I haven't seen it yet, but based on reputation (and while we're waiting anxiously for Mike Gallo's DVDs) you might want to check out Larry Barnowsky's 21st Century Coin Mechanics.

Sometimes, because the secret is so simple, we think... that's just dumb. But in actual practice some of the simplest methods are KILLER! I remember when I first read "The Bobo Complete Coin Vanish" (beginning of chapter four). I thought there was no way anyone would ever fall for THAT!!!! Recently, I was getting help on a routine and the magician suggested I use that method. He demonstrated it for me. Even though I knew exactly what he was doing and even the precise moment when he was doing it, I absolutely could not spot it! I thought he must be messing with me and actually using a different vanish. He wasn't. It was just that good! So, when you read through books like Bobo's, don't discount the methods as being antiquated (and therefore somehow unworthy). They still work today as well as they did back then. Yes, you need to update the patter on some things and, no, you can't borrow a half dollar from someone these days, but the essential elements of Bobo's CAN be adapted for modern magic.

How long did "biting the piece out of a (gaffed) coin" lay in hiding in the Bobo coin book until David Blaine performed it , now everyones doing it. Sometimes we still can't see the forest for the trees.

Bobo's is loaded with lot's of gems. Not everything will be for everybody, but there is plenty of great stuff to choose from.

Outdated or too old? Not in my book!

Regan

I did my retention of vision vanish for none other than Mickey Silver. He exclaimed that it was really good and really burned the image in his eye, but it seemed odd that I did it the way that I did. He liked the vanish. It was exactly Bobo's vanish, by the way, it's also in Tarbell #1.

Check out Peregrinating Halves from Bobo's too. It's wonderful. It's one of my staples. I use it along with Gaddabout Coins. In Gaddabout Coins the coins are put into the pocket and keeps jumping back out. In Peregrinating Halves the coins keep seeping through your closed fist, trying to escape from one another.

The Bobo book is a lot like Tarbell. Great information that has to be put into a modern context. For the few bucks the paperback version costs its worth having even if you need to read around the dated material. Call it research, history or good magic, its still a classic.

No koz I don't think that magic cant be good if its done by old foggies as you put it. I just thought that mabye some of the routines might need a little improving and I just wanted to see what everyone else in here thinks. For example. In the Bobo book it teachs you the Backpalm. I think that that Goshman pinch is better than the backpalm and I think that's what Bobo should have showed us. But mabye it wasnt around back than I don't know. I don't know that much about the history of sleights and stuff like that and also I havent tried everything yet in the book so I cant really speak for it that much its why I posted this thread.

Read Bobo cover-to-cover, that way you won't miss his description and application of the Goshman pinch. (Yes, it's in there!)

Look at Silver or Copper Extraction, Copper Penetration and Expansion of Texture; the combination of the first two is one of the strongest coin routines you can do. I perform it all the time doing walk-around and the audience is stunned.

After reading this thread yesterday I got out my Bobo book. Its better than I remimbered and I need to work with it again. People and coins are pretty much the same and the book is a gem for what it costs. For less than the cost of a cheap packet trick its a best buy. Even your change from the purchase can be used to do magic with!

I Could not agree with you more JokersWild.
Bobo is old, ancient, antiquated, archaic, it's downright prehistoric! It has Line drawings in it!!! It has verbage from a by-gone era...Pshaw!
It should be banned, removed from the shelf, burned!
Only "Slick CD's should be available showing a routine over and over again, so the viewer can 'clone'the ideas and never have to think, let alone develope a unique style.
No one should ever waste their time thumbing through the pages of such an outrages, passe material pretending to be "Modern" coin magic.
Light the torches and grab the pitchforks!

Great Post Wizzard! Ha ha ha! Nice try!

Seriouslyn I do agree that the moves are old! I say old because It was written years before I even existed , heck even my mom and dad I guess. The contents are timeless however.

Rannie

JokersWild, perhaps you haven't been alive long enough to realize just how hard it is to understand one of the things that you said. Allow me to quote you.

"...No koz I don't think that magic cant be good if its done by old foggies as you put it..."

If I understand you correctly, that is to say, that you think that we venerate veterans are quite capable of performing good magic just like you youngsters, then your sentence is a double negative. One negative (I don't think) cancelling another (can't be good). In that case your sentence might have been more clear if you said,

"...No koz I thing that magic can be good when performed by old fogies as you put it..."

I don't mean to be picky, JokersWild, but I really am left confused. I'm only presuming that you are meaning what I interpreted. You may have accidentally used a double negative when you actually meant a single. Sort of the way people say, "I could care less..." which literally means that they care. If they could care less then that means that they must care to one degree or another, else they would not have been able to care less, or, they couldn't care less - which is probably what they meant in the first place.

I'm not sure what you meant, but I am positive that as entertainers we should probably become familiar with our mother tongue.

Couldn't hurt.

Bobo's is the source for a good many of todays coin workers.
Lots of the MCM material has been modified. Whether that means 'improved' is a matter of opinion.

ROVs, Shuttle Passes, Edge Grips, "Messiah Vanish" and many other sleights and routines are variations of the stuff found in MCM stuff.

Recently, on another topic, some magicians were wowed by a demo. I was too. The next day I was browsing MCM for something else and came upon the basics of the demo. Like so many others, I had forgotten about a lot of the wonderful things in this great book.

There is another way to look at this. When coins cease being round, flat, made of metal and commonly used as money, Bobo's book may be of less use. However, I've done some of the same things with mints, checkers, and keys! We might should just change the name so it will be new!

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

The owner of a local magic shop was on the phone. A customer in the store approached me and asked what I'd buy for a boy with an interest in magic.

"I love coins," I explained, rolling a Morgan show-offedly. "For me, the best stuff in the store is here..." I gestured toward the book rack, then produced Kennedy halves one-by-one from a shrinkwrapped copy of "Modern Coin Magic".

She seemed delighted, but then replaced the book.

"Well," she shrugged "He DOES love magic, but I don't think he wants to read anything."

My heart sank. So my answer to the topic is this:

For this kid, and the many like him, for whom a love of literacy was never sparked, Jean Bobo's material is "too old". Not for the age of its content, but for the dwindling literacy of its audience.


Regards,

-jjg

I cant see how magic can be 'old' I am 15, and a few years ago I was in the shop with a friend, she doesn't not like magic but she isn't interested in it, and when I asked for a book she looked at the date and commented on how old it was, anyway, the man serving me told her how magic never gets too old, or out of date,

think of how much you use the classic palm, and I am guessing that is an old slieght, and various other sleights, think how long money has been around for and think of how long magic has been around for.

Look at it this way, if it is new and crap it might still sell because it's new. If it's old and crap it would long ago have been out of print.

If it's old and still in print then it must be very good indeed because it is still selling.

Publishers don't keep pulishing books that people don't buy.

Bobo Outdated? Is that a real question? I worked in a magic shop for years, and the nver-ending refrain from cutomers was, "What's New?" In fact, it was so much a part of one customers routine that we called HIM Whatsnew! "Hello, Whatsnew, how's the wife?" Our answer to the question was always, "If you haven't seen it, it's new!"

I'll bet that I can construct, in an afternoon, a coin set from the pages of Bobo that will surprise even its' most ardent supporters. There is THAT MUCH good material in the book.

And, there is a ton of stuff that people USED TO DO, but have forgotten. How many of you do "Presto-Chango"? Mike Skinner featured that trick, I have done it since 1967, and I know at least two other performers that include it in most of thier impromptu work. Yet, if amgicians are present when I do it, they almost always comment on it. Why? It's right there in Bobo, that "outdated" source book...

Classic quickies in Bobo include things like "Silver Lining", "Coin to Key", "Coin thru Hank", etc. All these are entertaining quick tricks that anyone can learn easily, and always have on hand.

More defined presentations that are eternally good include, "The Gadabout Coins", "Expansion of Texture", "Magical Filtration of...", and "Copper/Silver Transposition", all good classic effects.

More formal, standup or stage presentations: Charlie Miller's version of the "Miser's Dream" is without peer. The "Coin in the Ball of Wool" has been a feature of many professional acts for decades, and is as strong now as it was 100 years ago.

And then there are the off-beat effects: "The Pulse Trick", "Mystery with a Half Shell", "Kort's Fourth", "The Purse Game", etc.

Don't forget all the coin box stuff, the gaffed coin magic, specialty items, etc. Add to that the chapter on legends of magic like Downs, L'Homme Masque, etc., and you have a book that offers so much good magic with coins that you REALLY DON"T ever need another book on coins. This is not to say you won't ever WANT another book on coins, but if you learned what is in Bobo you shouldn't ever NEED another...

Best, PSC

I have to say, "Presto-Chango" is "blowing them away" when I show it, a beautiful effect. While on the subject, does anyone have a video of this? I'm wondering about the timing of opening the hand to reveal the change. I've experimented with pausing before the reveal, and also opening the hand immediately the "thrown" coin is in. Do any of our experienced friends here have a preference?