Scramble

One of the most magical effects performable is "Chink-A-Chink." From Yank Hoe to
Mohammed Bey to Albert Goshman, the genre has seen many variations. David Roth
redefined "Chink-A-Chink" by stripping the props to their bare essentials - only four
apparent coins and the performer's two hands. He titled his ground-breaking routine
the more politically correct, "The Original Chinese Coin Assembly." Multiple variations
of Roth's effect soon appeared, and they continue to do so - a testament to how
wonderfully magical it is. Michael Ammar, Homer Liwag, Jason Alford, and Chad Long
have all applied themselves to the genre (as have I). Doug's contribution to the
assemblage is "Scramble."

Doug has taken that venerable household item, the Scrabble™ tile, and applied its
distinct properties to "The Original Chinese Coin Assembly." In fact, Doug employs
both Roth's routine and Liwag's "Flash Rice" routine within "Scramble." Not only is
Doug's routine magical, but it is one that will be talked about after your audience
goes home - the familiar Scrabble™ tiles practically ensure this happenstance.

In effect, the performer places four small, familiar-looking wooden tiles on the
performing surface in a square formation. While waving his hands above the tiles,
they jump around the performing surface as if they had life of their own, eventually
collecting into one corner of the square formation. The magician turns the tiles over
and their familiarity becomes apparent - Scrabble™ tiles! The four tiles show an E,
an O, a G, and an N.

The performer repeats the effect, this time with the letter sides of the tiles visible. As
the tiles collect and jump around, they form different words that are in synch with
the performer's patter. Finally, as the magician says, "Just say go, and they're
GONE…" all four tiles jump to one corner and spell the word "gone!"

You will need five Scrabble™ tiles: one G, two O's, one N, and one E. One of the O
tiles should be a slightly darker shade than the other O tile. If you cannot find an O
tile with a different shade, then you must mark one of the O tiles very slightly on the
blank side so that you can distinguish it from the other tiles. The routine is best
performed on a close up mat.

Two "Chink-A-Chink" effects will be performed. The purpose of the first effect, aside
from the fact that it is amazing and aesthetically pleasing, is to establish for the
audience what the effect looks like. Then it is during the second rendition of the
effect that the letters of the tiles

are brought into play. Using this ploy allows the audience to appreciate the words
that are spelled out by the letters on the tiles as the tiles jump about. The effect is
no less amazing or aesthetically pleasing as the words form. In fact, their formation
adds an appreciable dimension to the repeat. Without the first "Chink-A-Chink"
effect, the audience would have too much to absorb during one quick viewing of the
routine!

Okay, the first step here is to learn Roth's method of dragging a coin, or in this case
a wooden tile, secretly along a close-up mat under your hand while the hand is
seemingly not touching the mat! The routine requires both a normal thumb base
drag and a "heel drag."' Let's look at the thumb-base drag first.
 Place a tile onto your close-up mat and cover it with your right hand so that the tile
is pressed against the mat with the fleshy base of your thumb. Keep your hand
relaxed. If you didn't have to move your hand during the routine, and its stillness
wouldn't raise any suspicion, then this would be a perfectly acceptable way to
conceal the tile. But since your hand must move, and conceal the tile, do this:
keeping your thumb-base against the tile, extend your fingers and thumb starfish
fashion and raise the tips of all five digits off the mat.

Now relax your hand just a bit and move it about the mat, dragging the tile below
your thumb-base. Your fingertips should not touch the mat, nor should the right side
of your hand between pinky and wrist. It should appear to you, looking down on your
hand, that the hand is raised above the mat by a half inch, or, depending on the
makeup of your hand, as much as an inch! Actually, much of your hand is above the
mat, but the thumb base is not. Instead, it is against the tile, dragging it silently
about.

Practice moving your hand from one spot on the mat to another, sometimes
dragging the concealed tile, and sometimes moving without the tile. Both
movements should look the same. Also, whenever your hand stops moving, relax
your fingertips and allow them to settle onto the mat - especially when each hand is
at the middle of their respective left and right sides of the mat. This is known as the
rest position.

Now position the tile below the heel of your right hand, against the fleshy pad, a bit
toward the right side, about an inch and a half below the point where your pinky finger
is attached to your palm. You may similarly extend and raise your fingertips without
losing contact with the heel-covered tile. Practice moving this tile about the mat as you
did with the thumb-base dragged tile.

Finally, place two tiles below your right hand, one in thumb-base drag position and one
in heel-base drag position. Practice moving your hand about, apparently "hovering" it
over the mat as it moves - but really dragging the tiles.

Doug suggests using Roth's "hooking" action to get a secure thumb-base "grip" on the
tile, to wit: when your hands land on the tiles your fingers must be pointing away from
you. They are then twisted slightly inward (left hand clockwise, right hand
counterclockwise) so that the fingertips point towards two o'clock (left hand) and/or
ten o'clock (right hand).

In all of the above practice sessions, you must also learn to take a tile and leave a tile
in the perfect thumb - or heel-base position. Once you are comfortable with these
dragging maneuvers, which shouldn't take too long, proceed to the effect itself.

Now to the routine. Classic Palm the unmarked O tile in your right hand with the O
facing away from your palm. Introduce the other tiles by placing them on your mat
with their letter sides hidden.
Spread the tiles out in a square formation, about 10
inches apart, prepatory to performing Roth's "The
Original Chinese Coin Assembly" routine. Notice that
in Figure One I have labeled the corners of the
performing surface as NW (northwest), NE
(northeast), SW (southwest), and SE (southeast). I
will use these labels in the following descriptions to
direct your hands to the appropriate corners of the
Figure One
surface.

Just after the tiles are placed, drop the palmed tile
to the mat and establish it in thumb-drag position
under your right hand. Cover the NW tile with your
left hand and the SE tile with your right and wiggle
your fingers to effect the magic. Bring both hands
to the sides of the square, what Mr. Roth calls the
"rest position." In doing so, leave the right-hand tile
and steal the left-hand tile in thumb-base drag
position. Apparently, one tile has jumped from the
NW to the SE corner of your mat. See Figure Two.

Figure Two

Cover the SW tile with your left hand and the SE

tiles with your right hand. Wiggle your fingers and
return to rest position, stealing a tile from the SE
position with your right hand and leaving a second
tile in the SW position. See Figure Three.

Figure Three

Cover the NE tile with your right hand and the SW

tile with your left hand. Wiggle your fingers and
return to rest position, stealing the left hand tile
and leaving the right hand tile. See Figure Four.

Figure Four
Cover the NE tile with your left hand and the SW tile
with your right hand. Wiggle your fingers and return
to rest position, leaving the left-hand tile and
stealing the right-hand tile. See Figure Five.

Figure Five

Cover the NE tiles with your right hand and the SW

tile with your left hand. Wiggle your fingers and
return to rest position, leaving the right-hand tile
and stealing the left-hand tile. See Figure Six.

The Roth sequence, described here with his

permission, is complete. It should be noted that
each time your hands return to rest position, one of
them is empty and one is hiding a tile.
Figure Six

Doug admonishes that the clean hand should always lead slightly and the `dirty" hand
(hiding the tile) should always follow. So, when moving your hands to rest position,
move the clean hand first, and before the clean hand has stopped, move the dirty
hand. In this way, the clean hand misdirects from the dirty hand.

Bring both hands over the group of collected tiles, and as you begin to turn them all
over, add the left hand's hidden tile to the group. Also, place your right fingers onto
the marked O tile, dig your right thumb under it, and revolve that tile into a right-hand
Classic Palm. The letter side of the tile will be against your palm.

Once all the tiles are letter side up, you will use
the mechanics of Homer Liwag's "Flash Rice" and
a bit of Roth's routine to repeat the effect while
forming the Scrabble™ tile words. Openly slide
the G tile to the SE position, the N tile to the SW
position, the O tile to the NW position, and the E
tile to the NW position. All of the letters on the
tiles should be facing the spectators and be
readable by them. Secretly drop the palmed O
tile to the table and establish it in the thumb-
base drag position under your right hand. See Figure Seven
Figure Seven.

Say, "I'll do it again - watch, all I have to

say is GO!" Cover the SE coin with your right
hand such that the O tile is to your left of the G
tile, spelling the word "go" to the audience.

Cover the other O tile at the NW with your left

hand. Wiggle your fingers and move your hands
to rest position, stealing the O tile with your left
hand as your right hand leaves an O tile.
Apparently the O tile has jumped over with the G
tile to spell the word "go." As you move your
hands away from the tiles, say, "See? GO!'" See
Figure Eight.

Figure Eight

Figure Nine

Figure Ten

Bring your right hand over the G tile such that the hidden tiles are to the left of the G
tile. This is the beginning of Liwag's "Flash Rice" routine in which all the tiles will seem
to jump at once to the NE corner. See Figure Ten.

Move both hands forward, to the NW and NE corners, dragging all three tiles under
your right hand. Be sure to plant these tiles to your right of the E tile that already
resides at the NE corner. Say, "Okay, just say go and they're GONE!" Wiggle
your fingers and move your hands to rest position. Of course, you steal the O tile
with your left hand and leave all three tiles with the E tile at the NE corner. The tiles
that have all just apparently jumped at once to the NE corner will spell out the word
"gone"!

To clean up, either lap the extra O tile or scoop up all the tiles, adding the extra O
tile to them, and pocket the lot.

References, Credits, and Remarks

• One of the original "birds of a feather" type routines is Yank Hoe's

"Sympathetic Coins" from The Art Of Magic, by John Northern Hilliard, on
 page 251, or Greater Magic, also by Hilliard, on page 689.

• Sam Horowitz' (a.k.a. Mohammed Bey) "Chink - A _ Chink" routine may be

found in The Stars of Magic, published by Louis Tannen, on page 46.

• Al Goshman's "Chink _ A _ Chink" may be found in Magic by Gosh, The Life

and Times of Albert Goshman, by Patrick Page and Albert Goshman, on page
65.

• David Roth's ground breaking routine "Chink - A _ Chink" may be found in

Harry Lorayne's and Richard Kaufman's Apocalypse, Volume 1, Number 1,
January 1978, on page 6 and as "The Original Chinese Coin Assembly" in
David Roth's Expert Coin Magic, by Richard Kaufman, on page 67.

• Roth initially learned the drag technique from Derek Dingle's "The
International Coin Trick" from Dingle's Deceptions, by Harry Lorayne, on page
37. This routine is also described in The Complete Works of Derek Dingle, by
Richard Kaufman, on page 124
• Homer Liwag's "Flash Rice" maybe found in Chris Kenner's Magic Man
Examiner, Issue 2 on page 11.

• My foray into this genre is called "Knihc - A - Knihc," which I believe is the
first published reverse "Chink - A - Chink" effect. It may be found as the
cover item in Lorayne's Apocalypse, October 1987, Volume 10, Number 10,
on page 1405.

• Jason Alford and Doug published "Chink - A - Change" which uses only four
coins, all of them of different denominations. After the initial "Chink - A -
Chink" effect is complete the coins are also caused to instantly reverse to
their original positions in the square formation. It may be found in Mr. Alford's
lecture notes, Thinking and Wondering, on page 15.

• Chad Long has created some outstanding versions of this type of routine,
though they remain unpublished at the time of this writing.