Thick Skinned - Stone Cold Magic Magazine

Ok… Talk about a weird one. This title was originally created for an effect where coins penetrate my hand from inside of a closed fist.

After I “created” the handling, I later discovered the exact same effect, method and handling elsewhere, so of course, I never published the effect.In the meantime, however, I did write the mini-saga story for it.

Enjoy The Saga: I’ve flattened the penny, but I’m still being nickeled and dimed to death by the other coins. When will it stop? What do I have to do to regain the respect of the bills. Currently, I’m trapped in a human flesh prison. That’ right, you guessed it; I’m in finger palm position in preparation for a Han Ping Chen move.

I don’t know about you, but I get so confused with that move. I never know where I am or where I’m supposed to be. It makes for a real identity crises, which brings me to my point. So many of us quarters are so confused; we don’t even know what we’re supposed to look like.

I just ran into my cousin the other day, and he doesn’t even have his eagle on his back anymore. I’m so confused. We don’t even look like quarters anymore. We’ll adapt and we’ll learn to handle being different. We’ll just have to become Thick Skinned and learn to take what life throws at us, even if it is a ridiculous picture of a 100 year old airplane flying over North Carolina.

Please “like” this episode of The Saga:

Steven Dickinson says:

July 2009 at 6:24 am

Very cool. I had an aha moment and I haven’t even had any coffee yet.

salmononius2 says:

July 2009 at 1:10 pm

I guess I spoke… or typed… too soon. I just asked in the previous saga where the coins went, and here it is! This is really funny, all the reference to the state quarters 😀 (I also hope they’ll go back to the normal eagle backs now that they’re done with the states, but I don’t think that’s likely. They already maybe a Washington D.C. quarter, and I heard from a friend who is a coin collector that they might start making ‘national parks’ quarters.)

Jeff Stone says:

July 2009 at 2:55 pm

@Salmononius (can I call you sal?) – These coin ones are nuts. The darn metals are trying to overthrow the papers.

July 2009 at 2:49 pm

Sure, you can call me Sal, I know as much as anybody how annoying of a name it is to type (although you seem to be getting it in one every time. I usually need to tell people how to spell it 3 or 4 times before they get it more or less right 😀 ).

I’m really glad that I only started reading the Saga’s recently. I finished them all in 2 days, and am dying to read the rest, but I feel really bad for the people who had to wait a month between each chapter 😀

Jeff Stone says:

July 2009 at 5:49 pm

@Sal – Thanks for the easier to spell name. 🙂
My favorite part of the newsletter is also the Saga. I’ve, in the past, asked for feedback on the newsletter, what would people change. One question I asked was, “If you had to kill one column, what would it be?” Most people said “The Saga.” I could never bring myself to kill it because it’s my favorite.

OldZombie says:

July 2009 at 3:16 am

@Jeff – don’t kill anything its all good. I hate the state quarters, so much for using borrowed quarters where a switch is needed, I have read where they say it doesn’t matter, people won’t notice. I disagree, I think people pay more attention than a lot of magicians give them credit for. Just wanted to throw in my two bits… TWO BITS get it! Oh man I SLAY myself!

Steven says:

July 2009 at 11:50 am

Since my wife is from Canada I get access to their $2 coins known as toonies. I’d like to come up with a cool trick with them but just haven’t had the time.

Jeff Stone says:

July 2009 at 1:43 am

@Steven – I know you have Gemstones. You could use some of the S.S. Ideas in the Bonus section to turn a toonie into an American $2.00 bill or 2 $1 dollar coins or something like that. By the way, let’s keep the conversation cryptic if we start talking details about S.S. That’s one that I don’t want getting out of the bag unless people give me their hard-earned cash for it. 🙂

July 2009 at 11:40 am

@Jeff- O.K. on the S.S. info I.C. your point and want to make sure you pad your wallet as compensation for your hard work and nifty ideas.

That’s as cryptic as I can be since I just finished putting in 8 hours at the day job. Any tech magic questions I would send in email anyways.

Jeff Stone says:

August 2009 at 10:57 pm

@OZ – I need a shave and a haircut