Hi all,

I will be doing a Q&A with Ponta the Smith later in the week, and was wondering if there are any questions from any of you coin guys/girls which you'd like me to pass along?

I'll post details of the video link here when it's done.

Thanks!

Ben

Yes!

Thanks for the opportunity for this Ben!

I have two questions:

- I've noticed that Ponta-san hasn't released any works involving shells to the public as far as I know. Is there any plans in the future to release any works involving gaffs? Judging from your previous works just involving regular coins, your gaff-bases work would fry my mind!

- My second question is whether you'd ever considered publishing a book of your own work on coins. It seems as though you have a unique perspective on coin magic that'd be a huge addition to the lack of books on coin magic in today's era. I would definitely be your first customer if you ever decide to publish! Preferably translated to English :p

Thanks for the questions! They will definitely be added to the list

Hey Ben,

Hope you don't mind me asking a couple more questions:

- I was wondering if you had any thoughts on what kind of condition you prefer your hands to be in when performing coin magic, either more dry or moist and how you prepare your hands to get into that state. I've heard read from somewhere some people prefer to put light moisturiser on their hands or rub a bit of rosin on the edge of their coins so I'm curious if this was a concept you bothered to worry about.

- And lastly (I hope), are there any hidden gems in Japanese literature or even DVD's that you'd recommend for coin magic or even general magic that you've found that's helped you in your magic career that the Western audiences have missed out on. There doesn't seem to be a lot of literature or resources out there about magic from Japan that's accessible to the Western audiences apart from a few books from Richard Kaufman and companies like yourself, French Drop, and of course Impossible Co. There's a lot of great magic and thinking from Japan that's distinctly Japanese that's hard to describe but nonetheless is a just cool aesthetic overall. I'd definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts!

Thanks again Ben!

I know that this depends on the routine, but what is your preferred coin to use? In the Sick DVD, you mostly used Morgan silver dollars (38.1 mm, 26.7 grams). Since then you seem to have switched over to double florins (36 mm, 22.6 grams). What are your pros and cons on using Morgan silver dollars versus using double florins?

Thanks,
Oscar

What's his favorite card trick?

Is he planning on bringing out any more instructional dvds?

Cant' wait to see the Q & A

The video is now up! Here is the link:



Thanks for all the great questions!

That was a great discussion; thanks for putting this together and doing the translations, Ben!

Great stuff!

Thanks for answering our questions!

I'll look forward to your guy's work in the future.

Fun interview! Thanks for getting our questions in there.

Good stuff! Ben, Ponta, thank you!!




Roberto

Very interesting, I really enjoyed that. I'd like to see and hear more from Ponta. Does he have any lectures available?

In "Sick 2" he dives into a bit of theory surrounding his routines, and we are also producing a new series of one-coin routines from some top coin guys including Ponta which will have some o his thoughts on coin magic.

You can find it at www.ticmagic.com

Thank you, Ben... you and Ponta were great! Enjoyed the back & forth, and your Japanese is excellent.

Ponta took America by storm with his wonderful coin magic, a tremendous worker, one that I'm sure David Roth would be most proud of, provenly one of his TOP students anywhere in the world. Have they ever met?

Again, great job! 💯

They have met, but that was a looooong time ago when Ponta was still very young and very shy, so I don't think he could muster up the courage to even talk, let alone show David his stuff!

Well, I’m sure Roth has seen his work. Especially since a great bit of the effects on Sick! were Roth tricks, that Ponta put a brilliant new spin on, which absolutely excited, revolutionized coin magic from its traditional, more classic base. I’m sure he seen it and heard all the noise it caused around the world, but these old-heads hold close to their brand of coin magic, and many times hold from much comment as to the new, and time passing by.

Shame, because I think I would’ve been most honored to see a kid take my work and present it in a whole new way, “what’s old is new again” and continues to live on. And as Ponta mentioned, with all praise & credit still given to the Master that first gave it to him. I hope one day they meet again. Roth’s a pretty nice guy. 😊

By the way, there is an enjoyable interview of Ponta the Smith by Takeshi Taniguchi in Volume 2 of the Tokyo Magic Carnival's Secret Series:

https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S24138

Oscar