I've practiced the sleight Coin through Handkerchief, as found in Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic. However, I am now stuck as to the "why" of the trick.
I don't feel that I can very well walk up to someone and go, "Hey, watch me pull a coin through this handkerchief, without it leaving a hole..." So I'm here looking for help with my presentation.

Due to it's simplicity, and the potential availability of the materials needed, a coin and a piece of cloth (carry a bandanna or handkerchief with me, a napkin at a resturaunt, etc)... this might be a perfect example of an impromptu effect. Someone asks/mentions about me and my "magic", so without saying anything, I pull the napkin off the table, display it, borrow or pull out a coin, show it, and procede to pass the coin through the napkin. Then I hand them out to be examined.

However, I feel that the effect could be greatly enhanced with the correct presentation. The important part of magic is, after all, the entertainment that the spectators receive from it. So while the above might WOW them, it will be more of a puzzle/challenge for them to figure out how it was done, and thus not be as entertaining as I hope for it to be.

So.. having said all of that, I am hoping that some of you might be able to help me to improve my presentation of this effect.

From your post I assume you are reffering to a lone effect meaning it is not part of a routine.
Very important for new magicians is to group their effects into logic routines. I feel you shouldn't just walk up to someone and say what you said you shouldn't say. It has to have a why and you are entirely correct. The point is that if you routine a few effects you can create that why. That is what makes it entertaining...it is like a story you have to follow and magic happens in the meantime.

If you want a really great routine to use this move with try to get a copy of the Dai Vernon Book of Magic. In it is one of the truly magical coins routines: Expansion of Texture. I do believe the Bobo's has it also, but not positive. Best,

David Roth has a nice little routine on one of his coin DVDs. No plot just a bunch of vanishes and penetrations, but a beautiful flow of motion.

For story lines:
Expansion of texture (Vernon) : supposedly loosening the weave of fabric to slide out the coin.
Pick pocket, steals from purse.
Poke the center of the hank with a pin, and challenge the spectator to push a half dollar through the hole.

Incorporating the effect into a routine would be best.

A bit cheesy but I suppose you could use some patter about about a black hole or the TV show Stargate. Before the effect you could say that you are going to make an invisible hole (huh?) first. Go thru some motions and then do the coin thru effect. May add a little to the trick.

Thank you all for the advice. I was actually thinking more along the lines of an impromptu stand-alone effect, but I can see where a short routine is needed even for "impromptu."

As an example storyline would be a "rising coin". No matter how I try, it refuses to stay underneath whatever I place over it. I place it in the handkerchief, it passes through it, returning to the top.
Then I could 'place' the coin in my left hand, close that hand and place my right one over top of the balled left, and the coin rises through the left hand and ends up between the two? (Hope that made some sense.)
In this way, I have more than a single effect, as well as a story that ties them together. (This just popped into my mind, so it will definately be improved before ever actually put into use.)

Sounds like an Ambitious Coin.
Not bad at all.

That is exactly how you should be thinking. you can pass the coin through your hand, leg, pants or whatever and then end by showing it closely using a borrowed hankerchief and then perform the effect. That way you really have created something to look at.

Good.

When I though of the effect as a stand alone routine I thought of this (very rough draft):

Look at everything around you. Seems solid doesn't it? But any physicist will tell you we are not solid, nothing is solid, we are all just clouds of atoms. If you can dissolve the nuclear forces holding these clouds of seemingly solid things strange things can happen. Scientists have tried to do this for years with huge partical accelerators and have failed. But look at what one focused human mind can do. I can melt the bonds of reality.


Just a thought.

I use a similar physicsy patter for penetration tricks such as these, especially quantum mechanics, as most people know very little about it, and those who do find the patter even more hilarious.
Don't forget the knot through the arm trick in Mark Wilson's too. I find it a great reason to get out a handkerchief: "hold out your arm for a second, let me try something...(pull out handkerchief and tie it on)... did you know that if an object moves fast enough, it can pass through solids...etc"
Now you have the handkerchief out, you can do all sorts of coin tricks with it too and it seems less strange - you can even steal a coin midway through the knot trick in preparation for a magical production

I would actually do it as part of a handkerchief set. There are a couple of versions of a vanishing knot on handkerchief. Wilson's course has one of them (silk through leg, I think it is called). The other is like the Slydini silks, but just using opposite corners of the handkerchief.

So, if I were to start an idea for a presentation, I'd base it on the idea of an invisible hole in the hank.

"Funniest thing I heard the other day. Guy on TV says there's a hole we can't see in the middle of every handkerchief. I thought he was full of it, but it turns out half the handkerchiefs I own have them. The other half don't, so I guess the guy was only half wrong."

-Pull out a handkerchief (go with a nice white one, not the red snot rags that people will be afraid to touch). Pretend to be looking for this hole, while actually showing that this one has no hole.

"So, the way this guy says to check for a hole is to try tying a knot in the fabric and see if the knot stays in place like you'd expect or slips through."

-Tie the silk through leg knot, look at it, pull the corners and it is gone.

"See? Slips right through that hole. I can't find the hole, but I can see it is there."

-Let the audience look at it briefly, but not long. Now you're going to tie the diagonal corners together, so get it back.

"In fact, you can even tie a square knot and PUSH it through the hole if you want."

-Tie the special knot, show it to all. Fold the rest of the hank around it and let it fall apart. Open the hank.

"See? I can't see the hole, but knots won't stay tied because they keep slipping through that hole. Here. I'll do it again."

-Do the first part of the special knot. Offer the ends to the other guy.

"Here, you tie the knot so you know I'm not trying to fool you."

-Fold the hank, unfold to show the knot gone again. Do not proceed to the full audience-tied square knot. The point is not to challenge whether he can tie a knot that won't untie. The point is to show this really wierd property of your pocket handkerchief.

-Now, pull out your half-dollar.

"I can't see the hole, but I did figure out how big it is. I've been trying different sized coins in it to see what passes through. This is the largest coin that I can get through the hole. I'll show you."

-Do the coin through hank.

"Yeah, that's really annoying, too. I never use a handkerchief to blow my nose because of that hole. I have to use kleenex instead."

Have fun with this if you use it. And if you do, you owe me a root beer next time you are in Fairbanks!

-Patrick

I don't know the coin through handk. method in Mark's book, but - I taught the method I used since childhood in my book, THE MAGIC BOOK. You might want to check it out. HL.

What sort of presentation does your book teach, Harry? The OP was looking for presentation, as he already has a method.

-Patrick

I teach the effect and the method, and usually explain my own way of presenting it.

In ancient Greek and Roman times coins where carried in cloth satchels on ones waist, I see a possible presentation angle there. Maybe stories of a pickpocket’s ability to extract coins from the satchels through the fabric without any tell tail signs of damage. You could justify this by placing a small cat bell in the cloth with the coins as some sort of anti-theft device as the bell would ring consistently as to assure that the satchel would never leave the owner unknowingly if covertly removed, hence why this new so called technique was developed.

Magically

Aus

Aus- that's a great idea!

Harry- Since the OP was asking for suggestions on how to present it, it just seemed a little odd to me that your response was to say you teach it in your book. He already has a method. He needs a presentation. No offense intended, Harry, but it seems that half or more of the posts I see from you are just plugs for your books. It gets a little old.

-Patrick

Many of the members promote other mens' books (e.g.: Bobo, Hugard, Giobbi ETC.) so why shouldn't Harry be able to plug his? Harry is an EXCELLENT TEACHER.--only met him once, but I was impressed. Anyone care to "challenge" Harry to a magic "duel"??? --Besides, a wise magician learns more than one method for any trick he does.

I've read some very clever ideas in this thread!

One of the major points that FH-magic should glean from this thread is the importance of routines. As the 'big bands' (of MY youth) knew well: THE ARRANGEMENT helped to 'SELL' the song. Often a trick needs to be used with other tricks to maximize effect.

When I first met J.B. BOBO in 1951, he showed me his version of the EXPANSION OF TEXTURE.He routined it with a coin penetration (out)of a hank. I put together a routine using Jack Chanin's 'TV' Coin Production, Jon Racherbaumer's 'Gypsy Switch', Bobo's penetration of one coin (two wrapped in hank and spec 'selects' which one comes 'thru' --conjuror's choice), and finishing with EXPANSION OF TEXTURE. It's a good 'combination'. I've used it for more years than I care to count. (NO SET UP, NOTHING BUT A FEW COINS AND A HANK)
Since the 'two wrapped/one penetration 'out' bit involves a copper and a silver coin, I often do a copper/silver routine (without hank)as a follow up.

Remember, FH. MAGIC is not inherently entertaining. YOU the performer need to present the trick so that it entertains the audience. The performer is ALWAYS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PROP.

Patrick Woolery, did you read my ENTIRE one-sentence post? At the end of that sentence, which you obviously didn't read, I say that I teach my own way of [i]presenting{/i} it. So far as I'm concerned, that is a "suggestion." And YOU were the one who asked me what kind of presentation I use - I ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION. You might also want to read Mr. Oslund's response to you. And, I plug my own books WHEN I THINK THEY'LL HELP and, frankly, WHENEVER I FEEL LIKE IT. You, of course, have an obvious option - don't pay attention to my suggestions, plugs, helps, whatever. Quite frankly, and in my opinion, remarks like yours ARE REALLY GETTING OLD (and insulting). Incidentally, I came in with a suggestion for the OP, I'm sure he's waiting breathlessly for a suggestion FROM YOU. No offense intended. Harry.

Harry, the tenth reply in this thread was my suggestion for a presentation. It is the longest post in the topic. Just FYI.

And your rather irritated response does not change the fact that the sum total of your advice was just to buy your book. While this may actually be an excellent suggestion, it does not address the topic directly and comes across as marketing rather than assistance. At least when I read it, that's how it seems.

This is the very first time I have ever complained about your regular suggestions to people that they buy your material. However, if you are really getting so many of them that they are "GETTING OLD", perhaps you should consider why people might have said such things in the past. I have not actually seen any other folks mention this to you, but there is probably a good reason if other folks have tired of it. While I have only heard and read good things about your books, your own constant marketing has made me reluctant to purchase any of them.

Your turn to have the last word. I'm not going to respond to this again unless it has to do with the actual trick in question.

-Patrick

Hi F-Hmagic. I recall doing the coin through handkerchief from Mark Wilson's book... a very fun number to do with clean restaurant cloth napkins. Anyway, everybody's talk about holes in handkerchiefs and stories about them reminded me about an effect called the Black Hole in Michael Rubinstein's coin magic videos. Rubinstein used a black coin-shaped disk in the routine. I imagine you could cook something up using a tangible black coin-shaped disk, handkerchiefs with a painted black circle in the center or a circular piece of black felt to velcro/attach to a handkerchief. For example, you could hold up the black disk, do a vanish and mime throwing the hole onto the handkerchief... show that there is a black circle on the handkerchief, and demonstrate that it really is a "hole" by concluding with coin through handkerchief. I have a strong feeling that someone has performed magic that brings the illusion of manipulating "holes" (black spots or objects, and mixed with

I like David Fillary's physics-inspired story. Rather than talk about speed, I would emphasize how there is a slim probability of escaping/penetrating materials according to theories of quantum mechanics (only for sub-atomic objects at very high velocities, but we can use a half-dollar coin if you insist) and really slow down the coin emerging from the handkerchief to milk the effect.

Another suggestion: do a coin vanish with a handkerchief to set up the story for your coin trick to set up your coin through handkerchief. Instant stooge, ostentatiously show a coin in your hand and cover it with a handkerchief, then invite audience members to reach under the cloth and feel the coin to verify it is still there... and then the coin vanishes! (PM me if you don't follow). Follow up by saying that the coin and your hand were hidden by the handkerchief that could mask some trickery, sleight of hand, etc. Meanwhile, you show the coin and handkerchief using the initial moves according to Mark Wilson's set up for coin through handkerchief. With the coin enclosed in the twisted handkerchief, you explain that there is no possibility of trickery with your hands under the cloth now... invite the audience members to feel that the coin is still in the handkerchief (for continuity purposes of the story), and then show that this doesn't prevent you performing a "magic trick" because you still get your hands on the coin... finish by slowly penetrating the coin through the handkerchief.

Last idea: tell a story about Harry Houdini performing an amazing escape. Introduce your coin as Houdini (maybe even draw a smiley face on the coin) and have our beloved hero escape from the deadly clutches of a restaurant cloth handkerchief... while suspended from standing height... upside down! This might sound silly, but I guess if you presented it along the vein of Ricky Jay's interpretation of cups and balls as a history lesson, it could be quite elegant (I don't think I could do it... I'd probably be more convincing as the nerd with the physics story).