Sunday, September 20, 2009

A Little Observation About Cool Magic Tricks

By Barb Church

When you mention magic to someone, what kind of a response do you get? My experience is that the person in question usually gets a faraway look in their eye and says "ooh, I love magic----I have no idea how they pull off those things that they do like whipping a coin out of thin air from behind your head, but I love to try and figure it out." Most responses are like that because for most folks, magic is fun and spellbinding and after watching a few cool magic tricks, the average person is hooked.

If you want to start practicing some cool magic tricks so you will build up your reputation as a slick magician and have some neat tricks under your belt that you can whip out when the occasion calls for them, then starting with an amazing card trick is the way to go. Most of the card tricks in use today can be done with a standard deck of cards, and you don't really need anything more than that---except maybe an extra joker or two. There are some card tricks that use the extra jokers as eye catchers so the audience is not privy to what you are really doing; for example, when you ask someone in the audience to pick a card, put it back in the deck, and show them the jokers and say that their card will now reappear between the jokers, and when you shuffle the deck and do your card moving without them realizing what you have done, then their card suddenly is between the two jokers.

What would a magic show be without a gaggle of kids watching and adding their two cents every time a trick was done. Kids are naturals for magic shows, and no matter how many times you do your repertoire of cool magic tricks, they always want to see more, more, more. Something as easily done as making slime; for the kids is the coolest thing in the world and they not only get to see you create it out of seemingly nothing, but they also get to play with it for hours after you have created it which makes it all the more fun. To make slime, all you need is glue, water and borax powder----that's it. Mix it up, let it sit, and there it is---the finished product in all its gooey glory----and the kids are in seventh heaven.

Making a volcano used to be a staple for a lot of kids when they had to make up something for the science fair because it is easy to make, and really dramatic when set off and all that "lava" and smoke comes pouring out of the cone on top. It really can be touted as one of your cool magic tricks for kids because they have no idea what is going to happen as you are putting the trick together, and the final result is so dramatic, they are bowled over and screech with amazement. The basic volcano cone is just molded flour and water with some detergent added, and then the active ingredients include vinegar and baking soda. It's just simple chemistry at its best for this trick and the kids love it.

If you want to amaze folks and do something a little different as part of your cool magic tricks repertoire, then the Burning Dollar Bill trick is a natural. All you need to pull this off (including a little practice so you get it right) is of course a dollar bill, some alcohol, matches, and some water. You can add a little salt to the mix if you want color in your final performance, but it is not a necessary part of the trick. Because dollar bills are made of a material more like cloth than paper, you can put them in water and they will soak it up (think of all the dollar bills that have gone through the wash accidentally) and the fact that alcohol and a water-soaked item have different flash points is the premise. The bill used for the trick must be damp with water, and then alcohol added so that when a flame is introduced, only the alcohol burns because its flash point is lower than water, and the dollar bill remains unburned when you blow out the flames. Makes for a real crowd pleaser.

Fooling the audience is what cool magic tricks are all about, and if you include enough of a variety of tricks in your action bag, then you will keep them begging for more and wondering out loud how the heck did you do that. Just make sure there is enough distance between you and the folks you are trying to dupe so that the closer the proximity that they are to you will not give away your tricks because they can see the mechanisms that you are using. For example, this little trick is a neat one, but you must keep your distance to keep the magic intact. This trick is one of showing the audience that a burnt match can relight again with the same intensity as it did the first time it was used. What they don't know is that you have taken a new match, dipped it in black ink and covered it with used ashes so it looks burned out. You show the match all around, strike it, and yow---the "used" match flames to life as if it were new----which of course it is, but only you know that.

No matter how difficult or easy the trick is, whenever we are presented with some cool magic tricks, and they are pulled off with panache, we are wide-eyed and amazed over and over again because magic is an integral part of our society and our upbringing, and we become like children again when we see it. We try to figure out how it is done, and even though we know a lot of it depends on chemical reactions et al, and it's not real; we still marvel and gape and laugh and enjoy ourselves immensely every time.

About the Author:

0 comments:

Post a Comment