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CreativityTranscript
00:00 [silence]
00:14 Uh, Ray, I really love tricks that involve...
00:17 [laughter]
00:20 That's it, you guys are fried.
00:22 No, no, we can do this.
00:24 I can do this, hold on.
00:25 I really love good magic, Ray.
00:28 [laughter]
00:30 That involves, you know, just impromptu objects like a little...
00:34 [laughter]
00:38 I'll introduce this one.
00:39 [laughter]
00:40 [music]
01:00 [music]
01:18 [applause]
01:19 Thank you.
01:21 Um, did you know that the palm of your hand has more nerves than the back of your hand?
01:26 Well, that means that it doesn't hurt when you do that.
01:28 [laughter]
01:30 Thanks.
01:31 Cool.
01:32 Um, I brought a big coin so it'd be easier to see.
01:35 Um, would you mind holding onto this one?
01:37 Thanks.
01:38 I'm going to keep the little coin on the inside, and I'll take that back, please.
01:41 And the big coin on the outside.
01:42 Big coins on the outside, little coins on the inside.
01:44 Easy to remember.
01:45 But they say, "out of sight, out of mind."
01:47 So if you push on the coin, that makes the little one go on the outside, and the big one go on the inside.
01:51 [applause]
01:53 Thanks.
01:54 [music]
01:58 Um, this is a very simple coin-through-hand trick.
02:00 Actually, it's two coin-through-hand tricks.
02:02 It's not deep, but it is simple.
02:04 And you need to be able to do a move called the muscle pass, which we will go into shortly.
02:08 You need three coins, two half dollars, and a jumbo half dollar.
02:14 Have the jumbo half dollar in your jacket pocket, your right jacket pocket, when you start.
02:19 Have one half dollar palm, classic palm, in your right hand.
02:23 And have the other half dollar palm displayed in your left hand.
02:26 Now, um, presentation is optional, but I usually talk about the nerve endings in the front of your hand
02:33 being more sensitive than the nerve endings in the back of the hand.
02:37 And that's when I do a shuttle pass to the back of the hand.
02:41 This is a shuttle pass you can find in a lot of books by David Roth, that Richard's written,
02:46 and just about any classic source of coin magic.
02:50 But basically, your classic palm, the coin in the left hand, as your hand turns over,
02:56 and your right hand, which has the coin classic palm in it already,
03:01 lets that one fall out to your fingertips at the same time your left hand turns over.
03:07 So it should look to your audience that you're just transferring the coin from hand to hand
03:12 to indicate the back of your other hand.
03:15 Now, this coin effect is angling.
03:20 You cannot be surrounded. You need your audience in front of you.
03:23 And you can have a pretty good degree of freedom, but they need to be in front of you.
03:27 Raise your left hand up, palm up, about chest level.
03:31 Now what's really happening is the coin is resting on the palm of your hand, ready to be muscle passed.
03:37 I believe the muscle passed was first published in an Arthur Buckley book.
03:42 Basically what you're doing is you're classic palming the coin very hard.
03:46 You're going to squeeze the coin between the flesh of the base of your thumb
03:50 and the flesh of the heel of your hand, and it will snap off, straight up.
03:55 It doesn't have to go very high. Just an inch or two is enough to get this effect to look good.
04:00 So you want to bring your hand up so the back of your thumb blocks your audience's view of the coin.
04:07 You don't want to get a flash either through the fork of your thumb or through the top of your hand.
04:12 So you want to raise up your thumb so it blocks the coin's view.
04:17 Your right hand holds the other coin at the very tips.
04:22 It goes underneath your left hand, and it's going to push upward.
04:27 Now when it pushes upward, that coin's going to slide behind your right fingers, out of view.
04:35 And it's going to look like it pushed right through the back of your hand to your audience.
04:39 Now at the same time, you've got that other coin ready for a muscle pass.
04:43 You're going to squeeze with the flesh of your hand and make the coin pop up.
04:49 So if you time it so they happen together, it looks like the coin popped into view through the back of your hand.
04:55 The coin in your right hand ends up somewhat in the finger palm.
04:58 And wherever it lands, it lands. And that's coin through hand with conservation of linear momentum.
05:05 The higher it goes, the better it looks. If it doesn't go very high, don't worry about it.
05:10 Now, the next effect is a jumbo coin through the hand.
05:14 You reach into your right jacket pocket with your right hand, and you ditch the palmed half dollar carefully.
05:20 Your reason for going in your pocket is to remove the jumbo half dollar.
05:23 Now you're going to talk about being out of sight, being out of mind.
05:26 Set the jumbo coin down on the table.
05:29 Display the small coin to your audience on your right.
05:33 And that's your reason for transferring it.
05:36 And then you look down at the jumbo coin because you're going to pick it up.
05:39 That's your reason for transferring it back to your left hand, but it's a fake transfer.
05:43 You merely keep the coin in classic palmed and pretend to drop it into your left hand.
05:48 Pick up the jumbo coin, and as you do, you turn your left hand palm down, and you change your fist.
05:54 It starts off like this, like it's holding a coin.
05:56 But as your hand turns over, it goes to like this, ready to receive the jumbo coin in the next move.
06:02 So when your hand's palmed down, your fingers are out and curled.
06:06 Lay the jumbo coin on the back of your left hand.
06:09 Now, a couple of important points.
06:11 One is, don't wear a watch.
06:14 Two, pull back your sleeve, because the coin's going to go around your wrist,
06:18 and it might smack against the button of the cuff of your sleeve, so that would be bad.
06:23 Now, after you've laid the jumbo coin on the back of your hand, rest your right hand at your side.
06:28 And when you do, the coin that's palmed falls into a fingertip rest position.
06:34 Clip the half dollar between your right fourth finger and first finger.
06:38 The audience can't see it because the backs of your fingers are hiding the coin.
06:42 Now, raise your right hand over the jumbo coin, and it's going to send straight down on that jumbo coin.
06:50 You'll notice that the right thumb hangs below, directly below the fingers.
06:54 It's important to have your audience close to you and looking down.
06:58 As your right thumb hits the jumbo coin, when you feel a touch, you want it to start to move back toward your wrist,
07:06 down the side of your left hand, underneath, until it lands underneath the fingertips of your left hand.
07:16 They take the coin. Your thumb's got to quietly, or slowly, go up right alongside where it should be.
07:25 Now you want to twist your right hand clockwise.
07:30 That brings your thumb out of the guilty spot, and it gives you like a twisting, pushing motion to make the magic happen.
07:36 This idea came from Michael Weber.
07:39 Push, spread your fingers, and show that the little coin is now on the outside of your hand.
07:43 Slowly turn over your left hand, and show the big coin is on the inside of your hand.
07:48 [music]
07:55 Thanks. Let's have a happy hour now.
07:57 I brought this pretzel from a bar to demonstrate a hidden talent, the ability to bend pretzels with my mind.
08:04 Riegeller does it with spoons. I'm not quite as good as he is.
08:07 Here we go.
08:10 I'm going to try to bend the pretzel as I push it through my fist.
08:13 It's at a right angle.
08:15 Now I'm not using any soft pretzels like you see in the supermarket.
08:18 This is a real hard pretzel stick.
08:20 Let's try it one more time. This time I'm going to put a little extra concentration in on it.
08:25 [applause]
08:30 [music]
08:35 You need pretzel sticks, and you need a twisted pretzel.
08:39 They're a little longer than the pretzel sticks I'm accustomed to, but I can still get by with them.
08:44 What you have to do is scrape the salt off the pretzel sticks.
08:47 They cause friction later on.
08:50 You need to palm the twisted pretzel on your left hand.
08:54 Classic palm is my preference.
08:57 You take one of the pretzel sticks, and you clip it between your third finger and second finger.
09:08 You take the other pretzel stick, and you hold it between your thumb and your first finger.
09:15 Now what's going to happen is you're going to bring your left hand up to supposedly make a fist in front of it.
09:20 But what you're really doing is you're stealing this pretzel.
09:25 Because your left hand's second finger and middle finger grab the pretzel,
09:33 and they pull it in, into the fist, so it is lined up between your third finger and middle finger.
09:42 So if you were to push on it, it would pop out the knuckle.
09:47 It's just behind it.
09:50 Now this pretzel that was clipped between your second finger and your ring finger,
09:56 you're going to pop that up when the other one is stolen.
10:00 So again, your left hand comes up in front, it steals the pretzel that's visible,
10:07 and the other pretzel pops up.
10:09 Now the audience can't see this because the back of your hand is blocking their view.
10:13 Your right hand continues downward and inserts the visible pretzel into the base of your hand.
10:22 Now what's really happening is the pretzels are crossed.
10:29 Now to get the pretzel to look like it's twisting at right angles,
10:33 what you need to do is push up with your first finger of your right hand at the lower pretzel,
10:38 and the thumb of your right hand pushes in on the hidden pretzel at the same time.
10:46 So it looks like as this one goes in, that one goes out.
10:50 Now to make it go back, your right hand comes from above,
10:55 and the second finger presses on the pretzel that's sticking out between your second and third fingers,
11:02 and your thumb is actually inserted into the thumb hole from above,
11:06 so it can push down on the pretzel that's hidden.
11:12 So if you do it at the same time, it looks like you're pushing the pretzel in and it's coming out at the same time.
11:18 Now you only need to do this once. You don't need to overkill it.
11:21 Now you need to make it look like you pulled the pretzel out of your hand.
11:24 Now you can still see a little bit of the pretzel sticking out between your second finger and third finger.
11:31 Now as you pull down on the visible pretzel,
11:35 your left second finger and third finger have the hidden pretzel clipped between them.
11:43 That way when they pull outward, when they extend towards you,
11:47 it pulls the little piece of visible pretzel out of sight.
11:52 So if you time it so you're removing the pretzel out of the bottom of your hand while you pull out,
11:57 it looks like the tip disappears from sight as you pull the pretzel out.
12:02 Now you need to get back to the way you started.
12:05 So what's going to happen is your left hand's going to open up and reload the hidden pretzel.
12:12 At the same time, your right hand is going to let the visible pretzel drop down
12:20 so it's between the second and third fingers like it was at the beginning.
12:24 So together, it's going to look like this.
12:32 Now from a different angle, it's going to look like this.
12:38 Now the back of your hand blocks the audience's view.
12:41 Be careful not to turn your hand over too far or you will expose the palmed twisted pretzel.
12:47 Now the grip at this point is important.
12:50 The visible pretzel is between your thumb and your middle finger,
12:54 but in a position that it could be easily clipped between the first finger and second finger.
13:02 And that's what's about to happen.
13:04 Your left hand's going to come over to pretend to grab the visible pretzel,
13:07 but as it does, the visible pretzel falls down and you grab nothing.
13:13 Squeeze, concentrate, and slowly open your hand to show that you have knotted the pretzel stick.
13:20 Now you can relax or you can try to clean up if you're hungry.
13:25 The way you clean up is you eat all the pretzels.
13:27 So when you relax, you let the pretzel sticks fall down a little bit.
13:34 Come over and grab the visible pretzel.
13:37 Then you're going to put them all into your mouth at the same time.
13:43 [music]
13:56 Thanks.
13:57 This is not an ordinary rubber band.
13:59 Besides being bigger, it is actually genetically engineered.
14:02 I didn't even know these existed before today.
14:05 Every time you break off a piece, it heals itself into a smaller rubber band,
14:10 making ordinary rubber bands obsolete.
14:13 Now you'll have to take my word for it.
14:14 This was bigger a moment ago, but when I broke the piece off, it became smaller.
14:17 Now you can really tell it's smaller.
14:21 There's more.
14:22 You can twirl them and make them change sizes,
14:24 where a moment ago I had one large one, then three mid-sized ones.
14:28 Now I have one small one, one mid-sized one, and one large one.
14:35 [applause]
14:37 [music]
14:45 Ray, I've seen a lot of great tricks with rubber bands,
14:47 but I don't think I've ever seen anybody attempt to do the professor's nightmare with a rubber band before.
14:52 I'm really amazed by this.
14:54 Please explain to me how you can do that.
14:56 Your pain, I'm explaining.
14:58 Thank you.
14:59 You need three rubber bands, just like in the professor's nightmare.
15:02 One's small, one's mid-sized, and one is extremely large.
15:08 Oh, so you mean it's the baby bear, the mama bear, and the papa bear?
15:12 Yes.
15:13 Okay.
15:15 You clip the baby bear between your ring finger and little finger of your right hand, just loosely,
15:21 so if you curled your fingers, it would be hidden from the audience.
15:25 The mid-sized bear band, you hold in your same hand, just between the top of your first finger and your thumb,
15:34 and you hide it from the audience again by curling and keeping the back of your hand towards the audience.
15:39 And you hold the large rubber band in your right hand between your thumb and first finger of the same hand.
15:45 It just hangs on the first finger, basically.
15:48 Now, the back of your hand is toward your audience, and you're going to pretend to break off a piece from the big rubber band.
15:57 The way you do that is you transfer the big rubber band to your left hand, and you hold it in two spots.
16:03 You hold it with your little finger at the bottom and your thumb across the top,
16:09 so a little bit of the rubber band is above your hand.
16:14 You're going to switch the top of this rubber band, the big rubber band, for the bottom of the mid-sized rubber band in your right hand.
16:21 And as your right hand comes over to snap the big rubber band, you simply let go with your thumb, and it drops out of sight.
16:31 Your right hand is covering this, and it just lowers the mid-sized rubber band into that same position so you can snap.
16:39 Now, your situation is this. You have a big rubber band hanging at the bottom of your fist and the mid-sized rubber band at the top of your fist.
16:50 Now, when you pretend to snap the rubber band, you let go with your left hand, and you've snapped off a mid-sized rubber band.
16:56 This is somewhat convincing, so you've got to continue on at a good pace here.
17:02 What you do is while you're displaying the mid-sized rubber band to your audience in your right hand,
17:07 your left hand maneuvers the big rubber band into a front clip, a clip between your first finger and second finger at the very tips.
17:16 That's important. Your left hand's also in a fist.
17:21 Now, point your fist, the knuckles of your fist, toward your right, and let the mid-sized rubber band hang on your right thumb, just on the tip.
17:31 Point your right thumb toward the left. Bring your hands together, and you're inserting the mid-sized rubber band between, right through the large rubber band.
17:43 The reason why you're doing this is you're about to switch the rubber bands.
17:48 Here's the key move. You open up your left fingers. That causes a twist to go into the middle of the large rubber band.
17:58 You've got to grab that twist. So you take your right first finger, and you reach into the intersection, and you pinch.
18:08 So you're holding the twist against your left thumb.
18:12 The mid-sized rubber band is hanging off the very tip of your left thumb, ready to fall off.
18:16 All you have to do is point down, and that's what's about to happen.
18:21 Your hands are going to rotate, so your left hand rotates palm up, and your right hand rotates palm down.
18:27 When that happens, the mid-sized rubber band is going to fall, and you're going to catch it with your right little finger.
18:39 That was done slow. It actually does kind of drop.
18:43 Now you're still holding on to the big rubber band between your first and second finger of your left hand.
18:50 You're going to curl your fingers in, and grab that big rubber band with your hand.
18:55 So now it looks as if you've got the big rubber band running through your left hand,
19:01 but you really have the mid-sized rubber band and the big rubber band coming out the top.
19:07 Pretend to snap off another piece.
19:09 So now it looks like your right hand's holding two pieces, but it's really the big rubber band twisted up.
19:19 Take those two pieces and put it on your first finger of your right hand.
19:23 Open up your left hand and show that the big rubber band has gotten even smaller.
19:29 Hang that off the front of your first finger of your right hand.
19:33 Now you're going to make them visually change sizes while you twirl it.
19:38 It takes, basically, luck. So if it doesn't work the first time, keep twirling.
19:45 It doesn't matter which way you twirl. I haven't found any way to make this surefire.
19:49 Just twirl a few times and learn to stop at the right spot, like there.
19:53 Now it should look like, to your audience, that you have a small, mid-sized, and large rubber band,
19:59 but the big rubber band is really twisted across the top of your first finger.
20:07 Let the band slide down to the tip of your finger,
20:11 so you're holding between your first finger and thumb of your right hand, and you display it.
20:15 Now it looks like a small, mid-sized, and large.
20:18 Your left hand comes over and grabs the mid-sized one, or, well, that is really the mid-sized one, and the large one.
20:25 You're going to turn your hands over so your right hand is up and your left hand points down.
20:31 Then just let go. Well, this is kind of hard to do slowly, but you're going to let go with your right hand,
20:36 and the big rubber band is going to uncoil.
20:38 You're going to open up your right hand underneath it like you caught the little rubber band.
20:43 Now, full speed, it looks like this.
20:53 It's basically a shuttle pass with rubber bands.
20:56 Now you need to display it cleanly.
20:57 You could drop it on the table, but I prefer to put it on the little finger so it's hanging off,
21:02 then the mid-sized one off the ring finger, and the large one off the middle finger, and there's your applause cue.
21:11 Thank you.
21:15 Thank you very much.
21:16 Well, it's nice to see you've stayed around this magic therapy time.
21:20 This is what magicians do when they have nothing to do.
21:22 They set up four coins on a table like this, and they try to make them move around with just the powers of their mind.
21:35 And back.
21:46 Ray, your version of David Roth's original Chinese coin assembly is really, very good,
21:50 particularly the backfire idea, and I'm sure the people who watched it when you performed it really have no idea
21:55 that you're actually working with seven coins rather than the four that are visible.
21:59 Of course, the idea of sliding a coin around underneath the thumb base is Ross Bertram's,
22:03 and he used that in several tricks.
22:05 David Roth applied that to the idea of doing a coin assembly with no cover.
22:11 And now Ray's going to explain his version, square one.
22:14 Thanks, Richard.
22:16 I used seven coins like Richard said.
22:18 Three of them are classic palmed in the right hand.
22:21 The reason why I used seven is I don't have a shell, basically,
22:25 but I'm sure you can work out other ways with gimmicks.
22:29 You start off with the three coins in your right hand and four coins laid out in a square on the table.
22:33 Drop one coin from your right hand to the table.
22:36 Lower your right thumb base onto the coin so you can slide it around.
22:39 You're going to cover the lower left coin with your left hand, the upper right coin with your right hand.
22:44 Make a wiggle and slide away the lower left coin, leaving the right coin at the upper right hand corner.
22:50 So one coin goes from lower left to upper right.
22:53 Do the same thing.
22:54 Cover the lower right coin and the upper left coin with your left hand.
22:59 Slide away the lower right coin, leaving the upper left coin.
23:03 Cover the outer coins.
23:05 The left hand slides one coin away.
23:07 The right hand leaves one coin.
23:09 Normally with a coin assembly, you're stuck at this point.
23:11 You have to make this one jump again to straighten yourself out or cross your hands.
23:16 But since you have the extra coins, you drop one with your right hand, slide it up,
23:21 steal away the upper left hand coin, leave the right hand coin.
23:24 So all four coins have now assembled in the right corner.
23:27 For the backfire, drop the remaining coin from your right palm to the table.
23:32 Your left hand is going to leave one coin and slide one coin away.
23:36 Your arms would cover those back coins.
23:39 Your right hand covers all four coins in the outer right corner.
23:42 Slide three of the coins underneath your right hand to the side,
23:46 and your left hand moves to the side, leaving its one.
23:48 And it looks like all four coins jump back to the way they were.
23:51 You're in a bad position here, though, because your right hand is covering three coins.
23:55 You have two options with this.
23:57 The preferred method is to slide all four coins together and sweep them off the table
24:02 and then put them in your pocket.
24:04 However, if for some reason you need an out because maybe you leaked a coin,
24:10 there is this other option.
24:12 If you have the three coins underneath your right hand and maybe one got exposed, I don't know.
24:17 As an out, I have used this.
24:19 Cross your hands and leave one to the left.
24:22 Uncross your hands, leave one to the right.
24:24 Cross your hands, leaving one in the middle, so it looks like you produced a bunch of coins.
24:29 [Music]
24:35 The right hand drops one coin.
24:37 [Coin dropping]
24:39 The right hand leaves one coin at the upper right.
24:41 The left hand steals one coin at the lower left.
24:44 The left hand leaves one coin at the upper left.
24:47 The right hand steals one coin at the lower right.
24:50 The left hand steals one coin at the upper left.
24:53 The right hand leaves one coin at the upper right.
24:56 The right hand drops one coin.
24:59 The left hand steals two coins at the upper left.
25:02 The right hand leaves one coin at the upper right.
25:05 The right hand drops one coin.
25:07 [Coin dropping]
25:08 The left hand leaves one coin.
25:11 Both hands move forward.
25:13 The left hand leaves one coin at the upper left.
25:15 The right hand slides three coins away to the right.
25:18 [Music]
25:22 Boy, you are diehard Magic fans.
25:25 Tio, would you shuffle the cards, please?
25:28 Take your time.
25:30 [Shuffling]
25:36 Give another ruffle shuffle. That was pretty good.
25:38 [Shuffling]
25:43 Oh, my God.
25:45 Ooh, Becker.
25:47 He just had a good hand. Oh, my God.
25:51 I'm not sharing.
25:52 [Music]
25:59 Ray, would you please explain how you do this amazing trick, the bite?
26:04 No problem.
26:05 You need five things.
26:07 You need an apple. I prefer a Golden Delicious.
26:10 You need a nine-inch balloon.
26:14 Ten-inch or 12-inch is okay. You'll find what's best for you.
26:19 I prefer Ruby Red, although this one's not. It works just the same.
26:24 You need a pair of scissors, a deck of cards, and an empty stomach.
26:29 Now, if you have an apple with a stem, first thing you need to do is twist off the stem.
26:35 If you don't have the stem, fine, you save this step.
26:38 There might be a sticker on the apple. You have a choice.
26:41 You can get a couple of apples, take the sticker off one apple, the one you're not going to use,
26:46 and put it onto the balloon.
26:48 Or you can just take the sticker off the apple so you don't have a discrepancy.
26:56 Now you need to cut the stem off the balloon.
27:03 I only cut off about just a little bit past where the stem actually becomes the balloon.
27:08 I mean, the stem's pretty straight and it starts to get round. That's where you cut it.
27:12 You need a hole for you to bite through on the apple.
27:16 Turn the apple over on its side.
27:20 Take the balloon, stretch it out really wide so it'll fit over the apple.
27:25 And then push it down against the table, and then reach with your knuckles and push the apple into the balloon.
27:33 Now you're going to leave a hole to take a bite out of the apple through
27:38 to convince people that this is a real apple.
27:41 Now it looks kind of shiny, and not everybody's going to buy it just by looking at it that this is a real apple.
27:47 The bite's important to convince them.
27:49 So the way I do it in performance is I offer the deck of cards to be shuffled.
27:54 And Richard, would you mind helping with this?
27:56 I certainly will.
27:57 Well, they start to shuffle and you would do a gesture to give them the overhand shuffle typically.
28:01 And besides, they're not going to try a riffle shuffle right off the bat because, well, the table's inconvenient.
28:06 They're mostly going to do an overhand shuffle.
28:08 Well, even if they do try a riffle shuffle immediately, you can then tell them to do an overhand shuffle for the second time.
28:14 Sure.
28:15 Good idea.
28:16 Thank you.
28:17 Okay, so you have the exposed part of the apple hidden away,
28:21 and you also take your thumb and you push in on the top of the apple and the bottom of the apple,
28:26 and that causes a suction to form a little dimple there like a real apple would have just to give it the right shape.
28:32 And Golden Delicious is preferable against red because you can actually see some of the little specks on the apple.
28:38 When you combine the two colors, it looks a little more natural.
28:41 You're a scientist, Ray. I can't believe it.
28:43 I know about balloons and apples. That's about it.
28:45 Amazing.
28:46 All right, so while they're shuffling, you come up to take a bite.
28:49 And you just want to bite out this area.
28:57 And then this, you leave a little bit of the apple, take another bite to clean up.
29:05 It doesn't have to be perfect.
29:10 Now, when they're shuffling, you want to gesture for two reasons.
29:15 One is you want to show the bite you just took out of the apple.
29:17 You want to show it off to convince people it's a real apple.
29:20 And the other reason is you want to give your hands an excuse to get close together so they can do the next move,
29:25 which is to unwrap the balloon from the apple.
29:28 So I say, "Give it a riffle shuffle," and I do a riffle shuffling action.
29:31 And it's good to keep this moving a little bit so they don't see the green and notice that this apple isn't really quite the way it should be.
29:38 So they start to riffle shuffle.
29:40 That's going to cover the noise of the apple being unwrapped.
29:43 And it's also going to be at misdirection because everybody's going to be paying attention to your shuffler.
29:49 So as your hands come back, your middle finger presses up against the apple right where the balloon meets the apple.
29:59 And then you're going to take your right hand and rotate inwards.
30:03 Your left hand's going to try to stay as still as possible and just press downwards and just be a rubbing surface
30:09 so the balloon will unwrap from the apple.
30:12 Notice that the right hand's doing most of the rotating.
30:16 That slip, but don't worry, just keep doing a gesture and try it again.
30:21 And your thumb's going to move off from the bottom of the apple to the side to re-grip.
30:26 Well, it's also difficult to do slowly.
30:28 Oh, heck yeah.
30:29 And then the balloon's going to want to snap off fast.
30:32 You've got to control it.
30:33 You've got to have the right grip so you can release it slowly.
30:36 So it doesn't make a nice snapping sound.
30:37 That would be bad.
30:39 The balloon is underneath the apple, completely hidden from all sides.
30:46 So after the balloon is unwrapped, take a second bite and wait for your audience to notice.
30:57 When your mouth's not full, you can say "thank you" and take the deck back.
31:00 And the person that's helping you should notice at that point.
31:03 The key thing is to do this for a lot of people because you don't want to point it out.
31:07 Two reasons.
31:08 One, you point it out that you say "hey, I've got a red apple here."
31:11 Nobody's going to believe you.
31:12 And they're going to question the color.
31:14 So you've got to just bring it in without saying a word.
31:16 Everyone knows what an apple looks like.
31:18 And secondly, you want them to notice the effect.
31:21 You don't want to highlight the effect.
31:23 This is just my opinion.
31:24 You can do it differently.
31:26 But I prefer to have the audience notice.
31:28 That way, it's a throwaway.
31:31 If they don't notice, nothing's been hurt.
31:33 They might actually find some humor in the fact that you took a break to have lunch.
31:37 It's really very good because when you have the person do a riffle shuffle,
31:41 they're involved in a lot of action and you're just sort of standing there.
31:45 Your movement is minimal.
31:46 Their movement is kind of large and they're making a lot of noise.
31:49 So, you know, eventually they'll look back and they'll notice.
31:52 Right.
31:53 They'll be dumbfounded.
31:54 And if somebody doesn't notice, if you have a big audience,
31:56 somebody does notice and it starts to spread throughout the audience in a really quick manner.
31:59 So it's a good, entertaining piece of magic.
32:02 And also it's a healthy meal.
32:04 [Music]
32:11 Oh.
32:13 Encore, fine, sure.
32:15 Let's use the silver dollar.
32:16 Chiyo, you're going to need to help me.
32:17 I'm going to also use this bandana.
32:19 We're just going to center the coin underneath the bandana.
32:22 You need to hold on this corner, please.
32:24 And I'll hold on this corner.
32:25 Don't pull.
32:26 I'll do all the pulling.
32:27 Just pull gently up.
32:28 The coin goes right through the bandana.
32:32 [Applause]
32:35 Thanks.
32:36 Another encore?
32:37 [Music]
32:42 You need a silver dollar and a cloth napkin or a bandana, it doesn't matter,
32:47 handkerchiefs, something that's opaque or nearly opaque.
32:51 And it relies on one move, the muscle pass again.
32:54 That's why I use a silver dollar.
32:56 It's a little easier to get a little more hype out of it.
32:58 And again, the muscle pass is just squeezing the coin between the base of your heel of your hand
33:03 and the base of the thumb of your hand until it has to escape or be crushed.
33:09 Now, you hold the bandana in your right hand along the top of your index finger.
33:18 The other fingers are curled in as if ready to catch something.
33:23 You're going to just be draping the bandana over your left hand,
33:27 but as it comes over, you want to do the muscle pass and catch the coin in your right hand.
33:34 So get in close enough where you catch the coin as you pass the handkerchief over your hand.
33:39 Supposedly the coin is right below the handkerchief now.
33:42 Now, while you're draping the handkerchief over your left wrist,
33:45 you want to classic palm it in your right hand.
33:49 Now, supposedly you're going to make a fist around that coin.
33:52 You're going to also be gathering some of the handkerchief into that fist.
33:56 So you have this well here that you're going to throw the coin into
33:59 as you reach forward with your right hand and offer the spectator to hold onto the other end of the handkerchief.
34:07 So they're holding onto this end of the handkerchief.
34:09 Richard, would you mind helping me with this?
34:11 I would, but I'll do it anyway.
34:14 And you hold onto the other end of the handkerchief, and then you pull,
34:18 and that causes the coin to appear to rise through the handkerchief.
34:22 This penetration was originally described in Bobo's Modern Coin Magic,
34:27 and I just combined it with the muscle pass.
34:29 Damn, I thought it was yours.
34:32 Read some books, will you?
34:33 Oh, sorry. I'm sorry.
34:35 Great! Come on forward.
34:42 Your wish is my command.
34:44 Do you go to the grocery stores and have problems with these plastic bags breaking?
34:47 Yes.
34:48 I have a new bag. It doesn't break, and I'll show it to you.
34:51 This ball doesn't weigh very much.
34:52 It's not necessarily the best thing you could use, but it'll do for us.
34:56 Go ahead. Reach in there. Make sure it's really in there.
34:58 Okay.
35:00 Now, the bad part about this is objects can still fall through the bag,
35:06 as you're going to see in a second.
35:08 The ball just goes right through the bag.
35:10 Here you go, Chiyo.
35:11 The good part is the bag doesn't have a hole in it, so you can reuse it.
35:17 Oh, my gosh.
35:20 You can keep that one.
35:22 Where's Richard?
35:31 Ray, this is a really interesting version of penetrating a ball through a bag,
35:36 and it's kind of like that old Ireland penetration with the golf ball
35:40 and the metal shell through a silk, but I like it better with the ball in the bag.
35:45 Why don't you explain how it's done?
35:47 No problem. You need a ball, a balloon that matches the color of the ball,
35:52 a clear plastic produce bag, and a pair of scissors.
35:56 It's very simple to do. It doesn't take much explanation.
35:58 You'll learn more by watching.
36:00 You're going to take the balloon and cut off the neck.
36:04 Let's just pretend I did that and use this one.
36:08 Put the ball inside the bag.
36:12 So it's lined up right in the middle of the seam.
36:15 Stretch out the balloon that you cut over the ball and the bag.
36:20 Now it looks like the ball is on top of the bag.
36:25 The way I start off the effect is with my hand inside the bag,
36:28 the ball resting on top of the bag.
36:30 To the audience it looks normal, but it's really attached.
36:33 Turn the bag inside out over the ball.
36:36 The audience can actually look in and see the ball.
36:39 They can reach in. They can touch the ball.
36:41 If they can put their head in, they can smell the ball.
36:45 It smells like it's in the bag.
36:47 Reach in with your right hand. Grab the ball,
36:49 keeping the opening away from the audience.
36:54 Start to pull the bag around your wrist and push.
36:58 As the ball starts to emerge from the bag,
37:00 you can go ahead and point it toward the audience.
37:02 You're really using the bag to unwrap the ball from the balloon.
37:08 When the ball is free, toss it to your audience,
37:14 keeping the balloon hidden inside your hand, inside the bag.
37:18 While the audience is examining the ball, turn the bag inside out,
37:21 taking away the balloon from the bag.
37:23 You can hand out the bag for examination.
37:25 Hey, let me take a look at that.
37:27 Take the ball back.
37:28 Let me take a look at that bag.
37:29 Hold it in your hand over the balloon
37:31 so it keeps it hidden from all sides.
37:33 And you are through.
37:34 I think we should rename this trick "The Birth of a Ball."
37:38 I'm all for that.
37:40 Thanks.
37:46 Well, y'all look kind of tired, so I brought a soda for Chia.
37:50 She did the most work.
37:52 Oh, sorry about that.
37:56 Well, don't worry.
37:57 These cans are made from India, and you can heal them
38:01 back to their old state.
38:04 [laughs]
38:06 For this trick, you need a small plastic or rubber bulb,
38:16 like one you might find on a squirt ring.
38:19 Cut the tip off and fill it with water.
38:22 This trick is meant to be outdoors at a picnic only,
38:25 because it's messy.
38:26 And also, you need the right circumstances.
38:28 You need to be in a situation where there's Coke and people and you.
38:32 We're going to use Sprite, caffeine-free if you care.
38:37 And what you're going to need is a couple cans.
38:40 And you're going to shake up one.
38:42 The gimmick is finger-palmed in your right hand
38:45 at the base of your third and little fingers.
38:48 Grab the can with your right hand near the top.
38:51 So the gimmick is against the can very close to the top.
38:55 Now you're going to want to shake up this can.
38:58 I mean, really shake it up.
39:01 Now, your first finger of your right hand covers the hole of the gimmick
39:06 to contain any splashing.
39:08 So shake up the can.
39:10 You're holding one can still and the other can you're shaking.
39:14 And then you offer a can for your friend.
39:17 They're going to take the one you weren't shaking, if they're a smart person.
39:21 And you're going to say, "Okay, you sure?" "Yeah."
39:24 Now, the lip of the tab is pointing toward you.
39:30 You're going to take your thumb.
39:32 You're just going to snap it like you're trying to pop the can open.
39:36 Now, when you do, you've got to time this correctly
39:38 so you squeeze the little gimmick at the same time
39:42 so you get the squirt, like, "Oh!"
39:46 And if it's outdoors, they're already backed away.
39:48 They're prepared for this to happen.
39:50 They're guarding themselves.
39:51 They aren't going to get a good view of this.
39:52 I just use water.
39:53 You do not need to use soda, which is sticky and messy.
39:56 So you pop the can.
39:57 You let it pop off.
39:58 You squeeze the squeeze bottle.
40:00 And you back away like, "Oh, man. This one's no good."
40:04 So you take your left hand and you rub it over the top.
40:07 And then you just blow on it, which gives your right hand a chance to relax
40:11 and get out of play.
40:12 Set the can down and let the audience notice that the can has rehealed itself.
40:17 Now, if you're really lucky, they will go over and try to open up that can.
40:21 If they do it quick enough, it will still explode.
40:24 [music]
40:29 Do you have hidden talents?
40:31 I have one hidden talent.
40:33 I can tell what flavor chewing gum I'm standing on right now without tasting it.
40:39 Yes, I am standing on a piece of chewing gum, and it is cherry.
40:45 It actually might be strawberry.
40:47 All I know is it's red and it's sticky.
40:49 This really isn't chewing gum, folks.
40:51 This is a piece of sponge that I had to lie about to get into this magic effect.
40:56 Fortunately, I have more than just one just in case it messed up.
40:59 I have one behind my elbow and one underneath my shoe.
41:01 I also keep one behind my right knee.
41:04 And if I lose that one, I have one behind your sweater.
41:08 This is just a poor excuse to get four pieces of sponge.
41:13 If I were to squeeze all four of these pieces of sponge into my fist,
41:16 how many would I have?
41:17 Four.
41:18 Exactly.
41:19 Four.
41:21 Educational as well as entertaining.
41:24 I have to do this again later, so I'm going to set it up for later.
41:30 Yeah, it comes apart.
41:31 They really don't stick together.
41:33 [laughter]
41:35 [music]
41:43 Ray, please tell us how you do the trick one, two, three, four.
41:46 Okay.
41:47 This uses an Abergashman sponge four
41:50 and two of the four sponges that you get with the sponge four.
41:56 So you need to learn to fold the four first.
41:59 Hold the four upside down.
42:01 Have the middle point of the four pointing to the left.
42:04 Take the bottom of the four, the base of the four, and bend it down
42:08 so you just have one point going up.
42:10 Then you take the middle of the four and you fold it up next to the base.
42:14 Then you take the top of the four and you fold that up next to the other two.
42:18 So all three points are pointing to the left.
42:22 Now, if you were to put that in your hand and you relax,
42:27 the bottom of the four would pop up through the thumb hole.
42:30 If you relax a little more, you can get the middle point of the four
42:34 to come out between your first finger and your second finger.
42:37 If you relax a little more, you get the bottom of the four
42:41 to come out between your second finger and your third finger.
42:44 Now, this is the basis of the pop-up maneuver.
42:47 I was inspired from Diver and his book of magic
42:50 where he described the three-ball transposition,
42:52 and he used what was called the pop-up maneuver with solid balls.
42:56 Then I read Frank Garcia's encyclopedia of sponge ball magic,
43:02 and they did the same thing with sponges,
43:04 and this is how the routine came about.
43:07 So let's get into the preparation.
43:09 After you have the four folded,
43:12 you need to place it in your left back pocket of your pants.
43:17 You would put it in there points down
43:22 with the base of the four pointing toward the left.
43:28 You just put it just barely in the top.
43:31 So that way, if your left hand were to go in thumb first,
43:35 you could pull it out into your hand,
43:36 and it is in the correct position to do the pop-up maneuver.
43:40 This may not be suitable for everybody,
43:42 so the best thing is to get it into the right position in your hand first,
43:45 and then put it into your pocket with the least amount of changing your fingers.
43:51 Once in position, now you need the two loose sponges.
43:56 We'll just go call these squares.
44:01 You put one into your left jacket pocket,
44:03 and the other one you finger palm, not really finger palm,
44:06 you just hold it in your right hand, and you relax.
44:13 Now, I usually go into a presentation about telling the flavor of gum that I'm standing on.
44:19 This may not be suitable for everybody.
44:20 In fact, I hope it's suitable to nobody.
44:22 But whatever you choose, you've got to have some excuse
44:25 for pretending to remove this sponge from the sole of your left shoe.
44:31 Now, the way you do that is you just turn a little to your right,
44:35 lift your left foot up,
44:37 and you're looking down to pretend to remove a sponge from the sole of your shoe.
44:41 While you're doing that, your left hand is reaching up underneath your coat,
44:45 and it's just going to pop the sponge four into position.
44:50 So you're looking off to the right, you pretend to produce the sponge,
44:53 and the sponge four is now in position in your left hand.
44:59 Now, relax for a second while you just look at the loose sponge.
45:02 It's interesting.
45:03 And you notice there's another one at your left elbow.
45:06 So what you're going to do is you're going to transfer this sponge to your left hand,
45:11 and you're going to do the pop-up maneuver.
45:13 You hold the sponge with your thumb down, fingers above it,
45:17 at the tips of your thumb and middle finger.
45:19 Then your hands are going to come together to place this sponge at the thumb hole of your left hand.
45:25 While that's happening, your left hand is going to be tipping up and relaxing
45:30 so the point of the base of the floor will pop up when it's time.
45:35 So as your hands come together, you roll the loose sponge back behind these fingers.
45:41 Your hand is actually going to be like this to hide the sponge.
45:44 And you let the base of the floor pop up.
45:47 And you've got to time it so it's when your hands meet.
45:49 So it looks like you just delivered the loose sponge to the top of your left fist.
45:55 I admit it's not a natural way to hold the sponge, but you're not going to be here very long.
45:59 You're going to continue on with your routine.
46:01 People are not going to have much time to think about it and question this.
46:05 You're going to be going to your left elbow to pretend to produce a second loose sponge.
46:11 Now you take this loose sponge and you do the same thing,
46:13 but this time between your first finger and your second finger.
46:16 Your hands come together, you roll the loose sponge behind your fingers as your hands move toward each other.
46:22 And then when it's blocked, you open up these fingers and just let a little bit of the sponge pop out.
46:29 Now if you have to, I often have to, you grab the sponge with these fingers
46:34 and you pull it out just a little bit to give a better show.
46:37 So you end up with this sponge finger-palmed and this point of the floor sticking out.
46:44 So from the audience's point of view, they think this is still the loose sponge.
46:48 Now my friend Bill Goodwin has another way of doing this.
46:51 He delays it. It adds a little variety and makes your hand look empty for a moment.
46:57 So let's go back to when this sponge is inside your hand and you've just produced the second one.
47:07 Instead of pretending to place it between your first and second finger,
47:10 you're going to really place it between your first and second finger.
47:14 Now your right hand is going to gesture palm up in front of your left hand.
47:18 From the audience's point of view, it's going to look like this.
47:22 Now when your right hand rotates naturally palm down again,
47:27 the back of the hand is going to block the audience's view.
47:30 Your left hand opens up and relaxes.
47:32 The top of the sponge floor pushes the loose sponge right in the finger palm
47:36 as your right hand is going to continue forward toward your elbow to produce another sponge
47:43 or your cuff or wherever you want to produce it.
47:46 So now it looks like you have three sponges.
47:48 You're going to do the pop-up move one last time with the top part of the floor.
47:54 You show the ball and your right hand comes over.
47:57 Pretend to place it into your left hand and your fingers are going to open up,
48:02 your second and third fingers this time,
48:04 and let the top point of the floor pop out as you finger palm the cube.
48:12 Produce the last one from the air.
48:15 And there's no pop-up move here.
48:17 You just really place the loose sponge between your third and little fingers.
48:24 Now you come to the end of the trick
48:26 where you're going to make these loose sponges become one sponge floor.
48:30 Now the first thing you do is you push the loose sponge inside your hand,
48:35 but you really don't push it just inside your hand.
48:38 You push it all the way through, all the way to the back of your hand.
48:42 Now you're just clipping the loose sponge against the heel of your hand
48:46 with your left, second, and third fingers.
48:50 So now you can push in the next piece of sponge and then the next one.
48:56 Now when you get to the top one,
48:59 your right first finger is going to come down on it.
49:03 Your left thumb is going to be behind your hand,
49:07 blocked from your audience,
49:10 and it's going to roll the loose sponge into finger palm position
49:13 as your first finger comes down and pushes the bottom of the floor into your fist.
49:18 Now you just ask your audience how many pieces of sponge there are.
49:21 They're going to say four.
49:22 Rotate your left hand so the palm is outward toward your audience.
49:26 Your thumb hole is down toward the ground.
49:28 Reach in with your first finger and thumb of your right hand
49:32 so your palm is upward toward the sky,
49:35 and open your fingers,
49:36 and the sponge floor will be in the right position for the audience
49:39 so it looks like a four.
49:40 The point of the floor will be toward the left.
49:42 Top of the floor will be up.
49:44 And then you can accept your applause.
49:46 Now while the audience is applauding,
49:47 you go into the follow-up trick,
49:49 is where you take the four apart.
49:51 This is called 3-2-1.
49:53 While the audience is applauding,
49:54 turn the four so the point is toward the audience.
49:57 Now your right hand is going to come down on top of the point of the four,
50:02 and when it does,
50:04 you're going to block the audience's view
50:05 and you're going to add on the loose sponge.
50:08 From the inside, it looks like this.
50:10 Your right hand comes down
50:12 and just pushes the top of the floor down
50:15 and adds the loose sponge on top.
50:20 So this is the loose sponge here.
50:21 This is really the top of the floor here.
50:24 Your left hand can now pretend to rip off the top of the floor.
50:28 And then you pretend to put it in your pocket,
50:29 but you really keep it inside your hand.
50:32 Now when you're in your pocket,
50:34 you're going to get the other loose sponge that you had there earlier.
50:37 So now you've got two loose sponges in your left hand,
50:40 and you're going to come over to pretend to tear off another part of the floor.
50:44 But when you do,
50:45 your right hands are just readjusting it a little bit.
50:48 Now this readjustment is pretty simple.
50:50 You rear here.
50:53 Your fingers, your right, second, third, and fourth fingers,
50:58 right, third, and fourth fingers,
51:00 clip the point of the floor,
51:04 and then you just shift it up.
51:09 Now your left hand comes over
51:11 and pretends to tear off this sponge.
51:14 But what it really does
51:17 is it takes the whole floor away.
51:20 It grabs the top part of the floor.
51:23 And your right fingers grab the two sponges below it.
51:29 So you take the floor away.
51:31 It goes right through that OK sign,
51:32 right through that thumb hole.
51:34 You take the floor away as if it's a piece of sponge,
51:37 and you take the two loose sponges into your right hand
51:40 as you put the floor in your pocket.
51:44 Now you just bring up what's supposedly left of the floor
51:47 to your fingertips,
51:48 but it's really the two loose sponges.
51:51 And you pretend to tear off one more piece
51:53 and place that in your left pocket.
51:55 Then you show the last piece
51:57 and you place it in your right pocket.
51:59 Your hands are empty. You look clean.
52:01 Now the idea of using two sponges to do this
52:03 is Jeff Simmel's idea.
52:05 He's a magician from California.
52:07 I used to do it with just one extra piece,
52:09 but I prefer Jeff's idea to mine.
52:12 So that's 3-2-1 and 1-2-3-4.
52:15 [music]
52:19 [music]
52:23 [music]
52:26 [music]
52:35 [music]
52:46 [music]
52:49 [music]
52:58 [music]
53:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]