2009-02 Dennis' Deliberations

I got nostalgic over the holidays. Maybe it’s the eggnog- or what is in the eggnog.

Remember "Blasted" (the coin effect with the metal coaster)? It was a kind of single-shot "Copentro". You put a nickel on a small metal tray and invert a glass over it and when you make a penny disappear a loud pop is heard and both coins are in the glass.

I never wanted to spend the 8 bucks on so (back then) for the gimmicked nickel and penny. It was mostly a bar trick anyway. I wanted a version that used regular ordinary looking props. One day in 1971, I was inside “The Bowie Inn” guzzling a Budweiser. It was a bar near the old Bowie Horse Race Track about 20 miles east of Washington, D.C. I was in my last days of college. I did some announcing at the track (I worked in radio also) and I used to help write the mimeographed “Tip Sheet” for the track.

I almost got fired when I tired to do a comedy routine over the PA system. I said: “Folks did you know that race tracks are the only place in the world where windows clean people?”. The old boss, with cigar in hand, barged into the booth and said, “Kid, this ain’t vaudeville, just read the card and the pages!”. (A “page” was when you announced someone’s name and told them to call the track phone operator. Cell phones did not exist then)

So, back to the bar in the Bowie Inn: I looked down at the bar and saw a fiber beer coaster for Budweiser. I saw the round seal on the familiar logo. I took three of them and went home. Using an Exacto craft knife, on the first coaster, I cut around the edge of the circle but I left a little bit of the fiber connected on the upper edge.

(About a sixteenth of an inch) This made a nice spring flap when it was slightly broken in! On the next coaster, I then cut out and removed the entire circle. The last coaster I left un-gimmicked. Using glue, I sandwiched all of them together with the normal one on the bottom, the one with the hole (forming a compartment for a penny) and finally the spring flap on top.

You could insert a regular penny into the coaster and it looked normal. I had created a poor-man’s version of “Blasted”!

To perform: Sit at the bar. Borrow a penny and a nickel and do a French drop and a few slights. Then grab up a glass and reach over and take the gimmicked coaster off a stack and lay the nickel on it and put the inverted glass over top. Hold the coaster with the glass in your left hand and act like you are tossing the penny at the glass and shake the coaster and glass. The penny will fly out of the coaster and I guarantee you that the person next to you will be impressed.

Try making one. I guess Budweiser will be around for a while even though they were just bought out by a global beverage conglomerate. As I said, I am nostalgic for the good old days!


This little gem of philosophy about the death of Common Sense grew out of many E-Mail exchanges from my Canadian magic friend, Larry Thornton:

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to quit while audiences still want more; why the gracious entertainer will win over the self-centered egomaniac; realizing that one's magic show isn't necessarily the greatest since Robert-Houdin; and poor audience responses are more than likely the fault of the entertainer.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't purchase expensive and grandiose magic props that exceed your abilities and ambition) and reliable strategies (audiences are the best judges of how good you are). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing criticisms were set in place. Reports of a mediocre magician spoiling magic for everyone else; street magicians getting in everyone's face against their wishes; and sleight of hand fanatics addicted to flashy flourishes and wildly extravagant card juggling over powerful magic effects, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when magic dealers started selling serious magic props to every rube who came in off the street -- or online. It declined even further when desperado magicians began exposing top-flight illusions and some of magic's best tricks of the trade on national television; and it reached its all-time low when maverick performers on national TV resorted to camera trickery to fool home viewers.

Common Sense lost the will to live when some mentalists started claiming genuine psychic powers; when You Tube exploded on the scene with thousands of blatant "dealer demonstrations" on video clips for all the world to see; and when young magicians wrote slick books for mass consumption that revealed commercial magic secrets that weren't their's to expose.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from rip-off artists who made knock-offs of your own magical creations. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after decades of clowns, rank amateurs, and anyone else who could walk into a magic shop and purchase an "act" -- started competing with the established competition at cut-rate prices.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers: I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority of thoroughly contented magic addicts -- and do nothing.

Dennis Phillips