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The Sloppy Surgeon
Effect: The Magician does not feel pain!
★
Performance: Take a potato and cut from it a piece about the thickness of your
thumb. Place this piece underneath a handkerchief, as if it were your real thumb.
Now push a needle through your “thumb” in front of the audience.
Make sure that you put the needle through the potato and NOT your real thumb!
The Banana Trick ★★
Effect: Display a banana to the audience and then ask a volunteer to choose a
number between 1 and 4. Peel the banana. If the volunteer says “2,” show 2 pieces
of banana, if the volunteer says “3,” show three pieces of banana.
Performance: Before the show, take a needle and insert it in one of the dark
patches on the banana skin. Once inside, you can slice the banana by moving
the needle from side to side. Do this twice so that you can produce either two or
three slices of banana.
The Salt and Pepper Trick ★★
Sprinkle some salt onto a piece of paper, and then sprinkle some pepper on top of
the salt. Challenge the audience to separate the salt from the pepper! Nobody will
offer an easy solution.
Secret: Remove a comb from your pocket and run it through your hair a few times,
or rub it on a wool sweater. This will generate static electricity. Then hold the comb
just over the pile of salt and pepper and the grains of pepper will jump up and cling
to the teeth of the comb, leaving the salt on the table.
The Vanishing Coin ★★
Effect: Hold up a coin in a piece of paper, say the magic words, and the coin
vanishes!
Performance: Take a piece of paper 3 in. x 2 in. and then borrow a coin and place
it on the paper. Fold up the paper from the bottom covering the coin; do not let the
edge meet the top of the paper.Pick up the paper in your left hand. Fold the right
edge downward and back onto the coin. Then fold the left edge down and back.
Finally, fold the top edge down and back, leaving a neat packet containing the
coin. Press the paper down on to the coin, so that the shape of the coin becomes
visible. Then turn the packet over so that the coin can slide secretly into your left
hand. Continue to hold the paper as if it still contained the coin, and transfer it to
your right hand. Meanwhile, let your left hand containing the coin casually drop
into your pocket. Finally, tear up the paper to show that the coin has vanished.