Magical Originalities
Ernest E. Noakes
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Some Coin Manipulation
ONE of my items I nominate "My Musical Coins." I have six coins on a small stand, which is in the shape of a T, the top part being a fluted channel for the coins to stand in on edge, see drawing. I take them to the table at the centre of the stage, and introduce them to the audience as highly trained coins, and if a particular tune is played the coins at once go through their performance. The piano starts, and taking the first coin, I give several vanishes, etc., then apparently transfer it to the left hand and place it at some point, really palming it in the right. I do this with the six coins, and then recover them one at a time from the positions they were "invisibly" placed in, keeping in time to the music and introducing my" passes," etc. As I recover each coin it is replaced on the stand. I replace all six, then standing with my right hand above the stand, I pick up the coins one at a time and "back palm" (hold at the back of the hand) them on the right hand, and again produce them one at a time.
This last move would be difficult to execute with safety, so I will explain just what I do. I pick up coins 1, 2, 3, 4 with my left hand and really transfer them, and "back palm" them on the right hand, but when I pick up No. 5 in transferring it to the right hand I gain possession in the left hand of the previous four, and only have No. 5 behind. No. 6, I actually "back palm" with No. 5. After showing front of right hand, I reach out and produce a coin which I take in my left fingers and replace it in the stand. This leaves me with one coin only "back palmed," which enables me to do some tricky passes that could not be accomplished with five. Each time I reach out and get a coin with my right hand, I apparently place it into my left hand, and the left hand puts the coin on the stand, but really I "back palm" the right hand coin and use one of the four coins concealed in my left hand. I find this item can be run from five to ten minutes, nobody dislikes the patter, and with a good march tune it appeals to the audience, who pot only like pretty tricks, but they like the entertainer to have some degree of (apparent) cleverness.
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