Not really trying to do product reviews here but..
Martinka Magic Shop is doing a subscription thing where for around $30 per month you get a different limited run unique coin gaff each month (more or less) : \ Have just signed up but watched members only videos explaining 7 of the previous releases. One in particular, KFC Coin, caught my eye so I tracked it down, and am dicking around with it now. It's basically a CSB but instead of a B you get a keyring.
Martinka's KFC Coin
Very nicely made with low tolerances. Not sure what to do with it yet, but will try to think of something.. I like the fact that these releases are esoteric and limited. They do sell left-overs for more than twice as much, but my hope is that they don't market these effects outside the club.
Anyway, will let yall know what I think of some of the releases but in the meantime, check it out and let me know what you think. http://www.martinka.com/martinka-coin-club/
Was trying to think of a straightforward coins through table handling w/ nothing extra or special going on- as honest a deception as possible..
What follows are two routines, almost identical in handing and overall effect, but with slight adjustments which make for some interesting shifts in the specifics of the effect, as well as the possibilities of presentation.. Nothin' terribly revolutionary in the move dept here; Han-Pings and Pop-Ups Hey-Ho!
Having only just begun to contemplate the challenges of writing about sleight of hand without directly exposing any secrets, am realizing it might be beyond my level of writing (or interest), but let's give it a shot with this one. My feeling is that terms like Ramsay Subtlety and Goshman Pinch unaccompanied by definitions or direct context are of little interest to lay-folk, and if someone does go to the trouble to investigate their meaning, then they're well on their way to no longer being a lay person, and I've inspired someone to pick up one of the most awesome hobbies/passions/pursuits in existence.
My first exposure to the Sun and Moon coin (not to be confused with a C/S coin) was, like many am sure, via Johnson Products Hopping Half set and Bobo's Modern Coin Magic which credits the routine, but not necessarily the invention of the apparatus, to Albert Goshman. One aspect of the coin is described in Reginald Scot's Dicoverie of Witchcraft, written in 1584 and the other characteristic was invented by Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser around 1850, so we can reasonably assume at some point someone put these two elements together before Goshman in the 1950s.
I'd always done sort of a light version of Goshman's handling laid out in Bobo's. I was fine with the "Goshman Pinch," but had decided it was a bit angle-sensitive. Later I discovered the Roger Klause version in The Collected Almanac and incorporated elements into the routine.
For many years I performed it, and the Hopping Half routine, with standing spectators gathered around, looking down at my palm up hands; a very typical walk-around set up. A couple years ago, long retired from performing walk-around, I started designing an actual act (as opposed to the jazzy improvisational style I'd enjoyed during my misspent youth) it became important to perform everything in a more "stand-up" manner ie less table work, and things presented more in that 3 Fly position wherein Ramsay Subtlety becomes so useful and crucial. Around that time, this caught my eye:
Notes: Fred Kapps, Geoff Latta, Dave Neighbors, Barry Price, and Rob Thomson have all published interesting routines utilizing the Sun Moon Coin. Neighbors has a fucking sweet change move where you sort of tip the coin up off the table and it visibly changes.
More Notes: I've owned Sun Moon Coins furnished by Johnson, Tango, Sasco and Roy Kueppers. I'd recommend Johnson, Tango, or maybe Sasco.
