Coin Magic Artist : Radek Makar

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If you like coin magic, you gotta see Radek Makar’s work.  Radek has entertaining sleight of hand that is simply fun to watch.

Better yet, Radek has recently shared a few of his creations with the Magic fraternity including:

• Eni-Where
• Into Thin Air – Hang on to your coins and learn a refreshing 3 coin vanish and reproduction
• Therm-o-Chromic – A pocket copper silver routine with a modern spellbound twist

Below are just a few videos of Radek’s work:

Radek Makar Coin Magic

Into Thin Air

Therm-o-Chromic

I had the chance to interview Radek Makar and chatted a little about his background and his approach to coin magic.

Meet Radek Makar

Who is this guy?
Radek comes from Tricity in Poland and moved to Scotland to undertake studies at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Like a lot of us, he got interested in magic when he was a kid watching a magic show in Spain. He pursued a  lot of different hobbies but at the end of the day magic was the one he liked most and jumped right into learning sleight of hand. While honing his craft, he began to offer instructional materials as his way to share his unique coin magic with the rest of the world.
Below are a few answers in his own words:

Why coin magic? What sparked your interest?
It wasn’t always coin magic. I spent around 5 years working mostly as a stage magician and doing close-up gigs from time to time only. I decided to stick to my coin magic and close up when I realized that’s what I do best and that’s what I do most of the time. I keep playing with coins when I study, travel, read or do anything else. Why do I create? I believe that lack of development means going backwards so there is always room for some new creations. Times are constantly changing and magic needs to be adjusted to the demand and changing conditions.

What’s your creative process for developing different material?

It’s nothing fancy and I won’t use big words to describe it. I am never going to run a videoblog on my creative process or write the dummy guide for young creators of magic. I create what I need to create. If I realize I need to have a routine which is easy to perform under certain conditions I create such routine. If I need to get from point A to point B in a routine and there is no way to do it I know of I invent a move which helps me to overcome the problem I faced. That’s the reality and that’s how I work.

How practical are these sleights in a live performance environment?
Coins are small and magicians usually use up to 5 or 6 coins per trick. It’s not a lot comparing to 52 cards per deck,but coin magic is not as simple as it may seem. Cards don’t make that awful sound when they hit each other. They are not stiff nor heavy or slippery.

What it means is that all the techniques can be used under some certain conditions. When sitting at a table, surrounded by spectators it is pretty easy to perform Hanging Coins as the Edge Grip is perfect for such conditions. If there were also people standing around the table, it would be impossible to use that technique, because all the people standing would see the coin from above.

Some techniques are more some are less angle-proof. It doesn’t mean they always suit the situation or are useless. The same applies to my techniques and routines. Some of them (like for example the Ladder Tenkai Pennies) can be performed when seated or when standing, others like the Nowhere Palm are quite angle-sensitive.

No matter what the routine, I always describe routines which can be performed in front of the live audience. I am a real working magician, not a youtube-only kind of guy.

Do you offer any spoken presentation “patter” for your effects or are they purely sleight of hand based?

I believe that patter is a base for good coin magic. To spectator most of the effects are pretty much the same. Coin vanishes, coin changes color, coin appears or travels from hand to hand. Only magicians know there are hundreds of techniques which a magician can use to make those miracles happen so we need to make those quite similar effects different and entertaining.

I don’t describe my patters in my e-books because I know from experience that if you learn the trick with a patter once, it’s very likely you will have that very first patter in your head for very long time and it will prevent you from making the routine more personal. Technique is one thing, but it is the presentation which makes a magic trick unique to particular person.

Who are you sleight of hand influences?

I studied classics and I still perform routines created by experts like David Roth (mostly coin and silk effects and classics such as Tankai Pennies or Hanging Coins which I found easy to master and yet very powerful), Michael Rubinstein (e.g. Specchiolini Brothers Coins Across), Geoff Latta, Mike Gallo, Kainoa Harbottle, Reed McClintock, David Stone, Rocco Silano etc.  A huge inspiration for me was and still is the bible of coin magic, ie. Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic. There is so many ideas which you can play with, rearrange, adjust to your style that you can’t get bored with!