Your French Drop sucks

Don’t feel bad, mine used to suck, too. But it’s not you, really. It’s the way we were all taught. A quick search of the internets proves that we have all been taught to pimp slap this poor little move like it owes us money.

The 6 Deadly Sins of Performing The French Drop:

1 Don’t Muscle-F*ck It – Pardon my French, but this is just a little coin, not a brick. There is no need to smother the coin in a death-grip. Use a light touch to gently grasp the coin. The thumb of the grasping hand should never be shoved through the thumbhole of the holding hand, and worse, project out the other side. Over-acting may work for Jim Carrey, but you’re not Jim Carrey, and his French Drop probably sucks, too.

2 Drop the Left Hand – Yes, I’m assuming you are doing the move right-handed, but I had to pick a side to make it clear, so I picked right. Once you’ve taken the coin, the ‘empty’ hand should drop. It’s EMPTY. Remember? Why would you hold it at your waist in that painful-looking clenched fist?

3 In the Name of All That’s Holy Don’t Point! – Even worse than NOT dropping the left hand is pointing at the right hand. What in the hell are you pointing at?! If you’ve done your job there shouldn't be anyone in the room who doesn’t think that the coin is in the right hand. By pointing you’re only fooling yourself, and just barely at that.

4 Don’t Look at the Left Hand – What is this obsession magicians have with staring at the unimportant, and totally EMPTY, left hand? Once the coin has been taken, the left hand should be completely out of your mind. Yet, I see so many magicians who can’t help but glance back at the left hand. And you know what happens when you look at it? The audience looks at it, too. Hey, if the magician is looking there something must be going to happen to it. All of your attention should be on the hand that has taken the coin. You eyes should look at the right hand, your head should tilt towards it, your body should lean towards it. With that much of your attention focused on the right hand, the audience will be breathlessly waiting to see what’s so important there. Then they, too, will forget about the left hand.

5 The Adjustment Move – Once you’ve ‘taken’ the coin, do a little adjustment move. Shift the imaginary coin around in your hand a bit, to get it into a better position. This is exactly what you do every day when you pick something up. The object rarely falls into a comfortable position on the first try. A little bounce, a shift of the fingers, or a move of the thumb, all work to convince the audience that the coin is really in there. If you were faking it, why would you be doing that adjustment?

6 Don’t Rush to the Finish – It's much more fun if we all get there at the same time. Once you’ve taken the coin, don’t immediately open your hand to show it has vanished. If you take the coin in the right hand then suddenly show it gone, it’s painfully obvious that you never really took the coin. Audiences are not as dumb as we would like to think they are. You need a little time between when you do the dirty work and when you reveal the vanish. The longer you wait, the further away that left hand gets in their memory.

To help lock these 6 Deadly Sins in your mind watch this clip from my Amazing Easy To Learn Coin Magic DVD.

You’ve got a lot of un-learning to do, but the work will be well worth it. If you have any question, concerns, comments, or just want to yell at me for not telling you all this sooner, shoot an email to BEN at salinasmagic.com.