Agenda: Welcome, welcome, to my latest (or not latest, depending on when you're reading this) review. I want to take a moment to talk a little bit about my new review outline. I thought the old one was pretty lame so I decided to take the high road and try out yet another format. You will find that this is laid out as if it were a school schedule/detention slip. Basically it is the "teacher's recomendations". Bill is a good friend of mine and I'm sure you will enjoy these highly professional routines as much as I did. Enjoy the review guys!
Before we actually begin this review, I want to tell you a bit about the layout of the book (this part will normally be in the very beginning of the reviews). You will see the entire book contents below:
>Dedications
>A picture of Bill (go ahead, angle the book any way you want, his eyes still follow you!)
>A very gratifying foreward from Marc DeSouza
>Introduction from Bill
>Tools
-Coin roll subtlety
-Citino Rollout (a.k.a. The Reverse Rollout)
-Citino Palm Change
>Effects
-Money Doesn't Grow on Trees
-Almos' Frame-ous
-Almos' Frame-ous Ver. 77345
-I.T.H.C.A. (You have to SEE it to believe it!)
-That's Impossible!
-Comin' Outta The Box
-3 Coins Hangin' (Featuring the 3 coins out of nowhere production)
-3 Coins Hangin'...Spotless
-Hangin' Coins Worldwide
-EZ 5th Dimension
>Closing Remarks
>Credits
Quality (* * * * *) I can't believe the quality in this book! To tell you the truth, these are without a doubt, hands down, THE best illustrations I have ever laid my eyes on in a magic book. In my opinion these were slightly easier to understand than the illustrations in Totally Out Of Control (Chris Kenner). So if you liked those illustrations, then you will like these. Freakin' kudos to Justin P. Vitti! I think what made these so good though, was how simple they were. THere were no annoying palm lines or shadows or anything like that. FIngers, palms, finger nails, finger tips. SIMPLE! You can focus a lot more on the actual coin placements and where everything is meant to do. Often in this book there are portraits of body moements and placements as well as table displays and midirection moments (I.T.H.C.A.) Good work guys! Oh! And one more thing I want to mention that is a very minor point (but hey, just trying to contribute everything I can towards a great buy), I dropped my copy on it's corner and the plastic htat is in the cover started to peel open a little bit. Oh, and one more thing lol. This book has one of the most beautiful and visually pleasing covers in magic as well lol. If I wasin a magic shop and saw this on the shelf (it would be in the front), I would be attracted to it immedietly. Good work guys!
Coin Roll Subtlety (* * * *) This is basically a pretty cool method to coin roll a coin while nested inside your expanded shell. This was originally published by Mike Gallo in his routine B.O.B (and Bill credited him and all that good stuff) While this certainly is NOT the simplest coin item in the book, it is very usefull when you are doing your coin routines with shells. I am pretty sure Bill added this in here to give you a little bit more of a covincer when you begin to do the routines such as Almos' Frame-ous Ver. 77345 or 3 Coins Hanging + spotless. It will take some practice though, don't get me wrong!
Citino Rollout (* * * * *) If you are into coin manipulation in your routines then you are going to love this. This has some kind of subtle drama structured into this little 4 coin flourish. THis is essentially a reverse 4 coin rollout which you might be farmiliar with if you have seen one of Rich Fergusson's videos that featured this or Joe Jesse's work with this. It has always been pretty much done the same though. So Bill being the super hero coin guy got to work and created this upsidedown and with a BRAND NEW final display! I got this down VERY quickly so I assume if you have basic knowlege or if you can do the original 4 coin rollout, this will be a cake walk.
Citino Palm Change (* * * *) This is a bit of a knack, let me start off by telling you that right up front. It will not come simple to you. I got this in about 4 days where I can do it fluently without having to look at my hands or cramping up. However, if you enjoy one hand coin changes that look good (with only one simple discrepancy), then you will be able to do this pretty quick and will have a simple yet effective piece of magic on your hands by using just this on sleight. Basically it is the one hand palm change (palm to palm change as described in a few places) and is based on a few ideas from Bobo's Modern Coin Magic which was later published in David Roth's Expert Coin Magic and then adapted by (phew!) Bill Citino. I confidently remember learning the palm to palm change and this is easier.
Before we actually begin this review, I want to tell you a bit about the layout of the book (this part will normally be in the very beginning of the reviews). You will see the entire book contents below:
>Dedications
>A picture of Bill (go ahead, angle the book any way you want, his eyes still follow you!)
>A very gratifying foreward from Marc DeSouza
>Introduction from Bill
>Tools
-Coin roll subtlety
-Citino Rollout (a.k.a. The Reverse Rollout)
-Citino Palm Change
>Effects
-Money Doesn't Grow on Trees
-Almos' Frame-ous
-Almos' Frame-ous Ver. 77345
-I.T.H.C.A. (You have to SEE it to believe it!)
-That's Impossible!
-Comin' Outta The Box
-3 Coins Hangin' (Featuring the 3 coins out of nowhere production)
-3 Coins Hangin'...Spotless
-Hangin' Coins Worldwide
-EZ 5th Dimension
>Closing Remarks
>Credits
Quality (* * * * *) I can't believe the quality in this book! To tell you the truth, these are without a doubt, hands down, THE best illustrations I have ever laid my eyes on in a magic book. In my opinion these were slightly easier to understand than the illustrations in Totally Out Of Control (Chris Kenner). So if you liked those illustrations, then you will like these. Freakin' kudos to Justin P. Vitti! I think what made these so good though, was how simple they were. THere were no annoying palm lines or shadows or anything like that. FIngers, palms, finger nails, finger tips. SIMPLE! You can focus a lot more on the actual coin placements and where everything is meant to do. Often in this book there are portraits of body moements and placements as well as table displays and midirection moments (I.T.H.C.A.) Good work guys! Oh! And one more thing I want to mention that is a very minor point (but hey, just trying to contribute everything I can towards a great buy), I dropped my copy on it's corner and the plastic htat is in the cover started to peel open a little bit. Oh, and one more thing lol. This book has one of the most beautiful and visually pleasing covers in magic as well lol. If I wasin a magic shop and saw this on the shelf (it would be in the front), I would be attracted to it immedietly. Good work guys!
Coin Roll Subtlety (* * * *) This is basically a pretty cool method to coin roll a coin while nested inside your expanded shell. This was originally published by Mike Gallo in his routine B.O.B (and Bill credited him and all that good stuff) While this certainly is NOT the simplest coin item in the book, it is very usefull when you are doing your coin routines with shells. I am pretty sure Bill added this in here to give you a little bit more of a covincer when you begin to do the routines such as Almos' Frame-ous Ver. 77345 or 3 Coins Hanging + spotless. It will take some practice though, don't get me wrong!
Citino Rollout (* * * * *) If you are into coin manipulation in your routines then you are going to love this. This has some kind of subtle drama structured into this little 4 coin flourish. THis is essentially a reverse 4 coin rollout which you might be farmiliar with if you have seen one of Rich Fergusson's videos that featured this or Joe Jesse's work with this. It has always been pretty much done the same though. So Bill being the super hero coin guy got to work and created this upsidedown and with a BRAND NEW final display! I got this down VERY quickly so I assume if you have basic knowlege or if you can do the original 4 coin rollout, this will be a cake walk.
Citino Palm Change (* * * *) This is a bit of a knack, let me start off by telling you that right up front. It will not come simple to you. I got this in about 4 days where I can do it fluently without having to look at my hands or cramping up. However, if you enjoy one hand coin changes that look good (with only one simple discrepancy), then you will be able to do this pretty quick and will have a simple yet effective piece of magic on your hands by using just this on sleight. Basically it is the one hand palm change (palm to palm change as described in a few places) and is based on a few ideas from Bobo's Modern Coin Magic which was later published in David Roth's Expert Coin Magic and then adapted by (phew!) Bill Citino. I confidently remember learning the palm to palm change and this is easier.