For those of you who know the retention vanish, how long did it take for you to master it? Compared to other vanishes would you consider it relatively hard? I'm trying to make mine convincing, and I can tell its gonna take some time. I'm just curious if it takes most people months, weeks, etc...

I came up with my own retention vanish, but it took me about 2 or 3 months to get it just right.

I practiced over about six months until I really liked it. But I didn't have the best instruction at the beginning. It helps if you learn from a good coin magician in the beginning. For example, david roth or david stone (who I learned from ) I didn't have their dvd's in the beginning so a lot of the time I spent was experimentation. Once I learned from them I was doing it like nothing in about a week or two.

it took me about 3 months to master it, and yes i do think it is harder than other vanishes.

Yeah.. I use 2 different kinds of retention vanishes... but it did't take a long time to learn... but it took about a month to master!

I have been practising it for over a year now and I don't think I have mastered it. Though mastery is my goal I do not believe it possible. Call me a sinnic

about half a year

the finger palmvanish has taken me about 4 months, i still work on it to this day.

Question for those writing here. What is meant by "Retention" as it applies to coin sleights?

"Retention of vision" re coin sleights means that the spectator still "sees" the coin in the magician's hand after the stealing maneuver has been executed. The "retention" of the image of the coin -- usually just a portion of the coin or a flash of color -- in the spectator's mind's eye after the coin is in fact gone is part of what makes the vanish succeed. Any vanish that doesn't rely on that principle of retained visibility is not actually a retention vanish.

Thank you. I knew someone here besides me knew what it meant. I see it written "Retention" so often without mentioning "of Vision" I just wanted to see who really knew.

Two of the best recent proponents of the "ROV" vanish are Al Schneider, and of course Mickey Silver. You could swear you see the coin in the hand, in fact you're sure of it.

Dont forget Larry Barnowsky:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-ftsIwgyVIc

Hmmmm took me about 1 week, although i had already been doing spongeball magic and have know the retension vanish and how to do it for about a year now, and i find its easier to conceal a coin via retention vanish as it alot smaller than a spongeball

What I love about a properly done retention vanish is, if you practice and practice when you do it in front of a mirror with a shiny enough coin, you fool yourself.

I know what you mean, I taped myself with a cam doing some vanishes, and I really fooled myself with them.
Imagine how the spectators feel