Cross Suits, A Simple and Quick Card Mystery Requirements: One Deck of Cards Effect: Two cards on top of the deck are cut to the middle where they mysteriously turn face up. These same cards are turned face down and one at a time placed in different places in the deck. A quick snap of your fingers and both cards return to the top of the deck! Secret: It is with simple misdirection and a tiny bit of confusion that allows you to create this magic. Done quickly and without hesitation you will appear to possess great skill with playing cards. Set Up: Remove these four cards from the deck: the eight and nine of hearts and the eight and nine of diamonds. Secretly place the eight of hearts and the nine of diamonds face up on the bottom of the deck. Place the eight of diamonds and the nine of hearts face down on the top of the deck. Finally, place a king, queen, or jack (any suit) on the bottom of the deck to hide the two face up eights. Doing so allows you to casually handle the deck without fear of your audience discovering the secret preparations your have made. With these cards in the above described positions you are ready to proceed. Performance: Begin by holding the deck face down in your left hand. Casually remove the two top cards and show them to your spectator by holding them between your thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Display the fronts and the backs. Call attention to the “red eight and the red nine.” Do not refer to them as the eight of diamonds and the nine of hearts. Place the cards back on top of the deck. Cut the deck near the middle and complete the cut. Spread through the cards revealing the “red eight and the red nine” are now face up in the face down pack! This is miracle number one. Directly beneath these face up cards you will find the face down court card (jack, king, or queen) that you placed on the bottom of the deck and the “other red eight and red nine.” No one knows this but you so keep quiet about it! You now have a little "clean up " to do before proceeding with the conclusion of the magic. As you are spreading the cards from the left hand to the right hand you will reveal the face up cards in the center of the deck (as described above). As you come to them push them forward about half their length. Ask your spectator to remove the cards and place them face down on their upturned palm. As this is being done you will need to slide over the court card that lies above the other red eight and nine taking it under the cards in the right hand. This will be seen as merely a continuation of the previous action of moving the cards from left to right. This should be done casually and without any emphasis. What this does is allow you to place the left hand packet on top of the right hand packet thereby secretly placing the other red eight and nine on top of the deck. This sets up the finale. Have the spectator hand you the cards they removed from the spread and place them face down on top of the deck. One at a time, place them back into the deck. The first one going into the bottom third of the deck and the second going into the center. Snap your fingers, twist your wrist a little, say a magic word or two and then turn over the top two cards revealing that the “red eight and the red nine” have returned to the top of the deck! Miracle number two! Notes: It should be clear that the secret lurks in the “confusion” the red eights and red nines create in the mind of the spectator. While confusion does not create magic it can be exploited to create the illusion of magic. A smooth presentation will gloss over the secret that lies right beneath the noses of your audience. This fine piece of sleight-free card magic is another example taken from Scarne on Card Tricks. Scarne credits this trick to Martin Gardner. |
The Psychokinetic Straw Requirements: A paper wrapped drinking straw and a salt shaker with a slightly domed, metal lid. Effect: Try this one the next time you are out to dinner with friends. The performer removes the wrapper from a drinking straw and balances it on the top of a salt shaker. Placing his hands on either side of the straw the performer moves his hands slowly around the straw. As he exerts more and more psychic power the straw begins to move, slowly spinning around and around. At the conclusion of the demonstration the straw is passed around the table proving that it is completely ordinary and ungimmicked. Spooky! Secret: Okay. This is more science than magic but a convincing presentation will baffle your audience and they will completely forget what they learned in school about static electricity. The success of this demonstration rests entirely upon how you remove the paper from the straw. Tear off the end. And instead of blowing the paper off the straw like you did down at the malt shoppe after a hard day in Miss Johnson's English class you pinch the wrapper just below where you tore off the end and pull the straw through the wrapper, building up a static charge. You must do this without drawing any attention to yourself. Usually this is easy to do because the other members of your party are busy taking the paper off their own straws. Then, hold the straw between the forefinger of your right hand and the forefinger on your left hand and carefully balance the straw on the metal lid of the salt shaker. Do not touch the straw with your entire hand as this will discharge the electricity and the whole thing goes down the drain. By placing your hands near the ends of the straw and slowly moving them around you can cause the straw to spin as it sits atop the salt shaker. Really put some effort into it and make it appear as though it is a real struggle for you to move the straw. Don't over do it or appear melodramatic...that will give it away as a hoax. After you have caused the straw to spin once or twice pick up the straw and hand it out for examination. This discharges the electricity and destroys the evidence! The least said the better. I usually just start doing this at the dinner table without any build up or a "hey, watch this." Just do it and enjoy the reaction. |
Most magic is devilishly simple. But the key to a good magic performance is not the secret method or the fancy props. No. A good magic performance depends on how the magician uses the method and the props. A great magician can captivate an audience with nothing more than two rubber bands and an amusing story. The performance pieces appearing below are examples of simple magic requiring only thoughtful practice and presentation. Give them a try! Create your own magic by injecting your personality into these three simple tricks. I hesitate to use the word 'tricks' because they can be transformed into real magic in the eyes of your audience. |
Simple Coin Vanish Requirements: a pocket full of change, a good mix of pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. Effect: The magician reaches into his pocket with his left hand and brings forth a handful of change. With his right hand he removes a single coin from the collection and replaces the rest of the coins back in his pocket. He transfers the chosen coin from his right to his left hand, closing his fist. He makes a magic gesture, opens his fist, and the coin has disappeared into thin air! Secret: This is so simple yet deceiving you will not believe it. This is really a fine example of how magic takes place inside the imagination of your audience. It is easy to vanish a coin...especially when you never actually have one in your hand! I stand to get in a lot of trouble with my fellow magicians for tipping this method but in addition to teaching you how to perform a startling and convincing vanish it teaches you a little about human nature and how we as magicians rely upon a spectator's imagination to do the bulk of the heavy lifting when performing. So, grab a handful of change and let's begin! When you bring out the change hold it in your palm so the audience can see that you have lots of coins. Use the forefinger of your right hand to poke around the money as if you are looking for a particular coin. Pick one up and casually look at it as if inspecting it. Drop it back on the pile and poke around some more. Don't make a big deal about this, just do it like you would if you were looking for correct change when making a purchase. Now, with your right hand pretend to pick up a coin. Hold your first and second fingers together with your thumb as if holding a coin and put the rest of the coins back in your pocket. This movement should not be rushed but should appear as one fluid movement. One hand removes a coin, the other puts the coins away. Simple as that. Again without calling undue attention to your right hand, take the "coin" and place it in your now empty left hand and close it into a fist. Show your right hand empty. This sends the message "I put what was in my right hand into my left hand. Wave your right hand over your left and say something magical. Slowly...SLOWLY...open your left fist to reveal the coin has vanished. NOTE: you have never stated your intention to vanish a coin! Don't...once you do this all eyes will be burning every move you make. Don't think this will fool anyone? Think again, Houdini! When you bring out the coins, poke around and remove one and then return it to the pile you are preconditioning the mind of your spectator. The second time you do this, when pretending to take a coin, the spectator has no reason to doubt your actions. He/she just saw you pick up a coin, why on earth would anyone pick up something that was not there? Make sense? Practice Tips: This is simple and easy to do. AFTER you have practiced it about thirty times in a mirror. So don't run off immediately after reading this and expect to amaze your friends. Won't happen and you will look foolish and goofy. Practice by actually doing what you are pretending to do. When your fake action mimics the real thing you are ready for a live audience. Never tell anyone in advance what your are going to do! As far as they are concerned you are just counting the change that is in your pocket. It is not until you hold up the "coin that is not there" that you give anyone a hint as to your intentions. And it happens so fast your audience will stand there, mouths open, wondering if they really saw what they think they saw. |