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Coin magic is often seen as a difficult branch of our art. There are no self-working tricks; you have to use sleights, concealments and palms straight away. Unfortunately new students to coin magic often have a discouraging start, as they find that they are '‘caught'’ performing their sleights. The purpose then of this piece is to give you some tips to make your coin magic more deceptive.The first thing to say is that in coin magic the routine is of the utmost importance. Try not to perform a single sleight instead of a routine. If you perform a completely baffling vanish, the first thing a spectator will want to see is your other hand, which in many vanishes is where the coin is concealed. This is not good. However display a coin and make it vanish and then reappear in an impossible location! This can seem like a miracle. Don’t forget that many people’s first memory of magic is seeing a coin reproduced from behind their ear. Try it, you’ll like it.
Tied in closely with the routine is the patter story. A good story accomplishes many functions, the two most important are that it makes the effect more entertaining, the second is that it makes the effect more baffling. How does it achieve the latter you may ask? Well, by psychological misdirection. After an effect is over and the spontaneous (we hope!) astonishment subsides the first question the spectator asks themselves is ‘how did they do that’? One way to prevent them from reconstructing what really happened is by use of patter. The most obvious way is to suggest false methods, these are of the…‘the coin travels up my arm, across my shoulders and down my other arm’…type of thing. Even more subtle is to recap on events but make the conditions sound even more impossible than they actually were, for instance don’t mention that you put the coin into another hand, thus people will not tend to remember a false transfer. The other benefit is that if people find your routine interesting and entertaining then they will not be looking for ways to catch you out or trip you up. It is essential in coin magic to avoid the ‘Challenge’ type situation, you can only ever lose.
The other misdirection device that you should make use of is the magical gesture. Professor Hoffman said, ‘always do something to account for the magic’. The magical gesture does two important things, first it defines the moment when the magic takes place for the spectators, and secondly it provides a false explanation as referred to above. So what is a magical gesture? The best example in coin magic is waving your hand over your empty fist before revealing a coin vanish. If you have a coin classic palmed in the hand that is waving then you are also providing indirect proof that the hand is empty. Sublime! Other magical gestures involve the use of magic words, waving the magic wand, snapping your fingers, anything you want really. One word of caution try to avoid reaching into your pocket for ‘woofle dust’ to ditch things, most people will be suspicious about this move