Coins....what next?

[Dmatthew]

I was just wondering what everyone would recommend as a nest step for me in coin magic. I have been using the David Roth videos for a couple of years and Bobo's book as well. I was just wondering what might be a next step. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
DM

[Richard Kaufman]

You should buy my books CoinMagic and David Roth's Expert Coin Magic. Both have more coin tricks than you'll ever need in your lifetime.

Also, Chris Kenner's book Totally Out of Control has a number of excellent coin routines in it (as does Sankey Panky).

There's a lot of material out there! Books are better than videos.

[Dmatthew]

I completely prefer books to dvds anyway, so that is excellent for me. I definitely had your books in mind as a near-future purchase. I was kind of curious to see what the difference in the Roth book and the dvds were. How does the Kenner book compare as far as style goes to "Expert" and "Coinmagic"? I love the stuff that Roth does. I know there are the other New York coin guys out there as well. It's difficult to tell what to pick next. I'm in St Louis and don't really know any coin guys around here. So I figured this would be the best place to get advice!
Thanks
DM.

[Richard Kaufman]

Some people prefer CoinMagic because the material is from a wide group of people. Others prefer the Roth book because they like his angle.

Either book will provide, literally, more coin material than you ever need.

With Bobo, those two books comprise the three large books that currently exist on the subject as the must-have books in the area.

[Philippe Billot]

Also, don't forget to read Jon Racherbaumer's Foreword in CoinMagic.
Very good, indeed !

[castawaydave]

I believe I can recommend Jay Sankey's Revolutionary Coin Magic as being a very good dvd.

[Dmatthew]

Perfect! That is exactly what I wanted to hear. It looks like I will be getting those very soon.
Thanks for your help Richard and everyone else.
DM

[jmac]

Al Schneider has some nice thoughts on coin magic. I love his thinking on magic in general.
jmac

[Richard Kaufman]

jmac is right: Al Schneider on Coins is a very good book. I believe all of Al's work is available as pdf downloads on his website:
http://www.worldmagiccenter.com/salesc/sh/aaad.htm

[jmac]

I'm friends with AL so I might be partial.
He has some nice videos on his site too.
Jeremy

[Richard Kaufman]

Al's a great guy and he used to come here and post until someone made some snide remarks and he was deeply offended. That was the end of that (and the end of his contributions to Genii as well).

[Jim Martin]

That's too bad. It is unfortunate that the snide remarks of one individual had such an effect.

Al Schneider is brilliant and I would hope that he might reconsider his participation in this Forum. We would all benefit from his insights.

[Jim Martin]

(Edited posts only because my typing is lousy.....)

[Spellbinder]

To me, the "holy grail" of coin magic is the opening effect that introduces the coins, usually of an unusual size and denomination as used in many magic effects. That is a worthy quest for any coin magician to follow, and is often neglected in the private world of coin magicians who don't see anything unusual in walking up to a group of people and pulling out (or producing) some coins that most laymen haven't seen for many years... if at all. The subject of segueing coins into a real life situation so you can perform your favorite coin effects is rarely covered in coin lectures, because everyone attending the lecture is a coin magician and of course you all expect to see copper, silver, and brass coins being used at a coin lecture.

So, DMatthew, I send you on a quest for the "holy grail" of coin magic... a reason for doing coin tricks that makes sense in a real life situation. If you choose to accept this mission and fail, I disavow any knowledge of this post, which, at my advanced age, is not much of a trick.

[Jim Maloney_dup1]

Originally posted by Spellbinder:
That is a worthy quest for any coin magician to follow, and is often neglected in the private world of coin magicians who don't see anything unusual in walking up to a group of people and pulling out (or producing) some coins that most laymen haven't seen for many years...

Check out the Nov. 2000 issue of Genii for the answer. Michael Skinner had a perfect line which takes care of that problem.

-Jim

[Pete Biro]

RICHARD: how about a POLL on how many of us love Schneider, his writing and magic and we want him back? Mayb if we get a ton of replies and send it to him??? Can't hurt to try.

[Pete McCabe]

I'm in.

After I finish reading a copy of Genii, I go through and see if I want to cut out any of the tricks and keep them in a 3-ring binder which I keep for that purpose. Usually it averages about one item per issue. Occasionally I keep an entire section -- the Ross Bertram issue comes to mind.

I have kept every single Al Schneider item you've ever run.

[Richard Kaufman]

You cut out the tricks? (Feigns horror with a sharp intake of breath ...)

[Pete McCabe]

Tell you what, Richard. I'll stop cutting out the tricks if you release the last 10 years of Genii as PDFs on CD or DVD. ;-)

[Richard Kaufman]

Your fingers are going to get sore from all that cutting, Pete. :)

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by Jim Martin:
That's too bad. It is unfortunate that the snide remarks of one individual had such an effect.

Al Schneider is brilliant and I would hope that he might reconsider his participation in this Forum. We would all benefit from his insights.

I enjoy his magic. It's a great example of clear effect and direct actions. I too would enjoy his contributions to this forum and the magazine.

I was saddened that mere text on the CRT could so affect someone whose approach to life involves accepting as basic the idea that communication is an option and that messages must be deemed pertinant (accepted) to be processed and only the reciever can give them any emotional weight.

So if we can keep to our respect for the "otherness" of others - maybe we can enjoy what he has to offer again. :cool:

[jmac]

I'll send AL an email and see if he wants to do lunch this week. I'll see what happened, see if I can get him to change his mind. One bad egg shouldn't wreck it for the rest of us.
jmac

[Jim Martin]

jmac,

Make sure to let Al know of the new Forum membership rules (i.e, only subscribers can post); things seem to be more.......civil.

[Brandon Hall]

I echo the sentiment. Bring Al back! His Matrix is perfect and his work on the Cups and Balls and the zombie are second to none.

[David Acer]

Originally posted by Pete McCabe:
Tell you what, Richard. I'll stop cutting out the tricks if you release the last 10 years of Genii as PDFs on CD or DVD. ;-)

Actually, I always thought sorting the contents of Magicana into a series of "themed" books would be interesting, like coin magic, card magic, and so on until the final volume - tricks with noodles.

[Pete McCabe]

The standard cut and restored rope works pretty well with linguini.

[Jim Martin]

I agree, Pete.

Who can forget the linguini version of
Professor Al Dente's Nightmare?

[jmac]

I'm having lunch with Al today, I'll see if I can sway him a bit.
jmac

[Jim Martin]

How was lunch?

[jmac]

It was good, always an insightful time. I'm not where Al stands with the internet forums.
jmac

[Richard Kaufman]

That's rather cryptic.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by jmac:
It was good, always an insightful time. I'm not where Al stands with the internet forums.
jmac

Perhaps there was a word missing between not and where?

[jmac]

my bad, The magic talk was very insightful, we spoke about the cups and balls. As for Al's thoughts about the forums, I'm not really sure where he stands. On a side note I let him know he has been missed.
jmac