Meir’s Muses
MyMagic eNewsletter #1,074
January 18, 2023
Hey, I am around halfway to breaking even on Rocco’s Countdown Coins (HERE) and three books away from breaking even on Camirand Academy’s Masters Of Magic Series (HERE). But as a friend of mine always tells me… the point of being in business is not to break even… but to make a profit.
I on the other hand always look at the break even point first and let luck decide on the profit end. That way I can work on stuff that I like, that might have a limited audience, and once in a while what I like also becomes a big commercial success.
Now for something I bet you didn’t know. The effect where you push your finger through a coin goes back to the 1800s, but it did not get popular until the 1970s when David Roth named it Karate Coin and started selling it at his lectures. It became huge after it appeared in Richard Kaufman’s CoinMagic in 1981. I will be releasing his version later this year with variants that have never been available before.
Now for the part you didn’t know. Gary Ouellet was the person who came up with the idea of making the coin look ripped to shreds as if a bullet was shot through it. He first published that in the 1984 book Fork Full Of Appetizers Book 2, under the name New Karate Coin (which coincidentally appears in my book Forks Full Of Appetizers (HERE). It is the version that everyone sells now as the Karate Coin (without credit).
Ted Bogusta recently found a small stash of the better-quality versions of the New Karate Coins and is allowing me to sell them, every coin will also get a PDF of the original instructions. Limited quantity.
I have some of the early ones that Gary had made that I used for a while but had to stop since they were ripping my pockets. The ones offered here don’t have any sharp points that would do that.
►New Karate Coin:
The Karate Coin that most magic shops sell where the hole looks like it was shot through with a bullet was invented by Gary Ouellet. He called it the New Karate Coin and published it in the book Forks Full Of Appetizers.
Here is what he wrote in the book: While studying the second [David] Roth method [in CoinMagic], it occurred to me that if an extended forefinger really slammed through the center of a piece of metal, the hole would be torn and jagged, as if it were really pierced.
While rummaging through the Martinka warehouse Ted Bogusta found a bag of one of the best made versions of that coin and agreed to let me sell them.
Get one: HERE
►Countdown Coins:
Many years ago, Rocco came up with a coin gimmick that can be used to display four US Quarters while instantly changing to three Quarters, then two, and finally one Quarter, it can also be shown in reverse, going from one to four Quarters. The displays can be made one handed which allows for a very clean in the hand’s coins across.
The utility device can be used for many different routines, both stand-up and close-up. The tutorial includes easy, intermediate, and advanced coin routines that are taught by Rocco Silano, Dr. Michael Rubinstein, and Meir Yedid. You will learn several coins across routines, a multiplying coins sequence, a vanishing coins sequence, a quickie where four Quarters turn into ten Dimes, and much more.
Watch and buy: HERE
►BACK IN STOCK:
►Past Present Future:
You introduce a deck of tarot cards and show that on three of the cards, a single word is written. One card reads Past, another Present, and the third reads future. The cards are given a mix, and then the faces are shown, while you explain that the cards all represent something important in a person’s life. You ask the spectator to choose one card to represent their past, another to represent their present, and the last card to represent their future.
The spectators can freely name any card they want. Those cards are clearly laid out on the table, and you then turn over the selected cards to reveal that the spectator mysteriously managed to perfectly select the cards with the words, Past, Present, and Future written on the backs of their cards.
Watch and buy: HERE
Stay happy, Meir
PS: The next newsletter will have you shellshocked.
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“At the turn of the Twentieth Century, one of the most popular acts in the world was T. Nelson Downs and his ‘Miser’s Dream.’ After Downs retired from the stage, Coin Magic became a more or less, forgotten Art. For the next several decades magic with coins was used only at informal times.”
…Bill Miesel (Forks Full Of Appetizers, 1984, 2022)
