Coin magic: Inner script - Karel Fox double-sided sticky tape

I believe that it was Karel Fox the great trade show magician who published the idea of using a strip of double-sided sticky tape to stick a coin to your thumb. This lets you make a coin appear at your fingertips and dissapear again quite easily. It is only good acting that will make it a believable illusion however.

I use this gimmick to introduce the idea of an inner script. I show the effect by doing a quick misers dream routine then demonstrate how it works. After making a gimmick and familiarising themselves with it I have the student place it aside. I then hold out a coin at just above eye level and just with their reach and ask them to take it from my hand. I have them do this a few time while observing what it is they do when they take a coin but it is important that the first couple of times they do not know they should be observing. They are more likely to do it naturally when they are not observing.

I then have them imaginge that I am not there and that when I hold the coin up it is as though it has appeared in mid air. They are to notice it then reach out and take it.

After doing this a few times they are to repeat the action with no coin at all.

Only after we have done this do I reintroduce the gimmick. They should now have a good inner script and physical script of what they are trying to mimic.