Jay Sankey’s New Coin Video Gets Big PropsInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Jay Sankey

Revolutionary Coin Magic has been out for over a year now. I?m not prompt but I am at least not punctual. The best thing about watching this DVD, as in the case of the Zarro DVD, is that you learn how to do magic you?ll actually do. I watched the Zarro Shuffle DVD about a thousand times ? I think my DVD laser actually burned a groove into the DVD and made it un-watchable after awhile.

The advertisements for the DVD proclaim that Mr. Sankey offers ?ground breaking routines.? I think that is true. When you watch his DVD, you notice that he seems preoccupied with making the magic real for the audience and not at all concerned that his methods aren?t the difficult type of sleights that finger flickers would crave. These are sleights that serve only one purpose ? to impress the audience that what you have done is magical, not a clever sleight of hand.

The difference between Mr. Sankey?s approach and other magic videos where the amazing sleights are taught is that Mr. Sankey teaches you the effect and then teaches the sleight needed to perform the effect rather than a sleight and then either offer no applicable effects or offer one lame effect.

If you want to learn a sleight for the sake of learning a sleight, go to Bobo?s Coin Magic and ignore the tricks and focus only on the sleights. You and I have both been to conventions where the kids (those younger than me ? so virtually 98 percent of the population of those who attend magic conventions) stay up all night in the hallways, doing sleights with cards or coins but without an effect.

Jay Sankey

In fact, I was in a bar (go figure) in Colon, Michigan, and a young man ? I think he was 55 years old ? showed me how Jay Sankey taught him to do a double-lift with one hand and shoot the card across the table. He did it about twenty times and almost knocked my drink over with the high-velocity card shot across the table. But there was no trick, no effect. I was trying to think of when I would want to shoot a double-lifted card across the table to the audience. I couldn?t think of a single trick in my entire five trick repertoires that would benefit by its addition.

The Jay Sankey that showed the young whipper-snapper how to do the double-lift across the table was not the same Mr. Sankey that is on the video. Every effect, and there are a bunch, is offered as an effect and the method is offered only to accomplish the effect.

Okay, we?re late enough in the review for me to tell you something that I would not tell everyone else. I mean, this is a magician to magician thing. My favorite effect is shown on the demo video of the DVD you can see on the Penguin Magic site.

Mr. Sankey shows a coin in his hand, moves it from palm to palm and then it vanishes. He shows both hands to be empty and then it returns only to vanish again. I saw Mr. Sankey perform this live and in person. (As opposed to ?dead? or ?not in person.? What??).

If you like Card College or Bobo?s book, you will love this DVD. I know you can learn coin sleights on the street. And that you can figure out what sleights you want to master according to what the column in Genii says you should learn. But, trust me, if you want a video you?ll watch over and over, this is the one. (The other one is Bob Cassidy?s Mental Miracles).

What about the anti-Christian stuff, Timbo?

Well, that is true and it is a point. Mr. Sankey is not a fan of Jesus Christ and doubts, vocally, the possibility that salvation through Jesus Christ is possible or even necessary. Actually, he mocks Christ and Christianity. Okay, so I know that I shouldn?t hold him up for the public consumption. I should attack him and argue to you, the consumer, that you should boycott him and his DVD.

I can?t tell you to boycott, Mr. Sankey. He is entitled to his opinion and his jokes are nothing more than jokes. I don?t know if he really thinks Jesus was unnecessary because we are all going to die and that?s all there is. I could guess it from his comments but I won?t make that leap. I can?t judge his motives and I can?t really judge his actions. Ignore his comments as uninformed. Enjoy the video for what it can teach you ? great effects, not just great sleights.

Check out the video and order the DVD from Penguin Magic.

Inside Magic Rating: Three and a Half out of Four.