Hello everybody
So some years ago I worked for a friend of my father's in air conditioning during the summer, I hated that job but that friend helped our family a lot after my father passed away so I stuck through, I didn't want to ditch him in the midst of the summer, his peak time.
Driving around in his car, we spoke a lot, and I remember one time, after I ruined one of his tools, it was a "diamond hole saw", we had to stop our work immediately and drive all the way to the store to get a new one right away. on our way to the store he told me about that saw, he said that this saw has changed the way he worked, and it is one of two of the most significant tools he had, the other was a patent ladder, these two tools changed his work forever.
I thought about that conversation a lot, in regarding to tools that I have that changed my work, and I don't mean just physical tools, also "work" can mean anything from magic, to your ability to handle situations in real life, etc.
So what tools have changed your coin magic?
For me, the first one is a way to easily get a stack of coins into classic palm that David Stone teaches as a bonus in his Basic Coin Magic vol.2 DVD, since I've learnt this little move I do a lot more tricks with more than one coin, as I can now just reach into my pocket and come out with four coins in classic palm.
The second tool is something I read by Michael Rubinstein about not doing a hand-wash sequence after a coin vanish, because it makes it clear that you're using sleight of hand, and not "magic", that idea changed the way I think and look at sleights.
What are yours'?

Learning how to do moves on the offbeat, having read about this in Leading With Your Head by Gary Kurtz

Classic Palm.

In the midst of all the coin magic technique and methodolgy, by far and away the most useful SOH (tool) I use is the plain, old, kinda boring old Finger Palm and its permutations. I never anticipated this would be the case when I started years ago. Kinda weird because its learnable in less than a minute, with no struggles like with muscle passing, edge grips and other stylin SOH.

Knowing its value and when and how to apply however, did take some time.

Tenkai Palm aka Goshman pinch with both hands.

Doing moves with different sized coins.

Connecting with my audiences based on other things going on.

Knowing when to approach a group and when to leave.

Harris
Still too old to know it all

What I can do and use often: CP
What I wish I could master: Tenkai Palm aka Goshman pinch with both hands. (as quoted from Harris). Although the CP is, in my opinion, the most important 'tool' needed in one's magical toolkit, a good backclip is not far down the list.

I do all sorts of things with these two moves…They are giants as to coin magic! I'd say the basic sleights are what have been the most important and helpful to me, learned a lot of what I can do from them. And add in a step beyond using a "Pitch" and you're really humming!

I did a trick I thought of today, about 4-5 times for different people, something made of just a few basic moves that I'd never thought to try before, and it was a big hit…People couldn't believe their eyes, and were checking my hands and arms for "extra skin."

And I believe it is the continuing better/deeper understanding of these basic tools (including myself) that has changed my magic the most, all that and a good growing dose of confidence.

Cp......

Toss vanish to classic. .....
Repeat 4 to 5 times into various directions or
Opened spectator hats.

Repeat in reverse producing and rolling coin and then finding an other coin

By accident

Videotaping what are you doing has help.me out a lot and looking at the reactions you get from your spectators.Misdirection having them look where you look.

Paul.

Watching and listening, live or taped. Nice. Thanks for the reminder. That's still very important for me.

Thanks. Harris.

I would videotape myself and I would go to fast. I like to end a coin routine with a jumbo coin.The spectators eyes pop out of the heads when the see the jumbo coin.

Paul

The realization that the "story told after" is the most important part of an effect -- and can surpass anything you actually did. Creating the conditions under which magic will be the hero in each spectator's mind/memory has been my focus in creating new effects for 50 years.

In coin magic it's an easy answer for me. I had trouble learning to CP a single coin. I was in a guitar shop one day and saw some stuff called 'Gorilla Snot' and found out that it is a temporary adhesive that some rock guitarists put on their fingers so that they won't lose their guitar picks as easily. I bought some and put a dab on my palm mans that made the CP finally work for me. Yes, I had to eventually stop using the Gorilla Snot, but I had no problems with the CP after that.

Realizing what my learning curve with coin sleights looks like.

It stops me from getting discouraged too early.

I think the most important tools were realizations.

a. The realization that what I see in the mirror is not always what the audience sees. Not remembers, actually experiences.

b. The realization that an audience of strangers can have very different concerns from an audience of friends and family.

c. The realization that the audience is actually listening to what I say, if I'm saying something interesting. And with that, I can control what they think is important.

d. The realization that the audience tends to learn from trick to trick. I might think that I'm showing them separate tricks, but for them, it's all one experience.

e. The realization that people who say they know how it's done are only guessing, even when they're right.

f. The realization that people who ask "How'd you do that?" Don't really want to know how it's done.

Very interesting Curtis!

Hi Curtis

What do you mean by this?

Thanks
Chris

I would think something like Someone saying something like this " Wow I say you put a half in my hand, I saw it IN MY HAND, And then closed my hand. And when I opened My hand It was a Chinese Coin!!! " That's not what happen! But it's what they Remember !!!

Chris, the easiest example is the Goshman toss retention pass. When I do it, people see a coin fall into my receiving hand. But there's no coin there. I look in the mirror, and I sometimes see it, sometimes I don't. But it is there for the audience. Not that they remember seeing it, they actually do see it. They create the illusion in their minds.

Now, we have to be careful not to go too far with this. Misused, the idea is an excuse for sloppy handling, and worse. (It's so easy to say, 'sure, the magicians all see my move, but laymen all miss it!')However, it's also a shortcoming not to realize that when you do things right, the audience believes things are as you claim they are.

That caveat aside, the toss retention tells us that the audience sees a coin where there isn't one. So consider the Bobo switch. They aren't expecting a different coin. The coin they see fall is the coin you showed them. So the goal in the Bobo switch is not to toss the coin so fast that they can't see that it's been switched; the trick is to toss the coin slowly enough so that they can "see" that there's no switch.

On both of those, you know you've got it working when kids start looking for alternative methods. I have dropped a coin into my hand, and caused it to disappear. The children watching did not even consider looking in the other hand. They're smarter than that, they saw where the coin went. They immediately looked up my sleeve, and then wanted to check my pockets.

Once you appreciate the level of conviction that's possible, then you start to understand what the audience is thinking. That's the first step towards seeing things the way the audience sees them, which is different from what you see in the mirror.

Curtis, this is perhaps your most insightful post ever. I will quote it in my writings if you would allow.