This page offers a library of easy magic tricks that anyone can learn and perform for their friends. All of the tricks use everyday, common, household materials and require no complicated sleight-of-hand. We also offer clear, step-by-step instructions.
If you want to pursue magic, you'll want to learn some simple tricks. Here at Magic & Illusion, we explain lots of tricks that use everyday, common, household materials and require no complicated sleight-of-hand. We also offer clear, step-by-step instructions so you may quickly learn the tricks and perform them for your friends. These tricks have been specifically selected for beginners.
Here's a simple trick that's based on a theme that's all over the media. It's a poem - a tale of woe and a fall from grace - that accompanies a basic ball trick that tells the story of Tiger Woods.
I've looked at a lot of easy card tricks and I think that this one is the best. I've never seen it published anywhere, but I learned it when I was about nine. I've showed and taught this one to lots of beginners and it never fails to impress. I hope that you have fun with it.
What makes for great magic to perform at a party? The effect has to play to more than just a couple of people and features interaction with many. Here then, are some of the best easy magic tricks that you can quickly learn and perform at your next party.
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, here are the best tricks for beginners. You're bound to find something that you'll like.
Who hasn’t fantasized about being able to tell the future? In this compilation, we’ve put together the best of our prediction tricks. In these effects, you ask a spectator to make a decision and somehow, you have predicted the outcome. We offer lots of effects and diabolical methods.
Here are easy magic tricks that you can perform with coins and money that are perfect for beginners.
With just a deck of cards, you have lots of magic options. Among the many card tricks that we have explained in our library of easy tricks, here are our favorites.
Here are easy tricks that you can perform with coins and are perfect for beginners.
Got an aspiring Harry Potter in your midst? A wizard in your virtual Hogwarts? Alright, perhaps there's nothing here to rival a good "Wingardium Leviosa," (we're dealing with the real world, after all). But on this page, you'll find a special collection of easy magic tricks that kids can quickly learn and perform and that use common, everyday objects. Add some glasses and a robe, and you'll have …
Bar Bets are a genre of magic. They're tricks that challenge others so they just can't win. Have fun with these.
Here's a classic trick for beginners, a variation on the cut and restored plot, which involves shearing a string in half as it resides in a straw and then restoring the string so it's whole again. Even though the string is inside the straw and you've cut the straw in half, the string is somehow untouched.
Here's a beginner's card routine that combines easy magic tricks that are taught here at Magic.About.com. You'll bring out a deck of cards, shuffle and cut the cards in magic fashion, find a spectator's card by making it rise from the deck and then cause some cards to magically adhere to your hand.
Many beginners know how to perform simple magic tricks, but few think about putting them together into an entertaining set or show. Here’s advice on taking those tricks and organizing them into a set. We’ll even use some tricks explained here on the site. For purposes here, we’ll aim for about ten minutes worth of material.
If you've been studying the many easy coin tricks on this site, how about stringing them together into a single magic routine? On this page, I show you how and you can click on the links to learn the moves and tricks. To perform this routine, there's some work ahead of time. Also, you'll need two quarters, some aluminum foil, a couple of bracelets and some paper.
In this easy trick, you make a coin vanish right before spectators' eyes.
Here's an easy magic trick with playing cards that is a stronger version of a trick that I already teach called "Fast Find." As in the original "Fast Find," you give your friends a couple of cards and have them place the cards into the deck. Within a second, you find the two cards to your friends' amazement.
This is a bit of mind-reading that uses standard playing cards. You explain that you are going to attempt to read some minds and lay out several playing cards on a table. As you turn away, a spectator turns around one of the cards. After turning around, and by carefully observing the spectator, you are able to identify the turned card. You’ve apparently read his mind.
Here's a way to magically multiply money. In the trick, you have a spectator carefully count several coins into a dish, which you pour back into his hand. When he opens his hand later, he'll find more coins then he originally counted.
Here's a trick that's as much a craft project as it is a magic trick. You show an empty tube and then magically produce items such as ribbons or silk handkerchiefs. This one is a particularly good trick for kids.
Here's an easy magic trick with playing cards. A spectator chooses a card from several that you display in your hand. Afterwards, you show the spectator that the card that they chose was the only one that was different - in this case, the only red-backed card in a bunch of blue-backed cards.
Here's a different way to make a coin disappear. Most of this trick relies on a clever gimmick that you make beforehand.
Here are easy techniques and props that will allow you to make a coin mysteriously vanish.
This is an easy trick for beginners that is often found in beginning magic sets. If you like, you can also make your own out of cardboard or heavy paper - I'll discuss how to do this.
In this mysterious trick, you somehow cause several playing cards to adhere to your hand as if it were a magnet. This one takes some preparation ahead of time, but the results are well worth it.
In this easy trick, you clearly link two safety pins together by opening one, inserting it through the other and closing the first pin. In seemingly no time, you pull the safety pins apart, but both are still closed. This is a trick that I did a lot when I was a kid.
You show spectators a dime and an apparently empty hand. In the blink of an eye, you're now holding a dime and a quarter. Your spectators may examine everything and you can perform this one at any time with little preparation.
Want to entertain others with magic at the dinner table? Here are some of our easy magic tricks that you can perform with whatever you have around the table.
In this easy magic card trick, four tens turn into four aces in a blink of an eye. The cards do most of the work for you, but there's some preparation ahead of time.
A spectator counts several coins into an opened book. When you pour the coins back into his hands, the coins have multiplied. This one is easy to learn and perform and works well with a theme of economics or finance.
While these aren't actually magic tricks, they're intriguing feats that you can perform with strips of newspaper. By making loops out of newspaper strips, you are able to cut them and vary the results: 1) two separate rings, 2) one long ring and 3) two interlinked rings.
If you want to float objects in the air, here are resources on how to do this.
Here's a great enhancement on a well known, easy magic trick. If you already know how to perform the "Magnetic Pencil," it's a powerful follow up. After showing that a pencil sticks to your hand as you grasp your wrist, you suddenly let go of your "grabbing" hand and the pencil mysteriously stays in place.
Here's a classic easy magic trick. You grab your wrist with your hand and a pencil appears to stick to your hand. When you let go, the pencil drops. At the end, your spectators can examine the pencil.
In this easy magic trick, you place a pencil into a bottle and it mysteriously levitates on its own. There's some preparation involved, but you should have fun with this one.
In this easy magic trick. A finger ring that's resting on a pencil mysteriously levitates on its own. There's some preparation involved, but you should have fun with this one.
Here's a super easy magic trick that's really an optical illusion. You wave a normal pencil and it appears to bend, just as if it were made of rubber.
Here's an easy way to quickly vanish a toothpick in your hands. The second of two methods that I teach here on the site.
Here's a trick that you can do after dinner with just a napkin and a butter knife. You drape a napkin over your hand and a butter knife appears to pass right through the napkin. It's an impromptu effect that requires no gimmicks. You can perform this one with a pencil or pen, but it's traditionally performed with a butter knife.
You show two cards and then remove one and place it behind your back. When the spectator guesses the card that you took, he is always wrong.
Here's an amusing illusion that makes it appear as if you are stretching your thumb. All you need are your hands.
Here's a trick that allows you to vanish a coin. The coin seems to vanish into thin air and the trick is a great follow-up to another coin routine such as "Coin Through Table."
In this trick, you cause a coin to somehow pass through the top of a table.
You lay an envelope down onto the table and explain that there is a prediction written inside. You bring out a deck of cards, show the cards to be different and ask a spectator to name a number. Based on the freely named number, a card is selected. When the letter inside the envelope is opened and read, it states the exact card that was chosen.
We taught a spoon bend a couple of weeks ago. While this version is similar, it's more convincing because spectators can see the tip of the spoon's handle peeking out above your hand after the spoon is bent.
Here's a classic trick that every smart aleck needs to know. You grab any spoon, press down on it with your hands and appear to bend the spoon. As your stunned spectators register what you just did (the gall of you!), you lift up the spoon and show that it is unbent, just as you found it.
In this fast trick, you cause a toothpick that you're holding in your hand to quickly vanish. At the end, you're holding your fingers wide apart.
In this classic trick, you have a spectator select a card and then lose it in the deck. You place the deck into its box and the spectator's card mysteriously rises out by itself.
In this classic trick, you have a spectator select a card and then lose it in the deck. You rest your first finger on top of the deck and as you lift your finger, the spectator's card mysteriously rises with it.
A classic plot in card magic, you ask a spectator to select a card. You lose the card in the deck and then later find it. We teach a basic technique for locating a spectator’s card.
Here are some easy tricks that young kids can learn that are simple and only require materials that you find around the house.
If you want to read minds or make wild predictions that somehow come true, here's a collection of easy tricks that you can learn and perform for your friends. You'll find some winners here. But hey, you already knew that, right?
In this effect, three beads appear to pass right through a string and release themselves. This one is easy to make and perform, and at the end, everything can be handed out for examination.
Here’s a basic vanish that’s easy to perform and particularly good for young kids. All you need is a paper cup and bead.
Here are demonstrations of easy tricks that are good ones to purchase for beginning magicians.
Using only ten playing cards, you deal two hands of poker and win three times in a row. This is a classic and if you like this trick, we offer resources for professional versions.
After a spectator shuffles a deck, you browse it and bring out two cards and set them aside. You deal cards until the spectator says "stop" and insert one of your previously selected cards, face-up. You repeat the process. At the end, you can show that the face-up cards are next to their mates in the deck, for example, the black fours (four of clubs and four of spades) and red kings (king of diamonds and king of hearts).
Here’s an easy way to deal yourself a royal flush in a seeming demonstration of poker. It requires more talking and misdirection than card handling skills.
Here’s a great trick to perform at a party. You ask someone to select an item while you’re out of the room, tell everyone else which item was selected and leave it in place. When you return, another person goes from object to object touching them in a random order. When the person touches the chosen object, you’re able to tell everyone that this is the selected object.
This effect is more of a puzzle than a magic trick. It's a fun exercise in perception and can act as an introduction to a card trick or an effect where you explain the difference between illusion and reality.
In this effect you clearly roll two bills together on a table. And when you unroll them, the bills have traded places-the bill that was previously on top is now on the bottom and vice versa. This simple effect is easy to learn and perform. All you need are two bills of different denominations and there are no gimmicks, fancy moves or extra devices.
This bit of mentalism uses a set of dominos. Here, you accurately predict a domino that will be left after a certain procedure. Be sure that you have lots of time before you perform this one.
Here’s an offbeat easy magic trick with coins. A spectator randomly selects a coin from several that are in a bag or bowl. With a marker, he writes his initials on the coin and places it with the others inside of the bowl. Without looking, you are able to immediately reach into the bowl and pull out the selected and marked coin.
Combine four easy magic tricks with a central theme and prop, and you end up with an entire routine. All you need are three rubber bands and a finger ring to perform three solid through solid pass effects and a levitation.
Here’s a great way to vanish a coin. Two rings and a playing card are shown on a table. The rings and coins are stacked on top of a coin. When a ring and the card is removed, the coin has completely vanished. The rings and cards are stacked back onto the coin and removed, and the coin returns. There’s some preparation to perform this one, but it’s visual and ultra-easy to perform.
You’ve heard of trying to get a camel to pass through the eye of a needle? Well how about trying to get a person to pass through the center of a piece of paper? This “trick” is actually more of a stunt than magic. It’s a puzzle that you present to your spectators.
Here's an easy way to have a spectator select and lose a card and then find it. Compared against the many other secretes that we offer on this site to perform a similar outcome, this one is completely different. The spectator performs much of the handling of the cards, and at the end, there's no trace of the secret.
A series of six cards are laid out on the table. The magician turns away and a spectator silently points to one of the cards to select it. When the magician turns around, another person who acts as an assistant points at the various cards and asks the magician “is this the card?” When the assistant comes to the correct card, the magician identifies it as the chosen card.
In this easy card trick, you quickly find a card that a spectator has cut to. The spectator can mix the cards and freely cuts the deck to a selected card. The spectator replaces the cut and squares the deck. The deck is not a trick one and you don’t even touch the deck until the revelation at the end.
A rubberband quickly and mysteriously jump from your pinkie and ring fingers to the first and middle fingers of the same hand and a second rubberband jumps in the other direction from the first and middle fingers to the pinkie and ring fingers. This is a variation and advanced version of the popular "jumping rubberband."
This is an advanced version of the “Jumping Rubberband” trick. This version uses two rubberbands, one that switches places between your fingers and the second that appears to block it. Even though you’ve wrapped a rubberband around the tips of your fingers, a second rubberband quickly and mysteriously jump from your pinkie and ring fingers to the first and middle fingers of the same hand.
You ask several people to name a movie. Each is written on a slip of paper, folded and thrown it into a bowl. You write the name of one of the films on a final slip and set the prediction in plain view. Another spectator reaches into the bowl and pulls out a movie title, which is read aloud. And your prediction turns out to be the very same film.
“Do As I Do,” is a great card trick that offers lots of audience interaction, can be performed at any time that you have two decks of cards, has lots of opportunities for comedy and the ending is surprising with an inherent build-up. And once the trick is over, the secret is long gone. There is nothing for spectators to find.
This is a good and easy “find a card” trick that works great in situations where you’re standing and performing for others. There are no complicated moves; you use an ungimmicked, real deck; the conditions seem fair (the spectator examines and shuffles the deck) and your ability to find a card is baffling. All you have to do is add the build-up and presentation.
Here’s an ultra-easy trick that you can do. It’s a bit of mentalism where you tell a spectator the exact card that they touched and turned around without any way for you to know. (Okay, there is a secret and a way for you to know.)
Alright, this is not a version of the big stage illusion where a magician appears to saw a lady in half. But you can make this version out of an envelope and paper and it won’t cost you thousands of dollars. And you won’t even need a brave volunteer.
A ring that’s threaded onto a rubberband mysteriously rises on its own accord. This one is super easy and all you need is a rubberband and a ring. There’s almost no preparation.
Here's a web-based magic trick. Even though you select a random number, we’re going to try and predict where you will end up. Take a magic journey.
Here’s an interactive magic trick that works across the web and you can have fun showing your friends. The secret is based on a simple mathematical principle.
In this amusing close-up effect, you appear to "twist" a disposable lighter right in front of spectators. The routine starts as a prediction, but ends in a visual metaphysical feat. It's easy to perform, requires no sleight of hand and offers a surprising conclusion.
With just a deck of cards, you can practically put on a show. Among the many card tricks that we have explained in our library of easy tricks, here are our favorites.
In this convincing trick, the magician shows an envelope and explains that there is a prediction written within. The spectator is given a deck of cards and is asked to mix it and deal cards (face down) onto the table until they feel like stopping. When the letter inside the envelope is read, it states the exact card that the spectator last dealt onto the table.
This is an old classic. The web site somehow reads your mind even if you’ve freely thought of a few things. Just follow along.
In this easy trick, a coin is placed into a handkerchief where it mysteriously disappears. You can perform this one just about anytime, anywhere. All you need is a quarter and a handkerchief, and that special secret.
By executing an ultra-secret ninja move, you magically cause a banana to separate into pieces while it’s still inside the peel. This trick is an easy one that only requires a little preparation. And be sure that you’re hungry so you can eat the banana when you’re done.
You pour some water into a cup. You utter some secret words and when you turn over the cup, all that comes out is a chunk of ice. This one is super easy with the secret and a little setup.
Two effects in our library of easy tricks: "The Good Guess" and "Simple Monte" are "gotcha" effects. You show a spectator some cards and remove one, and the spectator tries to guess what's left and is always wrong. This trick uses the secret from either "The Good Guess" or "Simple Monte" to make a card appear to travel from one place to another.
The spectator separates a deck of cards into four piles, mixes them a bit, and at the end, discovers that there’s an ace on top of each pile. All you need is a deck of cards, an easy setup and the secret, and you’re ready to go.
Here’s a quirky trick that relies on a little known fact. You show a spectator a piece of paper and ask them to name a month. After naming the month you refer to a yearly calendar, find the month’s page and select a column. You ask the spectator to add the numbers in that column. When the spectator opens the piece of paper, they find that their total matches the number that you have predicted.
You display a couple of cards, place them into a bag and then remove one. When you ask your spectator which one remains, he or she is always right or wrong. It’s your choice and completely under your control.
Here's one of those mathematical oddities that somewhat masquerades as a magic trick. Your spectator, with calculator in hand, performs a series of calculations. And surprise, at the end, he or she is looking at their telephone number. We walk you through the steps and at the end, display them all on a single page that you may print out.
A spectator shuffles a deck of cards and memorizes the card at the bottom of the deck. So you can’t see the selected card, the deck is slipped back into its box. After a bit of mumbo-jumbo, psycho-babble, you’re able to tell the spectator the exact card that he is thinking of.
In this trick, you display three cards in a fan and ask the player to remember them. After turning the cards over, you remove the middle card. You ask the spectator if they can recall what the card is. And when you show it to them, it’s a different card. This is an easy trick that you can easily make and perform.
In this trick, you take a packet of cards that contains the ace through king of a single suit, and by simply spelling the name of each card (ace, two, three...etc), you reveal each card in order. The kicker is that you are placing the in-between cards back underneath the pile. It’s not really a magic trick, but a fairly impressive mathematical stunt. Give this one a try. You’ll have fun with it.
Here's an ultra-easy card prediction that works with a pair of ordinary dice. Your friend rolls a pair of dice and uses the resulting number to count to a card in a deck. You then hand your friend a note that states the name of the card that he counted to. You have successfully predicted a card that was determined by the roll of the dice.
Here’s an age-old trick that you can do anytime, anywhere. In an instant, you seemingly pull your thumb apart and then put it back together again. If you’re an uncle or grandpa, you almost have to learn this trick to tease the kids. And if you want to truly torment a professional magician, show this trick and ask him if he knows how you did it.
This classic trick is great for young kids and just about every magician has played with it. In the effect, a pair of paper clips are attached to a dollar bill. After pulling the ends of the dollar bill, the paper clips link and jump from the dollar.
This is a mystifying trick that is great for kids. In the effect, a spectator secretly selects a color and then by silently spelling it as the magician touches a series of cards, the magician locates the color.
The magician displays a small vase, takes out a ball and places it in her pocket. With a wave of the hand or other incantation, the ball appears back in the vase. And with another incantation, the ball disappears from the vase and reappears in the pocket. This one is easy to perform and is perfect for young kids.
The Coin Slide is an ultra-simple trick for young kids to learn and perform. It’s available from any magic dealer and many toy stores for less than a couple of dollars. A mechanical trick, the effect does all the work to make a coin disappear and reappear.
In this effect, you hold two wine corks that are seemingly interlocked, and somehow pull the corks through each other. It’s a fast, visual trick that you can also perform with rolled dollar bills and other objects of roughly the same size as wine corks.
The spectator selects a card and places it back into the deck. After placing the deck behind your back and bringing it out again, the selected card is shown to have reversed itself in the deck.
This well known sequence allows a person to discover a spectator’s card simply by dealing cards. Simply follow the instructions. If you like, you may adapt this sequence to work with a pack of 21-cards.
A rubber band mysteriously jumps from your pinkie and ring fingers to the first and middle fingers of the same hand and then back again. All you need is a rubberband.
You mysteriously locate four aces from a shuffled deck. This one is easy to perform. All you need is a deck of cards and a jacket that has an inner pocket.
Here’s an easy trick-actually it’s more of a challenge. You challenge your friends to tie a knot in a piece of rope, but the catch is, once they grab the rope, they can’t let go. Once they give up, you show them how.
This is an old classic that is based on a quirk in mathematics. You can read it to a friend and have them follow along.
An easy method to predict a card that your spectator is going to select.
An easy method to predict a card that your spectator is going to select.
An easy coin trick that you can perform anytime and anywhere. But you must have a friend to help you.
Using your amazing magical powers, you can always tell what color crayon a spectator hands to you-even though you can't see it. You can perform this one almost anywhere.
You somehow predict a word on a randomly selected page in a book.
With this logic trick, you can guess who is holding what, despite the fact that one person is lying and the other is telling the truth.
Showing off your incredible sense of balance, you hold a playing card and balance a cup on top of it.
Show your friends a couple of cards. Have them place them into the deck. Within a second, you find them-to your friend's amazement.
This basic magic technique allows you to make a coin seemingly disappear. It’s a basic sleight-of-hand move that is well known among magicians.
The one-handed cut allows you to hold a deck in your hand, break it apart into two sections and exchange their positions. It’s a flashy card move that is also known as the Charlier cut.
Adding a bridge at the end of a basic shuffle results in a flashy variation. Here’s how, step-by-step.
Want to learn free magic tricks that are easy to learn and perform for your friends? With just a deck of cards and other household items, you have lots of magic options. Among the many tricks that we have explained in our library of easy tricks, here are our favorites.
Here’s an easy magic trick that we present as both an interactive/online trick and one that you can present to your friends via this website. This one is best if you have a sheet of paper and a pencil and a nearby calculator.
If you want to pursue magic, you’ll want to learn some simple tricks. Here at Magic & Illusion, we explain lots of tricks that use everyday, common, household materials and require no complicated sleight-of-hand. We also offer clear, step-by-step instructions so you may quickly learn the tricks and perform them for your friends. These tricks have been specifically selected for beginners.
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.
How about some eerie magic tricks for Halloween? All of the tricks here are easy to learn and perform and use everyday items found around the house.
