ENVELOPE VANISH
A fairly heavy Manila paper envelope is prepared beforehand by cutting a slot at the bottom right corner. With a pair of scissors trim a small sliver of paper from the bottom of the envelope. When the envelope is prepared this way the opening will offer no resistance to the coin and it will fall freely into your hand.
From a piece of paper the same color as the envelope, cut a round piece the same size as the coin you intend to vanish and paste it inside the envelope at the bottom center, Fig. 1.
To perform: Show the envelope empty, then very slowly and openly place the coin into it. Coin falls to the bottom of the envelope where it is held with the fingers of the left hand. Seal the flap and hold it by the ends with both hands. Raise the left end of the envelope slightly so the coin will roll down to the right corner. Hold it there with the right fingers and thumb.
While talking to the spectators allow the coin to slip through the slot into the right hand, Fig. 2. Hold the envelope in the left hand as you reach into your right pocket for a match or cigarette lighter. Light the match and hold it behind the envelope a moment as you call attention to the coin (circle of paper) in the envelope. The small piece of paper shows up as a shadow, creating the impression that the coin is still within the envelope. Light the envelope and as it burns the coin seems to melt away to nothing. You have apparently burned the coin.
When searching for a method to vanish a coin do not overlook cuffing and sleeving, Chapters VI and VII, respectively. Then there are the hook and magnet coins, pages 402, 405. And the method used in Coin To Key (page 142), is an old standby.
Chapter V. Quick Tricks
Through the Leg (2 methods) • Rubbed Through the Leg • Through the Pocket (3 methods) • Through the Hand (3 methods) • Through a Handkerchief (2 methods) • Double Penetration • Pants Leg Miracle Half Dollar to a Quarter • The Charmed Coin • The Coin of Metamorphosis • Coin to Key • Change for a Half • Much from Little The Topsy Turvey Coins • The Impromptu Mint • Smart Coin Trick The Switchover • The Appearing Half • Coin Production from Two Cards • The Touch of Midas • One to Four • One to Six
The most practical and usable tricks are the kind that can be performed on the spur of the moment with little or no apparatus. Here are 27 of the most effective mysteries of this variety that I have been able to gather together.
THROUGH THE LEG
Effect: A coin placed in the fold of the pants leg, vanishes. It is reproduced from behind the same leg, having apparently penetrated it. Here are two methods.
(a) Show a half dollar and place it flat on the left trousers leg, about six inches above the knee. Hold it in place with the tip of the right second finger while the thumb of the same hand pinches a small fold of cloth at the top edge of the coin and turns the coin over, downward. The coin is now hidden in the fold of cloth with the tip of the right third finger underneath it. Insert the tips of the left second and third fingers underneath the fold of cloth just to the left of the coin, in such a manner that the tips of the two thumbs will be brought together outside the fold and directly above the coin. Now move the hands apart with the thumbs pressing against the edge of the crease in the cloth, and under cover of an adjusting process, slide the coin out of the fold and press it into the right palm with the aid of the right two middle fingers. If the moves are made as described the removal of the coin will be completely hidden by the back of the right hand. Bring the thumbs together and again run them along the edge of the fold. Finally allow the fold to fall away. The coin has vanished. Produce it from behind the right knee.
(b) Although this method makes use of the same moves described in Pocket Vanish (page 103), the effect is entirely different.
Show a half dollar, place it flat on the left leg about six inches above the knee and hold it in place with the tip of the right thumb. The right forefinger pinches the cloth at the bottom of the coin and turns it upward, hiding the coin under the fold of cloth. At this juncture the right thumb is underneath the coin. (Refer to Figs. 1, 2, and 3, Pocket Vanish, page 103, for comparable positions.)
Place the left forefinger on top of the fold, retaining it. As this is done the right fingers straighten and the right thumb withdraws the coin from the fold and presses it into right finger palm. The right hand immediately moves down and grasps the cloth below the fold, between the thumb and forefinger, then pulls it downward, showing the coin gone. Slap the left leg with the left hand. Reach behind the left leg with the right hand and produce the coin.
For best effect this must be performed briskly, with no hesitation between moves. It appears to the spectators that you have slapped a coin through the leg.
Follow this with Rubbed Through the Leg.
RUBBED THROUGH THE LEG
Here is a companion effect to the one described above. Although both produce the same effect, they are accomplished by different means. They are alike, however, in that both are direct and convincing.
Effect: The right hand rubs a coin on the left leg and it disappears. The same coin is produced from behind the same leg with the left hand. Only one coin is used.
Method: The right hand flips a half dollar in the air a few times. Bend over and apparently place the coin on the left leg, but actually toss it into the left hand, Fig. 1. The right hand makes a rubbing motion on the leg and the left hand produces the coin from behind the leg. Basically that is what happens.
You may wonder how it is possible for a coin to be tossed from the right hand into the left without anyone seeing it. Well, it can be done, and it isn’t as difficult as would be imagined. I will try to break down every move so there will be a thorough understanding.
First of all—the flipping business. This is most important; in fact, the trick practically depends on it. What it does is to focus attention on the coin so that when you suddenly bend over to rub coin on the leg, the eye has to refocus for this different position. It is at this instant that the coin is tossed into the left hand. The coin travels only a few inches, but it is not seen because of the rapidity of its flight, and because the eye has not had time to focus on this action.
The human eye is like a camera lens in that it has to focus at a specific range for an object at that distance to appear in sharp definition. For instance, if the camera lens is focused at ten feet anything at twenty-five feet will be blurred. This would hold true if the distances and settings were reversed.
To fully understand how the eye compares to the camera lens in this matter, try looking at something nearby, then suddenly shift your eyes and gaze at an object farther away. Notice how it takes the eye a fraction of a second to refocus on this new distance. It is on this brief time-lapse that the secret of this effect is partly based. This phenomenon is used to advantage by quite a few top-flight magicians.
Now let’s go back to the beginning. Show a half dollar
