Name: Basic Coin Magic

Author: Ian Kendall

Price: £10.00 - I was kindly givena copy at Blackpool

Publisher: Kendall Inc??

Difficulty: 5 -10

Out of 10: 10 - Really is excellent

Contents

Palming and the Hang Point

This for me was the most interesting and valuable part of the Cd. Here, Ian talks about the hang point which no other magician or technician has ever gone into. Its a secure position on your hand by where a coin can sit, its like finger tip rest but its a lot more secure and detailed. I don't want to give too much away as this is something unique to Ian and you should learn it from him.

He also goes into the classic palm, which IMO is the most valuable and badly done sleight in coin magic. I have a bit of a reputation for being hard on products and other peoples magic, but you would struggle not to learn the palm from this CD. But, saying that, its not difficult to put a coin in the position! Its about UNDERSTANDING the position, the lay of the hand and so much more. I admittedly used to walk around with a coin palmed in my hand thinking it would help me learn the palm. Well, you can practice things wrong till your blue in the face and they aren't going to look right! I've now got the proper technique and am palming quite well.

Simple Coin Pass

This again has been a total life saver for me. I played around with all kinds of passes and vanishes, and none ever fitted me so well I would use for laymen. Retention vanishes look to rehearsed, other ones look silly and flashy. But for me, this has been the way to go. Its simple, its natural and it gets the job done. I also havent seen a lot of people doing this and Ian does it exceptionally well.

French Drop

This is of crouse the bread and butter sleight of coin magic. No one does it becasue it looks stupid right? Well this is garaunteed : Get Ians video and you will use the french drop becausse there is an absolute gold-nugget piece of motivation for this move that EVERYONE will/should be doing.

Bobo Switch

This is another one of those moves I've been doing for a while and again doing it wrong (jeez I should really learn how to read). The move looks a lot better with the method Ian teaches and I now use this technique for spell bound I'm that confident with it.

Palm to Palm Transfer

This for me is the mecca of coin magic, do this and do it well and you can call yourself a coin magiician. I now have the technique thanks to Ians great teaching, but admittedly still cant do the move well. Ian does it perfectly and gives me something to aspire too - Still practising this one.

HM Load

Again, this is a great move and a classic in coin magic. Again, Ian adds something to the mis direction and motivation of why your doing what your doing to make it not so un useable anymore! I now use this technique in a transposition.

Himber Vanish

If you have seen the Sankey Revolutionary coin magic, you will know what a great technique this is. Again, its like the mecca of coin magic. Well, once again, Ian has changed the technique, IMO made it better and more useable. This is awesome! Ian, being a human cyborg
doesnt even need the coin to hit his hand, he can do it in mid air and catch it! All due to the refinements hes made.

Rosenthal Click Pass

This is an extension of the last technique and again another valuable one. Sankey uses it in a lot of his routines to be waaaayyyy behind the audience, or ahead depending on how you look at it. Ian, being inhuman can do this like no other every single time!

Himber Sankey Count

This is again an extension of the last two moves that removes the back and forth motion of Sankeys. Great refinement and a lot easier!


Comments

Ian has out done himself with this CD. He taught me the Paul Chosse/Charlie Miller Cascade control via e-mail, so I knew I was going to have no difficulties learning anything from him via video. He teaches everything well, and the CD is well packaged and has a good navigation system done in html. No files to look for, its all done for you.

I suggest you all dive over to Ians site and order one of these CD's.for a measley £10 I bet you will get a lot more out of this than any other coin video you own. It is aimed at beginners, and I think he will be wiping out coin magic noobies one by one with this CD.

Plus, Ian is a great guy and a good friend!

10 out 10 for effort, technique, teaching and presentation.

Contact Ian on m@gician.{remove this}info

http://www.virtualmagicshow.com/bc

Sorry! that's the link to get yours!

Wow, thanks Shaun!


Take care, Ian

This really is an excellent CD.

In my short time in magic I've come across some excellent magic taught by expert and professional magicians. Unfortunately their expertise in magic does not automatically qualify them as teachers. As such their methods are often under explained and at times simply quite confusing.

Ian on the other hand is one of those people that seems to be able to explain everything eloquently and concisely (all from the comfort of his "Big Brother" diary room style chair.)

There's no fishing around for explanations or extended hyperbole, Ian teaches what you need to know without the irrelevant nonsense.
In fact, when I first received the CD and had a browse my immediate thought was that the lessons were quite short. Don't be mislead, there's more information on this than other similar DVDs twice the length.

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't consider myself a beginner when it comes to coins either. I own Ammars DVD and of course Bobo but there's still plenty of stuff new to me on this CD.

Criticisms...well at a push I could say there's no routines (although it is only supposed to be a techniques CD) and the picture and sound quality won't be what you're used to with L&L releases etc. However these are minor crits and are simply to balance out the review.
If I read a 100% glowing review of something I tend not to believe it. I'd rather know what the bad points are and then decide just how bad they are for myself.

Finally I have recently received a downloadable "update" to the CD (free of charge).
To me this is unbelievable. It’s like finishing a great book and then being sent some bonus chapters. Not the sort of service I'm used to at all... But you won't hear me complaining. This update also dispensed with pretty much the only other criticism I had, since I thought that the hang point to classic palm is slightly glossed over in the CD. This is all cleared up in the update.

If you're looking to learn or improve any of the techniques on this CD, I think you'll struggle to find them taught better anywhere else.

Nice one Ian.

This sounds like an interesting cd. Does it play on Macs or only on PCs?

Thanks

Hi Tiki,

The video clips are encoded in Windows Media 8, so if you have an up to date Media player you should be ok. If the hand coded HTML doesn't play, you can always watch the clips individually.

The updates are in WMV at the moment, but I'll be adding Real versions very soon.

Finally, the CD plays as a VideoCD on Macs and most DVD players. Unfortunately I couldn't get Chapters working in time, so it's just like watching a video.

Hope this helps. Take care,

Ian

Ian,

Do you plan on adding chapters in the future?

-FC

Hi Feral (!)

Yep, there should be a semi regular upload thing happening. I had to lose quite a lot of stuff from the first CD in order to get the space to have the VCD image on as well, and I always planned to have them as free updates. In the back of my mind I had intended to make a second, more advanced CD with stuff that would not fit under the 'Basic' theme of this disc.

However, I'm making other CDs at the moment, so now I'm going to release the harder stuff on the web over time for when everyone if comfortable with what they have now.

Having said that, I'm not promising three years' worth of new stuff! I imagine I'll be able to have a couple of downloads a month for a bit, but I'll be doing the same for the next few CDs, so there's the time aspect as well. Also, if I get questions from customers often times it's easier to explain with a video.

Anyway, I hope this has answered your question!

Take care, Ian

Hello Ian,

I was referring to this portion of your prior post.

"Finally, the CD plays as a VideoCD on Macs and most DVD players. Unfortunately I couldn't get Chapters working in time, so it's just like watching a video."

Looking at your prior post, perhaps I should have capitalized "Chapters" in my question. I was guessing that getting Chapters to work and adding it to the CD would allow the viewer to more easily navigate through the material. Again, I am guessing.

In the end, my question is really about ease of use and the level of convenience the CD provides relative to what we expect from viewing DVDs.

Thanks,
Feral

Ah, ok then.

Chapters (as I understand them) are fixed bookmarks in a VCD image that lets you skip forward to the next chunk as it were. I'm not entirely sure if it's worth the bother to spend the time encoding this, and then making a new CD image for Basic Coin Magic (since I don't charge extra for postage I really don't make much on each disk). I'm much more likely to do this for the next few disks that I make.

If you have a Mac you can always browse to the videos folder and watch them individually if you want to work on a specific move.

Since Slight-Sleight made the analagy of the downloads being like recieving extra chapters I thought that was what you meant...oh well.

Take care, Ian

I will add my vote of confidence to what everyone else has stated on this thread. I received my copy of Ian's CD just prior to going out of town on a gig. It is only in the last couple of days that I've had the chance to go over Ian's work thoroughly. This is an excellent contribution to coin magic.

The sleights that Ian includes in this CD are an excellent cross section of what any beginning coin worker needs to know. With Ian's added insight into several of these sleights and his work on such sleights as the Himber Vanish, this CD is a must have for the beginner. I would even suggest that the advanced coin man can find some worth while bits to add to his or her own subtleties. Given the price of this CD, it belongs in every magician's library.

The production value of this CD is professional in quality. The videos are clear and easy to follow. Ian's teaching technique is very low key as he explains each maneuver in clear and concise language. The man is a natural teacher. I particularly like how he sits in the chair and explains the nuances of each of these sleights - it is like he is sitting right across from you and teaching you in real life! Ian also takes into account the need for showing the sleights (by way of explanation) in several different angles with close-ups of the hands when the situation calls for it.

So, if you're having problems with your sleights (and even if you've managed to suss them out with texts such as Bobo), this is an excellent investment of your money. I can't imagine anyone being unhappy with this purchase and the price is definitely right. Personally, I prefer books to videos, but I have to say, I am right pleased having this CD in my library. And, the CD is signed by Ian, which is something that I personally treasure with any of my learning items, be they books, VHS tapes or CDs.

An excellent contribution. Thank you Mr. Kendall!

Mike.

Ian - Are there any plans to convert this or future releases to a DVD?

None whatsoever!

To be honest, you wouldn't get much more from a DVD. The VideoCD image on the disc will play on most DVD players, the only difference in viewing is the instant access to the different parts, which I explained above.

The reason I can offer these CDs at a low price is that I am a cottage industry; I tape the lessons on my camcorder, edit them on my PC and burn the discs one at a time. If I used a studio with three cameras and a duplication service you can bet it wouldn't cost ten quid (including postage)!

I believe in function over form. As long as my explainations are clear and you can learn from them I see little point in fancy intro animations or full colour packaging. If you go to my website and look at some of the other tutorials I have there, or even the trailer for the BCM CD, you can see my teaching style. If you think you can learn from me, I'll be happy to sell you a CD, but if you need Hollywood production values you might want to save your money

Remember that the CD uses MSLG technology! (Makes Sankey Look Good)

Take care, Ian

Actually I wasn't thinking about a Hollywood production. I mentioned a DVD more for the extra space you would gain based on what you mentioned in a previous post:

"I had to lose quite a lot of stuff from the first CD in order to get the space to have the VCD image on as well"

Ah, that's ok then!

But I still don't have a DVD burner

Ian,

I'm going to order your CD. Does your price include shipping to the USA?

Yep, postage is included. They seem to take seven days to get to the States, so if I get it in the post in the morning, you should have it for next weekend.

Thanks.

I think about ordering this CD (and I must admit that I´m an absolut beginner in coin magic). As far as I understand it, you "only" teach the sleights, no routines?

Magixx

That's right, it's a technique learning aid.

The basic point was to give people the knowledge to approach the routines that are published which assume prior knowledge.

Take care, Ian

THanks.

Magixx

Thanks Ian,

You might find this link in the reviews section interesting also:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......11&5

Take care, and thanks again man. -MB



*If the link doesn't work, here's the review of the new "Modern Coin Magic" dvd:

"...Well, I got a chance to see the new "Modern Coin Magic" dvd set and I gotta say that it's pretty good. It's quite comprehensive, easy to navigate, stays pretty true to its namesake in Bobo's New Modern Coin Magic book, and it is pretty well produced. The coin magi is Ben Salinas, a working pro that's really good and quite articulate. The video is not just his hands as in the clip in the link below, but Ben is seen speaking and giving introduction to all of the sleights and effects. His explanations of the moves are concise/straightforward and everything can be seen right up close, every move in great detail and angle. Nice!

I think this is a good package, at about $60 bucks for a 4-dvd set that's jammed packed with info sorta like the book, it's a great bargain. And I think the perfect accompaniment video instruction dvd set to the famous book. Don't get me wrong, there are several good vids out there that refer to a lot of what Bobo's teaches, but if you're looking for something new, something more of a "matching set," well then I think this new dvd set is a perfect compliment.

If you've ever said to yourself while reading Bobo's, "I wish I could see what he's talking about here," then this is the dvd set for you. I expect that this new offering will be very popular, especially with people that are new to coin magic or returning to it. Everyone always says to get yourself the Bobo's book first, and I'd say get this new dvd second, or better yet, get it at the same time as a complete coin magic package, a "2-piece suit," if you will.

The link below tells you all about the new dvds and even shows you a little clip of it. Again, it's a great companion for the book, and or can stand effectively alone on its own as a classic course in coin magic. I recommend it to all the entire new coin generations to come, as well as to anyone interested in coin magic in any way. Like all the many others out there, this new work deserves to be in your coin magic library. It's a great video reference, nice, new, true, very well done with a really good instructor in Ben Salinas. And though already great, it makes Bobo's better.

I was always a little stand-offish about giving my nephew the Bobo's book by itself, especially after the many time it confused me . But now with this new video version of this great work, I'll be giving him a nice package to start him on his way for X-mas. It's a fantastic journey now where the road has been paved quite a bit smoother with this the "latest" addition to what Mr. Bobo so graciously put together many years ago, to help us along our way always. Give the new "Modern Coin Magic" dvd set a try, I think you'll like it." -MB


http://magicmakersinc.com/moderncoinmagic.html