While this started out as a discussion about dropping billiard balls, there's lots of good advice for people with either moist hands or dry hands.
By: alan
I do a lot of manipulation work, yet am afflicted with a particularly
sinister malady, my hands sweat profusely! Imagine trying to classic
palm a da** billiard ball with hands that look like you are trying to
conceal a broken water balloon! Anybody else have this problem? if so,
how do you combat it?
By: Ren
I remember Bryan posting about this before. If i remember correctly
two solutions came up.
The first was to soak your hands in a bowl of ice water prior to a
performance. Second was to use an anti-perspirant on your hands.
By: ventman2000
I have a similar problem and what I do is use anti prespirant on my
hands and then use a drop or two of coca-cola (which acts as a palming
fluid).
By: Tom C.
Go to a sporting goods store and get a "rosin bag" (the kind that
pitchers use). It's a powder. It only costs a couple of bucks and will
last a long time. The down side of this stuff is that it can get
messy--you can quickly wind up with rosin powder on everything. Store
it in a plastic baggie to keep it from getting on other stuff. Anyway,
it's cheap and would be worth a try.
By: MAGIGAL
Hi Alan......if this excessive sweating occurs ONLY while performing
magic, then that is your clue to learn how to manage your stress level
while performing . If it is triggered by a multitude of situations (
ambient temperature, exertion, etc., ) then a consult with an
appropriate Dr.( usually a neurologist ) may provide you with a better
understanding and possible remedies . Also, if this excessive sweating
is confined only to the palms of your hands, BoTox injections ( yeah,
I can just imagine your wincing at the image/thought of that last word
! ) can be extremely effective in relieving the problem for long
periods. This is called hyperhidrosis and can impact in varying
degrees a person's life.
If yours is a stress manifestation then that can be very responsive to several stress-reducing modalities.
Good Luck, Alan .
I would be interested in a follow-up of your investigation regarding this symptomology.
By: John H. Zander
My hands tent to be a bit to dry. Mak Magic sells Manipulation lotion,
you can get it from your local dealer. That may help, or maybe try
some talc powder.
By: Steve Peterson
I had the same problem. I bought the Fakini set of silicone b-balls,
and they did the trick. (no pun intended.) They are a bit spendy,
but easily worth it if you perform a lot.
I got mine from Joe Stevens.
By: Dan Watkins
I have dry hands and I have found that Eucerin Plus (with Alpha
Hydroxy) works well to moisten the hands as well as give a slight
tackiness to them.
I can easily palm coins after an application. Its available over the counter in any drug store.
By: D
If your condition is *extremely* bad, it could be a medical condition
called Palmar Hyperhidrosis. Pro golfer Tom Kite suffers from this
malady and I believe he was taking medication for it. Check with your
doctor.
By: Jon A. Hand
I have just the opposite problem: my hands are so dry that I have
trouble palming coins, balls, and especially cards. All of the
moisturizers I have tried either leave my hands too oily or don't work
at all!
By: Tom C.
Hi Jon,
Months ago a formula was posted here for a cure to this problem. I modified the formula for my own use--
1 part glycerin (a couple of bucks at the drugstore--usually found by the rubbing alchohol)
1 part 100% Aloe Vera gel (3 or 4 bucks at the drugstore in the hand lotion section--I can give you a brand name if you e-mail me)
1 part water
1 capful of rubbing alchohol (to keep things from growing in it)
initially, shake well to mix--it generally stays mixed after the first shake
optional: a couple of drops of cologne--be careful here--some colognes contain more oil than others, and oil is the enemy of coin palming (in my opinion)
If you mix up 8 ounces or so of this, it will last for months, as you only need a quarter-sized dab to coat your hands. Cheap!
By: Tom C.
Concerning the aloe jel--now that I've thought about it, I'm pretty
sure it is "Fruit of the Earth" brand, but I'll have to check when I
get home tonight to make sure. Once this mixture dries (it only takes
a few seconds), if you find it's too tacky, you may want to wipe your
hands on a paper towel (I usually just wipe them on my pants--it
doesn't leave any visible trace). This stuff makes the biggest
difference with cards. It doesn't gunk up the deck like "storebought"
moisturizers do. You will get great "cling" when palming cards, and
will find lots of other moves that once were virtually impossible to
execute with dry hands will now be much easier (side steals, bottom
deals, false counts, etc.). Good luck and let me know how it works for
you.
By: Sean Macfarlane
I personally use a German brand called Dr. Hauschka,I can appy it and
pretty much immediately go out and perform,its not greasy like most
brands out there.A really inexpensive way of keeping your hands mildly
tacky is to use corn huskard as well.What are some of you guys using.
By: SteveV
Corn Huskers Lotion, it works great and is oil free. Found at your
favorite drug or large grocer.
By: Mikel
You can buy rosewater and glycerin premixed at most drug stores. Add
about 2/3 of this to 1/3 rubbing alcohol. This works pretty well.
By: Andy Hurst
I use St Ives 'Collegen Elastin' myself. If you live in the US it's
available in drug stores and larger grocery stores. I tried it because
my wife uses it and found it to be non-greasy - and it's cheap.
By: Bryan Dean
Try This...!
It actually works!!
By: Jim Morton
Bryan's Right
This works better than just about anything else I've tried (and I have really, really dry hands, so I've tried 'em all). A little dab'll do ya'! (Showing my age with that quote :) )
If you live in an area where the local drug store sells Golden Touch hand lotion, that also works quite well. It's a little smelly, though.
By: Ichazod
I use sort quick, it's the stuff they use at banks when counting money
by hand.I swear by the stuff, it gives your hands the perfect amount
of tackiness & it has lanolin in it to keep them soft. You can buy it
at office supply stores for about $3.00(for 2 of them) and it lasts
for a long time.The container I have now I have been using for about 6
months.
By: Steve V
My company manufactures semiconductors and we have a couple fabs (were
silicon wafers are processed into the semiconductor chips). We had a
safety inspection going on and the guys were up in the fab near an
acid bath. While they were talking a woman walked up and dipped her
hands into the acid, pulled 'em out and wiped them with a paper
towel. The safety guys about died and the inspectator called her over
and asked her why she did what he just saw. She said that the acid
removed all the dry skin and made her hands smooth and she dipped 'em
in every day! So if you realllly want smooth hands get yourself an
acid bath. NOTE: I do not know the type or dilution of this acid DO
NOT TRY THIS AT HOME OR WORK OR YOU CAN VERY SERIOUSLY INJURE
YOURSELF. But if you do video tape it.
By: Jacob Hartstra
Most of the time I have dry hands and until now that wasn't any
problem cause I only did cards and my cardwork didn't suffer from dry
hands, well..if they where too dry I just used some standard drugstore
lotion. recently I started to do some coin stuff and I found out that
my dry hands are giving me very big problems when e.g. palming so I
bought Frank garcia's man. lotion (by louis tannen) and it worked very
good....but it only works for one hour max. So, I'm looking for some
lotion that improves my tackiness for a couple of hours.
By: Jim Maloney
I know this subject has been discussed at length before, and that it's
been archived at the Collected Wisdom.
By: Jacob Hartstra
I have been there already, but do the solutions givin there last
longer than an hour? cause I thought that buying man. lotion would
solve my problem...but it didn't.
By: Marvin L.
Why are you using only 1 application. Why not carry a small amount of that lotion and re-apply if necessary.
Performing more than hour of coin tricks! Wow!!
By: Jacob Hartstra
hehe...no, not an hour of coin tricks. but it looks a bit silly if
someone ask me: can you do a coin trick for me, and I say sure...and I
first pull out my little disposer of man. lotion and say...gotta first
improve the tackiness of my hands otherwise I can't palm. ;-)
By: Mikel
I have tried a couple of solutions, but none will last that long. I
have to reapply thoruhgout. I currently work a couple of places, one
for 2.5 and one for 3 hours. I just have to break and reapply.
By: Bob K
You're planning to apply lotion to your hands 4-5 or 10 times a day
just in case someone asks to see a coin trick?
I suppose you could do that, but you might think about other options. Unless they've seen you before and are asking you to do a specific trick they've seen before, I think it's very uncommon (almost never) for people to ask for a 'coin' trick. It might be a little more common that they'd hand you a coin and ask you to do a trick with it, but usually they just want to 'something'.
So, for those occasions, why not just learn a few impromptu tricks that don't require palming? Or do something other than a coin trick. Carrying a TT, or a deck of cards, or a gaffed coin trick would all be just as useful and much simpler than carrying a bottle of lotion around all day.
I can even think of presentations that would allow you to put the lotion on as part of the trick. I can't think of any off the top of my head that I'd use, but if you wanted to do that I'm sure you could come up with something with enough thought.
One other thing, almost everyone (even with dry hands) can learn to palm without using lotion with enough practice. A lot of people still use lotion when they know they'll be performing. And there are exceptions. But since you've just started doing coin magic, keep working on it and you may not need the lotion eventually.
By: Dan Watkins
I personally just use Ucerin Plus (with Alphahydroxy) any drug store
has it, its kinda expensive. It works well for me.
I agree with Bob K's post below. Once you get really comfortable with coins you may not even need the lotion.
I have always had very dry skin. My hands are very dry. The Ucerin I just use for moisturizing (did't get it for magic).
Some things in coin magic it helps to have dry hands. Hang Pien Chen's (I always butcher that spelling and don't want to look it up) are easier as well as some harder things like muscle passes. If you have dry skin, and a strong classic palm, you can pop a coin pretty good.
By: Elliott Walters
May I suggest that the solution isn't to use a moisturizer, which only
addresses the symptom not the cause, but to attack the source of the
problem. The natural moisturizing factor in skin is a substance
referred to as NaPCA. it has a long chemical name but you don't need
to know it. For a variety of reasons, some people have more and some
less. The "cure" for the problem is to make yourself one of those who
has more. The easiest way to do that is to add some each day, perhaps
twice a day, for about two weeks. This should cause your body to
re-balance its level. I confess, I've known people for who it didn't
fix the problem permanently but once it is absorbed into the skin (it
takes a few minutes) it will surely work for three to four hours.
You can pick up NaPCA at most large health food stores. It is made by a company called Twin Labs and it should cost you less than $10 for a bottle that will last months. Wes James first told me about the stuff about five years ago (he swears by it) and it has changed the quality of my skin completely. Enjoy your new found affection for coin work.
By: Jacob Hartstra
Tnx for the tip,
maybe it is handy that you give me the full name of that stuff (something with sodium and phosphate I think). As I'm not living in the US it may be a bit of a problem to find that excact brand.
By: Elliott Walters
Close but no cigar. The actual chemical name is Sodium Pyrrolidone
Carboxylic Acid. I'm not sure how available it is outside the US but
I'm sure you can order it from an American source for delivery within
your country. It isn't a controlled substance and I'd be extremely
surprised if there was any law against its import for personal use.
By: Russ
Jacob,
I use to have the same problem. The following is what works best for me.
Have you tried Corn Huskers Lotion? It has an ingredient called glycerin in it. Any lotion with Glycerin in it would probably work. I have bought pure glycerin at a health food store and then cut it with water to get the right mix to suit me.
I have heard of a product called Glycerin and Rose Water but haven't tried it though.
I can't answer how long it will stay with you but I know it can be re-activated with a small amount of moisture and your back in business. An idea is to have a cold drink close by that had some mositure on the glass, and when you pick up the glass pick up some of the moisture.
By: Bob Magic
The lotions help somewhat but they can cause slipping. For years I
have used good old Roughing Fluid to cure the dry hands phenomena.
A small amount rubbed into the palm and them allowed to dry. The solvent evaporates leaving a residue of Rosin. Now the coin will grip firmly and not slip. Although I still have plenty of 'Aldini' brand roughing fluid that comes in bottles, I understand it is now sold in spray cans. Same principle, a small amount left to dry in the area were the coin will later be retained...
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