Yay! thanks for the explaination! I was trying to figure out the method when I saw the routine

Tim,
I'd just like to add my thanks for sharing this. Very well explained, as well!

Larry S.

My pleasure guys and gals.
Thanks for the warm welcome back it's like I never left. Now I have to get my skills back if I even had any in the first place.
Vinny your right about we might leave magic but magic never leaves us. Even though I haven't done anything in the past two years I always thought about it. People have approached me to do some strolling magic, X-mass parties but I've had to declined. No way I could go out there and perform without embarrassing myself....lol
If anyone tries this routine out I would love to hear about it, good or bad.
It's done well for me. Hopefully it will for you too.
Tim

Long time no see!!! I'm happy to hear from you again! Thanks for the gift! Very well done and I'll try it sometime for sure.

Thanks...nice routine.

Thanks so much Tim! Your approach to coin magic inspires me. Good to see you again!

Tom

Hey Tim, great to see you again, it's been ages and I've often thought about you and the magic that you do. (You have been very helpful and friendly to us all) I can't believe that its been 2 years since you were on here. To be honest I don't post as much as I used to either as before you know it you've spent a couple of hours going through the forum and other things get delayed. I love the Café but I gotta limit myself to a couple of 25 minute or so sessions a week and no more.

Also, you know sometimes its good to teak a break from things as when you come back to it you generally find things that you were working on before suddenly click into place. The break sometimes actually helps you to improve (IMO)

Take Care

Hello Captain

Since you had been kind enough to share this wwith me some years ago, I had the time firts to really appreciate it but also (with my uncurable mania for perperfection) to work on its strengths and its potential short comings (weaknesses would be too strong a word).
Since I was blessed to be able to work with Fred Kaps, and shared some time on this effect with Johnny Thompson, I had the opportunity to compare strengths in many approaches (including Al Baker and David Roth)
Your version is still very high in quality. Just allow me to express why
First because you isolate the coins initially: as a matter of fact, even in absurd logic, if anyone would bring several coins on a "soft spot" or "weak spot" on the table, all the coins would fall through. Not just one from the group slammed on to the table. So on this you have a very strong point.

Second because your routine applies a very subtle misdirection brought to consciousness for the first time by Tony Slydini: the chest drags the hand and not the opposite. In your routine the necessity of the chest to come up to reveal the passing of the coin through, brings the chest up, bringing the glass up but also naturally dragging the other hand back. That's a superb piece of misdirection of the highest order. Dai Vernon had brought this to a very high level and was calling it "magic management": the situation "calls" for the chest to move up. He expressed this in his Kangaroo coins. Because the glass was on the left, the left hand had to come to the table's edge to give way to the right hand getting to the glass. You see this also in Fred Kaps' routine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6ObgXTi0K8 Instead of copying that move you verticalized it with the chest coming up: That's nothing short of brilliant. Bravo.

Now for the potential improvements: I see only two and even if they seem minor, they would make a lot of difference that I'm sure you and some of our friends here will appreciate.
1) Justify the forward move above the table before the coin vanishes. How could you do that? The way I found was to make a SMALL portable hole (just slightly bigger than the size of a coin) and move it around for each coin (possibly asking spectators for where it should be, gaining audience participation and materializing the "soft spot" in a credible way) It's real purpose is not in these gains, it is for the last coin: you can show it behind the "magic hole" or "portable hole" or "magic well" (or wathever your audience will accept better as a name). Then your final forward move is justified, after showing that the coin is still there, is as necessary by the position of both the coin and the "hole" as the dragging of the right hand to the table's edge is justified by the up move of the chext.

2) In your explanation you very pertinently underline that timing is of the essence in this effect (and actually in magic in general) The top masters like René Lavand or Fred Kaps or Tony Slydini mastered an art which is the art "pause". May I suggest that you incorporate this art from them and that you include it, at least in the passing of your last coin. Show, as you do, that the coin is still there (behind the hole), move it forward (but it's not perfectly over the hole), pause asking a question (to trigger "thinking" with your audience), adjust laterally with your fingers the coin over the hole so that it can get through.
That pause over the weak spot is essential: Arturao Ascanio suggested the use of what he calls in Spanish something that we could translate as an "obliteration parenthesis". A move (or a pause) that comes after the sleight (in your routine "bringing the coin beneath the wrist") cancels the sleight by interposing an action and at least one beat between the real cause and the magical cause marking the "magical moment". Al Schneider explains it in terms of "rewinding": spectators rewind to the last action. In your case, the last action is the forward move, with a pause and a question the last action becomes the lateral adjustment of the coin over the hole or maaterialized weak spot (it could be a small ring, a round or circle of mylar referring to "the other side of the mirror"...). But the pause seems essential to me to give due credit to your masterpiece and bring it to its deserved level.

In the same spirit, you may want to consider passing one coin and create a large pause: the other two coins are just there to induce the spectators to ask you to repeat the effect "with the hole" (the moving hole being the purpose of the effect)

Now, you know me well enough to know that this post is positive criticism and attempts to show gratitude for your present to our community. Please receive it as such with as much an open mind that we received your routine.

One more tip. When you don't have your table at your disposal and need to perform standing, you may consider Gaetan Bloom's Buttons Through the Table routine (http://sexymagicreviews.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/review-of-bloomeries2-dvd-set-by-gaetan-bloom/), adapting it to your technique but simply replacing your table with his technical solution. When Gaetan created his routine there was no IT that could carry a coin or even a shell. With Kevlar and Vectra line, this is no longer the case. Let's learn from every master to be able to bring our effects, step by step a little further. Quite clearly, your table or Gaetan's solution are more efficient for standing performances than Patrick Page's solution.

Just another friendly thought expressed with gratitude.

Now if you did watch Fred Kaps' routine, may I suggest to include a climax that the effect requests, by replacing the now traditional Mike Gallo's solution (the coins coming back up), and changing also Fred's solution by, instead of his unfolding of money paper, using a silver bullion bar(fake) appearing (Slydini's or Michael Ammar's clip + Slydini's Imp-Pass with the bullion bar)
http://www.bullionmadeeasy.com/product/b......er%20bar
or
http://americansilvergroup.com/index.php......p1c2sr42

TIM- Happy Holidays! Thank you so much for your generosity and creativity. BTW, One Coin is one of my favs and I perform it a lot. Recently, I did it at a family gathering, and the last disappear just floored the entire group- I was actually getting the "big X" from some- what a blast! Thanks again...

Jim

Thank you for your generosity.

Lawrence,
It's always a pleasure listening(reading) your thoughts. I missed that. I have played with the hole Idea. I used a large circle sticker and had the spectator place it on the table. Just like you suggested. I never filmed it. I'll be honest it didn't feel right. I know the reason for that is because I haven't fully explored the possibilities. When I get back into my magic you can bet I will. Along with a few other routines I was playing with. Thanks again for taking the time to write your thoughts and sharing with all of us.

Jim
I'm so glad my One Coin 2.0 routine has found a place in your working repertoire. Hearing about the reactions you get has put a smile on my face. Thank you.

I hope you all enjoy my Soft Spot routine.
Tim

Really good to see you again Tim.

Hope you don’t make yourself a stranger around here; you are missed.

Take care.

Jim

Tim, your reappearance in the Café has made my day.

Thank you for your guidance more than a year ago - I still re-watch your performances from time to time every time I learnt a little bit more. Hope you'll reinvest more time in magic!

Kened

Help!

This downloaded with an extension of ".7z". What is that?

It's a zip file

Ok, thanks.

I've used .zip files for years, but I've not heard of this compression format before. I downloaded the program from CNET

Thanks ever so much Tim. The performance video fooled me, imagine my delight when I watched the explanation and found that no "knuckle-busting" sleights were necessary.