The Man With The Two Dollar Hands

Frank Garcia often said, “My name is Frank Garcia. I’m often referred to as the man with the million dollar hands.” I’ve often said, “My name is Jeff Stone. I’m often referred to as the man with the two dollar hands.”

Effect:

You borrow 3 one dollar bills and crumple them up into a ball. They keep magically jumping from your pocket to your hand. Then at the end you’re left with two of the bills merging into a single two dollar bill.

Method:

This is a standard “two in the hand, one in the pocket routine.” For the unfamiliar, the basic idea is this:

• Three bills (wadded up into balls) are on the table and a fourth is secretly hidden in your right hand. A two dollar bill is wadded up in your right pocket.
• Grab two of the bills with your right hand placing all three (apparently only two) bills into your left hand as you quickly close your fist as you say, “two in the hand.”
• Then pick up the remaining bill from the table and apparently place it in your pocket, but actually finger palm it as you say “and one in the pocket.”
• Show that there are three in your left hand (apparently the one from the pocket has magically returned).
• Place the three from your left hand onto the table and repeat, but slightly different . . .
• This time, however, leave the bill in the pocket for real. But finger palm the $2 bill.
• Again show that the third ball has magically reappeared in your left hand.
• Drop them on the table and repeat, but slightly different . . .
• This time, pick up one bill and place it and (secretly) the $2 bill into your left hand as you say, “one in the hand.”
• Then pick up the two on the table and legitimately place them in your pocket as you say “and two in the pocket.”
• You then reveal that the two bills came back, but they merged together as you open your hand and reveal a $1 and a $2 bill

Notes:

For those familiar with the standard two in the hand, one in the pocket plot, you’ll see some advantages to this handling over some of the others. For one, most handlings like this with a kicker ending require you to do an unnatural looking vanish when putting the bills in your hand for the final time. Also, the versions that require switching an object like this are often awkward as well. In this case, it’s simple and magical.

Further, the nice thing about this is that you can give the two dollar bill back to the spectator and let them keep it. It doesn’t cost you anything, and $2 bills are relatively easy to come by. Just ask your bank. As you hand the bills to the spectator you can “apologize” that their bills are now merged together. The beauty of this is that they’ll likely want to keep the bill because most people think that $2 bills are very rare. Further, they probably won’t spend it, but instead, tell their friends about the magician who made their borrowed $1 bills merge together. You might consider putting your contact info on a sticker on the $2 bill.

Also, it’s possible to crumple up a $2 bill in such a way that it can look close enough like a $1 bill. That being the case, you don’t need a fourth $1 bill to perform the effect. You just need the $2 bill and nothing else. When secretly loading into the left hand, it will blend in with the $1 bills and you don’t draw attention to it. It’s all about the number of objects going from 2 to 3. As long as you can keep track of the $2 bill during the performance, you can still perform the entire trick without the extra $1. Keep a pocket full of crumpled up $2 bills in your right pocket and you can do this any time. Just borrow three bills and go.

Coins

Of course, you can use coins instead of bills. You’ll just need to secretly have a quarter and a half dollar on you and you’re good to go. Borrow three quarters and do the effect as described above. Then at the end, you have to modify the handling a little bit to avoid the coins clinking together when there’s only supposed to be one coin in your hand. So you’ve just made the three quarters appear in your hand the second time. You’ve already ditched the extra quarter in your pocket and secretly finger palmed the half dollar in your right hand.

This time say that you’re going to change it up a little bit. You’re going to do one in the hand and two in the pocket. Then, with your right hand secretly hiding the finger palmed half dollar, you pick up one quarter at your right finger tips as you say, “one in the hand.” Then with your left hand, grab the other two quarters from the table and place them in your left pocket as you say “and two in the pocket.” Then with a shake of your right hand, you bring the quarter into your hand and let it clink against the half.

The sound will catch them off guard. It appears as if the coins have jumped from the pocket back to your hand. They’ve already seen it happen twice; now they’ve heard it. However, when you open your hand, you show that two of the borrowed quarters have merged into one fifty-cent piece. You end the same by letting them keep the coin.