A magic show is a tried and tested way to keep kids happy and enthralled. Sometimes, looking at all those incredible goings on, even the grown-ups can’t help exclaiming: ”How is it possible?!”
For all those eager to find out the truth, we at Gain Tip can now reveal the explanations behind five of the most popular magic tricks.
Pulling a rabbit out of a hat
To perform this trick, you’ll need a rabbit, a tablecloth-covered table, a piece of cloth, and a top hat. Take a square piece of thick black cloth and tie all of it’s four corners together loosely. Place a rabbit inside this improvised sack. Hang the sack on a hook, located at the side of the table that will be facing you during the performance. The tablecloth needs to be arranged in such a way as to prevent the audience from seeing the sack. At the beginning of the performance, show the top hat to your audience to demonstrate that there’s nothing inside. Next, put the hat on the table, with the hat opening facing the table surface. Now comes the most important part of the trick. Using easy and inconspicuous movements, lift the hat quickly by the brim and put the sack underneath the hat. Now, make some movements showing that you’re conjuring something up, remove the hat from the table and reveal the rabbit to the audience!
Making smoke rise from your fingers
Take a matchbox and cut out one of it’s striker sides. Separate the actual flammable surface from the cardboard lining. Fold the resulting strip in two and light it up. Let the strip burn, then discard it and collect the residue produced by the burning. This white phosphorus residue is what you’ll need to perform the trick! Slowly rub it onto your thumb and index fingers. Now all you need to do is to rub your fingers together to make them smoke. After the performance is over, don’t forget to wash your hands!
Bending a spoon
To successfully perform this trick, you first need to hide a small silver coin in the palm of your hand. When you’re ready to ”bend” the spoon, hold the coin in such a way that only the tip of it is visible. Place the coin on top of the spoon’s handle so that it will look as though you are simply holding the spoon. Press the oval end of the spoon against the table and try to make an impression of putting a lot of effort into ”bending” the spoon. As you’re doing this, let the handle drop from the back of your hand. As the tip of the coin will still be showing, it will look like the spoon is actually starting to bend.
Making a person ”levitate”
At the start of this spectacular trick, the magician’s assistant (usually a girl wearing a long dress) lies down on a table. As she does this, she makes sure that the folds of her dress fall right down to the floor, concealing the space directly beneath the table. The illusionist then proceeds to make her ”levitate” above the table. For the trick to be successful, the audience must be made to believe that the girl is being held in the air by magic. In reality, the effect is achieved by means of a special lifting mechanism. To add excitement, the illusionist takes a hoop and passes it over the assistant’s body. There’s nothing extraordinary about the hoop (it doesn’t have gaps or anything). The only requirement is that the hoop must be large enough to be repeatedly passed over the girl without touching the lifting mechanism. Throughout the performance, the magician must be careful to stand in such a way as to conceal the rod that is holding the assistant up above the table!
Making a ”Zig Zag Lady”
This incredible trick makes use of several 35 cm high boxes and a 20 cm high mobile platform. As the female assistant enters the bottom box, she stands on top of a concealed, spring-operated hatch. The hatch opens down into an empty compartment, located inside the mobile platform. As the illusionist shuts all of the boxes’ openings, the girl slips down through the hatch and sits cross-legged inside the platform’s inner compartment. Each of the upper three boxes feature two openings – one real and one false. When the boxes are stacked on top of each other, the real openings form a human-sized door (used by the assistant to enter the structure). On the other hand, the false openings are designed to reveal niches only about 5 cm deep. Located inside each of those niches are mannequin parts, which correspond to various parts of the real girl’s torso and sport the segments of the same outfit the real assistant is wearing. As the performance commences, the illusionist takes down each of the upper three boxes in turn and shuffles them around. This is done to confuse the audience. When the illusionist finally proceeds to open the boxes, the audience sees a mixed-up version of the assistant’s torso. Of course, we’re talking about mere mannequin parts, located inside false openings!
