Doing copper silver transpositions

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Al Schneider
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Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 10th, 2018, 9:43 am

For some years I have worked on copper silver transpositions. I have never liked the "standard" way of handling it. To be successful the magician needed to teach the spec how to hold a coin. Then, one had to fold the fingers of helper over a coin and then grab the person's hand and turn it palm down. I searched for years for a method the all of this effort was not required. Some involved a handkerchief that held the coin and the helper was simply asked to hold the hank. For some reason I stumbled across the following method called Ecaallbur.

https://youtu.be/bmtwaW_CpOo

It uses no extra. Also, the spectator get to really hold the coin they choose. I put this on an L&L DVD called Natural Elements. This comes to mind as Glenn Bishop posted something here recently. Long ago I sent a copy of this to him and he tried it. He said the routine was to short. Since then I have been adding to the routine to make it longer. I value this little routine. Recently I was visited by a magician from Minneapolis. During our visit he gave me a copper and silver from some foreign country. They were pretty coins. I did Excalibur using those two coins. He grabbed the copper with a vengeance. He was stunned when he saw the copper in my hand. I am also working on a version with two bills. The goal is to come up with a really impromptu version of this trick.

Curious what you guys think.

Al
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Glenn Bish Bishop
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Glenn Bish Bishop » July 10th, 2018, 9:54 am

Wonderful Al, and it is nice to hear from you again.

This routine is so strong... I know that if I showed it to a lay audience at the tables in a restaurant, they would want to see it again. And I would get more people at the same table that would say, "do that to me".

That is what I meant when I said I would like the routine longer....

I hope you are well and it is great to hear from you.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Leonard Hevia » July 14th, 2018, 1:02 pm

Curtis Kam has pointed out that you can get a lot of mileage out of the C/S gaff. I believe it. There comes a point when you realize the gaff can produce the kind of clean magic not possible with just sleight of hand. Nothing beats "Presto Chango" as a preamble to the Copper Silver Transposition routine and from there to the transposition in their hand. All three coins are out from the beginning, although only two are ever seen at any given moment, and there's nothing to ditch in the middle of the routine. At the end both coins are in their hand while you go south with the gaff.

"Presto Chango" was good enough for Mike Skinner and Johnny Thompson. That's how great it is.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 14th, 2018, 1:18 pm

And what, Leonard, do you do if you don't have an extra coin or a gaff? Al's routine is perfect.
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Jeffrey Cowan » July 14th, 2018, 1:44 pm

I like it very much, Al. Seems like a step forward from Milt Kort's copper-silver routine in Bobo.
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Leonard Hevia » July 14th, 2018, 1:47 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:And what, Leonard, do you do if you don't have an extra coin or a gaff? Al's routine is perfect.


You do Al or Kort's routine if you're only carrying a copper and a silver half. But if you're carrying a copper and silver half, wouldn't you also keep the C/S gaff with them in your coin purse? I would.

I don't think Al's routine is a step forward from Kort's, which makes wonderful use of the L' Homme load into the left fist. Lots of great magic in that Kort book that has been overlooked.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 14th, 2018, 2:33 pm

Leonard
I am not really going to comment on your opinion of C/S and how wonderful it is. Instead I would like to point out a bit of history.

I got my copy of Bobo's book when I was 17. I also got a copy of Kort's book when I was 17. At the time I poured over those books again and again. Also, I personally knew Milton. I visited him at his drug store. He was also a fellow member of the IBM ring in Detroit. Also, I have spent a lot of my magic life with copper silver transpositions developing enough material to make a thick book on the subject. I do not think you understand the concepts in Excalibur. I am now 75 and I think I have learned a bit about magic.

Glenn Bishop
I came back to this thread to thank you for your comment. I took a bit of time to look up your performances on You Tube. I want to complement you on your style. Most magicians criticize me as boring. When I watch their acts all I see is some guy flapping their lips awhile before they do any magic. Then all they do is flap their lips some more. Not you. After shaking the hands of the ladies at the table you jumped into the magic. I felt as if I were watching a real trouper. You had everything on you. Man, someone turned on a switch and you did magic.

Al
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Leonard Hevia » July 14th, 2018, 2:45 pm

Al Schneider wrote:Leonard
I am not really going to comment on your opinion of C/S and how wonderful it is. Instead I would like to point out a bit of history.

I got my copy of Bobo's book when I was 17. I also got a copy of Kort's book when I was 17. At the time I poured over those books again and again. Also, I personally knew Milton. I visited him at his drug store. He was also a fellow member of the IBM ring in Detroit. Also, I have spent a lot of my magic life with copper silver transpositions developing enough material to make a thick book on the subject. I do not think you understand the concepts in Excalibur. I am now 75 and I think I have learned a bit about magic.


The Kort book I referred to was not the one you purchased at 17 but rather the Hermetic Press version written by Stephen Minch. At the age of 53 my ability to understand magic concepts is just fine. And I will stay with my C/S gaff...

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Jackpot » July 14th, 2018, 3:44 pm

Leonard Hevia wrote:I don't think Al's routine is a step forward from Kort's, which makes wonderful use of the L' Homme load into the left fist. Lots of great magic in that Kort book that has been overlooked.


Fair enough, but if one sees magic taking place in the spectator's hands as a step forward Schneider's handling is a step forward. The Kort effect takes place in the magician's hands, although the magician does drop a coin into the spectator's hands after the change has occurred. In "Excalibur" a coin is placed in the spectator's hand and then changes places with the coin the the magician's hand.

There is a lot of good magic which has been over looked in Kort. "Kort's Copper and Silver Transposition (The Director's Cut)" is no doubt one of them.

I perform Copper-Silver Transpositions using gaffed coins and the ungaffed Kort handling referenced in this thread, and have gotten good reactions to all of them. The best reactions have been those which occur in the hands of spectators.

(For what it's worth, my age is between Mr. Hevia's and Mr. Schneider's. For the mathematically interested among us, my age is twice as far from Mr. Schneider's age as it is from Mr. Hevia's. :) )
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 14th, 2018, 3:48 pm

Leonard
Thank you for pointing that out.
Seems I stepped in it.
Al
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 14th, 2018, 4:12 pm

Since we all appear to be bragging about how old and decrepit we are I thought I should join in too. I am a year younger than Al Schneider so I will bow to his seniority in this matter. I have never seen Mr Schneider live or on video so I have no idea how boring he is. I suspect he isn't as boring as he claims other people think he is. I do know that his books certainly aren't boring and I always read his ideas avidly.

I don't know anything about his copper/silver transposition but I will check it out. I expect it is just as good as his other material. I am very familiar with the Kort method which I do think is excellent and I use the John Scarne version described in the Stars of Magic all the time and find it very effective indeed. I have nothing against gaffed coins but I find them bloody inconvenient and I would never use one in this particular trick.

However the main reason I am commenting here is that I fully in agreement with this sentence:

"When I watch their acts all I see is some guy flapping their lips awhile before they do any magic. Then all they do is flap their lips some more"

It is a major fault of too many close up magicians. Chattering for ages before the trick starts. Get on with the bloody thing in the name of God. All this unnecessary chattering does not build up the effect. It builds up the tedium. I find it is usually American magicians who indulge in this nonsense. Murray the escapologist once bemoaned to me "American magicians are so long winded" and I have found this to be true. They confuse over-presentation with showmanship.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 14th, 2018, 5:20 pm

OK ladies and gentlemen, this is an old man's brain dump. Its about being accused of a boring performer. This is just something that I buried in my mind long ago. It pops up in front of me now and then. Sometime ago I lectured at a convention in London. McMillan's get together? They were very nice to me by way. One of the people attending the event was Ms. Elisabeth Warlock. I may have the name wrong. Anyway, at the time she wrote a column in "The Linking Ring." In the column following the lecture she stated that Al Schneider was, "... boring, boring, boring..." You might say, I will never forget that.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 14th, 2018, 5:47 pm

Hilarious! I am too tactful to explain why I find this hilarious! I shall merely say that I have seen Elisabeth perform! I am now overcome with curiosity to see for myself how boring Al actually is. I will check him out. However, my opinion and in fact the opinion of ANY magician is of no consequence. If laymen seem to like Al's work on a consistent basis then it doesn't matter a toss how boring we all think he is. LAYMEN are the ONLY real arbiters of what is boring and what isn't.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Stever Cobb » July 14th, 2018, 8:00 pm

I have seen Al at a lecture in Chicago a long time age. I brought along a laymen friend. He was freaked out. I would not use the word boring or loquacious. Just excellent close-up magic from a master!

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Stever Cobb » July 14th, 2018, 8:02 pm

By the way performer, You are brutal brother! I may have to dig up your book again and finish the second half?

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 14th, 2018, 8:36 pm

Al is far far from a boring performer. He is charming and crafty in a quiet way. He does not jibber-jabber as Mark does.
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 14th, 2018, 10:31 pm

First, I did NOT say Al was boring. HE did. I was merely amused because Elisabeth Warlock of all people said he was boring. I did check Al out and found he was no more boring than anyone else and I suspect he entertains laymen very well. Secondly I do not "Jibber-jabber" as Richard claims. I entertain people with meaningless but amusing patter which is not quite the same thing. As for being "charming and crafty" my friend Peter Snow the renowned street magician said that I "was as charming as a rattlesnake" so that takes care of the "charming" bit. And anyone that knows me personally will certainly vouch for the "crafty" part although perhaps not quite in the manner under discussion.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 14th, 2018, 10:34 pm

Stever Cobb wrote:By the way performer, You are brutal brother! I may have to dig up your book again and finish the second half?



What book is that, pray?

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Stever Cobb » July 15th, 2018, 2:39 am

The Lives of a Showman

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Q. Kumber
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Q. Kumber » July 15th, 2018, 6:00 am

Magicians who have advanced beyond hobbyist level generally fall into any of three categories:

creative
technical
entertaining

Some fall into two and very occasionally into all three.

About twenty years ago Al Schneider gave a three day workshop in Ireland. He was far from boring. However Al has never put himself forward as a working performer. He has an obsessive interest and focus on making magic plots as simple, clear, direct and deceptive as possible. That is his great contribution to magic. It was his book on the Zombie Floating Ball that led Tommy Wonder to explore that effect - a trick Tommy had previously derided. The work of one, can so the seeds for another.

Al is a superb teacher and there three days spent with him opened my eyes to new paths and certainly has made me a better performer. Al is as unique in his way as Jerry Andrus and Lubor Fiedler were in theirs.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Bill Mullins » July 15th, 2018, 11:57 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:Al . . . does not jibber-jabber as Mark does.


Image

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 15th, 2018, 4:44 pm

I am going to ignore that horrific photograph. I have no idea who it is and am not sure if it is a self portrait of Mr Mullins or not. It appears to be some sort of night club bouncer or serial killer and not the type who would know anything about magic.

However, I most certainly do and feel that I must advise Mr Schneider on these matters. I am a bit concerned that this cruel review has been weighing on him for some time since I came across him discussing it on the Magic Cafe too. I have been thinking about this over the last day or two and must advise him to ignore it completely and not give it a single thought from this point henceforth.

First, this review was done presumably at a magic convention appearance or at least I assume so. These events are artificial and not real world close up magic situations. Close up magic should be done in an intimate situation in front of tiny audiences and generally speaking this is not the situation at magic conventions where a massive amount of people are watching you perform. It is often more like a parlour or cabaret type situation than a real life intimate close up situation. And of course the audience is made up of cynical know-all magicians instead of normal human beings. In other words laymen.

Quiet, crafty, charming performers tend not to do well in those type of situations. Half the time you can't even hear them and they tend not to look at the audience too much which is fine when performing in an intimate situation with a few friends (which is how close up magic is normally done by non professionals). The type of performers who do well at these convention situations are the ones who jibber jabber and project to the audience. A magician, no matter how brilliant, if he is not suited to that environment may well die a death in that kind of abnormal situation.

"Charm and craftiness" can often go unnoticed in this kind of environment. However, I have a strong hunch that if Al appeared on television he would create quite a positive stir and may even go over better than the ones who work in a more animated manner. That is because television is an intimate medium and his style, in my opinion anyway, would be excellently suited to that.

I am quite frankly bothered that Al may be somewhat disturbed by the mean spirited words of that review and that there is some evidence that it has troubled him deep down for quite a while. He must ignore it completely and not think even for a second about it from this moment forth. It means absolutely nothing.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 15th, 2018, 4:52 pm

Stever Cobb wrote:The Lives of a Showman


Ah yes! That does ring a bell! I think I have heard of it! You must mean this one:

https://www.marklewisentertainment.com/ ... cians.html

However, I am astonished that you have only read half of the book. Most people tell me that they cannot put the book down. And I can assure you the second half of the book is even better than the first half. And parts of it quite powerful.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 15th, 2018, 6:09 pm

performer
You do me a bit of a disservice by suggesting a behavior I should follow. In fact, I considered her comment valueless as hyperbole. Also I waited for the day I could jab back. Apparently, that day has come, not that it matters much. There are however, a couple of things that do rankle me.

One is your comment that you will look into my performance style. It is a reflection on your sense of gravity that the beginning of this thread contains an example of my work. This is a dichotomy I have trouble resolving. I personally believe that Excalibur is one of the most significant routines in magic.

Another thing that bothers me is the way my name and Matrix are treated. This has nothing to do with you. From my perspective the world out there sees a plot called Matrix and everyone makes it better. I have been ripped, slammed, and torn on how I present it. And everyone seems to have a better version. I always wonder, if their routine so superior, why do they call it Matrix? I have seen routines with two playing cards with pockets inside called Matrix. ????? Then go on You Tube and check out how many punks teach how to do it.

The incident with Elisabeth Warlock is nothing compared to this insult.

People ask me what I think about the Matrix phenomena. I cannot express what I think for it would serve nothing. I just wish I made some money on the whole thing.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Q. Kumber » July 15th, 2018, 6:33 pm

Al Schneider wrote:Another thing that bothers me is the way my name and Matrix are treated. This has nothing to do with you. From my perspective the world out there sees a plot called Matrix and everyone makes it better. I have been ripped, slammed, and torn on how I present it. And everyone seems to have a better version. I always wonder, if their routine so superior, why do they call it Matrix? I have seen routines with two playing cards with pockets inside called Matrix. ????? Then go on You Tube and check out how many punks teach how to do it.


The late Kevin Fox was very good friends with Peter Kane. Kevin related to me something which Peter had said regarding his Jazz Aces: "People are coming out with so called improvements and alternative handlings. Do they not realise I had considered and rejected all of them?"

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 15th, 2018, 7:47 pm

Matrix was a version of Sympathetic Coins found in Bobo's. Why don't these people call their versions Sympathetic Coins?

Marlo put out books with several methods of a single plot. Some were not very good. When asked why, he said he worked on a plot and refined it. When he published it, others put out versions he had rejected. His solution was to make a book on the versions he rejected.

Al
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 15th, 2018, 7:50 pm

Oh, by the way Q. Kumber offers a book on handkerchief magic. This should be in your library even if just for reference.
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 15th, 2018, 8:11 pm

Al Schneider wrote:performer
You do me a bit of a disservice by suggesting a behavior I should follow. In fact, I considered her comment valueless as hyperbole. Also I waited for the day I could jab back. Apparently, that day has come, not that it matters much. There are however, a couple of things that do rankle me.

One is your comment that you will look into my performance style. It is a reflection on your sense of gravity that the beginning of this thread contains an example of my work. This is a dichotomy I have trouble resolving. I personally believe that Excalibur is one of the most significant routines in magic.


I was actually trying to be nice! You should see me when I am being horrible! I assumed this review was bothering you because I have seen you bring the same matter up in 2011 on the magic cafe and I got the impression that deep down you felt upset about it. I merely wanted to relieve you from your agony. If however, I was wrong and you are perfectly happy being called boring then I shall leave you to revel in it.

As for seeing your video at the top of this thread I am a very, very, very, very, very busy man and didn't have time to watch it until now. Besides I was so amused at your self reflection and agonising whether you were boring or not that I was distracted from the matter. However, I have now watched the video and did not find it boring at all and in fact it seems a perfectly valid way of doing the trick. I have also watched other videos of you working and find no reason to find fault with any of them. If however you are not satisfied with this evaluation please post a boring video that I can complain about and then I am sure you will be happy.

As for Matrix I use the old version with the handkerchief and call it Sympathetic Coins. I have never kept up with the times I am afraid.

I think you have contributed mightily to magic, I like your books and do not think you are boring in the slightest. I often quote your opinions on eye contact at the climax of a trick. Furthermore one of your students once told me that I was like a "British Al Schneider" What more do you want?

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Jonathan Townsend » July 15th, 2018, 9:05 pm

If folks have their copies of Bobo's open to the Kort and then Judah items ...look at what Al's done for the trick. Getting the volunteer's hand into position by mirroring. The offbeat coin transfer. Removing the sleights done after the magical effect.

How did Kort improve his routine after the item in Bobo's book?
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Jackpot » July 15th, 2018, 10:01 pm

Jonathan Townsend wrote:How did Kort improve his routine after the item in Bobo's book?


The version in Kort includes more details to the handling and presentation. I don't think the routine has been improved so much as Minch went into greater detail in describing the routine than Bobo did.
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Leonard Hevia » July 15th, 2018, 11:14 pm

I like Excalibur, but where can it fit in a copper silver transposition routine? I like the idea of starting with Presto Chango and then a copper silver transpo with the gaff as in Johnny Thompson's Commercial Classics DVD. The effects are over and the hand with the gaff goes into the pocket to retrieve the coin purse. The gaff is ditched and the purse brought out with the question: "Would you like to see that once more?"

If the answer is yes then the coin purse is pocketed and the magi performs Excalibur with the two remaining coins and clearly empty hands.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Richard Kaufman » July 15th, 2018, 11:25 pm

You don't do a "routine," you do an effect--they change places once.
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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Leonard Hevia » July 15th, 2018, 11:36 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:You don't do a "routine," you do an effect--they change places once.


I thought Presto Chango segueing into the transposition was a routine.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 15th, 2018, 11:40 pm

This is what I do. And it is actually a routine of several effects. I start off with Spellbound and then say to the people, "Of course you probably think I use two coins. Well actually I do and here is the other coin" I reach into my pocket and produce a duplicate coin and continue, "But it makes no difference since I can still change the copper coin into a silver one and the silver one into a copper one"

I remember when I first worked out this sequence and showed it to Al Goshman who snorted disapprovingly because the people actually saw two copper coins right in front of them. I figured it would not register with the punters and I proved to be correct in the long run. However, I wasn't really sure of this at the time but I am really glad I ignored Goshman who was an old misery anyway and continued doing it that way for the next 30 years or so.

Anyway the point is that this maneuver enabled me to proceed with the Scarne copper and silver transposition since I now had the extra coin. And then at the end of the routine was able to dump the coin back into my pocket by the ruse explained in the Stars of Magic.

I am then in a position to continue with Expansion of Texture which I have been doing since childhood.

The above is a terrific routine of coin effects and I spent quite a bit of time routining the whole thing. It works well for laymen and of course laymen are the only ones that concern me.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Tom Stone » July 16th, 2018, 12:16 am

Al Schneider wrote:Curious what you guys think.

The handling is very efficient. Very!
I also like that a chinese coin is in the role of the copper coin.
For a long while, I had a copper-silver routine in my regular close-up repertoire.
Then all the thermochromic toys arrived, and suddenly people assumed that the coins just were heat sensitive, and automatically changed color when held in a fist. Basically ruined the routine...
...then, for some reason, I tried it with a chinese coin... despite being sure it would fail, that they would feel the presense/absense of the hole in the coin. To my big surprise, they didn't. And they never do.
So instead of scrapping the routine, I could continue using it. While thermochromic pigments could possible explain the changing color, it can't explain a hole opening and closing.
So you've made the same discovery. Due to the same reason as me, or did that discovery come about in another way?

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 16th, 2018, 12:30 am

Tom
Understanding what goes through a spectator's mind is difficult. At one time I did a Spellbound with a hole coin. One spectator looked at it and observed it was a coin painted different colors on each side. The hole was not an issue with this person. I think my magic differs from other magicians in that I worry about what is in the spectator's head. I worry about what is in my head. I think intelligence is directly proportional to one's willingness to admit self is wrong.

I think I always favored hole coins for the reason you have observed. Can't remember thinking otherwise.

Nice to hear from you.

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Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 16th, 2018, 9:45 am

I think understanding what goes through a specatator's mind is absolutely essential. This is at the very core of my work. Of course being psychic helps me a great deal with this. I will say that even before I became psychic I considered this aspect of magic to be absolutely essential. However, unlike Al i never worry about what is going through my own mind and believe it is utterly essential never to admit I am wrong. And of course I never am.

Glenn Bish Bishop
Posts: 33
Joined: July 5th, 2018, 12:44 pm
Favorite Magician: Billy Bishop

Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Glenn Bish Bishop » July 16th, 2018, 11:16 am

Al Schneider wrote:
Glenn Bishop
I came back to this thread to thank you for your comment. I took a bit of time to look up your performances on You Tube. I want to complement you on your style. Most magicians criticize me as boring. When I watch their acts all I see is some guy flapping their lips awhile before they do any magic. Then all they do is flap their lips some more. Not you. After shaking the hands of the ladies at the table you jumped into the magic. I felt as if I were watching a real trouper. You had everything on you. Man, someone turned on a switch and you did magic.

Al

Al my good friend, you honor me with your kind words. Thank you very very much. You are a true gentleman in the truest sense of the word. And your words are a double honor to me because you are and have been for a very long time one of my magic hero's.

Back when I was a kid in magic, in my very early years at the Top Hat Convention in Chicago. (Remember Then) My dad had a dealers table right next to yours (Bishop's Magic Shop). You took time out to teach me the pop up move, and so many other things that weekend. Your Zombie Ball routine was real magic, your cone and coin, stunning. And Matrix.

I also consider your DVD set to stiil be the best DVD set on what I consider real magic, that I still own today!

May I take a break here to say something about performing magic.

Whatever that Warlock woman said in her review about you being boring, she was wrong. And probably unqualified to write a magic review for any publication. As most people in magic in my opinion are unqualified as many are way to stuck up and consider themselves the all knowing and all seeing of the magic art. And indeed many of them have the need to put others down.

Nate Leipzig once said to Dai Vernon (Quoted in the Stars of Magic). "Dai I have been doing magic for more than 50 years. They (The audience) like to believe a Gentleman had fooled them."

Now I am 61, and I have been doing magic for more than 50 years myself. And in my own opinion being a gentleman and performing such strong and impossible magic for an audience. (both magicians and lay audiences). Which you have done over the years, there is nothing I can say except, YOUR Great at it!

My dad used to say to me, "You want to be a magician? Go out and do more shows!" Because the more shows you do, the better magician you are. My dad also said, "The difference between a hobby magician and a professional (Performing shows) magician was 200 shows".

What he meant by that was that he thought that magicians that do magic as a hobby never learned how to stand up in front of an audience and talk to the audience. They spent hours and hours in front of mirrors working on moves, but very little time in front of an audience doing a show.

My mentor Buddy Farnan added, "Every hour you practice a move at home in front of a mirror, you need the equal amount of time in front of the audience "performing that move or routine" in front of an audience.

In the "entertainment world" the moves are only half of it. And all my entertainer mentors, including Jack Pyle and Don Alan said, "The moves are the least important part. Remember they were speaking from an entertainer point of view, not a magicians point of view.

This is why I still perform in restaurants. It is not the money. Even though money is nice. It is to stay audience sharp. Because If I stopped performing my skills would get sloppy.

And if I may add. I think that you have raised the bar on copper silver routines for the better. Just as you have raised the bar on your other published magic works over the years.

Best wishes Al.

And if I may add, I would still like to buy the cone and coin routine that I saw you do those many years ago.

Al Schneider
Posts: 230
Joined: July 8th, 2010, 8:55 pm

Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby Al Schneider » July 16th, 2018, 1:00 pm

Glenn, your words hurt me. But let me explain with an analogy.

I am a computer guy. When the computer graphics began, I was entranced. I went to a movie theater that displayed one graphic demonstration after another. One was a lion prowling. Another was birds flying to music. These little clips were displayed one after another. I was enthralled. However, after fifty or more of them, I began to tire. I wanted them to go somewhere. I wanted a story.

No one can deny the importance of computer graphics in our society today. It is part of the significant material we watch everyday. That is, computer graphics has become the core or bedrock for stories told.

I see magic technology that way. The stronger the magic technology, the stronger the magic show. The presentation/story is important. However, it depends upon the support of solid magic. If the magic is not there, you just have a story.

Note that I am not disagreeing with you. I think I am refining the point of view.

Al
The single absolute truth is that we don't know.

performer
Posts: 3508
Joined: August 7th, 2015, 10:35 pm

Re: Doing copper silver transpositions

Postby performer » July 16th, 2018, 2:33 pm

The key to upsetting Al is to say something nice about him. I figured that out some time ago.

I agree with Glenn's statement that the more you perform the better you become ----but only up to a point. With certain people it can actually make matters worse because bad habits can become embedded and become part of you and can be difficult to eliminate. And of course over time you can drop details as I once mentioned in my writings.

Generally speaking Glenn is correct. However, one should bear the above caveat in mind.


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