:: Pure Dumb Luck

How often have we had a trick work so good that we earned a reputation, of sorts, without lifting a finger? It's happened to me a few times, strictly by accident of course.

I have a Mexican restaurant I perform in regularly. Actually a chain of restaurants - but whose counting.. I love working Mexican restaurants. There is enough time between meal prep for me to get familiar with the customers, plus, many of the customers are in a good mood - drinking margarita's and what not. This particular chain is owned and operated by Hispanics, and they have a genuine fascination with magic..

I have a couple of effects I perform with Scotch & Soda. The centavos and the Mexican atmosphere work together to give me a good story line. Anyway.. as I move about the restaurant, I sometimes 'accidentally' bump into a male patron, usually on his way to or from the restroom, and I drop a real centavos into his rear pants pocket. You MUST be careful when performing this move, or you'll be accused of pickpocketing - or worse.

Once the coin is in place, I give the mark a few minutes, and then find my way to his table. I go into my monologue about the Mexican centavos having special powers, about my grandmother being a gypsy, and about the special skills I inherited from her. I vanish the centavos, usually in the marks hand, and look perplexed as they ask me 'what happened to it?'

After a certain amount of show, I ask the mark to check his shirt pocket for the coin, then his front pants pockets, and finally, his rear pockets. That's when he finds the coin, usually to everyone's amazement..

I performed this little move last week and the gentleman checked all his pockets for the coin without success. Finally, I asked him to check his rear pockets. He pulled out his wallet and checked his pocket - still no coin.

Of course, I knew it was there - somewhere. So I ask him to please check his wallet. He gingerly opened his wallet, peeking inside, and when he still didn't see the centavos, he opened the currency portion of his wallet and removed his currency. There, among the tens and twenties, was one Mexican centavos.

They were genuinely amazed, and I was very casual, as if I performed that particular bit of magic at will. I thanked them for their enthuastic applause and backed away with my reputation upped a notch.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?