Danny Goldsmith: The Best Coin Magician Alive? (Introduction)
As Danny Goldsmith (the best coin magician alive) blew up primarily on Instagram, I thought it only appropriate to start this post out with a few quotes, not from fellow magicians, but rather from his fans on the platform, therefore, behold the love for this man:
“Just incredible man”
“It’s upsetting how good you are”
“I actually think you perform the best retention vanish I have ever seen…”
“Beautiful work bro”
“Ducking amazing! Been watching your work for over 10 minutes now! Can’t stop.”
“YOU ARE THE BEST.”
And trust me… There are a hundred more comments just like these, if not with an even greater love for Danny Goldsmith.
So, what’s all the fuss about?
Well, here at the Daily Magician we were very lucky to have Danny on the podcast and work with him very closely over the past few weeks!
And trust us when we say the fuss is there for a reason! The man is quite the talented magician…
How did Danny Goldsmith get into magic?
When I asked Danny this question I couldn’t believe the answer he gave me…
…I mean it’s something that really deserves to be in the next Marvel movie.
I’ll say it now if there were awards for people’s origin stories in magic I would give Danny the biggest award I could muster!
Of course, it starts in a serious place and I mean no disrespect by comparing it to Marvel, I only say that to give you an idea of the sort of superhero Danny truly is!
But enough hype, you probably want to just hear it already! Now, I thought it would be a disservice to tell the story of how Danny Goldsmith started magic myself!
So I spent ages writing it out from the podcast.
If you want to hear it from Danny’s own voice, head over to The Of Sleights and Men Podcast.
For those of you that would rather read it, here is Danny’s ‘origin story’ in his own words (I used a combination of software and my own ears to write this, so it isn’t perfect):
Danny Goldsmith: “I was 15 years old. And my grandfather had just passed away. And he was such an important figure in my life, I grew up in a chaotic family. And he was probably the model of sanity for me, you know, and somebody I had just such a deep, heartfelt connection with.
“So for him to pass on when I was 15 was a big deal. He was a coin collector, and he gave me so many coins. And when he passed away, I received all those coins. But before then, he had also given me a handful, even when I was really young. So I had Morgan silver dollars and walking liberties.”
“And, you know, so, so much, so many different types of coins. So I had, I think, a walking liberty in my hand, at his funeral, I was sitting there and a man came up, who I guess was a friend of my grandfather’s I still to this day, do not know who this mysterious stranger was.
“And he said, Hey, can I see that? And I was a little taken aback by this. I’m at my grandfather’s funeral. And there’s this man trying to ask me to hand him this coin, you know, like, sure. And he placed it on the tip of his pointer finger, and he snapped over it with his other hand, and just suddenly disappeared. And I was, I was shocked, right, it was the first time I’d ever seen magic in person. And might have even been, I don’t really have a met clear memory, even seeing magic before that. But it was definitely the first time I saw it in person, maybe even the first time I’d seen magic.”
“And it was such an interesting experience. For me, I remember being in this state where I felt this surge of, you know, wonder, we have so many names for and magic experience of magic, some people like to argue that these are all different things. But I think that’s nonsense. I think we all just have different ways of expressing it. And we choose different words for it. But um, for the sake of this, I’ll use the word wonder. And so there was the state and this elated state of wonder, and at the same time, in this place of such strong grief, I did not know how to reconcile these two feelings happening simultaneously.”
“But my state of wonder was so powerful, so I asked him please, you have to show me how you did that!”
“And he said I’d be happy to. Because I think he could see where I was at and he wanted to, you know, be able to offer me that and maybe bring me some relief. So he taught it to me, and that is okay, talk about methods on this?”
Benji: “Yeah, I think it’s up to you.”
Danny: “Okay, yeah, it’s actually, um, you placed a coin on the tip of your first finger just like extended straight up, so the coins parallel with the ground. And you have to have sleeves on for this right. But you can pull your sleeves back a little bit and still make this work as long as they’re hanging a little bit. And when you would snap over the coin, your middle finger would hit the rim of the coin and shoot it along your arm into your sleeve. But you would do this as your hand kind of circled around your right hand circling above and around the coin snaps and it is it can be so instantaneous okay.”
Benji: “So this crazy is that I’m sorry to interrupt you.”
“I remember that is exactly the trick that my dad to do me when I was young. And I would always think cuz he would do it though. I don’t know if you’ve, I guess it must be possible. You know what? Yes, sometimes he would do it with is like a short sleeve top. So like, you know, sometimes it’s like a long sleeve shirt, but sometimes you’d wear in Sunday dress and have a short sleeve and watch and then do it all the way. But I mean, that was after I knew the method, he was just kind of showing off at that point.”
“But it’s interesting because I totally forgot about that.”
Danny: “Yeah. Wow. Not so useful in terms of going out and doing it for people. But for somebody who knew? Like, yeah, let me show you, you think you’re right.”‘
“So, yeah, here it was in the set this, you know, enthralled and what this man was showing me. And that brought about the second state of wonder it, there was, and I think I other magicians, if they, if they try to recall this, though, realize and remember, oh, used to experience that state, not just when we saw a good trick. But when we learned a good trick, there was that sense of limitless imagination, around the possibilities of this and the just being so deeply seduced by that feeling. Being able to rest in that feeling of having learned something so fascinating that we can go out and show people the, you know, maybe a sense of a deep sense of worth and appreciation for one’s own abilities to go out and share something, I think, you know, like you had, you had something to offer the world. And so there was that experience. And
I’m holding this profound state of wonder, and this deep state of grief simultaneously. And eventually, they just kind of clicked together. And there was this experience of looking at my grandfather’s death, an entirely new way, for you have preconceptions and ideas about what it all means. And just looking at it, like I was experiencing it for the first time, and nobody had ever told me what death was. And there was just a much deeper appreciation for that experience, I was able to apply that state of wonder, to this experience in a way that allowed me to really just appreciate, and really recall all the beautiful times I had with my grandfather.”
“And that loss actually leaving me with this state of vulnerability that felt more open and receptive to the joys of life. So that was a huge moment for me. I thought, wow, this as an art form can be something really powerful that we can share with people. It can, it can open their minds in a way that could free them of fixed ways of thinking. If it’s a really powerful, strong moment, and, you know, I think we’ve all had experiences like that, where we showed somebody a magic trick, and they said that changed my week, or that made my week or that made my month, you know, I found myself just much more joyful, it can really pull us out of a rut. And yeah, from that moment forward, I felt, wow, I have to learn this and be able to share it.”
Jacob: Wow, that was that was that was beautiful man that kind of makes me feel inadequate. About my magic.
(I left that last part in because that’s still how I feel! I mean what an amazing story, if you only have time to read that, that’s fine… Because it should change how to see magic if you understand it properly.)
Danny Goldsmith and Buddhism
Danny Goldsmith has become famous not only for his magic but also for what inspires it!
(Quoted from Ellusionist)
Danny Goldsmith is a Buddhist. Not to be confused with religion, like magic, Buddhism is simply a way of life.
The aspiration is to reach enlightenment. A deeper connection to the magic in the world around you.
It’s this soft, smooth, karmic-thinking that puts Danny’s coin work into another dimension.
With that in mind, now read this exert from the podcast:
Danny Goldsmith:
“You know, it’s like, yeah, even in very subtle amounts, it has such a huge impact on people even, it’s just a moment of joy. You know, like, we all are constantly seeking entertainment. You know, we’re spending all this time on our phones, or whatever it may be because we don’t know how to just sit with the experience of life.”
“It’s, you know, there’s a beautiful, painful aspect of life, you know when we really just rest in it, right? You can’t really push away the parts you don’t like, you can distract yourself from them, but you can’t really push away the parts you don’t like. So when we offer something that is entertaining but still has this sense of human connection to it. That’s there. The entirety of experience I’m talking about is there in that even if it’s subtle, and it’s not fully recognized, it’s always present in my personal opinion”
“Yeah, so with a magic effect there is nothing to think about it for a second. So there’s like, another way, like talk about it is, it’s like a gap. You know, it’s like we have our preconceptions about the world, right? We, we look at the world, and we see it through the lens of our perceptions or preconceptions or ideas about what this world is about what any given moment is, or what, who a particular person is, or whatever it is, we’re looking at, we’re looking at it filtered through our thoughts about whatever that thing is, right.
“And with magic, it’s this beautiful thing where we know you have a coin you placed in your left hand, and they, the spectator does what we all do, and you start playing out those thoughts that storyline, that filter, right, because we don’t want to just experience life through the wrongness of our sense perceptions, we, we fixate on our thoughts and ideas about it in some way of asserting our own identity into the situation. But, you know, we all do this, but they do this in the process of we place a coin in the hand, and they start telling themselves the story, okay, it’s in the hand, oh, maybe he did something there, right?”
“They, they start trying to get a leg up on the situation, as we all do in our lives. And then when you open your hand, and they realize their entire story, this whole scaffolding that they built up about what they think is happening, falls away, there’s a gap, there’s a moment free of those preconceptions free of those ideas in that thought filter. And there’s a chance for them to experience something with a perception that is fresh, and unfiltered and raw, and more direct.”
“And that I believe is the state of wonder, I think it is to, you know, and I think there’s a wonder the noun and then wonder the verb, right? You can start to wonder about something, which is to actually let go of your preconceptions, it’s to try to think in a new way to imagine, right, and this is a state of mind that’s more associated with, oh, I don’t need to know, maybe I don’t know, and exploring free of preconception. And then there’s wonder the noun, which is the actual experience of even the imaginative process can kind of fall apart. And it’s a little more expansive and less contained than that even.”
DISCLAIMER: You might be on this article thinking… Wow, is he just here to promote the podcast they had with Danny Goldsmith?
And the answer is no!!! If you think that then you’re not reading what Danny’s saying properly.
I mean the guy is truly just a mystic of magic…
Feel emotional even writing this post.
So please, get everything you can out of the words and go back and read if you’re just skimming.
Examples of Danny’s Magic
Danny Goldsmith’s Future in Magic
Now us lesser men would probably think this would have an obvious answer…
…Danny’s obviously going to create the best magic products known to man and change coin magic as we know it! Right?
Well… That would be a lesser man thinking, in fact when we asked Danny this question he told us: “I don’t think linearly.”
A true testament to the level this man is really working at, but! If you do want to stay up to date with Danny’s projects please go here:
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