The Crated Coin by Mark Strivings

In 2022, a single appearance on ‘Penn and Teller Fool Us’ created a small firestorm. Wes Iseli performed an effect using one coin that filled the entire auditorium with mystery and involved literally everyone in the audience. Not only did the effect impress (and FOOL) Penn and Teller, but they also added it to their Las Vegas show. Easily the highest praise possible.

Here’s the basic effect. The performer shows a coin, and a helper comes on stage to verify everything. He then has everyone in the audience stand. He demonstrates a basic coin toss and instructs his audience to raise their hand if they think the next toss will be heads, but to leave their hands down if they think it will be tails.

The coin is tossed. Let’s say it comes up heads. Everyone who left their hand down, indicating tails, is instructed to sit down. This is repeated until just one person in the entire auditorium remains standing. It is then shown that the performer predicted exactly who that person would be ahead of time!

lseli’s effect was ultimately released as an instant download, and it has spawned a handful of variations, including what you now have.

As much as I loved Wes’ effect (and yes, I bought it, along with other variations), I couldn’t do itin my shows.

There were two primary reasons why this wouldn’t work in my shows.

First, and this is the big one, there is stage lighting when you are on stage. These lights can be blinding, and catching a tossed coin can be a genuine challenge, at least for me. The last thing I wanted to happen was to lose sight of it, have it bounce off my hand, and roll off the stage not exactly entertaining.

Second, and this is a minor issue, the audience cannot see whether the coin toss ends up heads or tails and must rely on your on-stage helper to confirm what happens. While this is not a big deal, it would be nice if the audience could confirm what happens, even from the cheap seats.

There are other issues as well, at least for me, but all of them pale in comparison to these two. If I could find a solution to just these two issues, I would be a happy performer.

Inspired by an effect from the great Gaelan Bloom, I am pleased to say that I have solved al/ of these issues in a practical and straightforward way.

Allow me to introduce you to …

The Crated Coin
By Mark Strivings

From the moment I saw Wes perform ‘Flip’ on Penn and Teller Fool Us a few years ago, I loved the concept. But as I just mentioned, I quickly found that there were potential issues for me personally when it came to performing it. I investigated other versions and found many of the same issues. I couldn’t help but feel like I was at an impasse.