Hi all.

I'm new to sleights and have just picked up Bobo's. I'm particularly interested in which sleight would be considered best for a "which hand is it in?" routine if a closed fist with a coin in is to be turned over and the hand shown empty.

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

The best really depends on angles and if you're sitting or standing.

Back Palm, Back Clip(s), Tenkai/Goshman Pinch, Downs Palm, Ramsey Subtlety.
There are others not in Bobo's.

There will be those folks who will challenge you but if everything appears natural and attention is drawn where you want it to be there will be less challenges.

You got Bobo's, learn them all...You'll need them. Sounds like Tenkai/Goshman Pinch is what you're looking for, but there are other ways to do it, so learn them all. You'll see why once you learn about other things like timing, misdirection and overall presentation. Enjoy the journey, and welcome to the Café. -MB

Any backclip. See what fits you best. Personally, Tenkai pinch.

Phedon

The back clips are very useful, but can be pretty hard to pull off for the beginner. I don't know your knowledge or skill with coin magic, or magic in general, but I would really learn a few basic moves and subtleties and master those.

Learn the classic palm, master it, including placing the coin into palm with one hand and releasing onto fingertip rest. Get a good finger palm and make sure all the "windows" are closed so you don't flash the coin, especially if it is polished silver. Learn the Ramsey Subtlety to make your hand look natural while holding out a coin, and to imply the hand is empty. Use the Caps Subtlety or Malini Subtlety while classic palming a coin to make your hand appear to be empty from both sides. Learn the finger palm toss vanish, and french drop. Most people feel it is easier to do the finger palm toss vanish and hold out with their right hand, and hold out with the french drop in their left hand. Learn a shuttle pass which will prove to be very useful. And if you can, learn to sleeve a coin, or ditch a coin in a breat pocket so you can end your routines clean. With those few moves you can perform some amazing magic, and you should be able to create routines of your own to fuel your fire.

When those moves become second nature, that's a great time to start learning more advanced sleights. A nice rentention of vision vanish is worth taking the time to learn once you get goin with the other slights as well as some color changes like the spellbound change. The Downs Palm is great for producing or vanishing more than one coin while the hand appears empty, and classic palming more than one coin can really give you an edge in your routines.

Apollo Robins and Shoot Ogawa's Cultural Xchange videos are great for really visual magic. Has anyone checed out the Nabil's Change? It's a really great sleight to change one coin into another that looks incredible. Also the Wilt Vanish is great, I've been using them all the time and people have been loving them! Plus they are great sleights to add onto a spellbound routine goin from left hand to right hand and back.

Stevie D

You won't find the Tenkai/Goshman pinch in the Bobo section on sleights but I think Tenkai pennies is in there, which sounds like the routine.

The Goshman pinch is on page 359 of "New Modern Coin Magic" (The hardcover, revised edition) Several effects using it follow, including "Tenkai Pennies".
I don't know if it's in "Modern Coin Magic", which is the Dover paperback.

It's not in the paperback, only in the big hardcover.

Regarding "which hand is it in?" as you put it, have a look at "Guess which hand?". I can't tell you the page number, as I don't have the book here, but it's in both editions of the book.

Otherwise, I can only agree with the advise of dxsare above. Start with the basics. I know it takes time, and it won't give immediate results, but if you get these basics down solidly, you can really do a lot with it, and it will also open the door to all sorts of things, as many things in coin magic more or less depend on these basics.

Great post Stevie D, couldn't have said it better.....!

Many thanks to all for the above tips.

I'm coming at this from a hypnosis background, so the magic side's a fairly new world for me.

From initial practice it seems that while standing a well executed back finger clip may achieve the particular effect of either dropping the coin into the palm/keeping it hidden as required as I turn and open the fist. I think I'll principally get this one down pat with both hands before slowly but surely working on the rest.

I've just picked up David Roth's Expert Coin Magic Vol 1, so along with Bobo's now figure I've got the best training angles covered (bar 1 to 1) and got a whole lot of learning to do!

Thanks again.

For the guessing which hand it's in, just keep a coin in each hand, when you have them choose a hand, just say No, and open the other hand showing the coin. No sleights needed.

If doing the "Which hand is it in?" routine, then one may want to ask the "How old is my audience?" question. I've fooled my young nephew with exactly the simple technique that montemagic describes, but if I were doing it for an adult, I'd use sleights. Of course, I wouldn't tell them I was doing a magic trick. I'd just present it as a guessing game and then rib them about how badly they're doing. And then once they catch on that there's something going on, the next time they select a hand, have something unexpected show up. An odd-looking foreign coin or a devil duckie.

That's a good point, adults are usually perceptive enough to realize what you are doing, unless they've had a few drinks.

In Bobos' check out "Smart Coin" gets em good

Perfect! I'll get 'em all totally mashed!! No sleights required!!!

Cool, thanks!

I think one of the main slieght to learn would be a simple vanish and recovery.once you can do that you have a great anytime anywhere coin effect.i perfer a retention vanish(i do a Mickey Silver variation,i worked out) and then produce the coin of a spectator(their sleeve, shoulder, behind ear, ect.).