Sorry - typo -- should be MD

Oh thanks

How much sand is a pile?

Well, my friend. Clever question. I think that It depend of the person. To my a pile of sand is one thing but to you can be other thing.

I would ask Sorites.

I would, but I never got into bizarre magic.

I have reviewed a 1934 manuscript of a Miser's Dream routine (note apostrophe) in which this effect is described as "very popular"
and suitable for all ages. The approach offered is supposed to be simpler and allow more personal variety than common methods.

It is somewhat difficult to understand as it assumes many things in "common knowledge" not described, but some thoughts appeal to me:

1) the first coins produced and dropped are designed to establish a pattern linking production/reveal, sound and making the pail natural,
2) a different method is used for each production and drop to make the hand irrelevant to the process,
3) five productions are used for this purpose while changing the pail from hand to hand and set on the table for the final one. Three of these are visual drops and two faked with a pail rattle.
4) only after the pattern has been established do you speed up and produced any number of coins desired using simpler techniques including no coins at all.

The techniques of a "continuous production of a single coin using two coins" and the pail on the table is described with the coin drop inferred by sound.

Such techniques may be well known and shared in some of popular DVD packages, but there is a special impact on me ...

Once the audience accepts the illusion of a coin being produced and dropped into the pail with a sound, they will supply the illusion later even if you do not do it!

How many is enough? Five is offered here as a minimum (but not stated). The maximum is as many as the audience imagination and engagement will allow.

One move seems special. The coin is produced in the right hand and tossed to the left and then dropped into the pail (clank). This breaks the suspicion that the hand holding the pail is important.

So, the production of a different coin can be faked, the drop and sound can be faked, or the existence of the coin can be faked -- just not in the same phase.
Once the pattern is established any one part can be faked and the audience will supply the missing component.

The Dream is theirs!

Is today's audience different in expectations and appreciation of magic? That is a different problem.

My gut feeling is that 5-10 coins is enough if followed by another effect, with more only appropriate as a closing act.

I see no problem with producing four coins, doing a "coins across" and then continuing with the MD.

With that thought, even the use of the hand as a pail is acceptable to me -- with the produced coins apparently or actually placed elsewhere.

I guess that using the MD approach as a stand alone effect bothers me -- not sure why.

Funswaqy that's how I try and perform my MD. I do it 4 nights right now doing my big Resort Shows and close 3 times a week at Angelo's.

Thanks for all the information.

Bairefooot

My favorite production of MD is by Andrew Goldenhersh. He's so talented and performs it flawlessly. I think you can find a video of this on youtube if anyone is interested.

Hey folks,
in the Sidewalk Shuffle forum,..
two or three south of here;
Nala just put up a film clip,
performing a Miser's Dream,
on the broadwalk....
"Father/ Daughter"
is titled the thread.
,might want to check it out.
It received really good,,.
honest re-action.
It's a surprising pleasure.
gallagher

This has been a most interesting discussion!

At the risk of sounding a bit "flippant", I'll add a thought.

The late Jack Benny was without a doubt, a brilliant comedian. Talking about comedy, he said, "Comedy is like a soap bubble. When you attempt to get inside it, to examine it, it's gone!"

"We" have now dissected and analyzed the Aerial Treasury, as much as it has ever been analyzed before. (I think!)

In my subjective opinion, the MD is the apparently unlimited production of coins from "the air", as well as from a kid's ear, etc.

Tommy DOWNS told Faucett ROSS that the ENTERTAINMENT "came" from producing coins(s) from a kid's ear.

About 65 years ago, I had learned the DOWNS P*lm. As noted above, at 18, I tried to be suave & debonair, I wasn't.) Magicians were ecstatic over the artistic production, the "paying customers" were not. When my agent said, "Make 'em laugh, and, I'll get you work!" I listened. I dropped the champagne glass, and picked up the pail.

"Old fashioned"? Perhaps I am, but, I aint gonna change.

I borrow expressions from other areas in entertainment.

One of my favorites comes from playing musical instruments.

"The schtick is as important as the lick."

Harris

With Palms of aluminum foil, for a lighter touch in coin magic

The Miser's Dream by Lee Grabel :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybvD-8uaaS8

http://www.vanishlive.com/magic-news/201......-grabel/

I laughed a lot. Thanks!

To answer the original question, I've been struggling to get a Miser's Dream going for a couple of years, but I haven't got a rhythm or structure that I feel comfortable with. One day...

I think this is a very nice and quite rewarding thread. The good Doctor's routine, I thought, was quite entertaining, and I feel that it does indeed qualify as being a "Miser's Dream" routine. It's just an informal, close-up version of this classic bit of coin chicanery.

Tommy Downs certainly performed a version of a "pocket Miser's Dream" himself using his brilliant "Eureka Pass". It involved no receptacle except his receiving hand, and it covered the basic production and then vanishing of multiple coins out of and into thin air.

"The Miser's Dream" is really just about the idea of creating endless money from the air, in my opinion. "Endless" is mostly just a quality of how effortlessly you appear to produce the coins, and the "miserly" aspect is the magician's apparent joy at being able to do so. Sound and bucket are optional tools used to add exclamation points the further away you are from the audience, and the larger that audience is from you.

One can argue quite logically that the bucket only is a requirement of the stage, and that the original version of the trick perhaps actually happened with a borrowed stiff beaver hat. I think it is quite reasonable to adapt this trick to the times- you use whatever receptacle is apt for the location you are at. Maybe a beer pitcher in a bar, or your pocket on the move in a restaurant.

My pocket is my own preferred receptacle for the trick.

I don't think the pail should not define the trick, and the closer you are to the audience, the less sound becomes a crucial part of the effect. Sure, it still adds to the charm and fun- but on the stage it is absolutely critical. When you are among a small group, not so much. The way the Doc uses sound here, adds very nice and fairly subtle punctuation to his proceedings without jarring the viewer.

I personally think that if a person is "working intimately", you are better off using edge palm, rather than Down's palm for this effect, which is how I proceed with it. Edge palm is out of favor and seldom used- but it is much more natural looking if one is opening the routine with a lot of fun patter. I believe that the more you talk before producing coins, the more reason there is to be using edge palm with this effect. You can work with multiple coins. You avoid being thumbless or stiff looking using EP, and the routine is just as effective otherwise, unless you want to face the audience. It is superior to classic palm because you have much better coin control in producing the coins individually.

I also agree that the Sylvester Pitch is a perfectly stunning tool to use amidst this routine, as is the Down's Eureka-pass mechanics. I like to incorporate both. It breaks up the one way production and adds intrigue into the proceedings if used sparingly.

Just my two-Morgans on the subject. Very fun stuff, Doc!

I enjoyed Dr. Rubinstein's routine. It looked like a Miser's Dream to me. I don't think a bucket is necessary for it to be classified as such, but that's just my own humble opinion.

I performed the Miser's Dream this weekend for a group of kids and adults, though it was mostly adults. I had the kids sit in the front row, and after I had produced 4 or 5 coins with the bucket still sitting on the table, I then picked up the bucket and started producing coins from the kids' ears and hair and so-forth. It was a pretty standard routine. However, I did close the trick by vanishing all the coins. Levent demonstrates that closing in his excellent Ultimate Miser's Dream DVD set. This was a church setting and so the vanish at the end fit with a "message" I was trying to convey. But everyone had a good time and seemed to be genuinely mystified. The kids were definitely enthusiastic.