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A J Irving wrote: or in the underwear of an attractive spectator !

I luv it! - Ladies and Gentleman, we have a winner. Nelson Downes would be proud. Fair play.

Bobo wrote another little book which is nowhere nearly as well known as his coin opus. It is called "Watch This One". There is rather a good if nervy complete vanish of a coin in there. You take a handful of change and select a small coin. Put it at the tips of your thumb and forefinger covering it. Replace the change in your pocket. However at the same time you also replace the small coin. Remove the hand from the pocket still holding the thumb and forefinger covering the coin which actually isn't there. Pretend to place the coin (?) into the other hand and then vanish it. You are now clean with the coin safely ensconced in your pocket.

On reading this you will wonder if you can actually get away with this bold move. You can. I have done it many times and nobody even blinks an eyelid. It is amazing what you can do with a bit of audacity and bluff.

Hi Mark.
This clever little vanish is also in the standard Bobo book entitled 'Bluff Vanish' page 59, and your right about its effectiveness. The first time i saw this performed i had no idea where the 'coin' went The interesting thing about this is that people will swear they actually saw the coin just before it vanished

Try this if it has not been mentioned. Believe it or not you cannot possibly hold two objects in your hand at the same time. Cannot be done! Of course it can but people tend to think you can't.

So

Pick up the coin, place it in your hand (no not really) using the guilty hand, with the coin secured in classic palm pick up another object (yes while the coin is in classic palm) and wave it over the hand that they think holds the coin. Then show the coin has vanished.

Or

Slip the coin into finger palm position and go ahead with the Ramsey subtlety during your patter. That way they have seen the guilty hand empty(?) before they even know the coin has been vanished.

As has been said, its psychology and timing and for heavens sake keep doing the trick. But don't vanish for vanishing sake that in itself is not really magicial in as much as it becomes a trick to figure out. Put the vanish in the context of a routine.

bmat wrote:Try this if it has not been mentioned. Believe it or not you cannot possibly hold two objects in your hand at the same time. Cannot be done! Of course it can but people tend to think you can't.

Michael Ammar refers to this as 'functional fixidness', and is one of the principles in the use of the magic wand

I was watching Silver Dream by Justin Miller - He has a really good sleaving technique on that DVD that you can use with coins, pens, anything that will go in your sleeve really I would suggest giving that a watch

Doing the vanish "perfectly" is a good thing, but only one phase of the vanish. The spectator does not know the coin is gone until you reveal it to be so, which gives you time for all sorts of possibilities. A ditch is one. A good hand-washing technique is another. There are MANY possibilities. Are you standing? Sitting? Surrounded? What are you wearing? There are many factors to consider, so that there is no single pat answer that will cover all the possibilities.

There are vanishes that can show both hands empty. Remember - the trick is not done when the coin vanishes - part of it will either be a reproduction, or indeed proving that the coin is really gone. The vanish is not enough - it is only part of the trick.

I don't think it is a mistake to do magic for friends or family - I have done so for more than 45 years. They are always a good testing ground for me, because they will be critical, and won't be shy about revealing weak points I may have overlooked. If I can fool them, I am well on my way to fooling you.

Next, although Jeff McBride is a wonderful performer and an expert technician when it comes to all sorts of manipulations, he is primarily focussed on stage and platform magic - close up is not really his strongest area of expertise. There are many others I would suggest studying for close-up coin magic, including Roth, Gallo, Carney, etc, before I would suggest McBride. You also do not need to become an expert in all aspects of coin magic to effectively vanish a coin. Start with one thing at a time!

Finally, I don't agree that you need a mentor to walk you through something over and over again. I suppose it would be nice to have one, but I can't think of a great coin magician who did. Yes, you need to practice any magic until it becomes second nature, and it would be good to get a tip from a mentor if you can find one. A mirror, a video camera and a critical friend might be all you need.

Be patient with yourself. Study. Practice. Learn and think of new strategies. Becoming good with coins takes time.

Unfortunately most laymen know that a simple coin (or small object) vanish is slight of hand and that the coin was never placed in the hand in the first place. I have a few non-magician friends that know how to do a french-drop (badly) and so know the theory behind the vanish and will always say "it's in the other hand!"

I learned the back palm (again from bobo) though a back clip would do, anything to show your palm empty.

perform your vanish, though not revealing the coin has gone just yet ... this gives you plenty of time to patter and get the stolen coin into the back palm. then just gesture towards the closed hand with your other hand palm up ... do not make any reference to the fact that you other hand is empty ... they can see that it is and will have no idea that you could possibly hide a coin behind your hand.

Trust me, it floors them .... you can then even make the coin re-appear in the other hand and they still don't get it ...

It takes some practice, but is well worth it for the effect!