"Acting Naturally: Elemental Coin Magic" DVD by Allen Zingg
Suggested Retail USD$35.00
Available from your favorite dealer
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

"Acting Naturally: Elemental Coin Magic", Allen Zingg's newest DVD, is a collection of coin sleights, routines, and thoughts on coin sleights and routines that, with that thinking, is now required viewing for anyone working with coins.

That's a broad statement, I know, and I make it without the slightest bit of embellishment.

You see, "Elemental Coin Magic" addresses the one thing that kills, butchers really, most coin magic: the need for naturalness. I know, I know, it's hammered in our heads from every book we ever touch that we must do all magic "naturally". And when it comes to a good deal of the sleights we do, it's really not that difficult. Oh, sure, we have to think about it a little, but all told it's really nothing earthshakingly difficult.

But when it comes to those little discs of metal and being natural? Well, that's a different story. Think about it. How many times have we seen claw-footed classic palms or finger-palms with death-grips? Even the more casual things, the false takes and puts, sometimes look as hackneyed as they feel. By the time we get into acquitments and concealments, we're already so far from naturalness in action and behavior we've lost any of the artistry of sleight of hand magic.

I say all of this, of course, because I speak from experience. I know for a fact that my coin work is often as unnatural as you can get. I know, also from experience, that my malady is the same one shared by way too many coin workers. I therefore "settled": I settled on the few coin routines that I can make look natural, and the fewer sleights which I, again, I can make appear natural to accomplish those routines. That "settling" is another malady shared by too many.

Enter Allen Zingg and his "Elemental Coin Magic".

Zingg's video concentrates on one thing: helping us make our coin magic natural.

That's a simple goal, but I didn't think Zingg, or anyone else, could teach that. I was a firm believer in it only came about through more and more progressively harder sessions of trial and error and error and error again, then more trial and more tribulation. I was wrong about that; Zingg reached his goal on this disc easily and, I suspect, moreso than he thought (more on that later).

Being who we are and what we're interested in, I have to say that there is little new on this disc in the way of sleights; most of the mechanics Zingg teaches are in Bobo or Roth or other sources (all pointed out by Zingg in his instruction). The routines themselves, though, are very nice, very well-structured, and, simply, damn fine magic. I won't go into a lot of details there because it's what you'd expect from coin magic: appearances, vanishes, transpositions, and the like. I will mention that the routines, with only one exception, use nothing more than regular old coins -- no gimmicks in sight -- but only because that shows the accent on the material here, which is less about the routines and the sleights than how to do them properly, naturally.

That's what you're really getting here: the various hints and tips and thinking that sells coin magic. There's one concealment on here, one of the first things taught, that Zingg spends about five minutes on. It's a simple thing -- think "Ramsay Subtlety" with a twist -- but Zingg explores it to its core. How he holds his hands, how we would hold our hands, the placement of the fingers, the body language involved even beyond the hands, the psychology of it all... At the end of that five minutes, you've learned one way to conceal a coin in the hand, but you've also learned far more than you probably ever would have thought about when it comes to concealing things without the slightest hint of anything going on except your hand being naturally empty.

Zingg does that with every sleight on the video. You get, well, a master's course in acting naturally while you do all the sneaky bits you need to. A false transfer, taught in Bobo and occupying a couple of paragraphs, becomes a much longer, much more detailed, segment explaining how to do the transfer without suspicion at all. Again, all the movements, all the positioning, is dissected into the most minute portions and, at the end, you've got a sleight that is as close to perfect in execution and use as you can get.

And here's where, I think, Zingg accomplishes more than he knows. As you watch this disc, and you'll need to watch it a few times, you'll find yourself applying his thinking to other sleights you do. This isn't some "oogie-boogie", pseudo-mystical thing going on: it's that Zingg is so thorough that it's almost impossible not to apply his logic to other sleightwork, even the material he doesn't cover here. And, for anybody's money, that's a good thing.

Okay, I've gone on about this one way longer than I thought I would, but there's so much to say about "Elemental Coin Magic", most of which will never be said.

I opened this review with a broad statement, so let me close it the same way and, at the same time, sum this all up as simply as I can: "Elemental Coin Magic" is as necessary for the vast majority of coin workers as the coins themselves. This is the best instruction on performing coin magic -- and more magic beside -- that you'll come across.

Or, more succinctly: "This one's a keeper."

"Acting Naturally: Elemental Coin Magic" by Allen Zingg
In a Blink: 10 Out of 10

Material: 10
It's basic coin magic, but done right and taught right. The sleights and work have been around for a while (Bobo and Roth are credited a lot), but Zingg's work with them and his teaching of them all centers around one thing: being as natural as possible in your coin work. And there, Zingg's work is a magnum opus.

Practicality: 10
Virtually all the routines and sleights use regular coins (there is one routine which uses a gimmicked coin set that you most likely don't have laying around the house). You're talking little silver discs and sleights; it doesn't get much more practical.

Quality of Production: 10
Refreshingly lacking on an overload of glitz, the production is well done here. Great audio, great video, and great navigation to boot.

Quality of Instruction: 10
Here Zingg goes off the scale -- by all rights, this should be a twelve or fifteen. He covers everything, and I do mean everything, when it comes to doing these sleights and routines as naturally as you could ask for. Covering everything from finger position to complete body language, Zingg hits all the bases.

Presentation: 10
It's all about being natural, bringing natural actions to your routines. Zingg does that in spades. That he picked some excellent, visual routines to demonstrate this thinking is simply a bonus.

Shane

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