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July 04 Belated Fourth..
Hope no one got their fingers blown off. We witnessed several close calls this evening. ....Always fun. July 03 Thank you Paul.
My friend Paul Vigil found this performance of Bucketmeister in Iowa City and sent it to me. I was very happy to see this, I was about 10 feet behind where this camera guy was standing. He had some small flatscreen job, I am surprised at the quality and sound quality. Anyway, I suggest that anyone who has ever picked up a guitar to seriously check this out in it's entirety. The man is a monster. Now back to polishing triple threat shells.....
July 02 AttentionATTENTION EBAY BUYERS:
ALL MY WORK HAS BEEN HALLMARKED SINCE DECEMBER 2004. I HAVE NEVER USED CLAD COINS TO MAKE ANY OF MY GAFFS. BEWARE OF IMITATIONS.
I'VE ORDERED A COMPLETE ALPHABET AND NUMBER SET. I'LL BE MAKING SOME VERY CUSTOM SETS THAT WILL HAVE SERIAL NUMBERS ASSIGNED TO THE BUYERS....OR UPON REQUEST FOR STANDARD ITEMS.
OR POSSIBLY THE BUYER'S INITIALS ALONG WITH A NUMBER AND A CERTIFICATE, A SMALL EXTRA CHARGE FOR THIS SERVICE....WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?
June 26 I'll be gone........until tomorrow. Going to see Tom Waits in good old St. Looey tonight. WooHoo.
Putting the final touches on the batch of Triple Threats, they took about 2 weeks longer than I expected, and then I should be able to finish the UWCs and Reels next week. I'll have the reels posted up here when they are ready to go out the door. June 22 Dang, getting the right imfo must really be a bitch..."Say you want to buy a coin set and that you aren't able or willing to just buy several identical things from several craftsmen/dealers to compare them. You need to choose something based on online information because you simply cannot afford to go badly wrong with things that costs hundreds of Dollars.
You browse the forum and suddenly you read people saying that one person frequently delivers unusable products and that the online info to the contrary is misleading. And others again are saying that no... you do need to buy from person A because person B lets you wait a year and maybe never intends to send something at all if he doesn't for some reason like you personally. And what about person C and person D who some claim are brilliant and other are ready to ridicule for their alleged poor workmanship. And who stole what from whom? Those stories goes in several directions.
It is a very frustrating situation for those who do NOT have any sort of die hard loyalty to one "camp" and who simply need to figure out what to buy or not. With no prior experience. It does look a little like magic craftsmen are all madly ranting vengeful plagiarizing primadonnas who get occasional messages from God telling them how to deal with the customers. It would be very bizarre were it all true.
People obviously should make up their own minds but when they cannot compare these things side by side it is difficult to know what to think at this point."
AND OF COURSE......
"I don't the people who offer the really strong opinions do so based on little or no experience on the subject.
Those who chime in without being directly involved are perhaps potential gaff buyers who find this conflict situation very difficult to deal with. I think a lot of people don't know what to think or who to trust. " DUDE....THIS HAS TO BE SOME OF THE MOST REDICULOUS, DEPRESSING SHIT I HAVE EVER LAID EYES ON. MC DOES NOT DISSAPPOINT. I DIDN'T COPY THE GREEN PART SO YOU COULD GUESS WHO THE AUTHOR IS. BUT HERE IS A SMALL HINT....
NO, NO...THAT'S NOT IT.......... HERE IT IS.............
HERE ARE 3 PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO BUT WAIT FOR THEIR COINS FROM LASSEN. THEY HAVE BEEN WAITING A VERY LONG TIME. AND BECOMING MORE JADED AND BITTER BY THE MINUTE.....AND CONFUSED ABOUT COINGAFFER PERSONALITIES.
.....................BUT SOMEDAY.................THESE FACES WILL TRANSFORM INTO NEAR CHERUBIC GLOWING ORBS......WHEN THEY REALIZE THEY MADE THE RIGHT DECISION. June 20 @ 11:52 pmPage views today: 1140 Page views this week: 4966 Page views within the last hour: 44 Elves.....Friday, June 2017 sets of UWC near complete, and final assembly on the utitlity reels.
27 Triple Threats coming along nicely.
And just arrived today, the instructional dvds for the utility reel. 42 minutes running time. This includes some heavy tipping of really secret cool stuff that I came up with. One application alone is unique and worth the entire price of admission....or 2 admissions if you are comparing it to Bob Kohler's Final Answer. 18 admissions, if you are comparing it to Killer Red Caps, etc. I'm hoping that the 40 or so owners of these reels will keep the imformation for themselves and I won't see this up on youtube. June 13 Woah.....Numbers BabyPage views today: 970 ..............@10:48 Pm. I could either have like 500 guys looking twice a day...or a really compulsive 100 guys looking 9.7 times a day. Which do you think? Brett??? Nah, you'd be in the like 50 guys looking 19.4 times a day group.
 I have 4 more Ramsay stacks about done. George, Brett...you guys still in? And one other no name guy that said he emailed me a week ago. So I think there is one that is not spoken for yet. WAY above the call of duty.....
OOOOF. This is a RECENT Schoolcraft flipper. Yeah, it's a work of art. Amazing craftsmanship. If I ever sell anything that looks like this, please, shoot me or get me some tri-focals and a bag of Depends. You can stand behind this all you want, and I don't know if it is BEYOND the call of duty when you are repairing and replacing shit REPEATEDLY until the customer is happy. BEWILDERED is probably more like it. This flipper looks like it would be great for performances at the SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND. And BTW...I am a super nice guy too. Just ask me.
How much is one of these? 95 SMACKERS YOU SAY? Tango has it all over this shit. Look at the cracks or whatever that is in the steel insert part. I should mention that the guy that sent me this picture also says that when it opens, it opens cock-eyed and hangs up. I can see that in the picture. I hear all the time that it has sharp edges that break the bands continuously...and now I can see why. Ha. And finally...words from 2 of magic's most respected charlatans. "Over the years I've owned, used and examined virtually every type of coin gaff in existence. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly...without a doubt Jamie Schoolcraft produces the best gaffed coins I've ever seen." Master Craftsman....YEAH, WITH A CHISEL. "Jamie's coingaffs are unequaled in my opinion.” Does this mean that there are no coingaffs that are equally shitty? You can see the real politics that propelled Schoolcraft to where he is today. These 2 guys have both seen and know my work....and they are simply lying to you. Here is a sad thing....Jamie Schoolcraft is not selling this stuff cheap and he is obviously pumping it out hand over fist. He is probably making alot more money than me. If that is the name of the game, I guess he is winning...but his customers surely can't be.
June 12 Diary of Ben Frank...I guess we all know he was a perv.
And he's pretty wailin' looking on his coin. I have this one set with expanded shell and 4 coins. All the coins are nice shape with nice square edges and good milling...softish appearance and feel with good definition. $160. C/S and ISHTARISH SETSISHTARISH...I like that.
These is 2 C/S sets. I couldn't get the lighting right, so I took 2 pics...one with flash so the pennies would show right. These are the really old, late 1800's Queen Vic english pennies. These are normally fairly hard to come by, for me anyway. A while ago Kevin Gardner sent me a nice stack of them and I'm just getting around to using a few of them. (BTW, Kevin, I made you a set of these for your troubles. Thanks.) Anyway, the top set is made with the slave-trader Chris Columbus expo coins. $90 for that. And the bottom set is a normal walker. $80 for that. I was doing my favorite c/s routine...Bob Elliot's Citation Silver... with this Columbus set, and it almost ended up in my pocket instead of up here. I never keep any of the good stuff for myself, but man, this is a really nice contrast set.
This Ishtarian set has 2 c/s coins that are opposites of one another and includes 2 each of the ungaffed coins. $170 for this set. OK..... BRETT...ISHTAR SET GEORGE....COLUMBUS SET LARRY....WALKER SET June 11 Magnetic Ramsay StacksI have these 2 @ $200 each. Very powerful magnets, great for fake squaring and near impossible displays.
I should mention that these can be used as a 3 or a 4 coin stack, since the top coin is removable....so you can do Bobby's Ramsay routine with a 3 coin stack. Nice routine, I have an explanation video of it, made for me personally. If I was like Thomas Wayne I would say...nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah...I have it and you can never see it. But since I am not that big braggart blow hard, I may sell copies secretly to Eric DeCamps and others.
SOLD AMERICAN These 2 sets went to Callon Lee and Josh Gilbert. Small amount of Sunday venting........but I have good cause and it's not magic related. It's teenager related...I haven't killed anything yet, so I guess it's working. Before it's all over I may also have to write the entire "Why I don't like Tim Trono" AND "Why I don't like Dean Dill" sagas to stay calm. Hopefully not.
And yes, I do have a wall of shame. I think I kept telling Trono that his order was coming for about a year before he finally figured it out that he'd punked me for the last time. One of my customers told me years later that Timmeh was still trying to get him to buy gaffs from me...for him.
And yes, I am working on Sunday, and I can do this while the quick-set glue is drying. :)
AND TO REITERATE: BRANDED BY TIM TRONO, AS TOLD TO ME, IS NOT BY TIM TRONO AT ALL. THE IDEA OF PUTTING IT ON A BIC LIGHTER WAS CONCEIVED BY TONY MILLER IN OHIO. THE RIGHTS WERE SOLD TO PENGUIN'S MAGIC. PENGUINS TOOK IT TO THE IMFAMOUS ROB STIFF OF MAGIC MAKERS TO BE MANUFACTURED. SOMEHOW MURPHY'S MAGIC NOW HAS THIS TRICK FROM ROB STIFF AND IS ADVERTISING IT AS BEING CONCEIVED BY TIM TRONO. HOW DO THESE THINGS HAPPEN? MURPHY'S DOES BUSINESS WITH ROB STIFF, WHO DOES BUSINESS WITH PENGUINS. AND WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE THREADS ABOUT BOYCOTTING CERTAIN MAGIC DEALERS? GEEZ, I GUESS THAT WAS WORTHWHILE.
AND HOW THE HECK DOES TRONO END UP WITH THE CREDIT FOR INVENTING THIS TRICK? WAS THAT SOME OTHER SHADY DEAL? SOMETHINGL LIKE..."HEY, TRONO, I DON'T CARE IF YOU TAKE THE CREDIT FOR THE DAMN THING YOURSELF, AS LONG AS I GET MY MONEY....."
AND LOOK....DAVID BLAINE SAYS IT IS AMAZING. COOL. HE ALSO SAYS...."I would need to own Jamie's gaffs even if I didn't perform magic." NOW THAT'S AMAZING.
A TRICK FROM ERIC MASON
"Twenty years ago the late Eric Mason devised an effect called Stigma. It was an original idea involving the number and suit of a named card appearing as blisters on the performer’s fingers." NOW THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING. THANKS ED!
WELL, I GUESS THERE IS NO ARGUING WITH PRINTED WORD. LOOKS LIKE TRONO IS LIKE THE 18TH GUY TO INVENT THIS. ALL PRAISE TO TIM TRONO THE DOUCHE...YOUR ORIGINAL CONCEPT MUST'VE BEEN TO CHANGE THE NAME. GREAT JOB!
OH WAIT. NEVER MIND. I SEE THE DIFFERENCE NOW. THE DIAGRAM FROM ERIC MASON CLEARLY SHOWS THE BLISTER ON A DIFFERENT FINGER.
June 04 Check out the Crown...
These are the sculpts for the copper and brass crowns I am having minted right now. I really like the Queen's head and the detail on the other side is amazing. This is really awesome, the guy just really made everything perfect. These are sculpted by hand and then an epoxy reverse of this is made. The giant epoxy coin is then copied by machine onto the dies that stamp the coin. Unlike the dollar size crowns that I have been using that have high spots in the middle of the coin, this crown is designed to be sure that the rim of the coin is the highest part of the coin...to protect the face and to assure smooth sliding when rubbing the coins together, everything on the faces of the coin will sit below the rims...or border, as they call it. Way cool. So, first run, I am having 400 copper and 100 brass made. Also the half dollar size Miracle Enjoyment coins are being minted at this same time. Same deal....400 copper and 100 brass. We love the copper chinese coins, I think these half dollar sized ones are going to be sweet! I look for these darkened copper chinese coins to become the new magician standard instead of the painted black ones. The coppers offer every bit as much contrast while looking much more like an authentic old coin. ........squashed it. June 03 Buckethead Rocks IowaJust saw Buckethead tonight in Iowa City. A small bar venue with like 400 people crammed in one small, smoking permitted, no ventilation, mf 900 degree dungeon of a room. People were sweating their asses off. And there was Buckethead, donning a new pure white Bucket and matching white SG. Long sleeves, long hair, the plastic expressionless mask, and a huge light cannister beamed like inches from his Bucket. How did he not melt? And he cranked for like 2 solid hours without a break or saying anything. He only stopped to do his martial arts and robot thing ...and handed out toys for a minute or two.
Also on the venue was "That One Guy". You'll just have to check him out yourself. And "That One Guy" jammed with Bucket at the end of the show. One thing for sure....Buckethead is a virtuoso. No doubt about it. May 30 Scotch and Soda, Gin and Tonic, BBQ Potato Chip flavored Schnapps and Everclear
Blue Hawaiian: The "King"s favorite drink....Equal parts of Sterno and Aqua Velva, swizzle with Quaylude. Here are 3 Scotch and Sodas made with Pristine 1921 Morgans and soon to be extinct copper crown with cross. Included switch-in coin is an authentic 400+ year old chinese coin, and of course the extra copper. Custom brass bang ring is specially fit to the shell for a hand press fit. This will preserve the finely tuned fit by stabalizing the shell ...well into your great-great grandson's life and beyond. Comes with new JOL coin purse. $235 each. May 29 JOL PursesWhen I was recently visiting NYC, all the coin magicians there had their coins in these beautiful little Jerry O'Connell purses from London. I hadn't seen them before and the imput was like....you need these for your coins. So, I just got a box of them. They are just elegantly made!
The single purses are small. You can see in the 2nd picture above, it contains 4 silver dollars and shell. That is stuffed, you couldn't fit anything more in there and still be able to close the purse, but 4 dollars and shell are probably the most you'd want anyhow.
The coin tidy is very nicely made. It has 6 small compartments, and although the compartments are big enough for silver dollars, you wouldn't be able to put 6 dollars in there. To me, the coin tidys are somewhat impractical. Something about rolling out this strip to aquire your coins.....it just seems much more natural to open a purse. Anyway, I wanted to give them a try, and I do see magicians using them, so I got 10 of them. There is one excellent use for the tidy that came to mind.....use it for your U3F set! It makes perfect sense, you can hand out the 3 coins at the beginning of the routine, so opening the tidy and removing obviously only THREE coins..is a good thing. Pictured next to Thomas Waynes very crappy U3F wallet, the tidy is heads and shoulders above in quality, looks, AND practicality. The Wayne blunder allowed the coins to FALL OUT when closed.
I have 90 of the smooth leather, and 10 pebble finish, small purses @ $10 each. The tidys are all smooth finish @ $25 each. |
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but I hear that this minion virus may come back way more virulent the second time around, we'll pray for the best.......