EASY T4 Tricks for Beginners - 01

 Many magicians devote their entire lives to mastering the art of illusion, but you don't have to go to such great lengths to impress your friends and family. With the right know-how and a little practice, you can easily learn to perform a number of jaw-dropping tricks that are guaranteed to leave onlookers in awe! Start by perfecting a few simple beginner tricks, like making a pencil float in the palm of your hand or passing a cup through a solid tabletop. Then, work your way up to more difficult tricks, such as making a coin disappear and levitating. Read on to keep your audience spellbound with your repertoire of tricks!

Things You Should Know

• Start with a simple coin trick to get a “handle” on magic, then work on other simple tricks like bending a spoon or making a pencil float.
• Make clever comments to amuse and distract onlookers. For example, as you rub a coin into your arm, say that your doctor told you to “get more iron.”
• Try a more challenging trick, like pretending to levitate, so you can entertain others and leave them wondering how you did it.

METHOD 1 - Simple Tricks for Beginners

1

Make a quarter vanish into thin air. Place a quarter in the palm of your dominant hand and tell your audience that you're going to make it disappear. Make sure it's resting right in the center of your middle and ring fingers—secretly cup the edges using your index and pinky fingers. Quickly pass your dominant hand over your opposite hand and act as though you've transferred the quarter. Then, let your dominant hand, which is still palming the coin, fall to your side. Open your empty hand and savor the look on your audience's faces as they try to figure out where the quarter went!^[1]

• You can perform this trick using any type of coin, as long as it's big enough to grip between your fingers and your palm.
• Make a show of pushing or rolling up your shirtsleeves, which provides a visual distraction that makes the “transfer” look less suspicious.

2

Bend and re-straighten any spoon instantly. Hold the spoon upside down with the head pressed against a table or similar surface. Act like you're gripping the handle firmly in both fists. Instead of actually wrapping your hands around the spoon, loop the pinky finger of your bottom hand around the part of the handle that’s directly above the head. Keep the rest of your fingers and your top hand poised in front of the handle. Push both fists down towards the tabletop as though you're bending the spoon by force. Slowly lower the handle so it’s at a horizontal angle. Finish the trick by quickly reversing the motion and “magically” restoring the spoon to its original shape.

• Try out this trick on your friends and family the next time you go out for dinner.
• Sit or stand facing your audience when performing this trick. If someone is watching from the side, they may be able to see what you're doing

3

Make a pencil float in the palm of your hand. Wear a rubber bracelet and slip 1 pencil through it so it’s horizontal. Grab onto another pencil and slide it underneath the pencil that’s pinned in place by your bracelet. When you do this, you’ll hold your second pencil vertically in place because the first pencil will press it against your palm. Fan out your fingers and make sure the back of your hand faces your audience. Your pencil will look like it’s hovering in mid-air! ^[3]

• You can carry out this trick either from the side or from a top-down perspective, so long as the inside of your hand isn't visible to your audience.

4

Pass an ordinary piece of paper around your body. Bet your skeptical audience that you can cut a hole in a normal piece of 5 in (13 cm) x 8 in (20 cm) printer paper large enough to step through. Fold the paper in half widthwise and cut a series of strips through the folded edge every 2 in (5.1 cm) or so, stopping about 1 in (2.5 cm) from the far end. Then, rotate the paper 180 degrees and cut along the midline of each strip, again stopping just short of the far edge. Finally, cut the top edge of each folded crease individually and open up the paper to reveal a staggeringly large paper portal that you can slip right through.^[5]

• Take care not to accidentally cut all the way through the paper, or to tear it while you're picking it up. If you do, you'll end up losing your own bet!
• Though it may seem like genuine magic, this trick has a simple explanation: cutting the strips in such a careful way rearranges the surface area of the paper so that it's essentially one big circle.