Time: November 2004. Place: New York. Event: The New York Coin Magic Seminar. It was a day that attending coin magicians would never forget. Hours of lectures, demonstrations, and workshops, hands on training, unpublished material, free stuff, rare DVD footage of coin magicians of the past,and personal instruction by four of the most influential coin magicians of the past 30 years. It was supposed to be a once only event. Well, we were wrong. That's right, David Roth, Mike Rubinstein, Geoff Latta, and Mike Gallo have decided to go another round. So, on July 16th, 2005, at Marc DeSousa's Magic Theatre outside of Philadelphia, PA, those wild and crazy coin guys are proud to present.............:
THE NEW YORK COIN SEMINAR 2 . This seminar will run 6 hours, and will have the same ingredients that made the first seminar so successful. There will be demonstrations, lectures, unpublished material, free stuff, rare DVD footage of coin magicians of the past, and much hands on coin work with workshops and personal instruction from Roth, Rubinstein, Latta, and Gallo.
How much will this seminar cost? You get six hours of coin magic with all of the above, for $250. In order to give as much personal instruction as possible, this seminar will be limited in size. At this price, the seminar should fill up in no time, so be sure to sign up as soon as possible. Send all serious inquiries to Michael Rubinstein at rubinsteindvm@aol.com. Registration comes with receipt of your payment, and will close when the seats are filled. Hope to see you all in Pennsylvania this summer, Mike Rubinstein for Roth, Rubinstein, Latta, and Gallo.

Mr. Rubenstein,

Will this one also be in November?

Oh, and are there any more developements on the website you told us about?

It will take place July 16, 2005, near Philadelphia. Web site is still being tweaked.

I’m drooling! Wish I could go.

The first one was such an incredible experience, you can bet I'll be there in July!

Mike, how much of the material will be new to those of us who were lucky enough to attend the first seminar?

Hey Rob, thanks for posting. Obviously, some of the material covered will be the same (including my updated "Secret Stuff" notes, which is top secret coin material only available at our seminar). However, we will be concentrating on a more hands on approach at this seminar, and get the attendees to actually work through the routines with us. There will also be material that we didn't cover in the first seminar, and an opportunity for the attendees to let us know what areas of coin magic they want to concentrate on or focus on (specific techniques, routines, etc.). As you remember from our first seminar, the magic will be constant, and the learning, intense.

You bet I remember! I like that you're taking the approach of walking us through the routines this time around. My head was spinning so much from the amount of new sleights and routines presented last time around that I had difficulty retaining it all. Practicing the moves will definitely help to cement it in our heads.

It will be great to see you guys again.

Mike,

Do you all provide written or video material on the main topics to aid in going back and studying what was taught after the Seminar?

Dan

Dan,

Each of the presenters provided notes on some of their material. Some of this was brand new unpublished material, and some of it was reprinted from existing books, lecture notes, etc. Although there was a good amount of overlap between what was presented and what was in the notes, the notes weren't meant to cover all of the routines we were shown. Also, the seminar itself didn't at all times necessarily follow a charted course; but rather was geared toward covering what we, the attendees, were interested in discussing; so it would have been impossible for the notes to completely cover any of the spontaneous paths the discussion took. Luckily, Mike R., David, Geoff, and Mike G. had the forethought to provide us with spiral notebooks and pens!

Just a quick question? I would consider my coin handling to be at an intermediate level. Would I be in over my head by attending or is there somthing for evryone?
Eric Johnson

Eric, my post is not in response to yours, but yours triggered something I wanted to ask Mike about...

I would hope this would be for intermediate to advanced coin work.

I remember taking part in a Roth workshop about five years ago where people took up a lot of time asking about how to do a shuttle pass and things like that. I just enjoyed listening to Roth's advice but I did not feel I was learning much because the level of stuff the people wanted to work was very basic. Stuff you could easily learn watching his Basic coin magic video.

I would hope a prerequisite would be that participants are knowledgable in the basics (false passes, concealments, etc.).

I personally am more interested in learning routines and applications than tutorials on "moves" that can be learned elsewhere.

In all honesty, with an entrance fee of five bills, I expected to be completely humbled by a roomful of professional, seriously advanced coin workers. Instead, it was mostly hobbyists like myself, some of whom had never even seen Mike's or Dave's videos.

The result was that we got a very broad spectrum of material ranging from practical sleights like shuttle passes and retention vanishes to some more advanced routines. Something for everybody.

Eric, yes...there is something for everyone. As Rob stated, we cover a broad spectrum of material. Pay close attention to that Latta guy though...man can he do some tough stuff and make it look way tooooo easy !!!

The other Mike

I have heard from the grapevine that the Gallo fella is one to pay close attention to as well

Agreed about Latta. When I was getting started, I met him in Tannen's, and took him as an example of how stuff looks when done by a magician. Needless to say watching others got me confused. I just took his example of "that's how stuff is supposed to look" ie that good or better, and set my standards high.

If you can get to meet him, DO.

Could we shake things up a little and have the seminar in yakima WA.? Pretty please? I would dearly love to see coin magic done by a real human that can do it well. As it is, I am just going to have to get good and watch myself in a mirror. I will have a busy several decades ahead of me.

Thanks Guys, count me in.I will be contacting the Doc in a few days with for payment info..

Thanks for your interest. At our seminar we have a special package with notes from all of us, including special unpublished material in my Secret Stuff notes(that will be expanded from the first seminar, by the way)that will be available only to our attendees for now. There is also extra stuff in the package that was enjoyed by the attendees of the first seminar. We cater to people of all skill levels, but they do have to be able to do the basic moves in coin magic and be comfortable with Bobo, in order to get the most out of our seminar. In my opinion, most coin magic is not finger twisting, but based on timing. Although some of the more advanced material is difficult, most can be performed by the average coin worker. In our first seminar, some of the people were advanced, but many of the attendees were just guys who wanted to better their coin magic. I don't think that there was anyone who thought that the material was out of their league, but understood that first they had to understand the mechanics of the moves, and then to practice what they learned. And as Rob will tell you, we are there to teach and improve your own coin magic, and open your eyes to new concepts and techniques. Once we get your registration, we will send out a list of affordable hotels in the area, a basic itenerary, and get input from the registrants about any specific material they would like to focus on. Hope to see you at our seminar, Mike

I have heard from the grapevine that the Gallo fella is one to pay close attention to as well


He has his momments!

Mike

Hey, I'll second the vote for Yakima, WA. Or Josh and I can "split the difference" and we'll have it in Othello, WA. Now that would be a "Secret Session." There probably aren't more than a handful of magicians within a 200 mile radius of Othello.

Geoff