More of the Same

Here is another trick they did from that book. It was the good old saltshaker through the table. Even with the feint of pretending to put a coin through the table. So they sat around practicing stealing the saltshaker when suddenly it dawned on them how to turn this into a full fledged piece. Here is what happened:

"Hey, see this coin on the table? And see this saltshaker? I will try to put the coin into the saltshaker. And there are three ways of doing it. I could open the saltshaker and put it in, which is really dumb. Or I could use pure force to jam the coin through the glass. Or I use magic. I decided to use the last two at the same time." A napkin is taken and the saltshaker is covered with the napkin. "Just in case it doesn't work!" The saltshaker is hovered above the coin and slowly set down. "hear that clink.. that's the sound of it not working" the saltshaker is raised again and the coin is still there. The saltshaker is then placed on the coin again, very carefully. The hand hovers above ready to smack the saltshaker hopefully making the coin go in. The hand comes down, the saltshaker appears to penetrate the table the audience hears it hitting on the floor. (was a pretty though saltshaker and could withstand dropping it on the floor)
The napkin is pushed away the coin is gone. An audience member is asked to pick up the saltshaker and to open it up. Indeed the coin is found inside the saltshaker within the salt.
"Violence and Magic... can't beat them. If you do, they fight back!"

Lovely, I love how they thought of a different effect first, (coin going into the saltshaker) and using that as a ruse to get away with the pushing through the table. They also understood that when the saltshaker hit the floor they had enough misdirection to get rid of the coin. They even thought duplicate coin. They started with a promise, (coin goes into the shaker) and not only delivered on the actual promise, they surpassed it. The version in the book, which is the version that most magicians perform actually falls short on the promise of making that coin go through the table. These young people understood, that this small letdown, is a letdown nevertheless. So they got rid of that. By simply changing the presentation a bit. Bravo. Bravo.