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Fred Kaps' Currency
by Fred Kaps

$15

(2 reviews, 16 customer ratings) ★★★★★

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Fred Kaps' Currency by Fred Kaps

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Edward Victor's 11 Card Trick done with Dollar Bills.

The details and inner working of this routine have been kept secret since the days of Fred Kaps; before then it was only divulged to a handful of very close friends, and occasionally discussed by Fred Kaps with serious performers. Subsequently the original routine has been independently developed, changed and adapted by Trevor Lewis, Mike Caveney, Peter Pit, Ger Copper and other well-known performers to suit their own individual styles.

The transcript of the manuscript in Fred Kaps' handwriting has only been very slightly edited. It is substantially the routine Fred always presented, except for a variation near the end. This was suggested, with temerity, by Trevor Lewis who was delighted by the enthusiastic and grateful acceptance of it by the Master!

Following the Fred Kaps Routine is that of Trevor Lewis, including his patter. The routine leads ideally to the inclusion of many "bits of business".

INTRODUCTION by Fred Kaps

The first time I saw somebody do a card counting trick, whereby cards were short or more than there should be, it struck me immediately: this should be done with BILLS!! I guess this was about 25 years ago.

When working on a new act for the 1961 convention I wanted to include a bill counting effect but could not find the right routine. It was not until 1974 that I really started to work on it after I met Mike Skinner again in Monte Carlo. He showed Edward Victor's 11 Card Trick and I was very impressed. He was friendly enough to give me the outline of the routine and once home I started working on it with dollar bills.

Of course I had to tackle the problem of palming bills off the packet and then getting rid of them. First I used a handkerchief to hold the bills, then a bulldog clip, then a large paperclip, all as an excuse to go to a pocket to ditch the bills; but then I found the most logical solution of all: the WALLET!

From there on it took only a few days to develop a solid routine that I could do anywhere - Close-Up, Cabaret, Stage - no set-up, always ready. I have shown this routine now hundreds of times for laymen and (up to now) fooled the best of magicians as well! It was terrific on TV in Holland and England and I hope you will do it justice by practising.

You need 20 dollar bills, or stage money bills, and a wallet.

1st edition 1994; 24 pages; PDF 19 pages; photo illustrated.
word count: 3451 which is equivalent to 13 standard pages of text



Reviewed by James Macdonald (confirmed purchase)
★★★★★   Date Added: Thursday 11 August, 2022

I'm a professional and have been doing magic for decades.

Kaps' Currency is in my program any time I'm in a venue that calls for a suitcoat. It requires, in addition to the suitcoat, a suit-style wallet, and a number of dollar bills. There's a tiny bit of prep required of those dollars, but they're still spendable afterward if you need bus fare home. I'm not certain that this would work with plastic money (e.g. Canadian). Performance requires two volunteers. The trick can be done at any distance, from close up to stage. Angles are good. Not really aimed at children, and child volunteers (due to the height difference between you and them, and their perhaps less-than-fluid ability with handling money) can be challenging.

The effect is as stated: no matter what the magician does, the eleven dollars in his hand become ten dollars. The instructions are clear; the photos, while dark, are useful.


Reviewed by David Dunlap (confirmed purchase)
★★★★★   Date Added: Friday 13 May, 2022

This is an amazing effect. I performed this for a magic variety show and it was the hit of the entire show. Definitely worth getting and learning. I first saw Trevor Lewis perform this years ago at a magic convention. In fact, he did it to me. I didn’t know how the heck he was doing this. I bought his lecture notes on how to perform this but they were very unclear. He left out some of the descriptions for the sleights. I had been looking for years for the original transcript by Fred Kaps when I finally found it on Lybrary.com.

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Magic & Conjuring / Paper & Paper Money

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