Jon Allen - The Insider
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Yep, so if you turn over the top card, that should be--
00:27 Wow.
00:27 Thank you very much.
00:29 It's a miracle, I know.
00:30 I know.
00:30 But let's move on.
00:32 Do you happen to have a Coke bottle or any sort of bottle
00:34 at all?
00:35 Actually, yeah, I do.
00:35 I've got one here.
00:36 What a quirk of fate.
00:37 And let's have a look.
00:40 Just the lid that fits on.
00:41 Check out the bottle.
00:42 Anything?
00:44 No.
00:45 Nothing at all?
00:45 OK.
00:45 Now, do you happen to have a coin on you I can possibly
00:47 borrow?
00:50 Any coin, a 10p, a 2p, a 5p?
00:52 Oh, it's a 10p.
00:53 We can use that.
00:53 We can use that.
00:54 All right.
00:54 Now, before I get to the coin, is there any way into the
00:57 bottle through that lid?
00:59 No.
00:59 Is there any way in through the bottle, through the bottom
01:02 there?
01:02 No.
01:03 No?
01:03 OK.
01:03 What I'd like you to do with your left hand, just hold onto
01:05 the neck of the bottle.
01:07 This is the coin that you have lent me.
01:10 Watch carefully.
01:11 In through the bottom of the bottle.
01:15 You can see that there.
01:16 Yeah.
01:17 Let me just show you that there is no way-- if I can take
01:19 the lid off.
01:19 There we go.
01:19 There's no way out through there unless I shake it out.
01:24 There's your bottle.
01:25 There's your coin.
01:26 I'm off to a better group of people.
01:28 Hi.
01:35 Welcome to the instructional DVD for the insider.
01:39 This is my version of the coin and bottle.
01:42 Coin and bottle is a classic effect of magic.
01:45 Borrow a coin, put it through usually the base of a bottle,
01:50 where the coin is actually even too big to get in through
01:52 the neck of the bottle.
01:54 The usual way is to have a folding coin that goes into
01:58 the neck of the bottle.
02:00 And that's the one that goes inside.
02:02 What I've done is created a little gimmick, a little
02:05 plastic tube with a magnet on the top.
02:08 And this is going to enable me to do the effect, but have the
02:12 bottle sealed with a lid on top.
02:15 So let's see how we go about doing that.
02:23 This is the insider gimmick, just a plastic
02:25 tube with a lid on.
02:27 I shall come to that a little bit later.
02:29 In the base of the gimmick, there is just a
02:32 little magnet there.
02:33 And that's going to be the all important thing.
02:36 The tube itself has been designed so that it will fit
02:40 both the English 10 pence piece, the folding coin there,
02:43 and also the American quarter.
02:46 So that will get folded in, and that sits in nicely there.
02:50 Now the magnet will stick to the metal lid of beer bottles.
02:55 There's any number of different types of beer
02:57 bottles, different shapes.
02:58 But pretty much the openings and the
03:00 lids are all the same.
03:01 So that will stick to the lid.
03:05 And that's when the lid goes on.
03:06 So let's look at that in a little bit more detail.
03:08 This is the insider gimmick.
03:15 And I'll just load the coin in.
03:17 Take the lid off.
03:18 Just fold it in.
03:20 Place it inside.
03:21 And the reason I have provided a lid is that if you want to
03:25 keep this inside your pocket, it will actually stop the coin
03:29 accidentally coming out if it happens to do so.
03:33 So when you're ready to perform, the gimmick is inside
03:36 the pocket, and you can just take off the
03:39 lid, and you're set.
03:41 So that's pretty much, very simply, how you set the gimmick.
03:45 So just to show you how to load the gimmick from your
03:49 pocket, the lid is on.
03:50 It goes into, for me, my right hand, because I'll palm it
03:54 into my right hand.
03:56 It's a very, very simple case just to pop off the lid and
04:00 get it into finger palm.
04:02 So this is the position that I want to be in, because it's a
04:05 very natural position.
04:06 If I'm gesturing to the person I'm borrowing the coin from,
04:10 I can just do that.
04:11 So that's the position.
04:12 If I'm gesturing to the person I'm borrowing the bottle from,
04:16 I can pick things up with it.
04:17 It's a very, very natural palm to be in.
04:21 So that's the starting position for the gimmick.
04:23 This is how I load the inside of the gimmick
04:31 onto the bottle cap.
04:32 So it is finger palmed here.
04:34 We have the bottle.
04:35 And Catherine will check out the lid.
04:38 There's nothing wrong with the lid.
04:39 I'll take it back.
04:41 And as Catherine checks out the bottle, that's when I load
04:44 the gimmick onto the bottle cap.
04:46 So I'll break that down there for you.
04:49 So Catherine's looking at the bottle cap.
04:50 I take it back.
04:52 And what I will be doing is moving from finger palm here
04:56 just up slightly to this position.
04:59 So as the bottle cap comes in, I don't go flat like this.
05:04 But I will put it to the side and then very gently just tip
05:08 it onto the magnet.
05:11 And I've found that that tends to make it a little bit more
05:13 quiet.
05:14 So it goes onto here.
05:16 And then there's no noise.
05:17 So the misdirection again is as I take the bottle cap back,
05:20 I'm handing out the bottle.
05:22 But I can just hold this casually.
05:24 So it looks like I'm just holding the bottle cap.
05:27 So there's nothing wrong with the cap.
05:28 Nothing wrong with the bottle?
05:29 No.
05:30 And now I'm going to load the bottle cap back onto the bottle.
05:33 And if I'm sort of working for one person,
05:35 I can do it head on like this so that the eye line is
05:38 into the bottle cap.
05:39 This is hidden.
05:40 If there's a few people, I'll just curl my fingers
05:43 around the gimmick like this.
05:45 It will go on.
05:47 And it literally goes in there.
05:48 I have to be a little bit careful
05:49 that I know where I'm heading towards.
05:52 But it goes onto there.
05:53 And I can just clip it on.
05:55 And that is the insider gimmick loaded into the bottle.
05:58 This is a little subtlety I employ just
06:06 to re-emphasise the fact that once the cap is on the bottle,
06:10 there's nothing in the bottle.
06:11 So I can show Catherine the lid.
06:13 And I can say, is there any way into the bottle
06:16 through that lid?
06:17 No.
06:18 She can't see the gimmick because the eye line is
06:23 basically in a straight line.
06:24 And the cap is hiding the bottle.
06:25 And what I'm doing is I'm turning the bottle around
06:27 like this.
06:28 My fingers are just hiding the coin up there.
06:32 So it's just going to rotate.
06:33 And now I'm asking, is there any way into the bottle
06:37 through the bottom?
06:38 Now, she's actually looking straight into that bottle.
06:43 But because of the way the glass is made,
06:46 it's all diffused and refracted.
06:48 And you can't actually see the gimmick right
06:52 at this end of the bottle.
06:53 So again, just at full speed, is there any way
06:56 into the bottle through the lid?
06:57 Any way into the bottle through there?
07:00 So what Catherine has just done is
07:01 looked directly into the bottle and not seen anything.
07:06 And so that's just a little subtlety
07:08 to show that the bottle is actually empty.
07:10 No, it isn't.
07:11 It's empty.
07:12 So what I will now do, having loaded the gimmick,
07:19 is borrow a coin.
07:20 Catherine, have you got a coin I can borrow?
07:22 Yes.
07:23 Thank goodness for that.
07:24 It's like the one I gave you.
07:25 OK.
07:26 So I now have the coin.
07:29 And I need Catherine to hold onto the bottle.
07:31 If you notice, my fingers are just at the top,
07:33 but not very worryingly gripping it in case people can see.
07:38 This is very naturally held.
07:39 Just the two fingers is enough.
07:41 I can flip it up so it's horizontal
07:43 and ask Catherine to just grip hold of the lid.
07:47 So now she is doing me a favor by releasing my hands,
07:50 but also hiding the gimmick.
07:52 I'll take the coin in my right hand,
07:54 but I want to transfer it over to my left hand.
07:56 And I'll do this just in a natural gesture
07:58 of rolling up this sleeve, apparently
08:00 taking it into this hand, but not as I roll up this sleeve.
08:05 So the coin is apparently in this hand,
08:07 but I've kept it in this hand.
08:10 And then I'll come straight over and put the coin apparently
08:13 through the bottle.
08:14 So here's the coin.
08:16 It goes one, goes two.
08:18 Now the coin is apparently going to go through here.
08:20 It's hidden here.
08:21 That goes into finger palm.
08:23 And what I will do is just hold on to the wrist.
08:26 This is firstly to steady it, but also to help cover
08:30 or give this hand something to do,
08:32 rather than just keep it down by my side or out the way
08:36 or whatever.
08:37 So full speed, here's the coin.
08:39 And there is the coin through the base of the bottle.
08:46 Now at this point, the other good reason
08:48 for holding onto the wrist is in case somebody
08:51 wants to have a close look or whatever,
08:53 you can just keep their hand stationary
08:56 and all eyes are on this coin here.
08:59 So the coin is in the bottle.
09:01 You can let go.
09:02 I can show it around.
09:03 The gimmick is not exactly invisible,
09:07 but I don't have to worry too much about it now
09:09 because all eyes are literally on this coin in here.
09:13 The coin is in there.
09:14 I can show it around.
09:16 And now I somehow need to get the coin out of the bottle.
09:19 So now I have to get the coin and the gimmick out.
09:29 And I may as well show you how to do that.
09:33 All eyes are on the coin there.
09:35 I take off the lid to essentially show
09:37 that there's no way that the coin can come out
09:39 through that opening.
09:41 As all eyes are on the coin, I've
09:43 taken the lid and the gimmick off.
09:45 And I'm going to pull that gimmick off,
09:49 put it into finger palm, and then I
09:50 can either put the lid onto the table
09:52 or even hand it to someone to hold onto.
09:55 But the bottle cap is not important.
09:58 Everyone knows that the only point of having a bottle cap
10:00 is to seal the bottle.
10:02 This is the important thing.
10:04 So it comes off.
10:06 I can finger palm it.
10:07 And when it goes into finger palm,
10:08 I then just shift it onto my little finger.
10:11 So this now means that my fingers are freed up
10:14 and no one is going to notice this little thing
10:17 on my little finger there.
10:20 The hand can curl in naturally.
10:22 So it's just hidden.
10:24 So now all the emphasis is on the coin here.
10:27 And I can say it's not going to come out.
10:29 But as with all coin in bottles, the force
10:33 of me throwing the bottle down is
10:36 going to force the coin to collapse and shoot out
10:39 of the bottle.
10:40 And I'm going to catch it in this hand.
10:42 It might work first time, second time, third time.
10:45 Eight or nine times, something's wrong.
10:48 So it's going to come out.
10:49 It's actually come out.
10:50 You can see, so it's just in my hand here.
10:52 So it looks a bit busy.
10:54 But it's actually quite a natural position to be in.
10:57 The coin is out.
10:58 And at the same time as that coin coming out,
11:01 this coin is going to drop into an outstretched hand or two,
11:05 maybe, maybe two, just in case.
11:07 So the coin, I'll put that back in.
11:09 So as it comes out, I'm going to drop that coin
11:11 so it looks like it's come from the bottle.
11:15 So all in one.
11:16 Actually, if you can cup your hands for me.
11:18 It can't come out.
11:20 And there it is.
11:21 So there's the coin.
11:23 There's the bottle.
11:24 Here's all the gimmicks in my hand.
11:26 They've got everything that's examinable in that hand.
11:29 And that's how to get the coin out the bottle.
11:31 Here's a subtlety that you can use
11:39 if you are a little bit worried about the fold being
11:44 seen on the coin.
11:46 Or actually, it's just a good way
11:48 to present it and maybe give away
11:49 a little bit of a souvenir.
11:51 What I've done is just write my initials on the coin.
11:56 Now, you won't probably be able to see it,
11:58 but the horizontal lines go right across the fold.
12:04 So from a distance, you wouldn't be
12:06 able to tell that there's a fold on the coin.
12:09 So this does two things.
12:12 First of all, when the coin is in there,
12:16 it just gives you a little bit of cover from the fold.
12:20 But it's also a case of, well, he's written on a coin.
12:24 There's a coin with writing on it.
12:26 It must be the same coin.
12:27 And then when I give it back, they'll
12:29 have a coin with my initials on.
12:31 And it'll just give them something
12:33 to remember me by, as well as the performance.
12:36 So the gimmick coin will have the signature on.
12:41 So all you will need to do is borrow the coin
12:45 and say to the person, I'm just going to write my initials
12:50 on the coin.
12:52 So this is the initials I've written on the coin.
12:56 This is the initials that I've written on the gimmick.
12:58 They don't have to be exactly the same,
13:01 but pretty much near enough.
13:03 So this coin will get switched out for this coin.
13:06 And as I say, it's just a nice little subtlety.
13:09 There's a large number of different types of bottles
13:18 that you can do the coin and bottle with.
13:21 With the metal caps, I would say that the insider gimmick
13:24 could be used with about 99.9% of them.
13:27 Whether it's just a standard cola bottle, it will fit inside.
13:32 You've got different shaped bottles, as well.
13:35 This one is a little bit more squat.
13:37 And if you notice, the angle here is quite severe.
13:40 So with a regular coin and bottle,
13:43 where you just load the coin, the coin's going to open out.
13:47 And it's pretty much going to fall in to the bottle.
13:50 So if you wanted to load it in, it
13:52 can't be gripped by the bottle.
13:55 But with the insider gimmick, it will literally
13:59 stick to the lid, and you have no problems
14:02 with that sort of bottle.
14:04 Those two are the transparent bottles.
14:07 Obviously, it works really well with the color bottles.
14:11 For the brown, there's absolutely no way
14:15 that you can see the gimmick through there.
14:17 So if you wanted to leave that bottle on the table,
14:22 that's fine.
14:22 No one's going to have a little look inside the bottle there.
14:27 Likewise, if you've got a large bottle, as well,
14:29 this is the green one.
14:31 Again, it will just be loaded in there.
14:34 There is a bigger distance to the end of the bottle.
14:39 But if you give it a tap and just a shake,
14:43 the coin will go down there.
14:45 And that's how you can load the coin
14:48 into pretty much any number of different types of bottles.
14:52 A lot of times when people are holding bottles of beer,
15:01 or they've just finished them, they're on the tables,
15:03 or whatever, they don't have the caps.
15:05 So just one little tip is to carry around just a spare cap
15:11 with you.
15:12 So if you get to the table or if you're with a group of people,
15:15 they probably haven't got the caps with them.
15:17 So you can apparently look to the floor and go,
15:20 oh, hang on a second.
15:21 We'll use this one.
15:23 So that just gets you into being able to put a cap on.
15:26 And even though all the bottles are
15:29 different sizes and different makes and whatever,
15:32 I think pretty much all the caps are the same size.
15:34 So even if the cap isn't from this particular bottle,
15:38 it will still fit and you can go on.
15:40 So that just makes it look almost impromptu.
15:44 That's a free tip just for you.
15:45 So that's the instructional DVD for the Insider.
15:54 I hope you enjoy it.
15:55 I hope you go out and perform it and you
15:57 get lots of great reactions.
15:58 And that's it.
16:00 Thank you much.
16:00 I'm off for a beer.
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16:30 (upbeat music)
16:33 Mhm. Mhm.
16:34 (dramatic music)