Instructions for the magic.
1.THE BALL VASE
The ball vase is made up of four parts, the vase base, the lid, a plastic ball and a secret half-ball, which fits on the vase base.
2.THE PUZZLING BALL
Before your show, put the real ball onto the vase base, cover it with the half-ball, and then cover that with the lid. When you are ready to perform the trick, display the ball vase on your table and tell your audience that inside of this vase you have a ball. As you say this, take off the lid and the secret half ball too, holding them together as if they are one piece, as you point to the real ball sitting in the base. Take the ball out of the base, display it to the audience and then put it in your pocket. Next, put the lid with the secret half-ball concealed inside of it back on top of the base. Now make a magical gesture or say a few magic words as you remove the lid ONLY! Make sure you do not take the concealed half-ball with it as you lift off the lid. They will be stunned to see the ball back on the base! Remember, they do not know about the secret half-ball. They will think this is the same ball that you just put in your pocket! Then put the lid back on top, which sets things up for the next trick.
3.IT LEAPS BACK
As a follow-up to the above trick you can make the ball disappear from the vase by once again by removing the lid along with the concealed half-ball, and holding them as one, just as you did before. It will now look like the ball has disappeared from the vase. Then simply take the ball out of your pocket and tell them the ball had jumped back into your pocket.
4.THE TRANSFORMING BALL
For this trick you will not need the real ball, so put it aside for the moment. Before your show, put a very small amount of water, just a drop or two into the vase base and then cover it with the half-ball and lid. When you are ready to perform, take the lid off ONLY! The audience will then see the half-ball, believing it to be the real ball. Now, put the lid back on and tell the audience that you will magically melt the ball away. As you say this, remove both the lid and the concealed halfball as one and pour the water into a glass. Please make sure that you have an adult’s permission to do this trick and that you are careful not to spill water on anything.
5.A GHOSTLY MESSAGE
Before your show, write down on a piece of paper the words “I’m in the magician’s pocket.” Then crumple the paper into a ball and put it in the vase and cover it with the half ball and lid. Also before the show, put the real ball into your pocket. When you are ready to perform the trick, show the ball vase on your table and remove just the lid. The audience will see the half-ball, believing it to be the real ball. Tell them that a friendly ghost lives inside of the ball. Put the lid back on and say, “Mr. Ghost, please reveal yourself.” Wait a moment and then say, “I don’t know where he could be, let’s look back in the vase.” Now, take off the lid and the half-ball together, holding them as one. Show the audience that there is now a note inside of the vase. Ask one of the audience members to read the message out loud, and then take the ball out of your pocket!
6.CARD MONTE
Take a look at your two special cards. One is a double-faced card, and the other is a doublebacked card. The audience is not supposed to know that these cards are trick cards! Put the double-faced card on top of the double-backed card. Have the top card (double-faced), angled toward the right so you can see the bottom card, too, just like a fan of cards. Hold the cards gently between your thumb on the top card and your first finger on the bottom card, towards the center of the cards. Show the cards to your friend by holding them as instructed and then turn your wrist over at the same time as you slide the top card to the left. When your wrist is turned, they will now see the other side of the double-faced card, believing it to be the second card. Then turn your wrist back and again slide the top card, this time to the right. Practice this turning motion, to get it right, so it doesn’t look like you are doing anything sneaky. Then take the top card (double-faced), show it to your friend and put it behind your back as you ask your friend what card that leaves in your hand. They will of course say the name of the card they just saw. With your hand still behind your back, simply turn the card over, and then bring it out with the other side showing, proving them wrong. For fun, this can be repeated a couple of times, but not too many, so they won’t get suspicious!
7.WONDER WATER
Your kit comes supplied with a special clear bottle cap with a hole in it. This special cap will fit on many of the popular soda or water bottles. Try to find just the right one so the cap fits snugly. When doing the trick, you should use water, not soda, in the bottle, so if you spill some, it won’t make a sticky mess! Without your audience seeing, put the cap over the mouth of the bottle. If you know how to palm a coin, you can palm the cap in the same fashion and place it on the bottle right in front of them and they will never see a thing! If you are not comfortable with palming, just place it on the bottle before the show. During your show, hold it in place and then turn the bottle upside down carefully. When you are sure that your secret gimmick is gripping well you can let go. There is real science at work here! Because there is a hole in the cap it will not come off and the water will stay in even when turned upside down! It looks as though the water is defying gravity! After the effect, turn the bottle upright and wipe the neck with a napkin. While you are wiping the bottle you can steal away the secret cap, leaving everything examinable!
8.THE REAL CONVINCER
While the bottle is upside down you can take one or two toothpicks and push them through the hole in the special cap. They will mysteriously float up to the top of the bottle, but the water will continue to defy gravity!
9.SNAP IT
Snap It is a devious little magical prop that is made up of two parts. One is the base. It has a rubber band at one end and a hole at the other. The other part has a round top and a small hook at the bottom. Place the hook end into the base, and try to hook the inside part of the rubber band. Then pull the hook out to see if you did. I bet you couldn’t! That is because the rubber band end on the inside of the base is too short to be grabbed by the hook. But with a sneaky little move you can make your friends believe that it can be done. Here’s how. Place the hook end back in and then using your thumb and first finger pull it back out of the base just slightly. Now, with pressure try to snap your thumb tip and fingertip together, which will make the top snap out from their grip and back into the base. The illusion will look like it snaps back in because there is tension from the rubber band. Of course it is not really hooked onto a rubber band, but your friends don’t know that. The illusion will work even better if you give the top a few turns, before doing the snap. Then you can turn the top a few times, as if you are disengaging the rubber band, before letting your friends try and hook the rubber band!
MAGIC WITH EVERYDAY OBJECTS
10.THE LINKING PAPER CLIP
For this wild effect, you’ll need two paper clips and a dollar bill. If you don’t have a dollar you can use any currency or a piece of paper. Fold the bill into an “S” shape and clip it together with the open end of the dollar clipped to one side of the inside fold and the other end of the dollar clipped to one side of the other inside fold. Now pull the ends of the paper apart- the two paper clips will fly into the air and link together all by themselves!
11.THE JUMPING RUBBER BAND
You’ll need, surprise, surprise, a rubber band to perform this neat little effect. Put the rubber band over your first and second fingers. Make sure that your palm is facing you and the back of your hand is toward the audience. Curl your fingers down into a fist, but as you do, pull the rubber band out towards you and slip all of your fingers inside of it, letting the rubber band rest against the bottom part of your fingers, near the nail. From the front where your helpers are watching, it will appear as though the band were around just the first two fingers. Say a magic word and straighten your fingers out. The band will magically hop onto your third and little fingers!
12.THE TRAPPED JUMPING RUBBER BAND
If you twist another rubber band around the tips of your fingers as shown, it will appear as though the first rubber band cannot escape. But, astonishingly, if you perform the moves as you did in the previous effect, the effect will still work! This is a good follow-up to the trick, as you are repeating the trick under even more difficult conditions!
13.DOUBLE JUMPER
Another great follow-up to the previous tricks involves two different colored rubber bands. Put one over your first two fingers and one over your third and little fingers. Close your hand into a fist, fingers towards you, and put all four fingers into both rubber bands. Now, when you straighten out your fingers the rubber bands will change places. This will even work with a third band twisted around your fingertips, as in the trapped rubber band trick, making for a very baffling mystery indeed!
14.RING UP RUBBER BAND
Even a broken rubber band can be used to create magic! Borrow a ring from an audience member and put it on your broken rubber band. Now grip the band in the center with one hand, keeping the rest hidden in your hand. With your other hand, stretch out the band so that it is sloping upwards. The ring should be at the bottom of the slope, nearer to the hand with the hidden portion of rubber band. Now slowly let the band slip between your fingers, releasing the portion you concealed. The ring will creep uphill in a very magical way! The slower you let the band come out from your hand, the slower and more magical the creeping action will be.
15.THE UNBROKEN TOOTHPICK
For this trick, you will need a cloth napkin with hem, and two toothpicks (not included in the set). Before the performance, you need to secretly put one of the toothpicks (toothpick A) into the hem of the cloth. To begin, you will lay out the piece of cloth and place the other toothpick (toothpick B) at the center of the piece of cloth. Now fold the piece of cloth around toothpick B and seemingly hold onto it. In fact, you are secretly holding onto toothpick A in the hem of the cloth while toothpick B is left free inside the cloth. Now ask a volunteer to break the toothpick through the piece of cloth (actually you will let the volunteer break toothpick A inside the hem. Make sure that they confirm that they have broken the toothpick by feeling that it really broken. Now open the piece of cloth and magically show the volunteer toothpick B which is not broken.
16.THE SNEAKY COUNT
Get ten toothpicks and on one of them make a tiny secret mark on both sides so that you can tell this one apart from the others. Make the mark as small as possible with a pencil so that you are the only one who knows it is there. During your show, bring out the ten toothpicks and put them out in a line side by side. Make that your secretly marked toothpick is the first one on the left hand end of the row. That means the secret marked toothpick is on your left, but your audience’s right. Say that you will turn your back and that one of them is to move a number of toothpicks between one and ten, one at a time, from their right to their left end of the row. This means the first toothpick they will move is the secret toothpick. When they have finished, turn back and say, “As impossible as it might seem I’m going to tell you just how many toothpicks you moved!” As you say this, look for your secretly marked toothpick and counting it as ‘one’ count how many there are to the right end (your right) of the row and then tell them that’s how many were moved! NOTE: if the marked toothpick ends up on your far right side, then they moved only one. If the marked toothpick is still on the far left, that means they moved all ten toothpicks!
17.THEE PEPPER TRICK
For this trick, you will need some water, some soap, some regular pepper, a dish (not included in this set). Before the performance, secretly rub soap on your fingers. To begin, put some water in a dish, and then put some regular pepper, Ask a volunteer from the audience to try to separate the pepper and the water by hand. Of course it will be impossible. Now when you put your fingers (with soap) in to the water the pepper will magically separate to the edge of the dish.
18.WATER AND ICE
For this trick, you will need a cup, a wand, a sponge, some water and some ice cubes (not included). Before the performance, place the sponge into the cup at the bottom, and put some ice cubes inside the cup on top of the sponge. You need to find a sponge that will fit well in the cup so that it will not fall out when you tilt the cup upside down. To begin, pour a little bit of water in the cup, wave your wand over the cup and say “Hocus-Pocus!”.The water will be soaked and contained in the sponge. Now tilt the cup and pour out the ice cubes. It appears that you have magically turned the water into ice cubes.
19.COLOR VISION
You will need 5 pieces of paper and a pencil for this trick (not included in this set). Before the performance, you will need to secretly write the words red, yellow, green, pink and blue individually on 5 pieces of paper. Now you need to fold up the 5 pieces of paper separately and place them one in each of your pockets located through out your pant, shirt or jacket. You must remember which written color is in which pocket. To begin, you will ask a volunteer to select one of the 5 colors: red, yellow, green, pink and blue; and think about that color he/she chooses in mind. Ask them what color they have selected; when the volunteer tells you the color he/she selected, you will magically pull the correct piece of paper show the color that he/she chose from one of your pockets. Tell him/her that you had magically predicted his/her chosen color.