Visual Sleight of Hand Techniques to do with Coins or Rings – Ratings

Clint asks:

'I would like some really visual slight of hand techniques that I can do with coins or rings. While I have some experience with cups and balls, linking rings, and card tricks, I am pretty new to pure slight of hand.'

Adding some a few routines or even a small 'bridge section' into your act, that involves some sure sleight of hand with everyday objects such as rings or coins, can both impress your audiance and add balance to your act. I'll suggest some of the best visual sleight of hand routines to consider adding to your act, but first, a warning..

Being Consistant

Visual sleight of hand techniques take a great deal of practice to master, so it's important to take the time to choose sleights or magic routines carefully, so your time is effectivly used.

Have you ever seen Derren Brown suddendy launch into a coin coin flourish routine in the middle of his show? How about Dynamo Magician Impossible performing Hippity Hoppity Rabbits? These magicians have a consistant image that they reinforce by the types of magic tricks they perform. In your magic, we recommend that you do the same. The magic tricks you choose to learn should complement your existing material. If your card magic tends to have a gambling theme, them adding in some coin magic, or poker chip tricks, will keep the act 'on theme'. Conversly, if you have a high degree of comedy running through your presentations, then a sudden display of card fourishing, whilst looking inpressive, will not 'fit' with your act. Make sure you choose magic tricks that work together to tell a greater story, or communicate a common message about your act in general.

Here's 5 of the most popular visual sleight of hand teaching guides that professional magicians order from the magic shop:

World Class Manipulation Jeff McBride

Jeff McBride is one of the most famous sleight of hand magicians in the world. His complete understanding of sleight of hand magic is first class. As a teacher, he is an engaging and enthusiastic speaker on the meaning of magic and its place the world. In this DVD, Jeff teaches techniques of the master sleight of hand experts. Jeff walks you step by step through a wide range of techniques. A lifetime of sleight of hand can be mastered with this DVD.

Ring Thing

Although this isn't hardcore sleight of hand, it gets the same reaction from the public. It's a fast and easy way to introduce sleight of hand manipulation into your working set. David Blaine, Jeff McBride and Gregory Wilson among others speak very highly of Ring Thing, with good reason!

It’s a fast, visual, ring magic routine that can be performed anywhere. You remove your finger ring, throw it back at your hand , and it instantly returns to your finger!

Sick – By Ponta the Smith

Fancy mastering some serious coin magic? This is a coin magic DVD teaching how to make coins smoothly disappear, reappear and change right in front of peoples faces. Working in just one of these sleight of hand techniques can lift the whole of your act to a new level.

De Ring

This without doubt the most awesome teaching guide for ring manipulation that you can own. De'vo's ring sleight of hand is simply stunning. De'vo has been performing ring manipulation for over 20 years. The style and technique taught will have you in disbelief! Finger ring magic, taught by the finest sleight of hand expert in the field.

Contact by Tyas Frantz – DVD

In Contact Juggling, balls are rolled across your hands and body in visually attractive patterns. Many magicians are starting to adopt this skill to build into their magic. Producing a ball by magic, then having it come to life and dance around the magician, before vanishing again.

Contact Jugglers use a range of objects from pens to tennis balls. The most common object is a 3" acrylic ball. Contact balls are clear, so they don't seem to be spinning. This allows the magician to produce a visual effect wherein the balls seem to be moving or floating across the body. It's that effect that sparks the interest of magicians to Contact Juggling.

What have we missed?

Those are the most popular training guides for sleight of hand with everyday objects. However, there is a huge range of excellent material on the market. What would you suggest? Leave a comment in the section below:

How to Learn Magic Tricks With Poker Chips – What the Magic Shop Recommends

by Dominic Reyes Leave a Comment

Want to learn some cool tricks with poker chips?

It's a great way to impress your poker friends, and also transfers nicely over to coin magic. Lets look at how to get started:

1) You need some poker chips.

We recommend you invest in good quality clay poker chips as you are going to be working with the chips over a long period of time. Cheap plastic poker chips can work fine, but the clay chips have a much better feel and weight. You can pick up packs of clay poker chips very easily from most online magic shops.

2) You need some expert tuition on tricks with poker chips

We recommend learning from Poker Columnist and Entertainment Award Winner, Rich Ferguson in his excellent DVD on the subject of tricks with poker chips. The DVD covers over 70 tricks with poker chips, often seen on TV or performed by professional poker players.

The DVD also includes a range of poker chip tricks by Rich that are his own unique creations!

3) Whilst learning the skills, cheat and take a shortcut.

There's nothing wrong with using a gimmick to start performing poker chip tricks right away. As long as you are also learning the sleight of hand poker chip tricks, it can get you performing and building up a reputation for poler chip skills right away. Imagine being able to spin a poker chip on the very tip of your finger.

Check out this poker ship trick in action:

Interview With Steve Shufton About Inexplicable Magic

by Merchant of Magic 1 Comment

Why Inexplicable by Steve Shufton Annoys Magicians

Dominic Reyes: Inexplicable is another take on the ‘Open Prediction’ Why are you drawn to the open prediction concept?

Steve Shufton: The open prediction, in my opinion, is one of the very strongest plots in mental magic, so yes – I am drawn to it like a magnet. This is mentalism/magic that can truly demonstrate the impossible.

Dominic Reyes: In what way?

Steve Shufton: When a woman gets sawn in half, the illusion can be remarkable, and in some cases, no one will have the slightest clue how it was done. Even so, no one thinks for a moment that the woman was actually split in two – no adult would think so any way. Impossible location magic tricks are very strong – I have created several excellent ones myself. Here again – the illusion may be perfect, and no one will have the slightest clue how it was accomplished. But, no adult will think that there was an actual de-materialization. Instead they will credit you with remarkable skill.

Dominic Reyes: So with an open prediction trick, you are also causing a conflict between analytical reasoning Vs. the emotional reaction of the spectators?

Steve Shufton: With an open prediction effect, especially along the lines of Inexplicable, it starts to blur the lines, and the possibility of real mental magic becomes an option. Why? The possibilities of manipulation, switches, trick decks, etc., are eliminated. This is the type of effect that will not soon be forgotten – some spectators may even be deeply troubled and lose a wink or two of sleep. This phenomenon is shared by effects like ACAAN, or another of my own very strong effects, X-Ray. These are magic tricks that defy explanation – for both lay people and magicians.

Dominic Reyes: Why are simple and direct plots such as the one in Inexplicable so powerful?

Steve Shufton: As the great Dai Vernon once pointed out:

‘Confusion is not magic.‘

Simple and clear effects make for good magic. If you can sum up the effect in one or two sentences, you are heading in the right direction. If a spectator cannot easily describe what they just experienced, a lot of the possibility of magic is lost.

Dominic Reyes: Why have you chosen to release this without filming a trailer?

Steve Shufton: So many of the trailers I have seen with this type of effect tend to follow the same formula. First, there is some kind of opening high-tech logo presentation – often these are almost as long as the demo. Then, again with this type of magic trick, you see a demonstration of a possible outcome, and assume each presentation goes the same way. Often the presentation itself is broken into several snippets. Then, the great bulk of the demo is shots of reactions – usually hysterical responses, to entice you to believe that your spectators will completely flip out. I am not in love with most of that.

Dominic Reyes: So you think it leads people down a path to an anti-climax?

You order it. You find out that you only saw one aspect of the effect, and you are disappointed. You find out that the method is more transparent than was revealed, and more disappointment sets in. You decide to perform it, and you are not met with the anticipated hysteria. More disappointment. Finally, you put it in that drawer, vow to never get sucked in again, and your experience ends with that final disappointment.

I have prepared demos of most of my magic tricks, and there are some magi who have also created splendid demos of some of my tricks. But, in this case I have decided to go with two very convincing factors:

My reputation for delivering what I claim.
Gathering of endorsements from some of the top names in the field, most of whom I have no relationship with whatsoever.

In addition, I think this particular effect is so special, that it would be nice if the only folks seeing it are YOUR audience, and not a demo on YouTube that decreases your chances of showing someone something they have truly never seen before. This one will fool your magic buddies! So, assuming you like themagic trick , there is an advantage for YOU to not have a demo.

Dominic Reyes: You weren’t worried it would hurt sales then?

Steve Shufton: I think this magic trick is so strong, that I am taking a risk by not producing a demo. It has not hurt sales, has it Dominic?

Dominic Reyes: No, the responce to Inexplicable has been outstanding. I did try to push you to film a demo, and some magicians are waiting for initial reviews, but it seems the vast majority can see the simplicity of the effect, and have faith in your reputation. It’s been a great success.

Steve Shufton: The final convincer is yet to come – the reviews that are likely to spring up all over the place, in magazines, etc., but also including here, on this site. I sincerely hope that no one ever produces a demo of this effect, so that we magi can have something very special, and keep it all to ourselves.

Dominic Reyes: Do you make inexplicable yourself or is it mass produced. What do you feel if the benefit of this?

Steve Shufton: I make each individual one myself. If there is a part I cannot possibly make myself, of course I must have that done for me. But, in this case, I did the die cutting of parts, the assembling, the writing and design, the printing, the trimming, the packaging myself. The benefit? I know that each one meets my expectations. And, in the rare case that one did not go out perfectly, I know who to blame – ME. At some point, I may have an appropriate effect fully manufactured – but that has yet to happen.

Dominic Reyes: Inexplicaple is being compared to CAAN effects. How do you feel this differes and how does that give it an advantage?

Steve Shufton: CAAN and ACAAN very different effects than this particular open prediction. Picking a number or naming a card is much different than dealing cards face up from a normal deck and stopping whenever you want. I cannot claim an advantage. Acaan can be incredibly strong. I perform my own version with some frequency. I have several name-a-card tricks I perform. One of my open-prediction effects (Miracle Premonition) is a name-any-card type of effect. Is it strong? Of course! It would be hard to argue if one is stronger than the other. Our objective is to deliver something magical to our audience. By whatever means we are to accomplish this, we have done the job. I must admit, though, Inexplicable is one of the strongest things I have ever come up with – I’m proud of it.

Dominic Reyes: The ‘test conditions’ in Inexplicable are very impressive. Why do you feel these are so important?

Steve Shufton: By eliminating every possible solution – that is the very thing that makes the effect inexplicable! If the spectator has nowhere to go, what results is true, deep astonishment (phrase borrowed from Paul Harris Magic) – the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Dominic Reyes: Inexplicable requires no sleight of hand. Was this a conscious decision on your part? What part do you think sleight of hand has within good card or mind magic?

Steve Shufton: Most decent card magic is accomplished through sleight-of-hand, and hopefully that will not change. Most of the effects I market require no sleights. Sleights, especially some in particular, require a serious level of skill to perform. In fact, most of the magic effects I perform for the public involve some sleight of hand. Coins through the table. Ambitious card. Etc. The effects I create for the magi are not so dependent on their skill level. If they were, there wouldn’t be much of a market!

Dominic Reyes: So the million dollar question Steve: Why do you do it?

Steve Shufton: I only release magic tricks that I think you will really like, and use. I put a lot of work in, and that is also for you. I love magic – the art of magic means a lot to me. I don’t want to be embarrassed by letting out any second-rate effects. I’m too sensitive and couldn’t take the back-lash. This is not all about money for me – how could it be? My family would starve in no time if I were to depend on my effects to take care of us. What it is really about, is the magic. Making a contribution to the art I love, and maybe inspiring another to love magic as deeply as I do. It is hard to part with an effect – it’s like seeing your kids go off on their own. So believe me when I tell you, it is about the magic, and it is about attempting to inspire YOU to excel in this field – the one I love so dearly.

Dominic Reyes: Steve, Thanks for taking the time out to answer these questions. I’m very impressed with Inexplicable and I’m glas it’s been so well received by both professional magicians and the casual performer communities. Do you have one last bit of advice to those magicians beginning their practice work?

Steve Shufton: Thanks for giving me a chance to say, probably, too much! Please practice everything you want to perform so that your audiences will see perfection, and most importantly, MAGIC.

Inexplicable is launched worldwide on the 1st of July 2013.

You can find out more about Inexplicable here.