Can someone tell me who created this move?

You hold a coin at the fingertips in about french drop position. You make a tossing motion as if you were throwing the coin up, while you let it fall into finger palm. It's performed in the demo video here: http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=345#

- Thanks, Redstreak.

The credit goes to Chris Kenner But it has it's beginnigs with Geoffrey Latta.

The full description is found in Kenner's book Out Of Control/Totally Out Of Control.

The move is Geoff Latta's French Pop.

Larry

P.S. - The routine in that demo video is performed WAY too fast and contains some awkward handling.

That move is a bluff vanish. Geoff's French pop is also a bluff vanish, but what makes Geoff's so effective is that he moves his arms in such a manner to comletely mask the drop. I believe he describes this on the LVMI DVD. Curtis Kam uses a bluff vanish that is closer to this, where he makes a motion similar to flipping a coin into the air. R.Paul Wilson just lets the coin drop, without a tossing motion, relying on misdirection to hide the drop. This is, IMHO, the weakest way to perform the move. On my 2004 lecture DVD and in the upcoming NEW YORK COIN MAGIC SEMINAR COINS ACROSS DVD, I use the bluff vanish in a way very similar to Kam, masking the drop with a down-up tossing motion.

I'm sure folks have dropped coins from that position since there were coins, though you probably mean using that action as a deliberate bluff vanish. Looking in the books we have easily available, it seems to be a recent discovery, as the books onhand suggest one should CP the coin and avoid using what we call the Ramsay Subtlety for the most part.



Chris certainly made the thing popular when he published "three fly".

As to credit for using that idea in context... Again looking in the books we have on hand, John Ramsay was using this idea in his Three Coins in the Hat routine, though not as a one handed vanish. Geoff Latta was using it in 1977 along with an impressive one handed vanish using Nowhere Palm. Gary Kurtz seems to be the first to publish it in recent times.

Thanks, guys.

Yes, I wasn't saying that was a great video, it's just the only place I can find it performed.


- Redstreak.

Check out "2B Gone" from cul. exhange 2.

Good applications of this move, also credited to kenner, and some interesting sublties(such as the snap) to make this seem like a complete vanish.

I think that the one handed vanish is a much mis-understood move in coin magic. The Latta version, using the curl palm is one of the best because the hand seems completely empty after the action, thanks to the finger-curl. The palm is seen, the fingers are spread slightly and there's no coin. This means the audience sees a coin in the hand then believes it to have gone because the hand looks natural and there seems to be nowhere it can be. If, however, the trick were to stop there and the magician were to freeze, the spectator might easily begin to wake up to where the coin is.

In my opinion, the other one hand vanishes discussed here (Kenner, Kurtz and Wilson) rely heavily on the idea that the coin is going somewhere and that, after the vanish, it is seen to arrive there. It is not the vanish but the transit that creates mystery. If the hand is not opened and seen to be empty, the audience will be expecting more before they believe it has gone unless the coin is seen or heard to arrive in the other hand, a glass etc.

The Kenner approach in his 3fly is for the coin to vanish then appear. Same for Kurtz' trio. In Wilson's Crowded Coins, the rythm is shifted so that the audience see the coins arrive in one hand then look back to see the coin is no longer in the other.

Wilson's handling is by far the simplest (Daryl's handling is all too similar yet appeared years after the Wilson one) and allows the performer to use the Kenner approach or the Wilson one. IF you use Kenner's way (the coin vanishing THEN appearing in the other hand) with Wilson's method then a tossing French Drop IS better for the last coin but, it you use Wilson's timing, then the last vanish should be static. The coin is displayed in the left hand french drop position - then seen to have appeared in the right hand THEN seen to no longer be in the left hand.

It is important to note that Paul immediately places the three coins back in the left hand as the audience reacts and completes with a vanish of all the coins. He has a new subtlety for this that really sells it for people but the problem is, people never see it - the trick is over, the last coin flew.

I've seen some great versions of 3fly. Kenner's is superb, Kurtz has some great work and Wilson's is the most practical for me. His timing really gets the money from an audience. I've seen people really get frustrated when the second coin goes and determine to watch that third coin intently. Wilson does it slowly, telling the audience exactly what is going to happen before doing it successfully. I wholeheartedly disagree that this is the weakest way to present it, in fact I believe it to be, by far, the best.

The tossing action does work but the Wilson approach requires complete control of the audience's attention at the exact moment they want to bust you. How Paul does that is simple and sure-fire. The fact that a magician can deconstruct the method and then decide that he doesn't like it means little to how good it actually is.

I am a Rubinstien fan so respect his opinion but it has been my experience that move-junkies prefer to flip or throw, while performers prefer timing and subtlety. I happen to subscribe to Wilson's timing of the effect. He states that the effect is much more powerful in the spectator's mind than in their eye. Crowded Coins makes it SEEM visual when the effect actually happens in their head.

Wilson has also addressed (in his manuscript "Completely Crowded" from his website) the problem of performing 3fly for laymen. His solution seems to really work. He also has an interesting (though too short) essay on coin magic in his "Across The Void" manuscript on the Coins Across effect.

If you are not familiar with Gary Kurtz' TRIO effect, you really should check it out.

Merry Xmas.

Thanks. That video reminded me why I hate Penguin magic. Using Troy's routine to pitch a poorly made coin (by a magician who can't do the routine justice) is just lame.