Gabi developed his own versions of many coin magic plots such as coins through the table, coins to the glass,… for many of them he had several versions. This is the only coins across routine he regularly performed, at least in the last years of his life, and it is arguably one of the most beautiful versions of this plot ever.
We want to especially highlight the extremely high level of Economy and Clarity of this piece. Economy refers, from the Internal point of view, to the efficient use of resources, moves and sleights, while Clarity, from the external point of view, refers to the quality of being intelligible, pure and with nothing superfluous that can distract or confuse the spectator. According to Arturo de Ascanio, you could and should improve both economy and clarity up to a point where you no longer can improve one without deteriorating the other. At this point the decision of improving one a little more over the other rests on the creator’s personal tastes or artistic intentions. Getting to that theoretical point is the goal when composing a piece because it means the construction is optimum. This is what is called the balance of Economy and Clarity.
This routine achieves levels of Clarity and Economy which are really hard to match. Gabi accomplishes this feat by combining a really efficient method structure, the most clever selection of the sleights (including his personal handling of the Click Pass and Miguel Gomez’s handling of the Gallo Pitch, arguably the most sophisticated take on that move) and also out of the box ideas like the concept of the “coin ghost ” or “the hole” for the last transposition. The “coin ghost” solves a very delicate moment or a weakness from the internal point of view while at the same time making the external life much more beautiful and providing this sensation of completeness and closure.
Enjoy this thing of beauty.
Sources: Performance at Jornadas Cartomágicas del Teatro Encantado
This routine was shared by Gabi with the magic community in lecture notes “Click Pass. Coins, Coins y coins” in 2019