How to Perform Magic: Tricks for Beginners
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.
Method3 Making a Coin Disappear into Your Skin
1 Explain your goal to your audience as you set up the trick. If possible, sit down and make sure that there’s no one on either side of you. Grab a coin in your dominant hand and tell your onlookers that you’re going to rub it right through the skin on your opposite arm.[14]
- A line like, “My doctor said my iron levels are a little low,” adds some color and humor to your trick.
- While you can use any type of coin you like, something larger, like a quarter or half dollar, will be easier for your audience to see.[15]
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2 Begin rubbing the coin into your opposite arm. Rest the elbow of your “decoy arm” against the table with your hand pointed straight up. Take the coin, press it against the fleshy part of your forearm, and start rubbing it back and forth.[16]
- Make sure your audience can’t actually see the coin inside your hand once you begin rubbing.
3 Pretend to drop the coin onto the table. After rubbing for a few moments, let the coin slip out of your fingers and land in plain sight on the tabletop. Sell the drop as an unintended mistake by making an offhand comment like, “Whoops! Got a little carried away there.”[17]
- Leave the coin sitting on the table just long enough for your audience to see that it’s the same one and that you haven’t swapped it out with a trick prop.
4 Grab the coin with your decoy hand and fake a pass to your other hand. where the illusion comes in. While you’re apologizing to the audience, snatch up the coin with the hand of the arm you were just rubbing your coin onto and quickly pass it back to your rubbing hand. Don’t actually pass it. Instead, cup it in your palm and place your elbow back on the table.[18]
- Keep the fingers of your decoy hand open slightly so your audience doesn’t suspect that you’re holding the coin in that hand. Cling onto the edges of the coin with the sides of your index and pinky fingers.
- It may take quite a bit of practice before you can fake the handoff without being obvious. Keep trying—it’ll eventually start to feel more natural.
- Alternatively, use your rubbing hand to covertly slide the coin off of the table and into your lap while making it look like you’re picking it up.[19]
5 Go back to rubbing your arm with your empty hand. Get the trick back on track and continue massaging the coin into your elbow. Let out a couple faint grunts or groans like the friction is causing you discomfort. Throw in a remark like, “I can feel it now! Just a little more pressure…”[20]
- Avoid rubbing so vigorously that you risk knocking the coin out of your decoy hand.
- Take your time with the second round of rubbing. The longer you rub, the more you’ll sell the idea that you’re trying your hardest to make the coin disappear into your skin.
6 Remove your hand to reveal that the coin has disappeared. When it comes time for the big reveal and “payoff”, stop rubbing and leave your hand glued to your arm. Then, slowly remove your hand and turn it around for your audience to see. There, they’ll see that you’re totally empty handed! It’ll be like you absorbed the coin into your skin. [21]
- If you want to add some extra flourish, carefully transfer the coin back into your rubbing hand and “retrieve” it from one of your onlookers’ ears, pockets, or shirt collars.