Magic & Illusion: Most Popular Articles

The Best Easy Card Tricks
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.

EZ Trick: Vanishing Toothpick
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.

Easy Trick: The Rising Card
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.

Easy Trick: The Spoon Bend
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.

The Five Best Tricks for Kids
Here are the best tricks for beginning magicians that are easy to learn and perform, inexpensive and are good effects.

The Vanishing Toothpick
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

The Rising Card
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

The Spoon Bend
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

Easy Magic: "Do As I Do"
“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.

Basic Technique: Coin Vanish
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.

EZ Trick: Jumping Rubberband
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.

EZ Trick: Rising Card 2
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.

The Bill Roll
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

Dark Magic
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

Easy Magic With Money
Easy Magic With Money

Easy Magic: The Bill Roll
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.

EZ Trick:Sawing a Lady in Half
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.

That Thumb Thing
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.

Easy Trick: Mind Reader
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.

The Necklace
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

The Jumping Paper Clips
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.

Easy Magic: That Thumb Thing
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.

Vanishing Coin
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.

Interactive Magic: "The Clock"
Here’s an interactive magic trick that works across the web and you can have fun showing your friends.

Easy Trick: Dark Magic
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.

The Disappearing Coin
An easy coin trick that you can perform anytime and anywhere. But you must have a friend to help you.

EZ Magic: Aces From Pocket
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.

Easy Magic: Vanishing a Coin
Here’s a great way to vanish a coin. Two rings and a playing card are shown on a table. The rings and playing card are stacked on top of a coin. When a ring and the card are removed, the coin has completely vanished. The rings and card 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 do.

Easy Trick: The Spoon Bend 2
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. [p]As before, 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, you lift up the spoon and show that it is unbent, just as you found it.

EZ Magic: Jumping Paper Clips
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.

Dealing a Royal Flush
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

Sawing a Lady in Half
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.

Mental Prediction
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.

Naked Zombie Ball - Crowe
This DVD teaches a routine where you make a silver ball appear to float in the air. However, unlike the usual zombie routine, you don't rely on a gimmick, nor to you employ the traditional foulard. The routine sports two phases, the first with the ball floating from your hands, and the second, where it floats around a small hoop. The DVD also offers an excellent introduction to studying and applying movement.

Easy Trick: The Rising Ring
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.

Easy Magic: The Banana Buster
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.

Interactive Magic: Mind Reader
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.

The Banana Buster
By executing an ultra secret ninja move, you magically cause a banana to separate into pieces while it is 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.

David Copperfield
The best known and richest magician-he ranks among the wealthiest of all entertainers-David Copperfield is a household name. He is known to millions through his numerous television specials over the last couple of decades and he continues to tour, taking his show around the country.

The Clipped Card
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

Technique: The Coin Vanish
Basic Technique: The Coin Vanish

Easy Trick: The Necklace
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.

EZ Magic: The Reversed Card
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.

Demo: Svengali Deck
A Svengali deck is a trick card deck that allows you to easily perform some seemingly amazing feats and it’s a great trick for beginners of almost any age. We take you on a virtual demo of what the deck can do.

Beginning Magic Tricks
For the serious beginner in magic, here are excellent tricks that are easy to learn and perform, inexpensive and can form an early foundation in magic technique and presentation.

Exposed: Blaine Levitation
On his first magic special on TV, David Blaine walked away from a crowd, stood with his back to the crowd and lifted off the ground some two feet, to the amazement of the spectators. How could Blaine do this? Was it pure magic? Read on to find out.

Easy Magic: The Coin Vanish-2
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.

Easy Trick: Cutting Aces
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.

Easy Trick: The Royal Flush
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.

The Rising Ring
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.

EZ Magic: Nine/21-Card Trick
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.

Cold as Ice
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.

Aces From Your Pocket
A spectator shuffles a deck and cuts it and drops it into the inner pocket of your coat. You ask the spectator to call out a number between "1" and "10." You bring out the number of cards from the deck in your pocket, and then lay down the next card on the table. You repeat this three times. When you turn over the four separate cards on the table, they are all aces.

Easy Trick: Teleporting Cards
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.

Easy Trick: Film Prediction
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.

Easy Trick: Cold as Ice
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.

Rising Card
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.

Easy Magic: The Clipped Card
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.

Stunt: Just Passing Thru
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 easy magic. It’s a puzzle that you present to your spectators.

The Simple Monte
If you want to learn easy magic tricks, you've come to right place.

Finding a Spectator's Card
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.

I Hate David Copperfield Trick
Despite the name, I like David Copperfield as well as this trick from Geoff Williams. Here a single card mysteriously changes location in a three card pack. I don’t know if this part of a new trend, but Williams previously released this effect on his Miracles for Mortals Volume One DVD. It's the exact same footage.

EZ Demo: Cups & Balls
While professional magicians perform stunning, advanced versions of this classic, beginning magicians can purchase simple, pre-packaged versions that result in a mystifying sequence.

EZ Magic: Seeing With Fingers
Here's an offbeat easy magic trick that uses coins. You have a spectator randomly select a coin from several that are in a bag or bowl. With a marker, the spectator writes his initials on the coin. The spectator concentrates on the coin for a few seconds 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.

Review: World's Greatest Magic
Can “The World’s Greatest Magic Show” live up to its name? Magician Nicholas Carifo visits The Greek Isle Casino in Las Vegas to find out.

5 Steps to Sleight of Hand
One of the joys and challenges of being a magician is working up new effects and sleight-of-hand moves that you present to your audiences. If you’re developing a new move, whether it’s a color change, side steal, pass or other, here are five steps that will help ensure success.

Jumping Rubberband
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.

EZ Magic: Telephone Predictor
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.

Easy Magic Trick: Coin Slide
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.

Mind Reader
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.

Easy Magic: Ball and Vase
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. You can purchase this one for a couple of dollars from any magic dealer and many toy stores. This one is easy to perform and is perfect for young kids.

The Royal Flush
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.

The Coin Vanish-2
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.

EZ Trick: Killer Prediction
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.

Magic Bingo by Mark Wilson
As the name implies, "Magic Bingo" is much like conventional Bingo - the first player to get five numbers in a row wins - except for one major difference, everyone who's playing wins at the same time on the exact same number. It's an interactive affair that involves audiences, allows you to emphasize a theme or product and lets you use the Bingo cards as giveaways that have your name and number.

Card Prediction
An easy method to predict a card that your spectator is going to select.

Easy Trick: Simple Monte
In this trick, you display three cards in a fan and ask the spectator 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.

EZ Tricks: Best Predictions
Who hasn’t fantasized about being able to tell the future? And of course, if you could really predict the future, would you be performing a magic trick as opposed to living at the race track and making a fortune? 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.

The Rising Card - Method 2
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.

Technique: The One-Hand Cut
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.

Zero Gravity by Jay Sankey
Jay Sankey calls "Zero Gravity" the ideal opening effect when you walk up to a table. Indeed, he makes a compelling argument. The effect is fast and garners attention and there's no need to explain what just happened, it's quite apparent. Despite this, I find the effect to be offbeat and simply can't warm up to it.

Magic Castle
If the world of magic has a center, it lies in a classy Victorian mansion in Hollywood that's known internationally as The Magic Castle. The Castle is many things: a showcase for the world's best magicians, headquarters for the Academy of Magical Arts and an exclusive club for magicians and fans of magic.

Do As I Do
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.

Fast Find
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.

The Deciding Domino
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.

Easy Magic: The Vanishing Bead
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.

Finder Keeper
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.

Jumping Rubberband - Var. 1
A rubberband quickly and mysteriously jumps 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."

Love Compatibility Test
Just for Valentine's day or any romantic endeavor. Here's a fun "love compatibility test." Actually, it's completely rigged. No matter which number your interested party chooses, and it is a free choice, he or she will always end up on the heart, thus, making a "love connection." E-mail the URL to your love interest and tell them to take the love compatibility test. Tell them that if they somehow end up on the heart, "love indeed conquers all."

The Impassable Corks
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.

Mysterious Shape Trick
Here's an online magic trick. Even though you’re at home, the Magic.about.com web site is going to track your every move, almost as if by magic.

Interview with Criss Angel
We speak with Criss Angel, star of the Mindfreak television series and who was recently awarded "Magician of the Year." In his interview, Angel talks about the challenges of shooting a magic series, his inspirations, the current state of magic and where he plans to take the art.

The Vanishing Bead
Here are some easy tricks that kids can learn that are simple and only require materials that you find around the house.

The Reversed Card
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.

Demo: Professor's Nightmare
Professor's Nightmare is a classic rope trick that is easy to perform and is great for beginners who are seven-years-old and up. We take you on a virtual demo.

Magic of Paul Potassy
If you've always wanted to swallow razor blades and thread and bring it all back up, strung together, here are resources to get you started.

5 Biggest Magic Mistakes
Why do so many in the general public loathe magic? It's probably because they've seen poor magic or an arrogant, boorish "magician." Here then, are the five biggest mistakes made by beginning magicians. If you're a beginning magician, you can read these and improve your magic.

Started in Magic
If you’ve been bitten by the magic bug and are starting out in magic, here are five steps to get you on the right path.

EZ Card Trick: With the Grain
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.

EZ Magic: Amazing Spelling
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.

Demo: Color-Changing Hanks
In The Color-Changing handkerchiefs, the magician appears to make a handkerchief of one color change colors by simply pushing it through a hand. And at the end, the magician shows his or her hand is empty after the change. After that, the magician pushes the handkerchief through the hand again, which turns the handkerchief into yet another color. At the end, the magician shows that his or her hand is empty.

Review: Mickey's Magic Show
Just watching Disney’s theme park parades and productions and best movies can often seem like pure magic. And the idea of combining Disney themes with illusion seems like a natural. While "Disney Live! presents Mickey's Magic Show," a touring show that combines Disney and magic, is a very professional production, somehow, the combination of Disney and illusion falls somewhat short of its synergistic potential.

Easy Trick: Double the Fun
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.

Infallible by Al Lampkin
Here's an easy packet trick with playing cards that offers a strong prediction and an easy, straight forward method. The instructions leave something to be desired as there are effectively none, but there is a good demo on the enclosed DVD that will allow magicians with some basic knowledge of card techniques to piece together the routine.

Review: Criss Angel Levitation
If you want to learn and perform an excellent self-levitation, one that allows you to lift your feet in the air while standing almost anywhere, Criss Angel teaches one of the many techniques that he performed in his MINDFREAK television series. This levitation is practical and convincing, and after spending $100 on this DVD, you’ll spend another $125-$300 building your gimmick. But if the technique suits your performance needs, it’s worth it.

Incredible Spelling
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.

Helter Shelter - DVD
If you've always wanted to swallow razor blades and thread and bring it all back up, strung together, here are resources to get you started.

EZ Magic: Calendar Trick
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.

Review: Criss Angel Mindfreak
Criss Angel’s long-awaited Mindfreak magic special aired on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 on A&E. Was the magic great? Was the show good for magic? We analyze.

The Basic Card Shuffle
Every magician needs to know how to perform a basic shuffle. Here’s how, step-by-step.

Harry Houdini
Arguably, the most famous entertainer of all time was a magician. Harry Houdini, who died some 80 years ago, is still a household name today. Try to name a contemporary of Houdini from an era that lacked televisions, video and DVDs. Perhaps today, only Charlie Chaplin can compare.

Web Magic: Mystery Wheel
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.

Review: Black Tiger Deck
Imagine a deck of high-quality Bicycle playing cards that has been completely reversed-the white areas are now black and the colors are white-and you have the striking Black Tiger Deck. And to complement the Black Tiger Deck, Ellusionist.com offers a comprehensive Gaff Deck with 56 gimmicked cards, as well as an accompanying book that describes and teaches effects with the deck. It’s a whole new world of entertaining, edgy and spooky card magic.

Review: Copperfield DVD
After joining Netflix-the service that lets you borrow DVDs through the mail-I discovered that David Copperfield: Illusion was available in its immense library. One of the first DVDs that I borrowed, “Illusion” is mostly Copperfields “15 Years of Magic” special that aired some years ago on CBS. But for Copperfield fans who haven’t been taping and viewing the shows over the years, the DVD is virtual gold.