not stupid at all, and good to ask questions like that.
It was taught for the first time in Bobo's book Modern Coin Magic and is shown in several modern videos.

I learned it from Sankeys coin magic DVD.

To name a few,

Jay Sankeys "revolutionary coin magic" dvd
Greg Wilson's "on the spot" dvd
Curtis Kam's "Palms of Steel"

After learning the back clip from Paul Cummins video "up in smoke", I will never go back to goshman pinch

As Jonathan said; "Truly depends upon personal style." For some the coins simply traveling across is enough but for others a theme or story designed to create justification is desired. I am of the school where the story is important. Not just to create justification but to add entertainment to the show.

Below you will find two story ideas that I have used with the coins across. The second story, the Fitzkee inspired one, was the one that was best received by my audiences. If you are interested in more please PM me.

For my coins across routine I prefer the scientific or mock scientific approach. I offer to teach the spectator a little about static electricity or static attraction. The story goes something like this:

“Static electricity or static attraction has at least two similarities to magnetism: The seemingly MAGICAL attraction and repulsion of one object for another, and the attraction of people of all ages to this topic. Another similarity between the two subjects is that our understanding of both of them is still based largely on theory.

An understanding of static electricity must begin with the concept that all matter is composed of atoms, and all atoms are composed of subatomic particles among which are charged particles known as electrons and protons. Protons carry a positive charge, and electrons carry a negative charge. Ordinarily every object carries equal numbers of protons and electrons and is said to have a neutral charge.

When two different materials come into close contact, for example, felt rubbing against a balloon, electrons may be transferred from one material to the other. When this happens, one material ends up with an excess of electrons and becomes negatively charged, while the other ends up with a deficiency of electrons and becomes positively charged. This accumulation of imbalanced charges on objects results in the phenomena we commonly refer to as static electricity or static attraction.

Let me demonstrate with these coins. Do you know what happens if I rub my fingers together like this long enough? You get very sore fingers, but you also create a static attraction which causes the coin with the strongest charge to jump over (first coin travels) like this. I took advantage of you there, you didn’t know what was going to happen. Let me show you again. Sometimes you can actually hear the second coin go (second coin travels across with a clink). Did you hear it?...”

Please use your imagination for the third and fourth coins.

Take care and take cards
Antony Gerard

PS: A variation of the above routine, one with a bit more humor, was inspired by a Fitzkee routine out of “The Card Expert Entertains”. I would change the above routine as follows: "An understanding of static electricity must begin with the concept that all matter is composed of atoms, and all atoms are composed of subatomic particles among which are charged particles known as electrons, protons, NEUTRON, CROUTONS, and HORSDURVES. Protons carry a positive charge, and electrons carry a negative charge, neutrons a neutral charge, and croutons and horsdurves are ala carte. Ordinarily every object carries equal numbers of protons and electrons and is said to have a neutral charge..."

Though the second routine is not scientifically correct the humor is. Correct that is. Hope you enjoy!

Antony,

When doing that first, "scientific" patter line, do you ever find that when you get to the first coin some of your spectators have fallen asleep?

I agree with Jonathan on "depends upon personal style".

One example is you can relate the across routine with your job. Say you are an accountant and you say you've found a way to transfer money invisibly.

Having said that, there are indeed "reasons" for making the coin across more fun.

I believe I've heard Curtis Kam had a line of saying the coins are so used to travel from hand to hand that this becomes automatic and invisible.

There's also one from Rune Klan saying each US coin has an eagle on one side so they can fly from one place to another.

David Stone also has one simply saying the different between the spec's hand and the magi's hand (one with no coin and the other with 4 coins), then he proceeds to "change that situation".

Of coz it's always ok to simply say "let me do something amazing with these coins"~

How about one I've seen used by David Acer:

"Time is money. Time flies. Ipso facto, money flies."

Just to clarify, the Goshman Pinch is in NEW Modern Coin Magic, not the Dover Reprint, so don't search for hours in the hidden depths of that looking for it!

I like the premis of saying something like, "I have no idea how this happens but look, when I do this.... " etc. Sometimes capping with "It still fools me."

Or,you can use one of the 27 different coins across ideas from the New York Coin Magic Seminar Vol. One - COINS ACROSS. And just to make a correction, Goshman never invented the Pinch, it was wrongly attributed to him by Bobo in the book. The correct term is Tenkai Pinch, and its a very nice concealment.