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I really like Teller's Miser's dream routine and tried to come up with my own variation from the classic 'from the air' approach.

The performer pulls out one of his hairs (from his head...) and shakes it. It immediately turns into a coin. He pockets the coin and does this several times.

The routining isn't smooth yet, but I thought it can move slowly towards a more macabre side where the performer takes out a knife and drills slightly into his index finger. He displays the blood on his finger tip, and with a shake of his hand, a half dollar that's (apparently) dripping in blood appears. With the same knife [though possibly at a later point] the performer cuts his wrist, displays the wound, and reaches for it with his free hand as if to wipe it off. He covers the wound and shakes it slightly and a handful of red half dollars fall to the floor, as if the blood turned into coins.

I have yet to think up a way good way to close the routine though.
(Teller turns the coins into goldfish!)

[Edited out a poor choice of words that you can probably deduce from a few of the below comments]

Pulling coins out of air "pointless"?

Yeah, what did that bum Dai Vernon know anyway, when he called that the greatest trick ever?

Oh... Kay.... Then....

So, pulling coins from the air = pointless.

But, transforming bodily fluids/items into coins = interesting.

For the sheer level of logistics involved, it's pulling money from thin air that wins for me every time. The premise of 'cash from nothing' is a really great one—far from pointless—and is actually something lots of people can relate to.

The weird thing about your sort of biological alchemy is that you are transforming organic matter into inorganic matter for no apparent reason.

For some odd lack of vision on my part I am sure, I just don't 'get it'.

Dont really agree with what you say aout pulling coins from the air being point less.

1 problem, I think, with your new routine is that it could lead specs to beleive that you are storing the coins in your hair.
Maybe if you took someone else's Hair /body fluids that might work better.

Personally I find that 1 of the thigs people talk about when talking about magic ( I'm refering to laymen here) is that they first saw it when someone pulled a coin from thin air/ behind the ear. Miser's is so good because there are so many coins that you can pull from the air and it seems alot quiker that pulling a hair out every time.
It's only whhat I think tho.

sleightlycrazy wrote:The performer pulls out one of his hairs (from his head...)

No good for Mandrake then

The specs would lose interest and go home while I was searching for 'em!

i have a practise / demo routine were the coin aparently goes into a pour in my hand and comes out on comand as needed throught the routine.
it sets me up for the one coin misers dream with jumbo finish.

Pointless was a bad choice of words on my part, and I apologize to those who were offended. I'm honestly surprised at the amount of mockery I got from a few of you, though.

I think that the conditions of the productions can't be as affective if the coins simply come out of the air. As astonishing as producing from the air is, I feel it lacks a certain quality. It would be interesting to create a clash in what the audience 'wants' while doing the miser effect. When the coins come out of the air over and over again, the audience thinks "Yea?! Do it again" and will be delighted when more coins appear impossibly. That's fine. To me, though, when the performer loses something, a part of himself, for every coin he gets, it creates a conflict inside the spectator. "It's amazing that he's impossibly getting money at his finger tips, but look at that! He's bleeding for it...".

I was hoping that my idea of transforming (sacrificing...?) hair, and eventually blood, etc. would have an interesting subtext of the price of money. It wouldn't be very long, and I wouldn't turn more than three hairs into coins.

It's just my opinion, and I appreciate the thoughts of those who gave them. My wording about the classic Miser's Dream pi**ed off a few, but I hope I made my position a bit clearer (at least enough that they can offer their thoughts minus the criticism about my word choice).

PS to clarify, the idea of storing coins in my hair is eliminated. I pluck the hair fairly (fingers wide apart) with my left hand, and carefully place it in my right fingertips, and shake my right hand to show that the hair turned into a coin. It would be a Downs palm production, but the hand motion would be up and down rather than forward to back.

I think this is a decent idea though.

You could use the patter of the philosopher's stone, with people using various materials with their spells and incantations.

And then you discovered the formula!

You can use hair, but it's slow - one at a time.

If you use blood - which is much faster (shower of coins).