Improvisation & Creative Effect
by Nathan Kranzo

Sometimes things don’t go as planned. If Murphy’s Law is true (it is) then he’s a good friend of mine. Call it a love/hate relationship. When performing you must take a Zen-like approach to problems that arise out of your control. Often times if you fight or ignore it…it will only make matters worse.

Murphy

“Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name.”
—The Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil

At a performance for a longtime client something amazing happened. I was performing close-up magic for the owner of the company and his friends after my show. In particular, I was performing a version of the classic “in- the-hands” Copper/Silver Transposition.

After I performed the effect, the wife of the owner insisted that she hold the coin this time. She was on the other side of the table so I gently tossed her what she thought was a silver coin. In reality I switched it for a copper coin. My thinking was that when she noticed it was copper it would be a great surprise and kind of an instant change. Instead the coin sailed past her hands and landed in the top of her dress and vanished in between her breasts.

To quote Paul Harris “I was astonished”.

“This could be bad”…is what I was thinking. What came out of my mouth was: “Lucky coin”. To my great relief she, and everyone else, started laughing hysterically. She withdrew the coin from the front of her dress and held it in her fist. She gave me a look like “ok try it now magic boy!”.

Here is the cool part….she didn’t even look at the coin. In her mind it was still the silver coin she saw displayed in my hand just seconds ago. I built it up for all it was worth and sold an incredible “test conditions” transposition. They went nuts!

In a corporate situation like this what happened could have been very embarrassing and may have even cost me a job, or worse. What was a potential bad situation turned out great with a little improvising.

Soon I’ll share with you the method of my favorite no-gimmick version of the classic effect. Until then, think about how you might handle this effect in a new way.

What other objects could be used other than coins?

Where could the objects be placed that would create a strong emotional reaction?

What would be a fantastic reason for the objects to change place?

As promised here is the secret behind one of my favorite handlings of the classic Copper-Silver Transposition. You will use a gimmick that isn’t really a gimmick!

Most routines of this nature use an extra coin, a copper/silver gaff, or both. For this routine you will create the gaff at home and it won’t cost you more than a penny!

The standard copper/silver coin consists of a coin that is silver on one side and copper on the other. This is often used when you want to make a copper and a silver coin change places.

My idea is to cause a transposition of two pennies One that is old and dark, and one that is new and shiny. When you look through your pocket change you probably already have one of each.

To perform the routine you will create a coin that is dark on one side and shiny on the other! This dark/shiny coin will be referred to as the DS coin.

The easiest way to do this is to clean one side of a very dark or older penny. My favorite way to do this is with toothpaste! Yes that is right! Not only is this a great way to clean coins but it sure comes in handy if you are on the road and need a quick fix. Once you have cleaned one side, making it nice and shiny, you are ready to perform.

Ask someone to pull out their change, which will give you a good selection of coins. You want to borrow a nice shiny penny OR a dark one. You want to stay away from any “medium” color pennies. Those won’t work as well.

Let’s say you borrow a nice shiny penny. Pull your DS coin out of your pocket displaying the dark side on your open palm and place the borrowed shiny penny on top of it so it covers it slightly. Ask your volunteer to hold out their hand. You will apparently pick up the dark penny but in reality you pick up the shiny penny. To do this; simply turn over the DS coin as you take away the real (shiny) borrowed coin. Since it is only a penny it is easy to hide what you’re holding by your fingertips.

Place the shiny penny onto their hand and close their hand into a fist. Since they are staring at the shiny side of your coin they will assume that they are holding the old darker coin.

All that is left to do is secretly turn over the coin in your hand! To do this I usually just let the coin slide forward toward my fingertips and in the action of closing my hand into a fist the coin is turned over. Now snap your fingers (or whatever magical moment you would like to do) and ask them to open their hand as you open yours revealing the transposition.

They are left with their coin and you simply pocket your coin to finish.

Credits and History
The first copper silver routine I ever read was by Francis Carlyle from Stars of Magic. This routine will still stand up in the real world today and has the added bonus of a watch steal.

Special thanks to Mike Powers for giving me permission to include an idea of his that is the main premise in this effect. Mike’s effect can be found in his new book Power Plays.

Soon I’ll share with you a couple of cool presentation angles for this effect. Can you think of a cool reason why an old and a new penny would change places?

Have fun playing!

All the best,

Kranzo

www.movingtanline.com
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