Buy from MagicBox (Use code MFB for 10% off) – https://magicbox.uk.com/products/coin-box-by-nev-blenkinsopp
Buy this from Lulu – https://www.lulu.com/shop/nev-blenkinsopp/coin-box/paperback/product-q659pm9.html
– Intro / Brief Overview
What’s up everybody and welcome to Magic For Beginners, my name is Keith and in today’s video we’re going to be looking at a magic book called Coin And Box by Nev Blenkinsopp. This book is about coin magic and more specifically Okito box coin magic. If you’ve never heard of an Okito Box before, it’s a classic prop used in coin magic which is designed to create illusions of coins vanishing, appearing, passing through solid objects and so much more. If you already use an Okito Box, you’ll know how powerful it can be, or if you wanted to start learning some routines with it, then this book would be a fantastic start.
– What Is The Book About/Who Is It Aimed At?
As stated, this book is all about routines and tricks using the Okito Box and coins and there’s 25 total routines included in this book which includes full instructions and colour photos in the book, but the best thing is that all of the routines are actually on Nev’s YouTube channel too, so if you struggle with visioning what the trick looks like to perform, then you can head over there and see the performance in full and read along with the book at the same time and learn the routine.
The book is aimed at magicians who are doing coin magic, or want to do coin magic. I’d say this is probably for intermediate magicians and above due to some of the coin sleights which is required to do some of these routines, but like I said; all of the routines come with full colour photographs along with written instructions on how to perform the routine and it’s quite thorough in terms of how to hole the box or the coins and how to do specific things.
Each routine is also broken down into a description of the effect, the requirements to perform the trick including where and how is best to perform the routine along with coins or other things needed for that. It’s then followed by the performance breakdown text along with afterthoughts too, which is a great way to structure the book and routines.
– How Much Does It Cost?
Let’s talk about costing and where this can be bought. This costs £30 and can be bought from Lulu or from Nev directly and for the money you’re spending, you get a spiral bound box which is 11 inches x 8 1/2 inches and has over 100 pages which includes the text and full colour photos as previously stated.
Link: https://www.lulu.com/shop/nev-blenkinsopp/coin-box/paperback/product-q659pm9.html
Buy from MagicBox (Use code MFB for 10% off) – https://magicbox.uk.com/products/coin-box-by-nev-blenkinsopp
– Stand Out Sections/Ideas
As a stand out of the book, I love how there’s that many routines which you can do with one prop and some coins. You may think that there’s only one routine where you put some coins in the box and you open it up and one has gone missing and you reveal it somewhere else and you rinse and repeat until all of the coins have gone, but there’s so much more that can be learnt from this book.
For me, I love the trick called ‘A Big Finish’ as having a coin routine where you produce a giant coin has always been something I’ve loved the visual of that happening and this is one of those routines where you can do that.
But there are some other routines where dull coins emerge polished and gleaming, the box itself changes size and the coins visibly shrink inside the box too. Another stand out is something which I love too and that’s IKEA. This is a fun way to introduce the coin box and you produce a small IKEA bag and say they now sell DIY boxes and you can build up the box infront of the audience before you start any routines.
– Positives
Let’s talk about some positives and I do have a few of them. One of them as I’ve stated already is the full colour photographs. In a world of magic books especially the older ones, sometimes when you read the books, the instructions can be a little difficult to follow or understand but with the photos, then you can look at those as reference and it helps a lot with that.
Another positive that I have is that I love the ring bound part of the book which means that when I’m sat at a table learning some tricks and reading the book, it’ll lay flat which makes it so much easier to learn with, rather than having to open a book to a page and then put something weighted on the page to keep the book from closing, this is a win from me with the spiral bounding.
I also love that there’s the full video performances on Nev’s YouTube channel too so if I’m still unsure about the effect, then I can watch him performing that said effect and then work along with that to try and learn it.
Another positive for me is that in each effect in the afterthoughts section, there’s information in there which includes references to where ideas have come from and goes into depth stating which pages in which books the ideas or inspiration has come from.
– Negatives
One negative that I have to say which may be an issue for some people, but this is a generic thing for coin magic across all of magic, is that currency from place to place changes so a lot of the routines in the book requires things like half dollars, South African coins, but there’s also some UK coins in there too. So if you’re like me and live in the UK, then if you don’t have any half dollars in your magic collection, you’ll have to get some, but you can get them cheaply on eBay. Alternatively if you’re from America and you have the half dollars, but don’t have the UK coins then you’ll have to purchase these.
You could probably have a check of some of your current currency to see if you can swap out the coins used for your native currency, but it’ll depend on your Okito Box and if the coins will fit too and if you can use them for the routine.
Don’t let that negative put you off though, as this is a fantastic book and filled to the brim with effects and ideas and I’m sure even just reading through, you’ll even come up with some ideas of your own to perform.
If you’re into your coin magic, why not check out the video on the screen now which is a review of Pretty Penny by Michael John which is a super visual magic trick which could go hand in hand with some of your coin routines learned from this book, but until next time… See ya!