Little by Little Coin Across - Sawa

[Jonathan Townsend]

Would anyone have contact information for H. Sawa?

I'd like to discuss and hopefully clear a couple of ideas/themes, one of which is very close to something he published years ago and (aside from giving credits) get feedback from him before taking the items into open discussion.

The Harbin/Sawa Little by Little Coin Across is one of the items.

Thanks in advance,

Jon

[Richard Kaufman]

Sawa does not speak much English, so communication is unlikely.

[Pete McCabe]

That shouldn't be a problem, even people who speak English fluently often don't understand what Jonathan is saying anyway. ;-)

[Philippe Billot]

Even a mentalist?

[Jonathan Townsend]

Since I'm exploring variations on a theme he published, essentially breaking a dollar into bits (he used dimes)and reassembling it on the other side, it seems appropriate to discuss.

Pete, it's okay. It seems some of my thinking can a few years to percolate into what folks are willing to explore. I've gotten used to it by now. :)

Now back to asking permission before going and publishing something on a theme that I was introduced to by way of Sawa's items in Genii then later in his book.

[Tom Stone]

At the bottom of this page: http://www.tenyoworld.co.uk/Profiles.htm

Maybe Steve Cohen can be asked to help out with a translated letter with your questions, Jon?

[Jonathan Townsend]

Project update:

A silver dollar taken in left hand, squeezed.
A quarter drops out.
Another quarter pops up, and dropped off.
A third quarter drops out.
The three quarters picked up by other hand.
Left hand opens to show a quarter which is tossed into the right hand which catches it revealing the dollar restored.

Working on portable and extensible methods here - the use of a holdout is just too tempting. ;)

[Pete McCabe]

Jonathan,

Sounds good to me. I like tricks with this kind of what I call Cartoon Logic.

I am pretty sure someone has a matrix where quarters gather and turn into a silver dollar. In your version, after the second quarter passes, will there be a half dollar in each hand? Seems like adding that will greatly complicate the handling, but without it you've lost the purity of your concept.

You know, if you took Mike Close's "26 cents worth of change" from Workers N, and presented it as a coins across rather than an extraction from the closed hand, you would have the same basic routine you are creating. Might be worth looking at.

[Philippe Billot]

Workers #2, 1991.

[Jonathan Townsend]

@Philippe, thanks - will see what Michael Close's approach to an extraction effect offers in the way of applicable methods. His half-reinvention of the Laurie Ireland pennies to dimes gaff was a tempting approach for managing a three+one into a dollar change where one coin has wax and the three are welded. Again thanks will be reading it in detail later this weekend.

@Pete, I agree that stopping to show two half dollars would put a focus on clever/convincing. The current working version has a half dollar seen at the fingertips of the "from" hand after the second quarter is plucked away. There's something about the quarters being squeezed out of the fist which stays closed that appeals - where they only see the hand open for an instant right before the last quarter is shown then apparently tossed into the other hand to join the rest.

Working without four magnetic quarters, a coin clip (or two), a holdout makes this quite a challenge. Suggestions are welcome. And thanks for the support so far folks :)

[Jonathan Townsend]

A half baked approach - half the trick is better than none for now.

needed: a half dollar and a quarter. Conceal the quarter and use your favorite sleight (CP2CP, Bobo Switch, EG2EG...) to get the quarter alone into your Left hand under pretense of depositing the Half Dollar which is retained and concealed.

Signal some magic and (depending on your tastes) squeeze the quarter up to the top of your left fist, pretend to pull a quarter off the coin in your left hand as you open your left hand...

Next, use the Deep Palm Tenkai Pennies sleight to show a quarter in both hands. Move the quarter to Deep Backclip and cover it with the half dollar as you pretend to place the quarter in your left hand (none as the DPTP transferred it) onto the one on your right fingers.

More visual handling for the brave: Actually put the Half Dollar into your Left hand along with the secreted quarter (quietly) and let a sound from your left hand signal the magic. Pull out the Half Dollar as if it were just a quarter. Then use either the Flop part of the Floperino done Left handed, or my one handed vanish if you are comfortable with that and let the Half Dollar in your right hand bounce a little as if the tossed coin were landing (Presto gets credit for this subtlty though it may have been first published in an item in Apocalypse Magazine).

That manages two workable handlings of the effect in miniature, but I still feel a dollar and four quarters gives room to build up the extractions and the merge at the end.

[Mike Rubinstein]

In the Upcoming New York Coin Magic Seminar DVD series, called Methods, Performances, and Presentations (vol. 14), Mike Gallo has a routine where he visibly removes two quarters from a silver dollar, leaving him with a half dollar remaining. he turns the half dollar into 5 dimes. Its called, "Five Dimes Better". The DVD's should be released in about three weeks.

[Pete McCabe]

Also John Carney, in Carneycopia, has a trick where you fold a dollar bill, produce three half dollars from it, and unfold, revealing that it has changed to a hundred. He mentions the possibility of doing this with a five, producing three silver dollars, and unfolding to reveal a two. Silver dollars are a bit too big for John's handling, but Sacagawea dollars would work very well.

This is a bit off the trail of Jonathan's trick, but still.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Pete, if it serves to amuse, the use of a false corner for a bill, edge grip and starting with four extra coins under ones wallet makes for a simple item where one shows a bill, says "oops that's not what I needed, then changes one's mind, rolls it up, out drops four coins, and the bill when unrolled is now of appropriate denomination. It's what one would expect of a student who had started to explore Edge Grip or Downs Palm, the Eureka Pass, and found out that one can use a dab of wax and just a tiny bit of a bill showing the number to mis-mark a bill.

I have to credit Curtis Kam for bringing the "falling from Edge Grip" illusion to my attention in some correspondence where we were discussing using a small bit of sponge to wipe up coins - and he suggested squeezing them out as a climax for the routine.