Abracadabra!

Want some ideas for magic tricks to teach the kids? Read them before they disappear and…let the show begin! 

The amazing clips

Teach your kids how to join two paper clips without touching them. It sounds impossible, but it’s not. 

Tell them to ask members of the audience for a €20 note (the ideal size) and put the paper  clips on the ends of the note ‘standing upright’ and folded into three. 

Slowly pull the ends of the note, and the audience will see how it suddenly opens completely and… the clips come off joined together without you touching them! 

Try this simple and amazing trick, with a little practice, it’ll work every time.

Now you’re ready to wow your friends.

Drive them bananas!

Want you child to be a hit at her friends’ parties? Teach her to wow the audience by cutting a banana into pieces with touching it or peeling it!

You’ll need:

• 1 dice
• 1 needle
• 6 bananas

First, set up the trick:

A) One by one, cut the bananas into pieces without peeling them: cut one into two, one into three, one into four, one into five and one into six. Leave the sixth banana whole.

B) How do you cut them? Stick the needle into the peel and push until it reaches the other side without coming through the skin. 

C) With the needle in the banana, move it from side to side to make each cut. 

D) Repeat with each banana and mark them with a pen so that you know how many pieces each one is cut into.

Now you’re ready to do the trick! 

Give a member of the audience the dice and tell them to throw it. If they get a 3, for example, find the banana that you cut into 3 pieces and marked previously.

Peel the banana, it will be cut into the number of pieces marked on the dice! Magic!

The balancing glass 

Next time you throw a birthday party, your guests will see a glass standing on an upright playing card without falling off. Defy the law of gravity with this trick!

You’ll need:

• A glass (small and not too heavy)
• A couple of playing cards
• Scissors
• Sticky tape

For this trick to work, you’ll need to prepare the card beforehand. How? Cut one of the cards in half lengthwise and stick it to the other card with tape to form a ‘tripod’. So, really the card you show the audience has an invisible flap which you fold out without anyone seeing when you stand it on the table. 

So, you show the front and back of the card, and then stand it on the table, folding out the flap so no one sees the ‘tripod’. Then calmly stand the glass on top of the card and leave it there, as though it were weightless…and watch their faces!

This trick involves sleight of hand, so the kids will need to practice a lot to get it right. It consists in showing cards that, depending on where you put your fingers, give the illusion of seeing different ones.

You’ll need to make two ‘special’ cards beforehand, that is, larger than normal size. You can make them from white card and draw red diamonds on them, as in the image. 

When they’re ready, you’ll need to train your fingers. You have to move them while you turn the cards. Put them where you need to make the audience believe they’re seeing a different card. So, on a card with two diamonds, cover the one at the top to make it look like an ace. If you put your fingers at the bottom (where there is actually nothing), the audience will think it’s a three of diamonds…The same thing happens with the five of diamonds. Depending on where you put your fingers, they’ll think it’s the four or even the six! 

So, you show the front and back of the card, and then stand it on the table, folding out the flap so no one sees the ‘tripod’. Then calmly stand the glass on top of the card and leave it there, as though it were weightless…and watch their faces!