mental coin effect?

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Guest

mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 7th, 2006, 4:39 pm

Hello,

I can't remember where this routine is, but I think it is Docc Hilford's. Basically, the presentation is about your spectator in a dream and they see 3 different coins on the night stand next to their bed. two of the coins are eliminated and you are left with the one coin thought of and no other coins!


anyone know where this is published?
thanks!
Seth

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 7th, 2006, 4:50 pm

I don't recognize that particular presentation but in one of the early Genii's under Richard Kaufman's helm (I think it was an issue devoted to the magic of Japan) there was an effect where there are three imaginary coins, the spectator picks one and you mime picking it off the table and making a fist around it. The other two imaginary coins are discarded. Upon opening your hand the selected coin has become real.

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 7th, 2006, 5:02 pm

Found the issue, it's Volume 63 issue #5, May 2000. The effect is called "Fading Coin" and is the creation of Tomoyuki Takahashi. The effect as written up is thus:

"The performer places three imaginary coins on the table: a quarter, a nickel, and a penny. The spectator is asked to choose any one of the three coins. Generally, the coin he has chosen will magically appear."

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 29th, 2006, 2:02 pm

Eugene Burger lectured at the Magic Castle and presented that very effect as a study piece. He also publicly gave the credit you had found. The effect/method was changed somewhat to employ a particular equivoque that Burger liked.

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 29th, 2006, 4:12 pm

Something similar, done as a prediction written on a business card was published in Magick some years back. Three or four imaginary coins, one selected and flipped and called heads or tails. The coin itself did not appear, but the prediction correctly predicted the coin selected and heads or tails.

In my view this is stronger than having the coin appear, which is "magic" rather than the purely mental/imaginary effect of predicting both the coin selected and the side tossed by the spectator.

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 29th, 2006, 9:26 pm

Docc Hilford's routine is called Nightmare Coins and can be found in his booklet Band of the Hand.

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 31st, 2006, 2:45 pm

Cgscpa nailed it for you, Seth.

I think David is referring to Positive/Negative by Max Maven.
Busch, Parr, and Knepper have also done some interesting work in this area.

Best,
Neil Tobin

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » August 1st, 2006, 12:39 pm

Along this thread...

In 1998, during a long-distance telephone conversation with David Harkey (when he still lived in Eugene,OR), he asked me to imagine a quarter, dime and penny on the table. I pretended to toss one coin to him, I mimed putting one in my pocket and I kept the last one in my closed fist. Without hesitation, he announced the correct location of all three imaginary coins.

He called the effect 'MindNumber'. Last I heard, Harkey was living in the state of Washington and was working in the film industry.

Best,
Mick

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » August 1st, 2006, 12:51 pm

The plot belongs to Larry Becker, and there has been many versions since Larry's. Gimmicked and Non Gimmicked, one of the best versions being Max Maven's.

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » August 1st, 2006, 4:02 pm

The Becker version was on one of the videos he did for Stevens back in the eighties, if memory serves me. I bought and carried a ShoGun wallet just so I could do that effect.

Docc's work on the subject is interesting and MAGIC recently published a couple of varitions in Josh Jay's column.

My buddy Curtis Kam has some very interesting work on this with a 'tiny' purse and a large penny. I believe it's on the Coinvention DVD, but it might be on the LVMI videos. Curtis?

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » August 1st, 2006, 8:26 pm

So as not to "cross the streams" here--which would be bad--my routine is a modest variation of a version of what most people seem to call "Positive/Negative". It is not the "Nightmare Coins" exactly, although there's a touch of that to it.

The routine appears on the COINvention discs, as part of a medley based on coin tricks where the spectators do more than just watch or hold things. It goes like this:

The magician claims he's holding two things, one is invisible, the other can't be seen. The invisible thing is a tiny coin purse containing three invisible coins. The thing they can't see is a prediction, and they can't see it because the magician has it in his closed hand. The prediction is given to a spectator to hold.

Of course, the coins are laid out and one is selected and flipped. The unchosen coins are returned to the tiny purse. The purse then appears at the magician's fingertips and it does contain the unselected coins. The prediction is shown to be a jumbo version of the chosen coin, proper side up.

I burden you with the details in order to get the credits straight--the basic routine is either Max Maven's or Larry Becker's. (I seem to recall the Becker routine as Bill does.) The idea of using a coin as a prediction, and the procedure that makes that possible is from my talented friend John George. You can find his routine on his videotape.

All I added was the tiny coin purse. It's (literally) no big thing, but it allows you to straddle the line between mentalism and magic, if that sort of anarchy appeals to you.

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » August 1st, 2006, 9:21 pm

One of the coolest versions was put in the Mystery School book by Todd Karr. I believe the effect is credited to Eugene Burger and Bryce Kulman.

David Parr also has an excellent and sneaky version that appeared in MAGIC not too long ago.

For those interested in this type of effect handled in a much different way you might also want to check out Alain Nu's Future Influence from his XXX Hardcore Mentalism booklet.

Alain mentions that his effect was inspired by Terry Nosek's Impromptu Influence in his lecture notes from the mid-eighties..

All the best,

Kranzo

Geno Munari
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Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Geno Munari » August 2nd, 2006, 5:10 pm

The effect that Harkey performed over the telephone reminds me of Digital Dollars published by Karl Fulves. This may have been a Hummer idea? I am not sure but it can be done with any three small objects. This effect is OUTSTANDING!

Anyway someone jump in here and shed some light on this.

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » July 18th, 2007, 1:38 pm

Are we talking Equivoque?

Guest

Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Guest » August 7th, 2007, 1:20 pm

You might alo refer to the DVD called UNEXPECTED. It offers similar effects with 3 coins or 3 bills.

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Travis
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Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Travis » July 13th, 2012, 2:01 pm

David Harkey's routine is not equivoque.

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Re: mental coin effect?

Postby Atlas » September 6th, 2012, 9:21 pm

I have to weigh in here. I have been performing Positive/Negative by Max Maven for a month or two, and it is beautiful. It is quick, impromptu, and the reactions are great!


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