Fickle nickel/The Vanishing Nickel by John Cornelius

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Fickle nickel/The Vanishing Nickel by John Cornelius

Postby SpongeBallSlight-of-hand » Oct 29th, '07, 06:03



This is a great little complete coin vanish as seen on Doug Henning's magic special.

It's called fickle nickel or vanishing nickel.
Here's a video of the effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIXkqc7zJNc

The Effect:
A bare hand vanish of a coin in which the coin is ACTUALLY placed in the hand, and then vanishes. BOTH sides of the hand are FREELY shown. The hand is closed and the coin RETURNS.

This is as close to real magic you can get! This is the coin trick that Siegfried (of Siegfried and Roy) performed on the Worlds Greatest Magicians nationwide television show. It was also presented by Doug Henning on one of his specials.
In effect, while working in short sleeves, you remove a coin from your pocket and place it in your open left hand. The fingers now slowly close. The back and front of the a hand are freely shown. Then you slowly open you hand and the coin is gone! With you fingers spread wide apart, you proceed to slowly show both front and back of the hand. Close your hand again and when you reopen you hand the coin is back. When John Cornelius fist showed this at a convention it fooled every including Dai Vernon. The best thing about the Fickle Nickle is that it is done without sleight of hand! Comes with instructions and gimmick



Cost:
$10.50




Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used,
4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
I'd give this a 2. No sleights are involved but it does require practice.


Review
This is a great trick I recently ordered from John Cornelius's website. You can order it directly from Corenlius himself at http://www.johncornelius.com/magic.html.
It requires practice although no sleights are used, it takes some getting used to. I was practicing it recently and the effect broke...trying to repair it but having no luck. But the trick is very sturdy and you shouldn't have a problem with it breaking. The great thing about this trick is even though it uses a gimmick, you can show BOTH sides of the hand (front and back) freely and it really looks great if you do in front of the mirror, almost looks like you can fool yourself with it. It does require some setup and due to the angles you have to be very careful performing this in public. That is the only downfall, it requires setup and the angles are limited to only the very front of you.

The trick comes with 2 "verisons". You get a practice model, and you also get a working model. The working model is the one you use in actual performance, and you have to also be more careful with it or it can break. It's best to use the practice model and practice the trick alot before you go on with the other one.



Overall
Overall, I'd give this trick a 3/5, it's average. I was a bit disappointed when it broke and it is a bit hard to repair it. Also, the angles are very limited and it requires setup which might seem obvious if not done right. Also I should note I *believe* there is an impromtu ungimmicked verison of this trick In michael ammar's rubberband magic DVD, in which John Cornelius teachs' a different method. I think this method uses sleight of hand.


Hope this review helps someone!

SpongeBallSlight-of-hand
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Joined: Jan 31st, '06, 03:58

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