Trick Review: Smashed by Jay Sankey

If you could borrow a quarter and then punch a pencil through the coin, it would look just like Jay Sankey's "Smashed." Like classic "Karate Coin," the pencil appears to completely penetrate the coin, and as in some versions, you can see the jagged and ragged edges of the coin where the pencil was forced through. This trick is a re-release of Sankey's like-named effect that was published in the 1980's.

"Smashed" is fast. You basically borrow or bring out a quarter, take out a pencil and proceed to quickly shove it through the coin. The effect, complete with sound effects, is quite convincing. While Sankey shows you how to "restore" the coin to its original state, he recommends that you leave the coin in its altered state on the pencil and move onto something else.

The effect is fairly easy to learn and perform and there’s minimal palming. Also, you can hand-out the pencil with its punctured coin so spectators can examine it.

Via DVD, Sankey does a fantastic job of teaching the effect as well as explaining several variations and handlings and serving thorough background. In addition to the gimmicked coin and a regular pencil that comes with the trick, you will have everything that you need to perform the trick under any circumstance.

As stated earlier, this is one of those fast effects with a fast setup and conclusion. Sankey does suggest a couple of his own marketed effects that will work well with "Smashed" in a set. "Smashed" is available in American, Canadian and British currencies. For those in the United States, you know that borrowing a quarter is a bit more problematic, not impossible, but you have to deal with those "state" quarters in circulation.

Perhaps the only topic that Sankey doesn't address on the DVD is the fact that spectators will ask if they can keep the penetrated quarter. After all, they just saw you bust a pencil through a borrowed quarter so why can’t you do it again with another quarter for a souvenir?

This is why I liked Daniel Garcia's approach to "Karate coin" in his Daniel Garcia Project #2, where he actually gives away said coin to spectators (click here to read our review).

For visual magic, Sankey’s "Smashed" definitely breaks through.

-Wayne N. Kawamoto

MSRP: (US) $30

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