Presentation vs Context: The Transporter

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Think of Coins Across. The coins go from one hand to the other.

If you just say, “I’m going to make the coins go from one hand to another,” you are presenting the trick without Presentation and without Context. There is no other layer beyond the impossibility.

Depending on the trick and depending on what your goal is, it sometimes makes sense to present a trick in this manner—just a pure impossibility.

What might a Presentation for Coins Across look like? I wouldn’t be surprised to see a magician saying something along these lines:

“Have you seen Star Trek? Do you know the transporter? Well, in this trick, my hands are like the transporters and these three coins represent the Star Trek crew. I close my hands, and Spock goes across. I know what you’re thinking… Highly illogical, indeed!”

And it would continue on like that with symbolism and bad jokes, which are the two hallmarks of capital-P, Presentations.

A Presentation is something that is not essential to the effect, but it helps tie everything together. It relates the trick to something else people understand and can give some meaning to something that would otherwise seem arbitrary.

What about a Context for Coins Across? That’s something I’ve been playing around with for some time now.

What I wanted to do was take the Presentation given above and just tweak it a little. Instead of the magic being a representative story of transportation, I wanted it to be in the Context of a demonstration of Transporter-like technology.

“Have you seen Star Trek? Do you know the transporter? Well, this is kind of like that. Imagine that technology in the super early stages, and you’ll have some idea what this is all about.”

Then I would introduce a couple of robotic looking wristbands. Something that clamped shut around the wrist, lit up, and made a whirring noise. I would slap on these two wristbands and then do coins across as an example of the type of thing you could do with them.

I searched for something that looked like what I had in my imagination. I couldn’t really find anything. Although these 7RON watches were something I considered.

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But before I invested $300 bucks in this, I decided to use a more modest looking prop. And so I bought a couple of $8 anti-static bracelets.

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They don’t look super sophisticated or technical. But that’s okay because I just wanted to play around with the idea. Most people have no clue what these are. If I ever ran into someone that did and she said, “Hey, that’s just an anti-static bracelet.” I’d say, “Yeah, that’s what I thought too. It does look quite similar.”

I’ve been having a surprisingly fun time with these and I’ll tell you about a few different phases I’ve been doing with them. But first I want to repeat something that I will hopefully not have to mention too many more times. The goal of a Context isn’t to be believed. The goal is to turn the trick from a story they’re watching to one they’re taking part in. A Presentation is 2D. A Context is 3D.

Here’s what I do. I have a quarter in finger palm and each wrist has one of these wristbands on it. I ask for a quarter and reach out my empty hand to receive it and at the same time I put the other quarter into Goshman pinch. So my hands are out flat with one quarter showing. I ask the person to connect the alligator clips from each wristband. As they do I switch so the visible coin is now in pinch and vice-versa. So when they look back the coin is in the opposite hand. About 50% of the time this is a big moment. The other 50% of the time they don’t notice because they weren’t really paying attention yet. Either way I’m now going to send the quarter back to the other hand. So this is either the first or second transposition they’ve witnessed depending on if they noticed the first one.

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I could do more coin phases here, but as much as possible I want this to not feel like just a coin trick that’s done with these wristbands on. It’s not a coin trick, it’s a transportation trick.

So now I take off the wristbands and put them on my spectator and have her hold out her hands. “It takes a few months to master being able to transport physical objects. A coin is about as big as I can go. One woman I met could send a mouse. But I think she also ended up with a lot of dead mice before she got to that point.

“We’ll try to send something that’s only a very small amount of energy.” I take my friend’s hand and drag my finger across her palm very lightly, so it gives her a tickling sensation. I keep it up for 15 seconds or so (or until she orgasms, whichever comes first). I stop and step back. I tell her the sensation should transport and she should be able to feel it in her other palm soon. My hands are on opposite sides of her “receiving” hand, as if to focus her attention and energy on that hand. After a moment she feels a tickle along that palm. [If not obvious, this is done via a loop stretched between my hands.]

Now, a coin going from one hand to another—in the hands of someone you know who has an interest in magic—will probably come off as a magic trick regardless of the Context. But now we have a tickling sensation going from one hand to another. That’s much harder for them to say, “Oh, I know exactly what this experience is all about.”

They’re a little wobbly. At this point, I go in for the kill.

I take one of the wristbands off them and put it on me. So now I’m connected to the spectator. She closes her hand into a fist. I draw an X on my palm with a Sharpie. I close my hand. When I open it the X has vanished. When she opens her hand, the X has appeared on her palm. She flips her shit. [This is Double Cross.]

I’m sure you can imagine how strong that all is together and you can also probably see how I would never have gotten to that combination of effects and methods had I been focusing on a story (Presentation) to go along with Coins Across, rather than a situation (Context) in which to put the trick.

Other ideas:

  • You could do a full Coins Across routine first, and then take off your jacket or hoodie and show the wires running from one wrist to another and then veer off from their to explain how you “really” did it, and follow it up with the other phases.

  • You could clean up the extra coin situation by tangling up the cord a little and then when you open your hands the coin has duplicated rather than transposed. I kind of like the idea, but it feels somehow jokey to me, which is not what I’m going for here. I may try it in the future and see if it has any merit.

  • I haven’t played around with the handling for this just yet but I had the idea for a final phase where I have the wristbands back on me. They give me a coin. I close my hands and have them unhook the alligator clips when I say, “Now.” They do and when I open my hands there is half a coin in each hand.