Hi All,

Need some advice on the last coin vanish. I am having great difficulty stealing the 4 coins from heel clip in thumb clip. I'm using soft real morgans, and with the weight of the four coins, I am struggling to:-

1) Hold the weight of the four coins in thumb clip, one or two slip out on my grip
2) Due to the diameter of the four coins, is causing my hand to look very cramped up and unnatural
3) Due to the coins being soft, they are very slick as a stack so often doesn't stay together as one unit in thumb palm

Has anyone else experienced this? Any tips?

Thanks

Regards

Baobow

I never liked stealing stack of coins in thumb palm or mutobe palm; that's why I use a variation of a pass Kainoa Harbottle uses a lot, it is not the mutobe palm, but it has helped me a lot to vanish stacks of coins, it involves stealing coins in no-where palm, if you PM me your skype I can share the technique. I think it was originally developed by Apollo Robbins, then got popularized by Shoot Ogawa and then it got to the hands of Kainoa. (Once again, I'm just speculating about its origins).

Boabow, have you tried pushing the coins into a small spread, rather than a stack? It's easier to hold onto all four if some small part of each coin actually touches your hand and/or thumb. It can even be just the edge. When I do it, each coin is spread about the width of the rim. (or what used to be the rim, on really smooth coins) Also, consider using gravity, instead of fighting it. By tilting your hand, you can reduce the strain on your thumb.

Other than that, it's mostly practice, in my experience.

Have you checked out Carney's explanation in his book or DVD?

Hi Curtis, Thankyou very much for those tips. I'll certainly try those, the small spread I think will make a big difference.

Frank, I have studied Carney's routine in both book and dvd format, It is the routine that got me started. However, I wasn't a big fan of the side heel used, it just makes my right hand feel like a claw ( i.e. Inspector Gadget style). The pick up just doesn't feel natural to me in my hands.

Ok. Understood.
In his routine, however, you're immediately going for the wand with that hand, which helps the situation.

Hi Frank,

As with the whole routine, the wand does provide great concealment and misdirection. But the spectators are watching so closely at this point( being the final coin and all) that any crampness in the hand or unnecessary adjustments wouldn't be good.

I'll keep on practicing and persevering. I'm using morgan dollars for the routine, and it's the only time that I use dollar size coins. I always use half dollar sized coins for all my other coin work. So the weight of the morgan and the size is something I am getting used to.

I'll play more with both the thumb palm steal and carney's suggested method and see which one will provide a more comfortable and natural motion. But I am leaning towards the thumb palm at this moment.

The recent Ramsay issue of Genii Magazine has a DVD and clip of Ramsay doing that bit you are describing.
He used coins that fit his hands. He was also working for audiences that were not expecting too much more than what was in the books of that time.

You might just have to use performance as part of your practice. Can always learn from mistakes, and who knows? Maybe your technique is better than you think.

Have you thought of:
sleeving the first coin (on the same side or opposite sleeve), to have then only three to handle
ditching one on a magnetic device to have only three to handle
Using Mike Gallo's Siamese coins to have only three to control
Using a gravity Flipper coin with three regular coins
Using John Kennnedy Super Coins and Craig Petty's technique on DVD
Using a false count at the beginning
Using a s***l

... or are you a purist more interested in your innate talent for reproducing someone else's effect than the cleanliness of the effect itself ?

There's a variation of the Cylinder and Coins (I'm not sure if it's published) that involves using a hold-out and a topit to eliminate the moments when your hands are "dirty" and the ending is clean as clean can be.

Jon when you say recent issue of Genii featuring the Ramsay routine, which issue is that?

You might try to get a copy of the DVD "The Magic Of John Ramsay" Vol 1 by Andrew Galloway. Mr. Galloway was Ramsay's only student and explains several of Ramsay's amazing effects on this disc including 'Cylinder and Coins'which is covered in detail. The lesson in misdirection "The Real Secrets Of Misdirection" alone are worth the price if this DVD.