Coin Vanishes

Posts

By: Eddie
I have been working with cards alot but now I am going back to coins. I haven't done alot of coin magic. I was reading through Bo Bo's Coin book, and was amazed of all the vanishes. I told my wife, there is no way that anyone can remember all of these vanishes. Well, at least I can't.

How many vanishes do you magicians keep in your "memory file?" What are the best vanishes in Bo's Bo's book that I should engrave in my memory?

By: Dan Watkins
If you are using Bobo's as a text, I would recommend from the "Coin Concealments" section working on getting a solid classic palm, fingerpalm, and thumb palm, emphasis on the classic palm.

As to the "Coin Vanishes" section: the ones I personally use regularly from Bobo's would be:

• "The Standard Vanish" (Classic Palm vanish)
• "Simple vanish" (usually to hold out a coin while dumping multiple coins into the other hand)
• The thumb palm vanish (but not clipping it in fingers like Bobo's, just rest it on your index finger held there by your thumb and either use your index finger to push it along your thumb into thumb palm or bend the index finger as your hand turns down into thumb palm).
• "A coin vanish" (but the version called a "Retention vanish" explained by David Roth - its almost the same thing but Roth explains it better - when done properly this is one of the most beautful vanishes visually)
• "French Drop" (usually for spellbound routines or a one coin flurry)

Most of this vanishes are used inside a routine of some sort, but if you concentrate on those to start with, it will give you a good starting point to get into some nice routines.

Good luck with the coins!

By: Michael Jay
Thumb palm with aquitment.

By: Steve V
Dan is pretty much right. I thought I only did a couple then I pondered it and realize I use more than I thought. The most common for me is the retention of vision, the French drop, pulling a coin into a finger tip or thumb palm. Then there is passes and so forth. Go get 'em!

By: Conus
Also Bobo's namesake will serve you well if not overdone.

By: Richard Parker
These are my favorites, as of now:

1. The stuff Paul Cummins does with the backclip on his tape Up In Smoke -- you show both sides of both hands empty, but because of his retrieval methods and misdirection, the coin never leaves your hands and ends up in a classic palm. Advantages: it looks incredible, can be done very openly and cleanly, doesn't matter what you're wearing, and lends itself to easy retrieval since the coin never actually leaves the hands. Disadvantages: more angly than many coin vanishes, must be done only very close-up, and is considered by many to be difficult or advanced sleight of hand (although if I learned it -- and I have -- it probably isn't advanced).
2. Greg Wilson's "All Around Vanish" -- a complete coin vanish on Greg's Off the Cuff tape.

   Advantages: it's a complete coin vanish, it's baffling, and the sleight of hand factor is not that difficult.

   Disadvantages: A lot of movement takes place, which makes things a little more suspicious to some people (although I don't think it's a problem); you have to be wearing pants with pockets, and there can't be anything in the pocket that the coin is ditched into -- at least nothing too hard that could "talk" if it came into contact with the coin (again, never been a problem for me); and if you're like me, you want an identical extra coin somewhere so you can produce it at the end of your routine, because you don't want to have to go back to the pocket where the ditch occurred, and you don't want people trying to search you and bugging you to death over "Where'd the coin go?" (i.e., retrieval is pretty much out of the question unless you have a duplicate coin). I like this vanish a lot.

3. Alain Nu's retention vanish (like any other RV except that the coin immediately goes into finger palm, thereby allowing you to do a nice Ramsay subtlety). I saw Alain explain this at his lecture in Tallahasse last year, and it looked great. I can't recall if it's on his Close-Up Sketches tape or not.
4. A shirt-pocket ditch, like the one David Williamson uses on one of his tapes in which he does the coins-across-type routine using silver dollars which are arranged in a matrix formation on a table at the beginning of the routine.

   Advantages: it's a complete vanish that is very easy (requires only a thumb palm and a little acting), and it's an ideal way to "clean up" in routines which require you to use an extra coin (the same can be said for vanishes 1 & 2 listed above). The shirt pocket ditch is littered here and there throughout magical literature. Sometimes it's performed with a hanky (as described in Gerald Edmundson's notes entitled Jocomo's Best Kept Secrets and in some Paul Diamond notes I have), but I use it in the standard, "The coin goes up the arm, across the chest, down the other arm" way, which Harry Lorayne says (in the description of "Quart(er)z Watch," cited below) he's been doing for about forty or fifty years.

   Disadvantages: Retrieval could be a problem if you aren't using the vanish solely as a ditch, so you might need an extra coin; a shirt pocket is required.

5. Himber vanish

   Williamson describes this in his book, Williamson's Wonders (pp. 32-33; he uses it as a click vanish in his routine, but the mechanics of the vanish are the same), and I have seen a couple of magicians do it beautifully.

   Advantages and disadvantages: I'm tired of listing them.

   Comments: This is a very nice-looking vanish if done well, and I've seen a couple of people do it well (David Acer, to name one). It isn't that difficult, but it's somewhat angly (although not as bad as most coin vanishes, probably), and the timing is tougher to get down than I thought. I'm still working on it, and eventually I'll master it. The other person I saw perform it was a young dealer at the past Harvest convention in Atlanta this year, and he performed it (perfectly, I might add) at chest height. Basically, you drop the coin from the right hand into the left hand, but your right pinky steals it out as the left hand closes. It is completely convincing if done well.

6. Wristwatch vanishes

   I'll confess right now I only actually use the first four vanishes I've listed, but I've played with the Himber vanish a fair bit (the timing and angles are a little more difficult to master than I expected), and I've always wanted to master a good wristwatch vanish. I think a good wristwatch vanish would be a killer of a move to have in your arsenal of coin sleights. So I'll list some. The ones I'm aware of are as follows:

   1. Jim Buffaloe's "Son of New Era Coin Go" in his book, Buffaloe'd: The Magic of Jim Buffaloe (pp. 29 & 30, also in Bobo's book as "New Era Coin Go," I believe, although JB says it was incorrectly written up there). Comments: if you could actually do this vanish, you'd qualify as a bad*ss in my book. I've never seen anyone who actually performed it. The printed material makes it look great, though.
   2. The Pentium vanish, from Eivind Lowig's booklet, Stand Up Coin Power (pp. 38-43). Comments: same as for Buffaloe's wristwatch vanish.
   3. The "Nu-Greenberg Hold-Out," Magic magazine, January 1999, pp. 78-79. Comments: same as for Buffaloe's wristwatch vanish.
   4. Alan Greenberg's "Watch It!" Apocalypse, pp. 2523-24 (sorry, don't have the month or year of the issue, but it's after 1990). Comments: same as for Buffaloe's wristwatch vanish.
   5. James Chartier's "Complete Coin Vanish -- and Back," Apocalypse, pp. 2419-20 (again, don't have month or year of issue, but it's after 1990). f&g. The one in Sicher & Cohen's "Quart(er)z Watch," Apocalypse, April 1990 issue, and Royal H. Brin's "The Wrist Watch Vanish" in Bobo's book. Both are just basic vanishes (either retention, classic palm, thumb palm, etc.) in which the coin is later slipped under the watch via the ruse of demonstrating how you want the spectator to hold your wrist -- more of a ditch than a vanish, and not too convincing, to me. Thus endeth the catalog of wristwatch vanishes.
7. John Carney's "Fingertip Coin Vanish" -- hands down the most magical coin vanish I've ever seen. The coin appears to melt away right in front of the spectator's eyes. It's written up in The Magic of Michael Ammar, pp. 38-39, and in my opinion Ammar makes quite the understatement when he states (emphasizes, actually) that it is *not* an easy vanish to perform. I saw him perform it in person, however, and it was a thing of extraordinary beauty. I believe he also performs it (and explains it, I think) on his Topit Tapes. I've worked on it several times and have always given up.
8. The under-the-collar ditch used by Daryl in his "Elbow, Knee and Neck" routine, published in Steven Minch's book Spectacle, p. 85. Others have used this in their routines (I use it in a routine of Troy Hooser's that I performed recently at a couple of banquets), and I have no idea where it first appears. I don't think it's Daryl's move, but it could be. I think it's one of those things that is as old as the hills. Anyway, it's uncredited in Spectacle. Like most other ditches, it probably works best in a routine where coins are vanishing and reappearing one after the other.

So for various reasons, those are my favorite coin vanishes -- including some I don't even perform!

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