Impress friends and family with the following simple, yet effective, dexterous magic tricks! These tricks are easy to prepare and even easier to perform. You can perform these tricks almost anywhere and amaze your audience. From making a coin disappear to finding someone's card in a deck, all you need is quick fingers.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Make a coin disappear
Step 1. Hold the coin in your left hand
Place the coin between your thumb and first two fingers. Hold the coin by the ribbed edge.
- Make sure your entire hand is tilted slightly toward yourself. Spectators should be able to see which side of the coin is up, but turning your hand slightly makes the trick easier.
- Use a larger coin, especially if you are a beginner. A euro or 50 cents is fine.
- You can hold the coin in the hand that you feel most comfortable with. In this example, the coin will be held in the left hand.
Step 2. Bring your right hand into position
Pretend to grab the coin with your right hand. Position your hand as if you were grabbing the coin, with your thumb on the bottom. Place your four fingers on top of the coin.
- When you grab it, your thumb should go under the coin to give the illusion that you are going to grab it.
- By placing your four fingers on the coin, you can hide that you are going to drop the coin.
Step 3. Place the coin in your palm
Enclosing the coin, drop it into the palm of your left hand. Turn your left hand over while squeezing your right hand and pulling the coin away.
- As you drop the coin, make a pinching motion with your right hand above your left thumb. This makes it look like you're grabbing the coin. Then pull your left thumb out.
- Create a distraction by moving your right hand away from the left (the hand without the coin). People will expect the coin to be in your right hand and follow your every move.
- You can even rub your fingers together and clench your fist, as if you were letting the coin disappear into thin air.
Step 4. Create even more distractions
With the coin in it, bring your left hand down and to your leg. Keep moving your right hand (the one that supposedly has the coin) away from it, toward your face.
- By moving your hands in opposite directions and raising your right hand to eye level with the audience, you will divert attention to your right hand.
- This gives you the option to hide or rearrange the coin under the palm of your left hand, without anyone noticing.
Step 5. Show your empty hand
Open your right hand and show the audience that the coin is gone.
- You can rub your fingers together, and slowly open your palm as if you had dissolved the coin. This constant movement helps to further distract the audience, which is especially helpful if you're new to the trick.
- You can also simply open your hand with a graceful gesture to reveal that the coin is gone.
Step 6. Make the coin reappear
Complete the trick by pulling the coin from behind someone's ear. Hold the coin in your left hand and move it quickly to someone's ear, doing as you take the coin out. You have to do this quickly to make the trick extra impressive.
You can also sneak the coin into your pocket while showing your empty right hand. Then reveal that you don't have the coin in your left hand either, and may be gone forever
Method 2 of 3: Balancing or floating a five euro note
Step 1. Take a five cent coin and a euro bill
This trick requires some preparation. Take five cents and palm the coin (hold the coin in your palm). Then take a euro from your purse, or ask someone for a euro note.
- The coin will be used to balance the folded euro on your thumb. The public should not know that you have the coin in your palm.
- This is a simple trick that you can do anywhere.
- A five cent coin is good because it is small and heavy enough to counterbalance.
Step 2. Show the euro note
Hold the bill between your thumbs and first two fingers pinched. When you pick up the bill, place the coin on the back of it and hold it in place between your thumb and index finger. Fold the bill in half, like a hamburger, and away from you. Then unfold the bill from the back to reveal the other side of the bill.
- What you are doing is showing that it is an ordinary banknote. As you unfold it, flip the bill over while holding the coin in the same spot with your thumb.
- This is a simple distracting move. As you do this, talk to the audience to explain that there is nothing magical or special about this note.
Step 3. Fold your bill around the coin
Fold the bill in half lengthwise, like a hot dog. With the coin still on the inside of the bill, fold the bill up. Hold the coin in place with your thumb and middle finger as you fold half of the bill down and toward you with your index fingers. Then fold your bill in half again. You now have a bill folded in four.
- Hold the coin between your thumb and middle finger and slide it to the bottom edge of the five euro bill. This also gives you a chance to fold the top half over it.
- Once you have folded the bill in half, position it so that the fold is at the bottom and the two open ends are at the top. Lower the coin into the fold.
- Then, using the same folding method, fold the top of the bill back down and toward you. Make the folds sharp with your free hand. This helps to keep the coin in place.
Step 4. Balance or 'float' the note
With the coin on one end of the bill, hold the ends of the bill between your thumbs and index fingers. Carefully release the bill by hand without the coin. As you do this, release the index finger holding the coin. The coin will now balance on your thumb, making it appear as if the note is floating slightly.
- You can rotate your hands slightly and hide your thumb balancing the bill with your other fingers for a stronger effect.
- If you have a good sense of balance, you can also move your hand slightly up and down to make the trick more dynamic.
- Keep talking to distract your audience. For example, explain how to use magical energy to make the banknote float.
Step 5. Return the euro note to have it checked
After floating the note for a few seconds, have the audience inspect the note. Hold the bill at the side with the coin and turn the bill vertically. Let the coin fall out and into your palm. Keep the coin hidden and show the bill to the public for them to check.
- You may need to open up the folds in the bill a bit to make sure the five cents actually fall out.
- When you hand over the bill, you quickly slide the coin into your pocket, while the audience is distracted.
Method 3 of 3: Finding a card in a deck
Step 1. Take a deck of playing cards
This is a simple card trick that requires some math and has fooled even some of the most talented magicians, such as Penn & Teller. Start with a regular deck of playing cards.
- This trick takes some preparation. You take the two Jokers and place both cards in a different direction on the pile than the rest of the cards.
- To help you practice, write the number 43 on one Joker and the number 18 on the other Joker.
- While doing the public trick, these numbers are not on the Jokers, so you have to remember each number.
Step 2. Prepare the playing cards
You place the cards in positions 9, 18 and 25. Make a pile of 9 cards and place the highest Joker, with the number 43, face down at the bottom of the pile. Then make a pile of 18 cards, and place the Joker with the number 18 at the bottom of the pile, face down. Place this last pile under the first pile. You now have 25 left. Place that stack on the bottom.
You have now placed the Jokers in positions 10 and 29 on the deck. Now you can ask a spectator to remove a third of the pile. It is unlikely that the spectator will draw less than the 10th card (your first Joker) from the deck, and no more than the 29th card (your two Joker)
Step 3. Ask the first spectator to take about a third of the pile
You can place the pile on a table and ask a spectator to take a third of the pile and remember the bottom card. If the pile is split, put the pile taken from the main pile on the table.
If you are not confident that the spectator will split the deck correctly, hold the deck and run your thumb around the edges of the card, asking the spectator to say stop. This gives you more control over how fast you go, making sure a third of the deck is split, after the first Joker and before the second
Step 4. Ask a second spectator to divide the deck of playing cards in half
Take the remaining pile and have another spectator divide it in half. It is unlikely that the second Joker will split above as it is now near the top of the stack. Ask the spectator to remember the card and place this part of the pile on the table next to your first chosen pile.
Again, if you want to make sure it's distributed correctly, run your thumb around the edges of the playing cards and have your spectator indicate to stop approximately in the middle
Step 5. Make another pile of the playing cards
You now have three piles of cards, all of them about the same amount. Take Spectator 1's pile, the first chosen pile, and put it back on the remaining pile. Then take Spectator 2's pile and put it back on top of it.
You now take the first third that was split off and place it in the middle of the pile, and then place the second on top of that pile
Step 6. Spread out the playing cards like a fan and slide the Jokers out
Fan the playing cards horizontally. Take the Jokers and slide them both out, creating openings. You now have three separate piles again.
- The Joker must be the last card before the interruption. So when you separate the playing cards, the card to the right of each Joker is the bottom card on the first two piles.
- You now have three piles of cards again. The stack on the far left is Spectator 2's stack. The far right stack is Spectator 1's stack.
Step 7. Put the stacks back into one stack
Take the pile on the far left (Spectator 2), and place it on top of the middle pile. Then take the pile on the far right (Spectator 1) and place it on top.
- Leave out the Jokers when you make them one pile again.
- Your deck of playing cards is now back in its original order, but without Jokers.
Step 8. Find the cards chosen by the spectators
Point to the right Joker. Say that this Joker knows where Spectator 1's map is and has whispered its location in your ear. Count 18 cards, and turn over the 18th card. This last card is that of Spectator 1. Point to the other Joker and say that this card is going to tell you the location of the second card. Count on from 18 to arrive at the 43rd card, which is Spectator 2. Turn the card over so that everyone can see it.
- This trick uses simple calculations to find the playing cards. The Jokers mark the number of cards you are going to count to find the correct card.
- The way to remember the positions of the cards is simple. The first position, 9, is half of 18. 18+25=43, the position of the second card.
- During the trick, keep the audience distracted by telling a story about two trusty Jokers who have been spying on the other playing cards. These Jokers have whispered to you where to find the cards that the spectators have chosen.
Tips
- Keep talking to your audience while performing these tricks. By continuing to talk and explain what magic trick you're going to perform, you're distracting the audience from what you're doing with your hands.
- Practice this in front of a mirror to improve your skills and see what your audience is seeing.
- While these are simple tricks, you will need to keep practicing. The more you practice, the easier it will get.