Читать книгу Modern Coin Magic - J. B. Bobo - Страница 40

JOHN MULHOLLAND

This sleight to cause a coin to disappear was devised by John Mulholland when he was about twelve years old. Because of the reliable peculiarity of the eye called retention of vision, the spectator “sees” the coin go into the hand and is very much surprised when the magician shows it isn’t there. The Slide Vanish has the added advantage of being a completely natural move.

This is the effect: The magician holds his right hand out flat to show a half dollar resting on the center of the palm. Tilting his hand he permits the coin to slide from the palm, down his fingers and into the cupped left hand held below to catch it. The left hand is closed about the half dollar and raised to shoulder height. After a rubbing movement of the fingers of the left hand, or with the pronouncement of the magic words, the hand is opened to show that the coin has disappeared.

The sleight depends upon the fact that a half dollar is of such size that it will wedge between the tips of the first and little fingers when those fingers are squeezed tightly against, and just a little above, the two middle fingers. By holding the fingers in this manner, a coin sliding from the palm toward the tips of the fingers will become wedged at the tips of the fingers. As the coin slides down the hand, which should not be tilted so much as to make the movement fast, the left hand is brought underneath and held like a cup. Just at the instant the coin has reached the position on the fingers where it will stay, turn the hand over so that the back is toward the audience. This is done by turning the wrist and in no other way changing the position of the hand. The turn over seems merely to be proof that the coin has left the hand. The instant the right hand is turned it is moved away from the left hand, which then closes “about the coin.” The left hand, by the way, should be held so that the palm almost touches the tips of the fingers of the right at the moment the right hand is turned over. The hands being that close together provide complete cover and hide the fact that the coin never goes into the left hand.

Once the left hand is closed the right hand can be dropped to the side. In that position the coin can be brought to the back of the hand so that the palms of both hands may be shown empty after the vanish has occurred. For those who do not back palm, it will be found that the coin is in a position to do the regular palm and, once done, the right hand can aid the disappearance by making passes toward the left hand.