Price$29.95
Media TypeDVD
CategoryClose Up
Date AddedJul 26, 2003
Charming Chinese Challenge
Hooser, Troy
(Based on 2 reviews)
Troy Hooser's Charming Chinese Challenge has become a masterpiece of coin magic. Why? It's extremely visual, totally practical and very easy to do plus it resets instantly. The Charming Chinese Challenge is absolutely the best penetration effect you’ve ever seen!
The effect is clean and simple: Three Chinese coins are threaded onto a silk ribbon. One by one the coins visually penetrate through the ribbon. You won’t believe your eyes as the coins jump both off and on the ribbon. The routine is captured during a live performance.
Designed to be performed in extreme close-up conditions such as walk-around, trade shows or formal environments, Troy's routine will soon become a cornerstone of your repertoire. Even if you're not a heavy coin worker, you'll soon be able to master this fabulous routine. Each part is taught in excruciating detail, nothing is left out.
Originally published in "DesTROYers," this DVD contains much more information along with new handlings never before seen. These additional methods and sequences are well worth the price of admission, but there's a lot more. With contributions from Shoot Ogawa, Apollo and Thomas Wayne, The Charming Chinese Challenge has been taken to a new level.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
PROS
This is a tremendous routine with three Chinese coins and a ribbon. It is a beautiful routine that is performed very well and the instruction is perfection.
One of the beauties of this is it uses ungimmicked coins and a regular ribbon.
CONS
This is a performance and explanation of a single routine. However, the routine is simply beautiful.
VERDICT
Beautiful routine with a great performance and explanation. Best of all, it uses ungimmicked coins and a silk ribbon.
This is a tremendous routine with three Chinese coins and a ribbon. It is a beautiful routine that is performed very well and the instruction is perfection.
One of the beauties of this is it uses ungimmicked coins and a regular ribbon.
CONS
This is a performance and explanation of a single routine. However, the routine is simply beautiful.
VERDICT
Beautiful routine with a great performance and explanation. Best of all, it uses ungimmicked coins and a silk ribbon.
(Top ▲)
I really enjoyed this off-beat take on a Ring & String/Rope routine. It uses a length of silk cord and three Chinese coins. The instructions for this effect in the book "DesTROYers" by Joshua Jay and Troy Hooser is excellent, but the DVD has much more material on it because of things that were developed after the publishing of the book.
Troy Hooser does an excellent job of explaining every aspect of this routine, including the very cool bonus ideas that are on here. You will first see a performance of the routine, and then the explanation broken down phrase by phrase. A few of the bonus ideas are presented by Shoot Ogawa and Apollo Robbins. The video and audio are clear and sufficient.
This effect plays very strong with audiences and it is one of my favorite things to perform. One of the best features is that you can play this as short or as long as you want by adding or removing phases, and with all of the bonus ideas given, you can change the phases in and out to give it a different look each time. It takes up very little pocket space and there is no need for any gimmicks for this effect.
As far as finding the materials needed for this effect, it is not really all that hard. Troy tells you that his ribbon is a "silk ribbon" and does not mention a weight/thickness or manufacturer, which would have helped in finding true silk cord. He does give you the width and length, and I was able to find a very suitable substitute ribbon but it is not silk. More on that in a moment. As far as the coins go, he recommends using the Sterling Magic Chinese coins, but I have used the half dollar and dollar sized versions of both the Ton Onosaka Japanese Wave Coins and Royal Magic Dragon coins, both with no problem at all.
The routine is very easy to learn but it needs practice to get the flow of some of the phases. It is not necessary to learn them all, of course.
The one thing I was personally disappointed in is the very strong 'Tokyo Opener' presented by Shoot Ogawa. This is where the issue with my substitute ribbon comes in: I have no problems with this phase and the moves required to do it, but my ribbon is way too thick/heavy to allow this to work for me. That is where I wished they would have given more details on the silk ribbon used.
If you want something that will play well in various venues and is different from other things out there, this is it and you will not be disappointed!
Troy Hooser does an excellent job of explaining every aspect of this routine, including the very cool bonus ideas that are on here. You will first see a performance of the routine, and then the explanation broken down phrase by phrase. A few of the bonus ideas are presented by Shoot Ogawa and Apollo Robbins. The video and audio are clear and sufficient.
This effect plays very strong with audiences and it is one of my favorite things to perform. One of the best features is that you can play this as short or as long as you want by adding or removing phases, and with all of the bonus ideas given, you can change the phases in and out to give it a different look each time. It takes up very little pocket space and there is no need for any gimmicks for this effect.
As far as finding the materials needed for this effect, it is not really all that hard. Troy tells you that his ribbon is a "silk ribbon" and does not mention a weight/thickness or manufacturer, which would have helped in finding true silk cord. He does give you the width and length, and I was able to find a very suitable substitute ribbon but it is not silk. More on that in a moment. As far as the coins go, he recommends using the Sterling Magic Chinese coins, but I have used the half dollar and dollar sized versions of both the Ton Onosaka Japanese Wave Coins and Royal Magic Dragon coins, both with no problem at all.
The routine is very easy to learn but it needs practice to get the flow of some of the phases. It is not necessary to learn them all, of course.
The one thing I was personally disappointed in is the very strong 'Tokyo Opener' presented by Shoot Ogawa. This is where the issue with my substitute ribbon comes in: I have no problems with this phase and the moves required to do it, but my ribbon is way too thick/heavy to allow this to work for me. That is where I wished they would have given more details on the silk ribbon used.
If you want something that will play well in various venues and is different from other things out there, this is it and you will not be disappointed!