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THE MAGIC SHOP — When I was about 12, my parents took my brother and me on a fun family trip to Las Vegas. About 45 minutes in, we all realized Vegas wasn't as family-friendly as we had hoped — but that's not the point of this story. The point is, while I grew up more than I was planning to during that trip, I was also exposed to magic.
I'd seen it on TV and watched my friend's dads do terrible card tricks, but this was the first time I experienced close-up magic and I was in awe. Inside a magic shop at the New York New York hotel, I watched a dude make a card float. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. I had about $20 I brought with me for spending and I bought the trick. I was taken to a back room with the other folks who paid, and he showed us the trick. Once I saw how it was done it just wasn't as special. Not to mention, I'd spent 20 bucks on fishing line and wax and never mastered the darn trick.
After that, I decided two things: First is that you never take a pamphlet from a man on the street on the Las Vegas strip. The second is I like magic a lot more when I see it happen and not when I perform it.
This is why I love this video from Wolfgang Moser.
Moser is a magician who tells people in the video that he doesn't do a lot of close-up magic, but this is his go-to close-up trick. Well, for not doing a lot of it, he is amazing at this one.
Moser makes coins vanish, reappear and multiply right before our eyes. It's incredible. In fact, incredible isn't even a good word for it. I'd say phenomenal, but I think the term face-meltingly awesome is the best thing I can use to describe it.
I'm glad I got to see the trick, and I'm happy Moser is practicing illusions now and not in the 17th century, because he would have been burned as a warlock.