"Anti-Gravity Ketchup" (#80)

Anti Gravity Ketchup Trick(#80)

Amazing but incredibly easy trick, where you command a ketchup sachet to rise and fall, inside a bottle at your command with a simple hand motion. Very visual and amusing levitating trick.

Sachet is floating at top of water filled bottle.
A downward hand motion, commands the ketchup to sink to the bottom.
and down hand motions can stop the ketchup at will.


You Will Need: A clear plastic bottle such as one that has been used for soft drinks or mineral water. You will also need a condiment sachet, these are usually found in fast food outlets.

Method:
1) Take the label of the bottle so as to make the contents clearly visible.
2) Fill the bottle, near to the top with cold tap water.
3) Insert the sachet into the bottle, it should float at the top of the bottle.
4) Holding the base of the bottle, as if to steady it, apply gentle squeezing pressure to the base. The increase in pressure inside the bottle should cause the sachet to float slowly downwards. Releasing the grip on the bottle will allow the sachet to float upwards.
5) To make the sachet stop in the middle of the bottle, you need to apply just the right amount of pressure, this can be found with practice.
The beauty of this trick is the audience are completely unaware of the technique as their attention is drawn to the motions of your other hand, beckoning the sachet to rise and fall. Add an interesting line of patter and you have a great impromtu levitation trick that is easy to set up and can be used in a wide variety of places or as a pub trick.

"Thread Trick" (#79)

David Blaine's secret trick made this broken and restored thread illusion very popular.

Hindu Gypsy Thread (#79)
Effect: Performer takes a spool of thread, unravels about a foot of it, & then breaks it off, putting the spool down. Performer proceeds to break the thread into 6 or 7 clearly broken & different pieces, then holding one piece in one hand, the other pieces are rolled up into a ball and 'squashed' onto the piece from the other hand. When this is unravelled it is seen to be completely restored to it's original length. VERY visual, & very clean, pretty easy to do as well.

Preparation: Only practice & you need a spool of cotton thread, preferably brightly coloured. It has to be cotton, otherwise you will need scissors to cut it. Or you could do a burned & restored thread.

Performance: First, before you approach the spectator, unravel about a foot and 1/2 to 2 foot of thread. Now make a tiny ball of thread out of the extra thread you have, so you should have a ball of thread, then a foot of thread (still on the spool). The ball is tiny enough to fit, unnoticed, into the fleshy part of your thumb & index finger when they are pressed together. Now there should be a couple of inches of thread, then a ball (hidden)(all in your right hand) then a foot of thread & then the spool (in your left hand). Now approach the spectator. Break your foot of thread from the spool, & give them the spool to hold.
It looks like you are holding a foot of thread, when really, thanks to the ball you are hiding between your index finger & thumb (right hand), you have more like a foot & 1/2. Break the 1st piece off, now the piece in your right hand looks like a 5 inch length. Thanks to the hidden ball it is a foot long (your restored thread). The pieces in your left hand can be broken as many times as you like, clearly show the thread to be broken. Now, by rubbing your (LH) thumb & index finger together, make a ball of the pieces of thread and 'squash' the 5 inch thread from your RH onto the ball, at the same time, tucking the ball so it's hidden between your index & thumb (LH). Now the ball you have been hiding the whole trick is visible, it looks like the ball you just made out of the broken thread. It can be unravelled & is restored. Give it to the spectator as a souvenir.
As far as patter goes you can pretty much say whatever you want, I'm sure you will anyway

"Magnetic Fingers" (#78)

Magnetic Fingers Trick (#78)

This trick appears to be like hypnotism - Is your patter good enough to convince them ?
Ask your friend if you could try a little "instant hypnosis" on them. Assure them that it's safe and nothing harmful can or will happen.
Next, ask your friend to fold their hands together, weaving the fingers and clasping them tightly. After a few moments of doing this, tell them to raise their two index (first) fingers so they are sticking up and they should be about an inch apart ("church and steeple" kind of thing).
Now, slowly move your hands over their hands (don't touch their hands) and say, "Your fingers will touch. Try to fight it, but they will still touch!"
Slowly, but inevitably, your friends fingers will start to move together. Tell them to concentrate on their fingers (just ham it up, okay?) and soon their fingers will touch.
This is self-working, but it should still be practiced! It's a great bar trick, to. Have fun!

"WRITING PAD MIND TRICK" (#77)

Effect : The magician is seen to write something down on a paper note pad and does not allow the spectator to see what he has written. The magican announces that he is about to ask the spectator a question and because he can read his mind, already knows the answer that the spectator will reply back with. The spectator is then asked to think of a number between one and a hundred or a simple shape such as a triangle, square or rectangle and reveal this out loud. The note pad is then shown to find that the magician had written the same number or shape down on the note pad!

SECRET: Make a gimmick by taping a small piece of broken pencil lead to your thumb, ( Use clear adhesive tape such as Sellotape so that the spectator and audience will not see it and remember to keep the sticky side facing out ). Initially write nothing on the note pad, ( only appear to be writing something ) and when you hide the face of the note pad from the spectator, do so with your thumb facing the side of the paper that you had supposedly written something on ( See picture 3). When your victim says the number or shape that they have thought of, simply write it on the note pad with your thumb and then show it to them as your prediction.
This trick is really convincing but depends a great deal on the magicians performance. Try your hand at acting, look as if you are really concentrating and that the trick requires real mental effort on your part. This will reinforce the illusion that you really can read minds.

"Spoon Illusion" (#76)

"SPOON ILLUSION" (#76)

A Super Close Up Tea Spoon Twister Trick That Leaves An Audience Dumbfounded

Effect:
First of all you casually lift a teaspoon after stirring your tea or even while your still holdiing it, - glance at it with an amused look and wiggle it up and down a little, as if it's kind of bendy and malleable..
You then calmly proceed to bend the bowl of the spoon backwards and forwards and look a little amused. You now appear to do an impossible feat of strength and twist the bowl of the spoon round and round, several times.
You can if your wish, break the bowl of the spoon right off, and then join it back together again and with a couple of twists - you just shake your head in disbelief at the poor quality of the spoon and it back down on the table - Fully Restored Back Together!!!

SECRET
You first need to prepare a simple gimmick. - This is just the bowl part of an old teaspoon that you have cut off with a hacksaw. - see picture on the left. ( Take care when using a hacksaw and file off any sharp edges, this should only be done by an adult )

The gimmicked spoon bowl has to be finger-palmed - This means simply holding it gently in your loosely curled fingers. - So have this kept in a convenient pocket where it's very easy to grasp it with your fingers.

The effectiveness of this close up magic illusion is all down to your presentation. - Holding the spoon in your right hand (or the opposite hand from the one that holds the spoon bowl in finger palm position), you give it a wiggle from side to side and if you hold it loosely between your thumb and forefinger it will appear as if the spoon is flexible and bending. While bending the spoon, try to look a little surprised as to why the spoon looks so bendy..

Now take hold of the spoon with your left hand - the hand that is finger palming the gimmicked spoon bowl. - The spoon is held with the thumb and the first finger of the left hand with the bowl of the spoon slid behind the third, fourth and little fingers. You now can slide the gimmick out perpendicular to the real spoon's stem making it look like it came off, etc..!! You can use your other hand to help manipulate things a bit---just pretend you are twisting, etc...

You are now in a position to appear to bend, twist and break off the bowl of the spoon as you so desire, making some amusing remarks about the poor quality of the cutlery.. This is a great trick for the close-up lover !

"Hand Flip Coin Trick" (#76)

"Hand Flip" (#76)

THIS TAKES A TINY BIT OF PRACTICE

1. Lay two coins in the palms of your hands - the positions are very important! The coin in my left hand is right in the middle of my palm. The coin in my right hand is near my thumb.

2. In one quick motion, flip both hands over and slap them straight down onto the table. The coin in your right hand should get flicked across and under your left hand. The coin in your left hand should simply fall straight down.

3. Ask your audience where they think the coins are – they'll probably guess there's one under each hand. If you move your right pinkie finger a bit, people usually guess the coins are under your right hand – then you can reveal they are wrong!

4. Reveal both coins under your left hand. If you repeat the trick, be quick! Try not to let anyone notice the positions of the coins.

SECRET
The position of the coins in your palms makes this trick work. As you rotate your hands from "palms up" to "palms down", the coin in the centre of your palm stays put and falls straight down. But the coin near your thumb travels around the centre of your palm and gets catapulted towards the other hand. With a bit of practice, it is almost impossible to see this coin shooting across before you slap your hand down to cover it. The reason one of the coins gets flicked across is easy to understand if you imagine using a table tennis bat instead of your hand. Imagine laying one coin smack bang in the centre of one of a bat. As you rotate the bat, the coin rotates around its own centre too, but it does not get flicked away. If you lay the second coin right on the outside edge of the other bat, something quite different happens. This coin travels around the centre of the bat in a big semi-circle and if you rotate the bat quickly enough, it will get flicked away. How fast the coin gets flicked across depends on how far it is from the centre of your palm and the speed with which you flip your hands over.

"THE SPECTATOR-MAGICIAN TRICK" (#75)

"THE SPECTATOR_MAGICIAN TRICK" (#75)

Stunning Card Effect Performed Completely By The Spectator

Effect: The magician asks the spectator whether he knows any card tricks. Whatever the spectator answers, the magician says "Well, heres a great trick, only YOU'RE going to perform it."
The spectator is handed a deck of cards and asked to hold them with the cards facing the magician, the backs towards himself. The magician picks a card, which the spectator removes and places on the table, never looking at it. The spectator then deals two piles on the table. The top card of the first pile reveals the value of the selected card, while the top card of the second pile reveals the suit !!

Performance: This trick is actually not too difficult, but the effect is astonishing because the magician never actually handles the deck. The only real skills necessary are good verbal communications and misdirection.
After the spectator shuffles the deck, have him fan them in front of his face with the backs of the cards towards himself. Tell him to start fanning at the top of the deck and continue to the bottom. Meanwhile, you watch for the card that has the same value as the top card and the same suit as the card second from top
Note: If these two cards have the same value or the same suit, the trick won't work. In this case, ask the spectator whether he cut the cards. When he says no, tell him to cut the deck and start over again.
When you find that particular card, touch it and have him pull it out and place it on the table face down. Then tell him to think of a number and to count that many of into a neat pile on the table. (This puts the two pointer cards on the bottom of the pile.)
Have him discard the rest of the cards in his hands, pick up the pile on the table, and deal the cards alternately into two piles. (The two pointer cards are now on top of each of the new piles.) Remember that the last card he deals will show the value (ace, 2, 3, etc) of the selected card while the next-to-last card (the top one on the other pile) will show the suit.
Explain to the spectator that if he has been concentrating on the card on the table, he will have subconsciously picked two cards that will respectively reveal the value and suit of the card that you the magician have randomly selected. Flip the three cards to reveal that this is so.