Читать книгу Modern Coin Magic - J. B. Bobo - Страница 14

The coin is held horizontally in the fork of the thumb by pressure of the latter and the base of the first finger pressing together against opposite edges. Fig. 1 shows this position but from a different angle than viewed by the audience.

To bring the coin to this position, hold it vertically between the tips of the first two fingers, Fig. 2. Then curl these two fingers inward, depositing the coin behind the thumb, where it is gripped against the base of the first finger. When the fingers are straightened the hand appears empty, Fig. 3.

This concealment is used mainly as a coin vanish and production. The correct moves for accomplishing this are as follows: Stand with your left side toward the audience and display a half dollar held between the tips of the first two fingers as described. Quickly bring the hand down, then up, in a tossing motion. Under cover of this brief movement, palm the coin. Follow the flight of the non-existent coin upward with your eyes, and if you have executed the moves as described the coin seems to vanish in mid-air. Show the hand empty as in Fig. 3.

To produce the coin, reach out with the hand and seemingly pluck it from the air by a reversal of the above moves.

After you have mastered the moves with a single coin try vanishing several in the same manner. A good number to start with is four. Show them in your left hand and stand with your left side toward the audience. Take the first coin with your right hand and vanish it as described. The remaining three are handled in the same manner but as each coin is placed behind the thumb it goes underneath the preceding one. At first this may seem a bit difficult but if you have spent sufficient time in mastering the moves with one coin the extra number should give you little trouble.

The next step is to show the back of the hand empty and produce the coins again. To do this, turn slightly to the left, and as you swing your arm across your body, curl the fingers inward and touch the tip of the thumb with the tips of the first two digits (which prevents the onlookers from getting a flash of the coins), straighten the fingers and exhibit the back of the hand empty. Reverse these moves, show the palm of the hand empty and proceed to pluck the coins from the air one at a time. As each coin is produced, take it with your left hand, or better still, drop them in a goblet which you hold in your left hand.

A certain amount of care will have to be exercised to prevent the coins from “talking” as they are brought together behind the thumb. The use of old, well-worn coins, such as the Liberty head half dollar, will help greatly in eliminating the noise caused by the coins sliding across each other.

Read Arthur Buckley’s description of the Downs palm which he employs in Four Coins to a Glass, (page 261).

A more beautiful coin vanish and reproduction has not been devised.