Gregory Wilson's 'HUNDY 500'

What The Audience Sees:

'This week Jamie showed us some old $1 bills he had but then they changed into $20's-right before our eyes!'

How It Went:

Well, I've been battling with this for a while now. Being Canadian, I've been having problems with my Hundy because our bills are different colors and things just didn't look as 'flawless' as they should. I've seen Hundy done with all American bills and it looks fantastic but with the Canadian currency it needs some work.

I finally used some old $1's that I picked up from a Coin and Stamp Shop and $20's because they are both green, at least. I plan on trying it with our old $2's and new $100's in the future but for this Magic Friday, it was Hundy 100. Actually, it was Hundy 80 because I felt 5 bills made the packet a bit thick and it was easier to see the colour discrepancy. So, all that said, on to HUNDY 80! It just doesn't have the same ring...

But who cares? People were still floored. I had one group of 5 people all say, 'What The H*#L?!!??!' all at the exact same time. It really looks that good. I did change the handling, which I'll describe down below, but Gregory, via Patrick Page (Hundy is version of Patrick Page's routine), really has a winner here.

Best Lines:

'That's what I'm Talking About!!!!'
"What the $%@#% just happened?!"
'That's freakin' GOOD.'

Angry Bob Rating:

I have a co-worker (Bob) whose uncle was a magician and thereby has a good working knowledge of how magic works. He's pretty grumpy but likes Magic Friday's because he can tell me how he figured out how the effect is done... A high rating means he'll never figure it out.

I'm going to say 3/5. Most people won't know how it's done and with proper audience management, won't care. Angry Bob knows that something was up simply because he couldn't examine all the bills. With a regular audience, though, this was never an issue.

My Rating:

This gets a 4.5/5.There are so many things I really love about it- you can always carry it around, it's visually stunning, etc. However, I knocked half a point off because there is something a tad, I don't know, show-offy about it. A couple of times after I did it, people would be surprised but they almost had a look of, 'Now what...' to them, to which I would reply, "Thank You." and they would clap. Maybe it needs better closure on my part. Ideally, someone says, 'Can you do that with my money?' to which you give Greg's reply of, "Sure. It takes 24 hours, though." People laugh and- Voila. But I feel something needs to be said or done when you're met with stares-I'm going to give this some more thought...

The JDG Tip:

I used to tell people the 'D' in my name stood for 'Django'. That was my username here on the Café for a while and that's why, if you've read any of the other Magic Fridays, it used to say, 'The Django Tip:'

A few things I changed are:

A) I didn't do the 'recoiling' that Greg does. I didn't feel it was me.

B) I asked the spectators, "Did any of you used to rub the $1 bill like this (I would rub it) when you were a kid to make it change colour?" You would be suprised how many people said,'Yes.' That made me laugh. I would then say, "Maybe it works better if I rub the back..." And it would now be a $20.

C) There is a move that Greg does whereby he takes the bills and reverses them by slapping them against his hand. This is something I felt I wouldn't do so I altered the Rotation of the change. Instead of rotating the bills a full 360, I rotated them 180 and then turned them once over sideways so that the end result was that the thickness was facing me. The bills would also pop open nicely on their own using this method.

Closing Thoughts:

Someone mentioned thay wanted to see a coin trick in a Magic Friday so stay tuned for a Gregory Wilson double header. Next week, Greg's 3/4 coins across.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Jamie 'Django' Grant

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