Look at this vid: Chinese Coin Magician - YouTube
Explain how he does any of these tricks. I had a theory for most of the tricks it was a magenetic coin that split in two. But the thing gets better and better as it goes along to the real point of W T F at the very end
edit: do you think anyone else is in on it?
I’ve only skipped around a bit, but I think a couple of the tricks involve a coin that looks like two coins stacked on each other, but has some mechanism to snap into a single coin when it is jarred. Look at 1:02 in the video, and then look at 3:14.
Ah, you edited your post. Yes, I believe that’s responsible for a couple of the tricks.
Inscrutably. 
I suspect that the ring on his right hand is a magnet.
Why not give it a go yourself! Tannen Magic’s Flipper Coin. (They also stock the magnetic rings)
I haven’t looked at the video, but from your description, I’m really sure I’ve seen it before and we’ve discussed this on the straight dope.
Beats me how to search for it though.
As for the arm through the table…
Regarding the last trick. The placement of his left hand while he’s tapping on the glass is pretty unnatural. Even when he reaches behind him, he leaves his left hand fixed on that point.
So I think the pane of glass facing us can shift to our left, and while he’s making a big deal of polishing the spot, he slides the hole underneath his other hand under the cover of his fore-arm(notice the woman in the green dress has her hand off the glass at this point). Then he shifts that hand over, dragging the hole the last few inches. Moving the hole this last couple inches is a lot more conspicuous because the last few inches are spring loaded.
He reaches through the hole, does his thing, then when he removes his hand, the spring pushes the hole back out of the way (annoyingly the camera is level with the table at this point, but I think if it wasn’t, we’d be able to see the motion of the glass during this part.
That was easy. The table is a perfect circle. There’s a donut-shaped piece of glass that goes all the way around the magician.[sup]*[/sup] The glass can rotate within the table, and there’s a hole cut in it that is concealed by the cross braces or under the teacup. When he wipes and taps the glass to show it’s solid, Look at his left hand. He’s concealing the hole. Then he pushes the glass around (looks like he’s sliding his left hand across it), reaches his right arm through (still concealing the hole with his left hand) until the hole is tight around his arm. Then he takes his left hand away.
Pulling his arm out is just the reverse, except he pulls his fingers upwards so that his hand is actually clear of the glass before it would appear to be with the fingers extended. The hole is rotated out of view while the camera is at the level of the table. The camera rises up a bit, he pretends that his right hand has just come free, and shows the table to be solid again.
First off, it is an amazing performance. It is very difficult to see what he is doing, and without that video that last trick is spectacular.
Second, the cameraman is either very good at following his misdirections, or else is in on it. It’s possible he directed the cameraman how to position without the cameraman knowing, but given how the table slides I now suspect he can see.
Ravenman is correct about the double coin. Look at 2:59 when he is putting the three coins on the table. The rightmost two move as a single unit. That is an oops on his part, because the camera catches the motion. Notice how at 2:57, the camera is zoomed on the table and we can’t see his hands. He’s got plenty of time to shuffle coins around while we can’t see.
Dropping the coin through the table uses the magnetic ring.
Ooh, I just realized how he did the first trick. Watch his motion at :30 seconds when he selects the first coin for the first drop through. The man is holding the 3 coins, he passes his hand over, and then there is a very odd tweak as he flattens his palm against the guy’s hand. I think he’s flipping the double coin. Notice that in the part where he is tapping the coin on the table, he does not actually have a coin in his hand. You’re supposed to believe it just happens to be concealed behind his fingers, but his fingers aren’t large enough.
As an amateur magician, I have to agree. It’s one thing to do magic for people in real time, another to do it in front of cameras.
I’ve got no doubt that the cameraman is has been given specific directions. Look at when Liu Qian slides the table from about 5:23. The camera angle is straight on the table so the moving glass isn’t visible. Likewise, when the glass is slide back. That is less obvious, but you can see the middle guest’s hand move into position.
Right. My point is whether the cameraman knows the trick, or is just following a script. With that trick, it seems hard to accept he, along with the rest of the table audience, is not aware.
As someone who’s played magician for 25 years, I’m usually loathe to tell people how stuff is done. Every time some magician is on TV, I have 3-4 friends calling at each commercial break screaming “you have to tell me how he did it!” I never tell, because it just ruins the fun for everyone who knows, they tell their kids because dads know everything, then kids tell kids and then no one is having fun at the show next time!
Since most tricks are revealed on Youtube somewhere, I’ll keep the specifics secret, but what you learn when you visit a magic shop to begin [del]screwing with people[/del] entertaining your friends is that everything is a trick. Literally. Sure, close-up magic - my favorite - requires a little sleight of hand, but you still use trick coins, cards, rings, pens, scarves; nothing is what it seems.
Example: Look at 1:42 when he drops the coin on the glass table. Notice how flat sounding and quickly the coin stops? Not a real coin. Some are magnetic, some fold in two -or three - some nest up to 4 coins in one. You just can’t trust anyone.
As this type of thing requires blocking out shots, then there couldn’t be a way that he wouldn’t know. That’s specific for the table, I don’t think it matters for the other close-up stuff.
That he is using stock magician’s mail order gear is fairly clear. Kennedy half dollars are a big giveaway.
I am not so impressed. E.g., I slowed down the trick at 3:15 where he taps the table from the underside and one of the coins seems to drop thru. You can clearly see the 4th coin in the palm of the underside hand. The speed at which the left two coins merge is amazing, which is a testimonial to the trick coin maker, not the magician.
The whole table thing is embarrassing. You have people behind him clapping and looking amazed despite being unable to see anything at all. That’s a big tell that the arrangement of the table is important. Plus the drop down of his segment of the table means something is going to slide. Basically, you know he’s going to do a trick using the circular table shape well before it happens.
It’s the gadget makers here that deserve compliments, not the performer.
You should be able to slow closeup magic of good magicians to a crawl and still not see palmed items.
If you don’t know how the first one was done, there wouldn’t be any point in explaining the rest.
Another demonstration of the role of the cameraman: look at :52, he has a coin in each hand, and the other guy picks up the third coin. The camera then zooms close on the third guy, and he drops the coin in the dish. Then zoom out, and the magician has both coins in one hand, with that same slight overlap. The camera completely covers any manipulation of the coins to swap two to the rigged coin.
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I am not so impressed. E.g., I slowed down the trick at 3:15 where he taps the table from the underside and one of the coins seems to drop thru. You can clearly see the 4th coin in the palm of the underside hand.
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I did slow motion scroll through and did get the 4 coin image finally. I’m not sure there’s a way to do that trick on camera where there isn’t an opportunity to slow down and see the palmed coin.
I don’t think you can. I know that my palms wouldn’t survive slow motion camera.
You mean the first drop-the-coin-through-the-table trick? I would imagine it’s much simpler than you describe; he’s got more than three coins. It’s no double/magnetic coin thing, it’s just a sleight of hand trick; the audience member is holding Coins 1, 2 and 3. The magician has Coin 4 hidden; he takes Coin 1 from the audience member, palming it, and drops Coin 4 into the dish with his left hand, where he already has it palmed. That’s the simplest and most logical way to do the trick.
There’s no reason to believe he doesn’t use simple sleight-of-hand to do some tricks and trick coins for others.
He does it BEAUTIFULLY, though. The guy is a master illusionist to be sure. What a showman.
Off-topic question: is that video meant to be inverted colors? Because I’ve been seeing such things often lately, and wondered if it’s some new fad or if something on my end is wonky…
