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Title: Martin's Miracles Author: Eric Lewis Illustrator: Eric Lewis Description: 155 pages measuring 7 by 10 inches Hardbound Published in 1985. Price: $ 28.50 |
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Martin's Miracles has been one of our most consistent sellers for fifteen years and
the reason for that is simple: Cardiographic. On Page 67, Martin Lewis describes an
effect wherein a deck of cards is drawn on a large sketch pad and a drawing of a
selected card rises up out of this cartoon. The page upon which this miracle has
occurred is torn out and handed to the spectator. This trick has appeared on every
show from your local magic club's to David Copperfield's TV special.
Martin Lewis started out as the resident magician at San Francisco's famous Magic Cellar and then graduated to revue shows in Las Vegas and Reno and finally cruise ships. The many close-up, platform and stage effects that were honed to perfection in these demanding venues have been collected together in Martin's Miracles. Succeeding in all of these areas requires an extraordinary amount of commercial material. His jumbo monte routine (Sidewalk Shuffle, Page 95) is another modern classic. Today, hundreds of full-time pros around the world are performing this knock-your-socks-off material.
Written and illustrated by Martin's Masters Fellowship winning father Eric Lewis
and with a curious introduction written by Harry Anderson. $28.50 "I loved everything about the book and you will too if you like commercial, offbeat 'A' material."--Rick Johnsson - Linking Ring magazine A PEEK INSIDE MARTIN'S MIRACLES [It was effects like this that kept a lot of people (including Fred Kaps) coming back to San Francisco's Magic Cellar to see Martin Lewis at the close-up table.] Texas Money This is a quick routine in which much happens in a little time. A silver dollar and a penny (U.S. one cent piece) change places, change sizes, and suddenly there is a giant coin which had never been there before. Martin often used this as a closing item, usually following the effect "James' First" which is described elsewhere in this book. In 1973 Fred Kaps was in San Francisco and saw Martin perform this routine at the Magic Cellar. It was this effect that prompted Fred to develop his now famous Giant Chinese Coins routine. REQUIREMENTS
ROUTINE Seated at a table, set up by secretly placing the Jumbo dollar on your lap and the Texas penny on your right knee. Fold the handkerchief into eighths and put it on the table along with the normal silver dollar. You are now ready to present the effect. Ask for the loan of a penny, and when you receive it place it on the table to your left and the silver dollar to your right. Tell the audience you will cause the two coins to change places, and although you are about to perpetrate a very old gag, play it seriously and dramatically and you will succeed in getting the result you want - from non-magicians at least. Make mysterious passes over the coins, then cross your arms and very deliberately place a forefinger on each coin. Pause a moment, then cry "Change!" and visibly slide the coins across the table to transpose them. Sit back in your chair with a proud look on your face, dropping your right hand to your lap. "Not bad, eh?" As you say this steal the Texas penny from your knee with the right hand, and fingerpalm it.
Now offer to transpose the coins in a more magical manner. Take the folded
handkerchief, open it out so it is in quarters, and lay it diagonally over the palm
of the left hand as shown in Fig.1. With the right hand pick up the dollar and apparently place it under the handkerchief, but switch the coins leaving the big penny underneath and bringing out the dollar in the fingerpalm. Martin used the "Bobo" single-hand switch for this, but the cover of the handkerchief will allow the crudest of switches. Place the handkerchief, with the coin under it, diagonally on the table near the rear edge. To emphasize that the dollar is under the handkerchief, lift it for a moment through the handkerchief so the audience can see the shape. The size is the same, so the audience will be convinced the dollar is there. Now pick up the penny with the left hand, form the right hand into a loose fist, and insert the coin into the hand between the curled thumb and forefinger (as though mailing it), but push it into the thumbpalm. Open the right hand palm down and let the silver dollar drop to the table, keeping the penny in the thumbpalm.
To reveal the coin under the handkerchief and show that the transposition has taken
place, take the far corner of the handkerchief and start to peel it back. At this
point use the left hand to pick up the Jumbo coin from the lap and hold it as
shown in Fig.2. Peel the handkerchief right back to reveal the Texas penny, and while everyone is looking at that unexpectedly large coin, bring the handkerchief right over the Jumbo coin. Holding both in the right hand, lay them down to your right. Do this very casually and without looking at the handkerchief, as though you were finished with it and putting it aside. The misdirection for this load is very strong. Follow immediately by picking up the Texas penny, looking at it and then at the spectator who loaned you the penny, and ask him if he would like his penny back. Usually he will be eager to have it, but whatever the answer, turn the right hand palm down and toss the normal penny from the fingerpalm towards him, at the same time thumb-palming the Texas penny. This is a simple one-hand switch, and under cover of the laugh this maneuver brings, you can quietly pick up the silver dollar and put it away in your pocket, together with the Texas penny. To finish you say something like, "I can thoroughly understand what has been happening these past few minutes, but I have never been able to understand how this got here!" Pick up the handkerchief to show the Jumbo coin, then tap the coin on the table philosophically before putting it away. |
