You Tube Coin Magic Round-Up

Just a few favorites. Very different mechanics and performance styles, but one thing in common: all are doing absolutely stunning 3 coin routines:

Dafedas B

108addict

Moritz Mueller

kmotonari

Coins Through Table

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!

Instant Gratification Coins Through Table

Delayed Gratification Coins Through Table

Dean's Sign

Dean Dill's shop sign is now in the good hands of my friend Andrew Zuber.

The Sun and Moon

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:

                            

In the comments section the performer Kmotonari mentions the handling is from Shigeo Futagawa and Shigeo Takagi's Encyclopedia of Coin Magic. A quick look through the Magic Castle© Library yielded nothing, as I believe it is only available in Japanese. In any case, here's the handling I currently like which, aside from some of the get-ready moves and the obvious playing to the camera, is very similar to the above handling.

                            

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.

Coin Magic Underground Channel Trailer

Dean Dill - Remembering a Sleight of Hand Legend

Several circumstances have led to this blog and associated yootoob channel... Severe nicotine withdrawal and the passing of a mentor being of foremost significance. Since this is a web log about coin magic, the latter seems an appropriate subject for a first post.

Will focus on the good here, not the sadness..

Just one finger flinger's experience:

Around 23 years ago I worked in a magic shop in Glendale CA called Russell Lewis' Magic Palace. During its brief existence, The Magic Palace didn't see a ton of customers so there was lots of time to read books and learn tricks to demo, plus an occasional well known heavy hitter like Daryl, Johnny Ace Palmer, Kevin James, or Rudy Coby would come by and shoot the shit; A young magician slacker's dream job..

At the time, legendary underground magician/barber Dean Dill was renting a station at a barbershop across the street. He'd come in and hang out a bit, or I'd go over to his barbershop and watch the latest. Dean just kept frying me over and over. He really embodied what I've come to call the "West Coast Naturalist" style of sleight of hand (not naturist, I think that means performing in the nude..) That is, no fancy magicy movements, and no "telegraphing" of moves ie no guilty conscience. The type of philosophy Dai Vernon, Larry Jennings and a handful others had popularized in cards, Dean brought to coin work. 

Dean Dill was a sleight of hand coach/consultant on the Stephen Frears film The Grifters.

Dean's manner was incredibly unassuming and relaxed, whereas I've always had to fight not to make a weird face or speed up my speech when I'm about to do something sneaky. Not Dean. The actual action and the faked action not only appeared the same, they had the same metaphysical footprint, if that makes any sense. To this day I've never seen anyone as smooth, even, and natural as Dean Dill.

I enjoyed hanging out with Dean and learning as much as possible from him. I wasn't special though, he was incredibly generous to everyone he met and many magicians, both famous and unknown, gravitated to him. Yes there was his incredible skill and magical brain, but beyond that, he was the type of person who took a genuine interest in individuals, and it wasn't some kind of "win friends and influence people" game. He truly was interested in finding out how you were doing and what you were about. A devout Christian, he truly lived by the tenants of that religion, in the sense that he cared deeply for everyone, including those with different perspectives than this. He took the WWJD acronym seriously and really seemed to live by it.

                                              Dean Dill and Rudy Coby. Photo by author.

These qualities are why I kept in touch with Dean long after I got out of magic in the mid 1990s, and would drop in on him every year or three for a haircut and to see the latest jaw-dropper. During that time his shop moved and expanded to accommodate his increased following, and to provide a work-area for him to create and build the effects he'd been developing.

Dean on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, a fine magician in his own right, who would often engage Dean's skills as a magic teacher. Embedded from Rich Hurley's Youtube Channel.

A couple years ago I'd been asked to help conceptualize a few TV show ideas, and one was about magic. Largely out of the loop, I began hanging out at Dean's Shoppe again, camcorder in hand, to get back into that head-space, but also with the possible intention of shooting something around Dean, the Shoppe, and those who hung out there.. After a number of visits, I realized bringing "TV people" into Dean's Shoppe, and life, would be a mistake, and began showing up sans-camcorder, but with a few coins.... 

And so it started again, this thing which another old friend and mentor, Carl Williams, used to say is a "bug that never leaves you." With Dean's encouragement I started trying to come up with new routines and with even more encouragement began performing again. 

So we'll start here; with Dean. If not for him am not sure I'd be writing this, or even be interested in coin magic again..

So long, old friend.

T. Nelson Downs!