Chapter One
In this chapter you will learn how to .
- Make everyday objects found in your pockets or on the dinner table appear, vanish and float!
- Make people think you have superhuman powers and abilities!
- Levitate! Yes, really!
- And learn about the power of crafty thinking, which might prove useful for the rest of your life .
It's the only time you're totally allowed to stare into the eyes of a trusted friend or family member and tell big, stonking, ridiculous lies. But apart from that, why would you want to learn magic tricks? Well, obviously it's fun being able to do things that baffle and entertain people, but just like the magic tricks themselves, the art of magic has some secrets. There's a little more going on here than meets the eye. You'll also learn confidence, acting, creative thinking, how to conquer nervousness and a whole bunch of other malarkey that's as useful in real life as it is in the pretend world of illusions. But before all of that, we need to go over something important.
You might have heard that there are rules of magic. It's true. And if you're going to learn the secrets in the coming pages, you're going to have to agree to them, deal? They're pretty simple:
Never tell anyone how a trick is done. Regardless of how much it might seem like you'll win their friendship if you do, once you tell them the secret of a trick, two things happen: firstly, the trick you just impressed them with is suddenly a lot less impressive, and secondly, they know you're the kind of person who can't keep a secret. Wouldn't you rather remain mysterious and cool? Sure you would.
Never repeat a trick. No matter how much people plead with you to do it again, don't. The thing you just showed them that was amazing? The more times they see it, the less amazing it is. Leave 'em wanting more, always.
And the last rule that applies to magic tricks, and to pretty much everything in this book, is practice, practice, practice. You'll only get out what you put in, so if you want to be a super-cool maestro of the magical arts, you're going to need to practice some of these skills until you can almost do them in your sleep. You need to do the boring practice part to be able to do the exciting 'impressing your friends' part. Sometimes the practice part will seem to last a very long time, but trust me, it's worth it.
Ask any magician and they'll tell you that when you first start trying tricks out on people, it's scary. You have to convince them that you're relaxed and chatting, just showing them something cool, while at the same time, your mind is working overtime in the background, trying to remember all the secret little moves and gimmicks that you need to do right under their noses to make that awesome moment of magic happen. It's hard. But that's all part of the fun. Magic teaches more than just magic, it also teaches nerve, guts and chutzpah (look it up). It doesn't matter how good you are at sleight of hand, if you're nervous about the whole 'talking to strangers' thing, then this is going to be hard. And here's another secret - whatever people say, almost everyone is sometimes nervous about talking to strangers.
So you're going to have to learn to be a bit of an actor to be a good magician. It's an important part of magic that a lot of magicians don't put enough work into. The last thing you want to be is just another garden variety 'Wanna see a trick?' monkey. Everybody who ever said yes to that question did it with a sigh, hoping that it would just be one trick and then they'd be left alone. Instead, remember the words of legendary British magician Paul Daniels, who once told me that a magic show is 'a play about someone who can do anything'. So think about what that kind of person would really be like. Think about what you would be like if you were that person.
In the following pages, you're going to learn some simple effects that, if you do them right, will genuinely, actually, literally baffle, amuse and amaze people. As you learn them, start to think about the most interesting ways to show them to people. The ways where your audience don't think you're just another conjurer, but instead are left with questions half-formed in their heads. 'How did .?', 'Where could .?', 'What the .?'
And I've carefully picked out the tricks in this chapter to help you with this. You'll find no big spangly boxes here, not even any card tricks, not much that looks like something a magician would do. Instead we're going to be doing quick, simple, but amazing tricks with things you'll be able to find around you. Stuff on the dinner table, things in your pockets. These are the kinds of tricks that make people think, just for a second, that you might actually have magical powers! And there's one more way to help them believe that you're just a little bit super human. One last rule. Never ask someone if they want to see a trick. Never. It just makes you sound like a magician, and then they'll know what's coming. No, be a little sneakier. If you're going to do a trick with a coin, maybe say something like, 'Have you seen these new coins? They do something really odd - check it out .', Or if you're about to do something impossible with your body, maybe try, 'Hey, let me ask you something - does this ever happen to you?' See what I'm saying? If you label something a trick, people expect a trick, but if you don't, you're going to surprise them in the best way.
So you've learned the rules, and you know how not to perform magic.
We're going to divide this chapter up into two sections. Later on, we'll get into tricks you can do at the dinner table, but first, let's look at some amazing feats you can do right now, just with your body, or the things in your pockets .
Levitation anywhere
Let's start this chapter right, shall we? How about I teach you how to fly? I mean, only a couple of centimetres, tops, but still, you're going to learn how to seemingly float off the floor. And better still, it's a trick that can be done pretty much any time, anywhere. And it's an illusion that, when it's done well, is so impressive that world-famous magicians have done it on TV.
First, we need to set it up right. Like we talked about in the introduction, never say anything like, 'Here's a magic trick.' No, instead, think about what you're about to do. It's weird, so find an equally odd way to get into it. Maybe you'll say you've been drinking a lot of pop lately and feel like you're full of gas. Maybe you'll tell them about how your sneakers have soles that are so inflated that sometimes it feels like you're walking on air. You get the idea. Just like in every other part of your life, never be afraid to get weird if you have a plan behind it!
So, you set it up, people are looking at you (not too many, though, as this one works best on small groups). You stand a few metres away, turn your back on them, and tell them to watch your feet. Stretch your arms up above your head and then, with a little effort, push your arms down slowly, like wings pushing through treacle. Maybe make a noise like someone lifting a heavy object might make. And right in front of their eyes, for a brief moment, you float off the floor. Then you drop back down with a bump, looking exhausted, and say, with a shrug, 'Crazy, right?'
This takes some rehearsal, because it's all about how you use your body. When you position yourself, make sure that you're facing away from your friends, but diagonally. Stand with your feet together so the heel of one foot is closest to them, and the toe of the other foot is furthest away. Make sense? Then, when you move your arms down (and that's really important - your arms create the illusion that you're somehow swimming into the air), you lift yourself up on the toe that is furthest away from the eyes of your friends. As you do this, you keep the other foot completely flat as it lifts into the air. From their angle, all your friends can see is...
