Issue 21 - July 08
Flipped Out
Craig Petty
Available from www.worldmagicshop.co.uk
Price £15.00
This is volume one of Craig Petty’s coin magic series
with nine routines specifically utilising the Flipper Coin gimmick. I don’t
think you will ever need or want to use nine routines using the Flipper Coin,
but here is plenty of material to select a few favourites from. The Flipper Coin
gimmick is a coin that can double as a single coin or two overlapping together.
It can also instantly jump from a two coin display to a single coin. You can
therefore see the benefits of this gimmick in many of the standard coin routines
in general use. The Flipper Coin is not supplied.
As a general rule coin magic does not ‘play’ that big
but is very suitable for small groups of up to say six people to watch. From
only a small distance, even larger coins start to look very small. Remember that
coins are virtually two dimensional so when they are not seen ‘flat on’
their visibility factor closes down straight away. Craig Petty claims that these
are real world routines that he uses in his everyday work, corporate events, nightclubs, etc, “day in day out”. Maybe they work okay for a bar and small
restaurant table scenario but for the work that most working close-up magicians
do around banquet tables, these routines are just not big enough and won’t be
suitable. They are also quite long for the noisy and interruptive conditions we
often work under with several routines up to 4 minutes long. If however you work
in small close group situations in quieter surroundings then these routines will
be fine!
The routines are filmed in three different settings. One
with two spectators either side of him on one long side of a table and because
of this the spectators at either end have to strain their necks to see what is
going on. The camera shot never gets close enough to the action so it’s
difficult for the viewer to see the magic happening. The second situation works
better because the spectators are either side of a coffee table with Craig at
the short top end. The camera shot moves in much closer here. The third setting
is Craig on his own, mostly performing silently to a contemporary music
soundtrack and these also work well, again because of the closer camera work. For
the other two settings someone has chosen a classical music soundtrack (solo
piano) which may have been added after the filming.
I think this was an odd choice which really doesn’t work, mainly
because of the contemplative and often melancholy mood of the piano pieces which
sets the wrong atmosphere for the magic.
One basic move is common to all the routines where a coin
is palmed as the gimmicked coin is opened up to be displayed and as such you
think he would have started right out with the explanation of this essential
move. It is very briefly skipped
over in the first explanation and no detailed explanation appears until
explanation number six, over half way through the explanation section!
The routines cover many of the standard plots in coin magic which have
been adapted to incorporate the Flipper Coin starting with Cartoon Coins, Craig’s version of David Roth’s Portable Hole with coins disappearing and reappearing in and out of
the make believe hole. It’s one of the longer routines at nearly 4 minutes
although Craig uses a lot of words to explain the action. Flipping Wild is a cute quickie where two half dollars change into a
pair of two pound coins. Empowerment is
another lengthy routine following the Coins Across plot from one spectator to
another. WTF is a nifty Coins Through
Table much enabled by the Flipper gimmick. Flipped
Across is again a Coins Across from magician to spectator then from one
spectator to another. Flipped Out is a
nice visual production of three coins which jump from hand to hand and then
vanish one at a time. Full
House Assembly is a long combination routine with a deck of cards where
coins vanish and arrive under the card case, a coin arrives in the cased deck
next to the chosen card where it should logically end. It continues however with
a coin and the chosen card in the deck changing places with a Spellbound move.
It’s nice, but quite long. Coincussed
utilises the gimmick in David Roth’s well known Skyhooks routine and Fleshpockets
sees coins being pulled through the back of the magician’s hand.
The explanation section seems to have been scripted in the
wrong order as I have already mentioned with the essential basic move coming
half way through the explanations. They
are thorough enough and take you through the necessary handling and moves
although you will ideally need to have some experience with coins as this
isn’t suitable for beginners. The routines are all with three and four coins
so have a similar feel about them. The
Flipper Coin can take the hard work out of some routines where advanced sleights
are usually required although the gimmick doesn’t always make for the most
naturally handling. Whether it magically improves some of the standard coin
tricks or not is another matter! Craig Petty’s handling looks rather
suspicious at times. One advantage the gimmick has is that it can visibly change
from two coins to one producing startling vanishes and making it a handy item to
have for the Coins Through Table routine for example. If you have one of these
coins lying around and you need some ideas for routines then this will make an
ideal DVD. PP
What’s Hot:
Some easier methods for the best known coin tricks
What’s Not: Comic intro and
farewell is better skipped!
Star Rating: ***
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