There's a topic on the Cafe about this, but I know that a lot of you guys don't actively check each and every one of their 3,440,740 different forums, so I've decided to start the discussion here. Over the last 20 years or so Three Fly has become really popular. Over the last couple of years a lot of handlings have popped up that use intricate gaffs. Those methods are really expensive though. I'm curious as to how many people here actually see the trade offs as worth it. I'm going to post a few videos of different handlings for people to see and I'd like to know your thoughts on them. Which ones do you think look the best? The worst?

I'll even throw my own Greedy Fly into the mix, since it replicates the look of many of the much more expensive methods


SuperFly - Chris Kenner


Wong's Dream Coin Set


Mark Mason's Come Fly With Me


Daryl's 3Fly III




I think this is SuperFly, but it looks like the original to me. I can't really see the difference.


I'll include this one because she's pretty hot and does the routine well. I don't really care which handling this is.

Thanks to Timury, I've fixed the post so that you can actually view all the videos without leaving the page.

I believe Lee Asher's Three Stylin is a poker chip version of this. If anyone has this I'd be interested in their thoughts.

Forgot that one. It was always one of my favorites, even if it has a major flaw. I guess no one has thoughts on the looks of these.

I like the first three and the fith one the best !

What about Bob Kohler's U3F?

I've heard it's the only one worth buying on the Cafe, but then again it's the Cafe...

-JT

I couldn't find a video of anyone decently performing it. I think it's one of the better looking methods and it did actually solve one of the inherent problems in Three Fly. It has possibly the best final coin vanish of any of the gaffed version.

I honestly don't see the difference between three fly and superfly. I guess it must just be a difference in handling. That ponta the smith guy is frecking amazing so anything he does is going to look gorgeous. I'd be interested to see a mortal handle the dream coin set. Conversly that magic geek dude sucks nut so i'm sure come fly with me is better than that. Daryls handling is classic and simple, my favorite out of the bunch. If i had to perform one of them for muggles, that would be the one. Personally i love Gary Kurtz's handling in trio. Its simple and pretty. Its the one that i do (although if im being honest i've only performed it once). But i do like a lot.

Ponta is amazing. His stuff is some of the cleanest that I've seen.

As for the Magic Geek guy, I totally agree. I couldn't find a good demo of CFWM, though. I love the actual routine when done by someone with talent. It may be the cleanest Three Fly on the market.

Ex, thanks for posting these.

I go back and forth on my feelings about Three Fly. The first time I saw a performance of it, I was stunned. But I also think that a Three Fly sequence isn't a satisfactory magical routine on its own. (I know this opinion isn't original to me - I think Chris Kenner has even said something to similar effect, though I could be wrong.)

I own several different handlings of Three Fly, but only one of them uses any kind of gaff (a pretty standard one) so I can't really comment on the practicality of any of the expensive versions. After watching the videos though, I think that, like most effects, the quality comes down to the performer.

My favorites of the videos are Daryl's, Chris Kenner's, and Ponta's - a pretty wide range of routines as far as methods go. They were my favorites because they were mystifying, technically proficient, fun to watch and well-paced.

I also think all of them have flaws, and have yet to come across what I think is a "perfect" Three Fly. For this reason I don't perform Three Fly for anyone, although I am interested in Eric Jones's Mirage Et Trois, R. Paul Wilson's TheFLY, and, now, the Wonder Coin set.

(As a side note, the thing I perform currently that's closest to a Three Fly routine is my own handling of Geoff Latta's The Trick With Three Coins, found on volume one of the New York Coin Seminar DVDs. It's not technically a Three Fly, but I like how it combines the mystery of a closed hands coins across with the visual appeal of coins appearing at the fingertips. It also has an opening production sequence, a closing vanish sequence, and in my handling, ends clean and instantly reset.)

Anyway, to answer Exodus's original question, whether or not expensive gaffs are worth the price, I think it completely depends on the skills and presentation of the performer. The impromptu versions are not identical to the gaffed versions, but presentation can make them equally entertaining (or, as in the case of the Come Fly With Me Demo, it can trash even a technically sophisticated routine) and that's all that interests me in the end.

Is there a performance of Jonathan Towsend's handling of the routine somewhere?

No. The Townsend routine involves the first coin going visibly at the fingertips, a la Three Fly. Then his routine breaks into an Open Hands Coins Across, more similar to CoinONE. It was written up in full in Genii a couple of years ago.

Here is Lee Asher's Three Stylin. There is a moment on one of his travel logs from japan where you see him perform it....Much better than my performance...but i can't remember where. Any ways you coin guys can give me some pointers and in the mean time get an idea of how it looks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5tOhR_v_Uw

The performance was pretty good, I just think the trick itself kind of sucks...
What's the point in doing a 3fly routine with different colored chips if you're just going to make the red chip travel from hand to hand? it just wasn't really "magical"
The last vanish was really good.

Definitely a problem with this trick. A very simple gimmick would solve this problem and I'll likely get to work making one. I've been performing this quite a bit for laymen and no one seems to notice but all the same I'm surprised a gimmick hasn't been included. I think if that were included the added colors would put this one above the rest.