Hello again. I am working on a three fly, Eric Jones' Simplex Three Fly to be exact, and am wondering what you all use as patter for a three fly sequence. Introducing the illusion is well enough. "The goal is to get the coins to fly from the fingertips of this hand to the fingertips of this hand, hopefully without you seeing them go." That covers the first phase. It is the repetition of the effect that I'm not sure how to cover without sounding boring. This may seem like child's play to all of the vets, but to a new coin guy like me it is not. I want to entertain people like you all do.

For what it's worth, I usually say that the coins are studying vanishing into one invisible pocket in the air and appearing in another, once they have all made to the, in my case, left hand, they passed the exam. Then they get to go home and watch tv (vanish).

That covers the premise/concept of what is going to happen overall. My question is once coin number one has passed the exam how do explain coin number two and three being forced to take the same exam?

Watch the various three fly routines that are out on dvd and see how the patter matches up to the action. Some may work, and you may find that others suck. Its not just the moves, but what you say that help make the trick. And the timing of what you say is just as important as the words.

This one is my favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPkaDrZY......kaDrZYi4

Don't be afraid of copying patter from experienced performers. It may seem like you aren't being original, but their lines usually work because of overlooked subtleties and nuances of the trick. Only after playing around and performing a bunch will you start to develop your own style. Finding what works and what doesn't is often just a matter of practice before live audiences...

I'm definitely not above using tested patter. That is what I'm after with this thread. Imitate, emulate, recreate.

Work from audience feedback.
Do the trick, even if it's just a fingertip transit in one of the Roth routines.
Then listen for what the audience says later on.

"Imitate, emulate, recreate."

I like it...

Hi Eric, Welcome to the Café…

Lot's of good advice here but I like yours a lot…"Imitate, emulate, recreate." That's truly about how its's done, over and over and over again to a variety of presentations.

Here's how I do it, as seen now by tens of hundreds of thousands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxTF04vddfo

"Imitate, emulate, recreate....

well said....

and the pages of the caledar fall into the wind....and ...and and...

and then folks will watch you and

"Imitate, emulate, recreate......"

and the calendar pages fall again.......and ...and...and...

you may find you are learning from your student(s)



Harris
reader & righter

It's not a matter of them being forced to take the exam. Once one passes thru the invisible pockets in the air--vanishing from one hand and appearing in the other--they have passed the test. The third one has a little trouble so you put him with the others to show where he's supposed to be, but he's better at going the other way, back in time(to the other hand). Then, once he makes the journey, they now have all passed (applause cue).
That's a rough idea of the presentation. I would post a video but I don't know how. Or maybe I'm too chicken.

MB - I loved that routine!

The first and second "flys" were beautiful. I just watched it about 10 times in a row, and I love the mechanics of it as well. Very visual vanishes. And I still can't figure out what you are doing with the two vanishes at the end. Great story, also, since this is a thread about patter... Bravo.

One question - you do rely on the Kaps subtlety a lot, in my opinion. I try to avoid that when I can, out of fear of making it look forced. A subtlety is supposed to be just that - subtle - a casual display of the "empty" hand while doing something else plants the idea of empty in a spectator's mind, while I have found showing it blatantly like that usually makes them suspect I am hiding something. However, you do a vertical display (I'm not sure if that is the proper term, ie, holding the palm down rather palm sideways) where I do a sideways display or palms up. You look rather tall in the video. Do you find that displaying the coins like that is helpful when you are performing above people, or was it just based on where you had the camera?

For your patter, follow Tommy Wonder's advice: an emotion + a conflict + a resolution of the conflict thanks to "Magic". Place the elements of your patter into your character. Following Henning Nelms, find a paradox for your character to start with, then write your patter down (adapting great lines from non magic quotes), take all the "I" and "you" out and replace them by "we" (the basic conflitual words), learn your patter by heart to be able to improvise marginally for interacting with your spectators, rehearse rather than just practicing. There is no way that you can get all the good lines that centuries have accumulated just on the spur of the moment. Following Fred Kaps have "outs" for every possible mishap. One of the best advice done by Bill Palmer is then to have someone filming THE AUDIENCE before measuring the "reactions per minutes" (RPMs) and start improving on your patter, its pace, its content, your voice, the gestures that punctuate it....

Earlier I wrote a post advising you to watch and see what others who do the trick say to get a better idea of your patter. But your routine, that is, the routine that YOU DO, will dictate the patter. Make sure your words fit your action. There is not much that goes on in a three fly. Three coins travel across, one at a time. First, get an introduction to explain why you have three coins. Either prepare the audience for the first fly, or explain it as it happens, or let them see it, then explain what happened.
Now the audience is prepared, so your next words need to work with your actions. For example, I say something like you couldn't see the first coin go, but if you listen carefully, you may hear it arrive. I make the second coin arrive with a clink as I say this.
Now, in many routines the coin is tossed from one hand to the other visibly, but then you show nothing happened (a Geoff Latta idea). I HATE this, because I feel it reveals use of another coin. It also is a bit of a discrepancy, as it negates the linear motion of the coins going across, which is confusing with three coins. Many will disagree with me because that is what they do, but I just don't like it. They do it because others do it, and it allows them to get ahead. My routine solves this another way, keeping with the same linear action. But you have to be prepared to dictate what is happening.
The last fly is the most important, because they now know what is going to happen, but they don't know when it's going to happen. Your words will solve that. Now the trick is done, how are you going to end this? What do you say, TaDa? Remember, create, don't imitate. You need to live with the routine for a while, and your audience will help you to see what words work, what don't, what ad libs you can add, until the trick becomes a part of you. Then, it's yours forever. Good luck.

Don't underplay the magic. The patter you mentioned says, "...hopefully without you seeing them go..."

What????

You are physically dissembling the coins and magically reassembling them somewhere else, IN FULL VIEW!

This should be amazing. Not some sort of cheap trick.

Well, you not only misquoted me, you misunderstood completely the patter line and the point I was trying to make. First, lets set the record straight. The ACTUAL patter line is..."and the coin goes across. Now the con started HERE, and ended up HERE, but you couldn't see it travel because it went by magic. But if you LISTEN very carefully, even if you couldn't SEE it go, you can hear it arrive (clink!). The POINT I was trying to make was the your words are dictated by your actions. By the way, the routine Retro Fly, was highlighted in the Penguin Live lecture, as well as appearing on the NYCMS DVD volume 1, my 2004 lecture DVD, and my 2004 lecture notes.

[Bold characters, mine]

So much for misquoting.

What's the idea? We are throwing them between the hands really quickly? We have six coins and are holding out constantly? How do you explain a clean fingertip coins across? What's your premise?

You ask about patter, you got my response. Ignore it, please.

My bad. You put your post right after mine so it looked like you were quoting ME. Might be helpful to address the person you are referring to to be clear.

No worries, my bad too!

Oh......... how I hate "patter".
Its so distractive it seems.
I prefer turning on the boom box and playing some jazz music or something while they watch.
I just do it smoothly and slowly to the music and mime anything else.
On the street, and where people really don't know you you have to "Chat" but I still cant follow some lame-brain story or some ridiculous "patter".
I don't hand things to people and I don't touch them and I just want them to ..... watch and have a good time and pretend evereything is real so they will get the most from the experience. I DO explain that I am going to do some magic and not in any way in league with the devil and I am NOT going to talk to them or hand them things and they are not expected to participate..... but. . . only to watch and have a good time pretending that what they see is real.
Once I start the music, I will no longer talk but they are just to let their imaginations run wild and they MAY clap and smile and laugh.
At the end I just shut off the boom box and thank them.
But, then again............. that's just ME.
I also hum and make noise and even sing once in a while during the magic presentation. Or say a poem that has NOTHING to do with anything.
But, then again that's just ME and I can get away with whatever I want doing this.
It entertains ME and that's all I am doing is entertaining MYSELF and others can WATCH, basically.