I would like to float my thoughts on teaching myself coin magic starting (almost) from scratch. I have played with some gimmicked stuff - S&S, Expanded Shell, etc - but, I have always wanted to learn sleights and do the real stuff So, here is my plan:

1. Read first couple chapters of Bobo. (In the past, I have tried to learn sleights this way, but being visual and a poor reader as a kid, I found this very hard) Now, I want to use the book to familiarize myself with the vocabulary, and get some theory, and not obesess if I don't understand every detail.

2. Get volume one of Rubinstein's 'Encyclopedia of Coin Sleights' - it sounds like Ammar's Coin DVD is good too, but I want to focus on the sleights first, and then learn some routines. - Does this make sense? It sounds to me like Rubinstein's series has more coin moves outlined before the tricks are taught...

3. Carry a coin or coins everywhere I go

4. Pick, two or three routines, and practice the dickens out of them. Perhaps in front of mirror or video (video is overkill perhaps, but just more fun).

5. 'perform' the tricks for a live person(s).

Any feedback on this plan? I prefer a systematic approach that I can measure (chapters in books/video) to just fiddling around, helps keep me focused.

-erik

Erik,

Bobo is a fine book to start out with and I believe it should be in every magician's library that calls themselves a coin guy.

I have some resources for you at my website http://www.coinvanish.com under the "foundations" section. It will help you know what to concentrate on in Bobo's if you are just starting out, it will also help you learn one of the most key concealments - the classic palm. Learn it properly from the start so you don't have to go "unlearn" later.

Rubinstien's Encyclopeida DVDs are great, however I would not recommend getting just one if you want to go that route. Just like any Encyclopedia set, it does you no good to just get A-G and not the rest of the volumes. With just one of his DVDs you are going to be missing A LOT of stuff you will need to know. His DVD is a great reference for sleights and several variations of each sleight (he has no routines in the encyclopedia series), but I would probably focus on elsewhere getting a quicker overview of the sleights and some easy routines to go with it.

The videos I consider the best for teaching you basic sleights and some routines are the Roth, Stone, and Ammar videos. You can see a comparison of them here: http://www.coinvanish.com/compare

Carry coins with you - yes and starting out keep them palmed.

Yes pick a few routines to start with and learn them well.

Yes perform for someone - thats one of the absolute best parts of magic - performing it for someone.

Dan

Wow, great site Dan! And thanks for the feedback on my 'plan' outlined above. Sounds like the three DVDs from Rubinstien's are worth it. I will look into the Roth videos more, since I know the least about them.

As for performing for someone else, here is a dummies question: how to practice on a test subject without breaking the rule 'don't do the same trick for someone more than once'? Also, by definition I won't have mastered it yet. So should I designate one trusted victim who will likely see through my early attempts? I guess this is why it is best to belong to a magician's group!

One word: Family

The lovely people that get to see your magic over and over and over until they never want to see a coin in your hand again.

My wife has the honor of being my crash test dummy for my new routines.

If you want to get involved in some magic groups in your area, IBM Ring 6 (Delaware Valley Conjurer's Club) meets every 2nd Monday of the month in Springfield PA (not too far from Plymouth Meeting). The website is: http://www.magictalk.com/dvcc/ just show up.

You could always do what I did, get a job at a magic shop. You get to practice on new, different people all day long. Or do what someones once said, "work at old folks homes, they like the show and do not really care if you mess up." Plus it is a way to give back to the community. The idea of always carrying a coin with you is priceless.
Keep up the good work.

Corey B.

This is my 100th post!

I am currently making an intro to coin magic thingy for newbies in my spare time. It's nothing all that great just a kind of a chronicle of my experiences as a coin newbie. It contains a bunch of real world tips for newbies and some nice little routines that I am working on.

By using my own experiences as they are happening, I am capturing a lot of things that I have not seen in beginner magic books. Things that tend to be written by the professional...

I think I will just post it somewhere for free as I don't know how the heck I would get it printed.

This thread is really helping me. I'm starting out with coins and it is very different from cards. Perhaps the fact that I've been working with cards for 2 years doesn't help the transition, lol. I found the Ammar dvd to be really helpful, but I'm thinking of purchasing the first Rubinstein dvd to just learn more sleights. Should I have some routines under my belt beforehand?

@Anthony: I would suggest so. After all, it's the effect that counts and if can be achieved easily (that is: without difficult moves), then use by all means the simplest way. Being able to do some 3 billion different sleights isn't a good way to start. In this forum, people usually add: "Always learn the sleights that are required for an effect". And that's definitely a good advise.

Regards,

Spherie

That is helpful to hear. My approach to date as been somewhat the opposite: trying to master the sleights in isolation, with the theory that building effects on the sleights makes sense. But, what Spherie points out sounds like good advice...

So, I will let the effects drive the sleights that I learn, and use Rubinstein as a reference to master those sleights. Make sense?

I guess my early approach was like trying to learn a language by reading a dictionary!

:bg:

Yes, you could see it that way. Approaches are different in video and textual lectures, too. Some teach you the required moves and then the routines, others explain the neccessary sleights "on-the-fly" when they explain the overall effect. Being able to perform a lot of sleights looks impressive, but one should keep in mind that finger-flinging can even weaken the effect of the whole routine.

Spherie

Hi Erik and all,

One of the best advice Mr Guy Camirand, (www.camirandmagic.com/) my magic mentor, gave me was to carry a coin (or 2) with me all the time and try to do my everyday life with a coin in different palm positions (classic, finger,...)

It works!!! After a while you don't even remember that you have a coin in your hand and MORE IMPORTANTLY you loose that 'guilty' feeling that you are hiding something to your audience, it improives your confidence a lot!!!!

Try it and you'll see for yourself

Ronnie Lemieux
Montreal
Canada

Early this year I started on my classic palm and I thought I'd never "get it", especially being able to open my fingers while palming. After a month or so the palm became secon nature.

A good piece of advice I got early was: practice over a bed. Comes in handy when learning things like the muscle pass! Sure saves time on the hands and knees looking for coins.

Does any one know (Dan Watkins) what happened to the "coin purse" website? It had some great stuff on there...

Dominic Reyes who ran The Coin Purse told me he took it down. He lives in the UK and is a member of the Magic Circle. Since routines were up there for anyone to read, he wanted to err on the safe side and take it down instead of having any possible exposure issues with the Magic Circle. The Circle is pretty strict on that stuff.

Thanks for the scoop Dan! I remember the site had some very good learning material for serious coin students.

I've been a coin magic student for about a year now. Once I had got the basic palms and a few effects nailed down I went a bit crazy , bought lots of dvds/videos/books of more advanced stuff with harder sleights and more involved routines...despite this the best responses I get (from normal people)are from really simple stuff like bent penny transposition, basic coins across, gadabout/sticky coins, coin through pocket/hand/hankkerchief variants - stuff with a high ratio of impact to difficulty. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you should do what you feel comfortable with, and simple old stuff is still effective..with basic sleight of hand. So an encyclopaedic knowledge ofsleights isn't really necessary to start with, is my experience.
Obviously it depends what you want to do, I mean I really enjoy practicing the Himber click pass for its own sake as it such a beautiful move but it will probably be years, if ever, before I would do it publicly.
Also I would suggest being able to transfer the coin secretly between the different palms is a pretty useful thing to acquire too.
Good luck!

I have only just started doing coin magic myself. I bought a copy of Bobo's MCM when over in Vegas but found it hard to learn from cos I was a complete learner, so I bought a copy of David Roth Expert Coin Magic Vol 1. Now Bobo's makes complete sense. I have been learning the basics for weeks now and carry coins everywhere. I practice coin transfers and palms when in meetings and I nmy spare time. Magic has gripped me cos I was actually really excited when my brand new half dollar set arrived yesterday. I hope this helps and good luck from another real newbie.

@mightyred75 - I feel the same way about Bobo's MCM book. I started out with it beeing the only resouce I had for learning coin magic. After a while I found Ammars Intro to Coin magic DVD to be a much better start than Bobo MCM. I would also suggest Sankey's Revolutionary Coin Magic DVD. But do not expect to master everything presented on that DVD just because you know the things Ammar tought you. But it's a nice DVD to cure some of the curiosity you might have, and to give you some ideas on where you would want to be headed.

Jim

Mightyred75 & jimfl
I had the same problem with Bobo when I started. It makes me annoyed when people blindly recommend Bobo for beginners - there should be a law against it. Bobo is an excellent, cheap resource for routines, but only when you know the basics - and Bobo is bad for the basic sleights. The drawings are poor, even for the early fifties when it was published.
I found Roth to be very good (you will never ever learn the grace, timing and subtlety of Roth from reading Bobo). However I felt that I still needed more on the basics (espicially the CP) so I bought Ian Kendall's CD. This is an excellent resource - no routines; only sleights - but practising them will aid you enormously. Check it out:http://www.virtualmagicshow.com/stuff. I highly recommend it, and in addition he is a very nice, helpful guy too.