Part3

Doing a Coin Trick

1.     

1

Take a coin, explaining to your audience that you're going to rub it in into your skin. You're a little low on iron and your doctor said this was a good idea. Your audience doesn't believe you? Just watch.

·         This is best done sitting at a table with no one sitting on your side. You want your audience to be across from you. If they're on your sides, they may see your sleight of hand.

2.     

2

Place one hand resting under your chin and one hand ready to rub the coin into your elbow. Whichever is your dominant hand will be holding the coin. Take the other hand and rest the same elbow on the table, with your hand clasped into a loose fist under your chin.

·         This positioning is very important to the success of the trick. You'll see why in a second.

3.     

3

Begin rubbing and "accidentally" drop the coin. Start rubbing the coin into the elbow that is resting on the table. Rub, rub, rub. Then, whoops! You got a little carried away and the coin drops onto the table. No problem – you'll just resume rubbing.

·         Try to be as believable as possible with this step. If you don't act it well enough, people will realize this is part of the trick. You want them to think it was a genuine mistake.

4.     

4

Shift the coin to your other hand. As you go to grab the coin, you have two options:

·         Grab it with both hands, making it look as if you deposited it into your dominant hand. In reality, you made a subtle switch to the hand beneath your chin.

·         Grab it with your dominant hand, but then just sort of drop it off the side of the table into your non-dominant hand waiting beneath. You then lift up your arm to resume the positioning with the coin in your non-dominant hand.

5.     

5

Continue "rubbing." Resume the trick, rubbing the non-existent coin into your elbow. Rub, rub, rub. Oh, you can feel it vanishing! Just a few rubs more. There it goes...and tada! Coin rubbed into your skin. You feel healthier already. Where'd the coin go? You already told your audience – they'll demand another answer, but you don't have one to give them. Wink wink.

·         Can you get the coin back? Hmm. Maybe eventually. You're awfully worn out from all that rubbing though. Magic is so exhausting – your audience just wouldn't understand.

6.     

6

Expose the vanished coin! When you find the right moment, you can choose to do the second half of this trick (or you can leave it at that – whichever). Tell your audience that the coin didn't rub into your elbow after all. With your non-dominant hand, casually slip the coin into your fingers. Then, grab an audience member and get the coin out of their hair, the collar of their shirt, or from behind their ear. Do they have magic powers, too?

·         When they ask how you did it, don't tell! Otherwise, you'll never be able to do the trick for them (or their friends, probably) again. A good magician never reveals his secrets.