An old favourate of mine, and a great beginner trick for adults and children alike is the "antigravity wand". The basic effect is that you take a wand, a pen or even a broom, rub it on your arm and it sticks to your hand with no apparent means of support.

 

This is not only easy to do, but can be done "impromtu", in other words, an any time anywhere mini illusion! The secret is, as with most magic, very simple. I cannot stress enough that it's how you perform the trick that makes it larger than the sum of it's parts, particularly with simple tricks.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, you use a sneaky way of holding the wand, be careful how you show the hand with the wand stuck to it so you don't give the secret away. The picking up the pen and rubbing it on your arm, or someone's head or cat or whatever is important- it adds misdirection and a little bit of drama to the trick. I always end with having someone touch the back of the hand and, at the moment they touch, I release the wand. This involves the spectator in the magic.

 

Can you see how a simple trick can be made into something more just by adding a few bits of fun? If you add some funny story to it, it becomes piece of entertainment and not just a trick.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a classic trick, often found in children's magic sets, but also to be found in the professional performer's repetoire. This is also one of those tricks that will fool you almost as much as your audience- a rare and wonderful occurence! 

 

Firstly you need to cut a piece of card into an octagon shape about 5cm in diameter. Now draw one arrow on one side of the disk and draw an arrow on the other side so it is at right angles, see illustration.

 

If you hold the compass between the second finger and thumb of one hand and rotate it with the other hand you will find the arrows point a certain way. Following the illustration, if the compass is gripped at points marked C, the arrows will point opposite directions, if gripped at A the arrows will point the same direction. If you hold the compass at points B the arrows will point yet another way. The important point to remember when performing this is that you always keep the hand which grips the compass the same way round, but move the compass after each rotation- this helps hide the fact that you are rotating the compass from different points.

 

Once you have got to grips with the moves and how the compass will behave, develop a nice story for the trick. Something about a magic compass that only lets magicians find where the treasure is.

 

You can build this prop to a larger size for a larger audience and you can alter the design to fit almost any occaision or theme. Have fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 Now, you may have learnt these simple tricks and performed them and thought, "I quite like this magic stuff, where can I find out more?". Actually, there is a wealth of magic out there, especially on the internet. I would recommend getting a few books or DVD's to start with and, if you're really keen, find out if your area has a magic club and join. A magic club is a great way to not only learn tricks but to perform them and get tips from other magicians.

 

If you are helping a child learn some tricks, then ensure you get magic books written and illustrated for children, the more advanced magic books will use language only comprehensible to experienced magicians! I would also steer away from cheap plastic magic tricks unless for very young magicians. When magic is done with such obvious apparatus, it becomes obvious that the apparatus is doing the magic! I would suggest learning magic with everyday things such as string, coins, dice,cards etc- then magic can be done almost anywere at almost any time, which is much more like real magic!

 

If you get more involved with magic and join a club, go to lectures and conventions, you'll discover a secret world! However, magic performed for magicians is different from magic performed for non magicians. A magician is more impressed with a fancy new move or difficult sleight of hand than by something that a lay audience is likely to find interesting! 

 

Magic clubs are great for learning new techniques and to practice so that you may get feedback from fellow magicians. As the techniques of magic are sworn to secrecy, it is also just about the only time you get to discuss the secrets! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Recommenned books

for children

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

for older wizards