Magic Tricks

Magic is easy- for the initiated. This repertoire of magic tricks – ranging from the simple (but still very effective) to the more complicated – can be performed by an amateur at home or in the living room of friends and relatives using mainly everyday items. Mastering them, however, is the matter of practice and still more practice. To be successful magician you need more than mere sleight of hand and a good memory. You must develop a certain amount of showmanship, whether to build us suspense or to disguise what you are up to. Any master magician will almost certainly add the following advice. • Never attempt to perform a trick in public unless you have thoroughly mastered it in private. • Never take the audience into your confidence and tell them what you are about to perform; the most impressive part of a trick in the same company. • Distract the attention of the audience during your performance by the use of a wand, and make use of plenty of ‘patter’ throughout your show. • If you are found out in a trick, don’t lose the temper; simply pass off the mistake with a joke. • Wherever possible, borrow from the audience any articles used in a trick; this gesture reassures people that your equipment is in no way ‘rigged’. • Constant practice and the determination to succeed are the basis of all good conjuring tricks.

The Magic Wand

Every magician has a magic wand - and for a very good reason. The wand is not for show, but serves to disguise a variety of movements. In palming, the way you hold the wand accounts for the contraction of the fingers and help to conceal hidden objects. An occasional journey to the performer’s table to fetch or put down the wand allows you to turn your back on the audience, so you can get rid of or produce an item without anyone noticing. The magic wand should be about 40 centimetres long and about 15 millimetres in diameter. A plain black wand made of wood is preferred by most magicians.

Tricks with Coins

You must master the art of palming before you can ever consider giving your first performance. Palming is the ability to hold certain articles in the hand, unseen by the audience, and is the secret of all good conjuring. For exercise, you should practice with everything you handle- coins, apples, oranges, rubber balls, and so on – so that eventually you not only astonish your audience, but even amaze yourself with your own dexterity.

Odd or Even

Borrow a 50-cent coin from a member of the audience. When it is handed to you, look intently at it for some time, as though you noticed something peculiar about it. Now announce that you will perform an amazing trick with the borrowed coin. Take the coin and, holding it between two fingers of each hand on the back, and the thumb of each hand on the front, bend your hands outwards. At the same time bring the points of the fingers nearer together, and immediately bring them back to their former position. Repeat this motion several times. To someone a little distance away it seems as though the coin is being bent nearly in two at each outward movement of the hand. Place a pile of coins in a clear plastic container and ask a member of the audience to take out a handful. Ask her to check whether she has an odd or even number of coins, but to keep the information to herself. Point out to the audience that she has given you no information, but that you will be reading her mind. Now take a handful of coins out to the container yourself, making sure you leave some behind to rule out the possibility that you counted the coins in advance. Tell the audience that when you add your coins to those of the volunteer, if the number she had taken was even the total will be odd, and vice versa. Drop your coins into an empty container held by another member of the audience, then let your volunteer add hers. Now ask her whether the number was odd or even – and when the coins in the second container are counted, the total number turns out to be the reverse, exactly as you had predicted. The secret: An odd number added to and odd give an even number; if you add an odd number to an even the result is odd. So you only need to ensure that you drop an odd number of coins into the container; if you pick up an even number, use your palming skills to keep back one and hide it in a packet when you get the chance.

Twenty Coin Trick

Palm five 10-cent coins in your right hand, ask members of the audience to lend you twenty 10-cent coins and display them on a plate. Take the coins from the plate with the right hand and mix them with the concealed five. Give them to a member of the audience to hold, and ask him to return five to you. He will obviously believe he is retaining only fifteen – although, of course, he has twenty. While the attention of the audience is distracted, palm another 10-cent coin in your right hand. Then ask someone else to hold the five coins, but actually give her six. Now ask her to return one coin to you. When you take the coin from her, remind her she has only four coins left. You can now proceed with the best part of the trick. Taking the one coin you have just received in your right hand, palm it and pretend to place it in the left. Then striking your left hand with the magic wand, order the coin to fly into the closed hand of the volunteer holding the five, or as she suppose, the four coins. When she opens her hand the coin will, of course, appears to have been transferred there, much to the amazement of your audience. Now, taking the five coins, make a more dexterous pass into the left hand, from where you order them to fly into the closed hand of the volunteer holding the supposed fifteen. When you ask for the return of the original twenty coins, the expression of surprise on his face should be reward enough! Executed with care and dexterity, this is one of the most effective coin illusions in any magician’s repertoire. But to be successful you will need to adept at the art of palming. It is also important that the volunteers holding the coins should be asked to keep their hands tightly closed and lifted above their heads, otherwise they may count the coins and expose you before the trick is finished.