From time to time, people appear on TVs to do amazing things. In their hands, an ordinary wooden stick passes through thick glass, and multi-colored tennis balls appear out of nowhere and disappear just as suddenly. A deck of cards in skillful hands turns into an endless series of fascinating puzzles that you do not have time to solve - so quickly one trick is replaced by another. Trying to unravel the secrets leaves no other way but to learn the tricks yourself. But remember that this fascinating activity is not as simple as it seems at first glance.
Tricks with cards
The spread of the popularity of magic tricks with cards is explained, first of all, by the availability of the requisites necessary for showing. Learning tricks with cards is easy - a playing deck is acquired, and the fun begins.
Props: a deck of cards.
External effect. One of the spectators shuffles the cards and makes sure that the deck does not contain secrets. Dividing the deck of cards into 4 parts, invite three viewers to choose and remember one card from the three parts of the deck. Hold the fourth part in your hands. The deck is reassembled, and a randomly selected viewer deals cards one by 3 equal piles, according to the number of cards made. The number of cards to be laid out is chosen arbitrarily, but their number in each pile should be the same. Cards selected by the audience are placed on top of each pile. Then the deck is connected. Having invited the audience to remove the deck several times, the magician makes a circular layout and calls the cards chosen by the audience.
The secret of focus is in the fourth pile remaining in the hands of the performer during the selection of cards by 3 participants. Remember the first card from the part of the deck that was left in your hands. When collecting the deck, put the part with the card you know on top. With a further layout, it will be below. Then, when folding the deck, after the audience put their cards on each pile, it will be located above the first one. Handing over cards in a circle, expect your appearance. The next card, and every fourth after it will be the ones that the audience has chosen.
Tricks with coins
Before you learn to show tricks, determine the audience that you are going to surprise. For home shows, tricks using familiar objects are suitable.
Props: coin and matchbox.
External effect. Show an empty matchbox, open it, close it, shake confirming that it is empty. Re-open and carefully remove the metal coin from the inner compartment. Pass the coin and boxes on to viewers for inspection.
The secret of the trick is that the coin is hidden in advance between the moving part and the top cover. Pulling out the inside for inspection, quietly hold a coin with your finger and push the box to the upper stationary part. When closing the boxes, release the coin and it will fall inside. After that, open the box and demonstrate the appearance of the metal coin that appeared there.
Table tricks
Creating an uncomplicated illusion is easy, you just need to know how. Simple tricks help you learn magic tricks, on the example of which a novice sorcerer learns the basics of working with improvised props.
Props: a bowl of water and talc.
External effect. An illusionist pours water from a tap into a bowl of water. Ask any of the spectators to do this procedure - this way the public will have no doubt that the water and the bowl do not contain secrets. Ask the audience if you can immerse your hand in the liquid and not soak it. The answer is obvious, and anyone can try to do it. But the magician puts his hand in the water, and it remains completely dry.
The secret of the trick is the colorless talcum powder used to process the hand. Not a single drop of water will linger on a magician’s hand immersed in liquid. It seems as if the illusionist in the literal sense of the word managed to get out of the water dry. Instead of talcum powder, try using stearic zinc if desired. It has enhanced water repellent properties.
Tricks with ropes
After you have managed to overcome the first steps in the art of illusion and learn tricks for beginners, try to make a special props yourself.
Props: a rope with a secret.
External effect. The magician shows the audience a thick rope and wonders if it can be forced to take a vertical position. For the experiment, a spectator is invited to check the rope and try to complete the task. Then the magician takes up the matter. He knots at one end and stretches the rope vertically. He releases the upper edge (with the knot), and the cord remains rigidly standing on his hand in an upright position. A light blow in the center of the rope - it falls and becomes soft again.
The secret of the trick is a specially prepared rope. Synthetic filaments that serve as filler are removed from any thick cord. The vacated space is filled with wooden cylinders, dressed on a strong thread or fishing line. The size of the cylinders corresponds to the inner diameter of the rope. The length is 25-30 mm. For a thin curtain cord, cylinders made from a round pencil with previously extracted stylus are suitable. The number of cylinders depends on the length of the rope they fill. On one side, the fishing line with cylinders is attached to the edge of the rope, and on the other, a circle is attached to it to protect the cylinders from slipping. The length of the fishing line and cylinders is slightly less than the length of the rope. Due to this, in a free state, the cord retains softness and elasticity.
Having tied a knot on the side with the attached fishing line, the illusionist with his other hand through the soft braid of the cord causes the cylinders inside the rope to move close to each other. On this basis, the outer braid of the rope will take a rigid vertical position. By striking the cord and relaxing his fingers, the magician releases the inner cylinders and the rope falls freely.
Tricks with scarves
Learn tricks at home working conditions is not - the repertoire of an amateur magician includes tricks that do not require large boxes or complex mechanisms.
Props: handkerchief and matches.
External effect. The magician shows off a handkerchief. Viewers see that it is empty and does not hold any secrets. The headscarf is spread out on the table and a match is put in the center, which the audience first examines. The magician folds the scarf in such a way as to hide the match. Then he passes the folded weave to the viewer, asks to find a match and break it in several places. He picks up a handkerchief, puts it on the table and unfolds. In the center, viewers see a match that has remained intact.
The secret of the trick is the second match, previously placed in the side seam of the scarf. When demonstrating props, the magician holds the fabric by the angle in which the second match is hidden. By folding the scarf and hiding the real match, the illusionist places the corner of the scarf in which there is a “bookmark” in the middle of the fabric. It is her viewer who probes through the fabric and breaks. Naturally, when the headscarf is unfolded, a whole and intact match is found in it.
Complex tricks using special props
For the first illusionary session, you will have to make simple devices that will help to show fascinating tricks. Beginner will not only have to learn how to learn magic tricks - get ready to become a constructor of some of them.
Props. Slate board with a secret, notebook, pencil.
External effect. The performer shows a small black board in a wooden frame and says that this magic board can count. After that, it wraps it in a newspaper, seals it with tape and transfers it to the viewer for storage. Then he takes a notebook and a pencil and asks 4 spectators to write in a column one five-digit number. He tears out a sheet of numbers from a notebook and offers another viewer to count and write down the sum of the numbers below. Tears off half of the sheet with the result and leaves it with the audience. He cuts the tape along with the newspaper and shows the blackboard on which the number written in chalk appears. Viewers check the answer - the amount on a piece of paper and on the board match.
The secret of the trick lies in two details.
- The slate consists of two parts. The board itself in the frame and the liner, which is fitted to the inner size of the frame and covers the main part of the board. The outer part of the liner and the board are painted in the same black color. The second side of the insert is painted in the tone of the tablecloth on the table, on which the magician folds the props.
- The notebook should have a cover without a picture and easily open from any side.
On the first page of the notebook, the magician writes 4 numbers in advance, calculates their sum and writes with chalk on a slate board. Above, the answer is closed by a liner and outwardly the board looks clean. Having demonstrated the board to the audience, the magician turns it away from the audience, puts it on the table and wraps it in the newspaper. At this moment, he drops the insert on the table and wraps the board, without showing the audience the front side with the written number. For reliability, the newspaper is fixed with tape, and the props are transmitted to the audience.
The magician asks 4 different viewers to write the numbers in a column on the clean side of the notebook. Turning to the fifth viewer to calculate the amount, he turns over the notebook, tears out a piece of paper with pre-written numbers, the amount of which he proposes to calculate for the viewer. To prevent fraud, the performer tears off part of the sheet with the amount and leaves it with the viewer. The second half, with numbers prepared in advance, is put in a pocket. After that, he takes the board from the audience, removes the adhesive tape with the newspaper and shows the number written on the board in advance. Naturally, it coincides with the amount calculated by the viewer.
Applause! Surprise! Mistrust! Delight! And endless questions about how to learn magic tricks at home will be guaranteed to accompany a novice illusionist after such a spectacular final trick.
Some tips
It’s important not only to understand how to learn magic tricks. Follow the rules that will help to build the program and profitably present the prepared tricks to the audience.
- Carefully rehearse every trick in front of the mirror. Achieve accuracy of gestures, confident work with props, prepare for possible surprises that await you when speaking to the public.
- Do not tell in advance what you are going to do. Knowing in advance what task you have set for yourself, the audience will carefully monitor you, and it will be difficult to distract their attention at the right time.
- Do not show the same focus twice in the same speech. When you re-watch the audience aware of the final result of the focus, they will surely try to reveal your secret.
- Do not succumb to persuasion and do not reveal the secrets of the tricks you demonstrate. The trick, the mystery of which is exposed, ceases to be amazing and mysterious, loses the aura of incomprehensible magic.