I am having a little trouble making the pass from the left hand to the right look normal and believeable.


I am trying that but I cant seem to close the hand I'm faking! Very bad! haha.. I am working on that. I know it sounds crazy, but it also feels crazier

sponge balls are easy to hide in the other hand as coins seem not so easy. Is there another method on coins or is it the same deal?

Must I learn how to palm coins and sponge balls the correct way before I practice the fake pass?


any good practice ideas?

First, practice the "real" motion -- that is, the actual placing of a ball into the right hand with the left hand. Then you will know the action you have to duplicate.

If you can get your mitts on the original Benson write up it explains it.

There is really NO MOVE... You should have a wand under your left arm.

Pick up ball in RH at fingertips. Place the ball onto your open left hand... and JUST CLOSE THE LEFT HAND and move the right hand up to grab the wand.

Do not try to palm the ball just close the hand as you take the wand.

NO movement of fingers of right hand is noticed as you are making a natural move up to the wand.

Left hand when closed should be cupped so it looks like something is inside it.

Great suggestion, Pete! The same, or similar info is in Bruce Elliott's, Classic Secrets of Magic, with Benson being credited.

The connection to the Benson Bowl routine wasn't mentioned in the original post. Of course, Pete's advice is absolutely spot on with respect to this.

BTW, if you are doing the Benson Bowl routine (which I don't do anymore, but I used it in the past), be sure to read the description in the Elliott book AND get a video of Johnny Thompson doing it. It is VERY educational.

Is there ANYTHING Johnny does that he doesn't do well?

Johnny T. is one of the best *allrounders* still around!!!..

I would never critise anything he does, but I willingly let you know, what I don't fancy a certain set handling he does use...

He does it well, others doing similar stuff mostly do it badly..in any case it IMHO, it shouldn't be done that way..

I try to explain..

It's all about palming a single coin out of f.ex 4 coins -in the right hand..

It is a very simple thing..

I never would dream of taking up a coin, one, 2, 3, 4 with f.ex. my left hand and place them one by one on the palm of my right hand or vice versa..
Lots of magicians do so..
Coins, just IMHO - have to be picked up with the same hand..probably jingled..and herefrom one does process!

I -of course- am talking about those guys (not Johnny) that are placing very carefully the first coin ready to get classicpalmed in their right hand by use of their left and thereafter continue to place the other 3 coins left one by one on that right palm too.

Arrrg...

Pick' em up in your right hand and palm the single one that is needed to palm..

David Roth f.ex. does describe his handling where the thumb doesn't have to pop out ..but thumb and firstfinger are together whilst the other fingers press the needed coin into the classic palm..separation of that one from the rest is done during closing the hand..
Actually I am not even satisfied with that handling as it stands...

I use more misdirection..

The moment I close my right hand in order to palm that coin, I make a grabbing/handopening motion with my left hand, which now is ready to get thrown the 3 coins into..
YES..it may sound silly, but those smal motions are -even when analysed and sound silly- can built up great and needed misdirection..
I didn't se Albert Goshman doing this, but it is exactly the type of smal motion/guesture he used to load his coin under the shaker..

NOT the same motion, but the principle is the same..smal guestures..

One only needs a split second to palm that coin..still I cover it with that guesture..

Don't know if anybody understands what I tried to describe above, one has to try that thing with the correct *timing*..

It works very very well as misdirection (for the splitsecond needed to palm the single coin out of three) and only needs a splitsecond..
If anybody ever meet me somewhere, simply ask me to show it to you..I'll do it anytime, it is the start of the stand-up/no lapping CTTT-routine I do..

The best method I've seen for palming one or more coins out of a stack was developed and published (I don't recall where) by Harvey Rosenthal. It's a very direct and elegant solution.

In response to the original question, Bill Palmer's advice is right on the money...I mean on the sponge ball.

I have seen Pete make this move (steal) in his Benson Bowl routine and it is a thing of beauty. Other magicians were watching and everyone said, "Wow."

Jim

That Benson move is one of the few perfect moves I've seen. During an Earl Nelson lecture, it was the move that set everyone agog to Earl's detriment.

Now that I think about it, every move Earl makes is perfect.

What is great about Benson's move,is that it IS NOT A A MOVE... you don't do anything. You pick up the ball you put it in the other hand, but don't, and you don't try to palm it, you just go grab the wand.

Now you want to see a beauty of a sequence in REVERSE?

Place a ball on the table and THROW the bowl over it. When the bowl is turned over, the ball is gone.

I came up with the way to do this after reading the Rezvani Tomato Trick... It is, again, a moveless vanish and blows people away.

I open my bowl routine with this.

Yes Pete, exactly...., but actually I've seen it done badly by a very few ppl..and it IS hard to do badly..

I practice passes the same way regardless if it's coins or sponges....

I will make the transfer 2 or 3 times and NOT palm or steal the ball/coin then I will make the steal and try to make my hands look exactly the same as when I actually transfer it.

I continue to alternate between stealing and transfering until I can make them both look exactly the same.

I then repete the whole exercise in fromt of a mirror.

Re: Rezvani Tomato Trick...
AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!

I was hoping NOBODY would remember that book.

Next thing you know folks will take out a tambourine and a pile of sticks and make the house thing happen.

Is that book in still print?

I don't know, but I think I recall having seen the Rezvani routine by that guy doing the marbles in his mouth, can't recall right now his name, he tought that routine (marbles) to Alexander de Cova who also used his own variation..but I'm sure I have seen the Rezvani routine performed..what the h**l was the name of that guy..
He was a frequent visitor at conventions in the 1960's and did win some prices..
Think he was from Belgium or France..(very characteristic *look*...large eyes..I can se an *image* before my eyes, just the name is gone currently..
Edited:
Got it, the ol' memory still works
His name is/was Claude Rix, he did the Rezvani tomato/bowl routine well !