Tutorial

How To Bend A Spoon With Your Mind (REVEALED)

Revealed, Tutorial

The ability to bend a spoon with your mind is a staple for magicians and illusionists, and learning to do this skill seamlessly will always enhance a performance.

Since this is such a popular trick, there are various ways of doing it.

Let’s walk through two different ways to do this trick.

Choose which method fits you best according to your magic preferences.

Method #1: It’s Already Bent!

One way to do this trick is to have two, separate pieces prepared.

You need a spoon that is already bent and a straight stem that is separate from this spoon. You will be relying on sleight of hand and angles to complete the illusion.

spoon is already bent

When you begin the trick, you will have the already bent spoon in your hand, and you will position your fingers to hide its stem from view.

The straight stem will be held as if it is coming out of the spoon, giving the illusion that the spoon is straight.

When you’re ready to bend the spoon, you should slowly release your grip on the straight stem.

Doing so will allow it to fall gradually down to rest on top of the spoon’s already bent stem that is hidden. Once you complete the bending, keep the straight, separate stem hidden in your hand as you pull the pre-bent spoon out by the bowl and draw the audience’s attention to it.

Viola! You’ve bent the spoon.

Method #2: Cut It Up

Another way to complete this illusion is to not just bend the spoon with your mind, but to totally break it!

To do this trick, you will need a pre-cut spoon that has been cut almost the whole way through.

Pick up this spoon. Show it to the audience, and let them know that you are going to focus your energy on it as hard as you can.

Be sure to be holding the spoon between two fingers on the break so that it seems to be in one piece.

While you seem to be concentrating your energy, you will really be snapping the spoon along the cut. Squeeze tightly so that neither piece slips.

spoon is cut in two pieces

Then, begin bending the spoon.

Hold the spoon horizontally so that the audience can get a good look at it, and keep pressure along the break point.

Gradually release this pressure so that each side will begin tilting towards the ground. Once you release enough pressure, the pieces will fall apart showing that you have cut the spoon with your mind.

Who knew breaking a spoon was so easy? With these two techniques, you’ll be able to show both fan and skeptic alike your ability to bend or break a spoon.

Perfect both styles to add the greatest versatility to your magic repertoire.

How To Always Win At Rock Paper Scissors

Party Tricks, Tutorial

Everyone has that lucky friend who always wins at Rock, Paper, Scissors.

But what if I told you that there might be more to their winning than simple luck?

In fact, consistently winning at Rock, Paper, Scissors only requires reading through a bit of strategy, and you’ll be ready to win every throw and challenge sent your way.

It’s all about strategy

rock paper scissorsIf your opponent loses to you on the first throw, you can predict their next move due to the human tendency towards conditional responses.

What’s that? That’s just a fancy way of saying that people are influenced by the choices they have previously made.

Pay attention to your opponent’s choices, and you can be the winner.

There are three parts to the strategy you should follow

And here it is: Throw one, winner rules and loser rules.

There is not a great way to guarantee that you will win throw one, so keep it simple: throw paper.

Unless your opponent is also trained in the art of winning Rock Paper Scissors, you have a better chance of winning because people choose to throw rock first more often than paper or scissors.

If you’ve won the first round, great. You’re on your way to victory.

What did you opponent throw on the first hand?

Whatever it was, choose the next item in the rotation of Rock -> Paper -> Scissors.

People typically move through these three choices in order and are also very unlikely to repeat their losing choice. So, if your opponent chose paper, they will probably throw scissors next.

So, you should choose rock. If they chose scissors, they will probably choose rock, so you should choose paper. Get it?

If you lost the first round, don’t panic.

There’s still hope. When someone wins, they’re more likely to pick the same thing again because they feel that it was a good choice.

Remember this about your opponent. If they won with scissors, you should pick rock to win the next throw, because chances are, they will pick scissors again. Remember this rule, and you’ll be on your way to winning in no time.

Follow these three rules for playing the game, and your chances of winning Rock, Paper, Scissors will be high enough for you to take over the role as the “Lucky Friend” without anyone ever realizing how you did it.

Check out this video for more

View more party magic tricks.

How Does Criss Angel Walk Through A Solid Glass Window Without Breaking It?

Criss Angel, Performance, Revealed, Tutorial

In his DVD special, Mind Freak, Criss Angel performed a trick that most people thought was done by CGI (computer generated imagery). But the fact is, it was real. He did it live without the help of any computer editing.

This is how Criss Angel walks through a solid glass window without breaking it.

What does it look like?

In the trick, Criss Angel visits a shop. He has the people stand outside of the office window.

He then has two people hold up a large piece of paper to cover the area where he will come out of. He makes sure that everyone can see that it is solid glass with no openings.

He walks around to the other side. Then all of a sudden there is a rip made through the large paper and Criss’ hand comes sticking out. The audience is in disbelief.

He goes on and sticks his whole body through the window until he is out onto the other side. They immediately remove the piece of paper, and the window is untouched.

Watch Criss Angel perform the trick:

The trick is revealed

The way he does this is actually pretty brilliant. He does have assistants involved in the trick so the “spectators” in his DVD performance are obviously just actors. You can actually see what a terrible job they do at acting surprised if you watch them carefully.

So how is it done?

The assistants are hiding on the other side, crouching below the window sill. The window is custom built into the frame. It’s actually extremely tall, and has a small opening cut out at the bottom.

It’s tough to see clearly, but thats a rectangle cut out of the window. You can notice the handles on both sides for the assistants to manoeuvre it.

cut out in window

The window is built to slide up and down.

So when the magician moves to the other side of the window, the assistants simply slide the glass up far enough so that the opening is up above the sill.

The opening is still covered by the piece of paper on the other side so it’s impossible to see it from there.

Then, the magician cuts a small hole with a sharp tool like a nail or pocket knife and rips it open with his hand.

On the other side, it looks as if the magician just put his hand through solid glass.

Then, the magician continues to put his entire body through it until his whole body is on the other side.

The glass is slid back down and the paper is removed to show that the glass remains intact.

Watch the full reveal video to see how it’s done

It’s a common theme in a lot of Criss Angel’s videos. The spectators are fake. They’re there just to magnify the effect.

Unfortunately, a lot of people can catch this because their acting is terrible.

In this case, you need assistants to do this trick. It takes a lot of preparation, but the effect of it makes you look like you are some sort of supernatural being.

How Dynamo Turns a Paper Butterfly To Life

Dynamo, Revealed, Tutorial

Dynamo does a pretty insane trick here with Natalie Imbruglia, a judge from X-Factor, where he takes a display butterfly (made of paper) off of the wall, holds it in his hand, and turns it into real life.

It looks surreal and we’re going to reveal how it’s done today.

What does it look like?

First, Dynamo sits down at an empty club with Natalie Imbruglia. On the wall beside them are a bunch of butterflies made of paper and stuck to the wall for decoration.

butterflies

Dynamo grabs one off of the wall and places it in Natalie’s hands.

dynamo butterfly

He then blows on the butterfly and it jumps right into his hand. He then cups it and blows on it some more.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.42.18 PM

When he opens his hands, it turns to real life and flies away.

As it flies away, all of the butterflies on the wall jump off and fly away with it.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.43.28 PM

The effect is amazing.

Revealed: So how does he do it?

First of all, the butterflies have been set up there before the trick. He didn’t just randomly sit down, see a butterfly on the wall, and decide to turn it into real life. It was set up there by he and his crew.

Making it jump into his hand

When he takes one and places it on Natalie’s hands, he uses invisible thread to make it jump into his hand.

This is what invisible thread looks like.

invisible thread

It’s invisible even at a close thread.

In the trick, the thread has been attached from the beginning. It’s attached to his shirt button, and on the butterfly.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.47.44 PM

All he has to do is hook the string with his left hand. After he does, all he has to do is pull on the string to make it look like it’s jumping into his hand.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.48.46 PM

So he catches the paper butterfly in his left hand, and he grabs a prepared real butterfly with his right hand.

When he brings his hands together, he simply palms the paper butterfly and holds the real one in his hands.

At this point the real butterfly is now in his hands and he blows on them to make it look like he’s transforming it.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.53.08 PM

Then he opens his hands and can simply dump the fake one when the spectator isn’t looking.

When he opens his hands, the real butterfly is revealed and it flies away. When it flies away, ALL the butterflies on the wall come to life and fly away with it, creating an amazing effect.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.54.55 PM

How do all the butterflies come to life??

They don’t.

If you watch the video in slow motion, you’ll see that they all just drop off to the ground.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.55.32 PM

Again, that is done with invisible thread. Most likely a crew member assistant has done the pulling as it would require a greater pull to snap all of them off.

Then, all that’s left is having a concealed assistant releasing some real butterflies in the commotion.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 12.57.50 PM

The trick fooled Natalie and it can trick anybody really. It’s a truly amazing effect, which you know by now isn’t that difficult to pull off.

Anybody can do it with just a little bit of practice, and the right set up.

Revealed: David Blaine’s Impossible, Disappearing Card Trick on Jimmy Kimmel Live

David Blaine, Performance, Revealed, Tutorial

To promote his TV special, Real or Magic, David Blaine appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show. There, he revealed why Harrison Ford kicked him out of his house and other tricks he performed on celebrities.

During his interview, he performed a card trick that astonished the audience and left Jimmy Kimmel speechless. If you view the comments, it actually made people believe that David Blaine has supernatural powers.

What was the trick?

David asks Jimmy to pick a card. After that, the card he picked is actually imprinted on the sharpie that he gave to him before the trick.

Jimmy then signs the card and David puts it in the middle of the deck. He asks the audience to name a suit other than the one on Jimmy’s selected card.

Immediately, as David squeezes down on the deck the deck starts to shrink. Cards disappear from the deck right before everybody’s eyes. David turns over the deck and every suit is now the one that the audience randomly called out and in the middle is Jimmy’s card.

Let’s watch the performance first.

So how did he do it?

This trick probably isn’t the best choice to do on live television since there is a lot of room for error.

Step 1: Forcing the Card

When David asks Jimmy to select a card, it was actually forced on him. You can see the pinky break he has on the deck before he spreads the cards for Jimmy to choose.

Jimmy was going to select the 7 of clubs no matter what.

Important

Don’t worry about forcing the card or having it show up on the sharpie. This is a separate move that David added in just for a better effect. You don’t need to force a card on them, and it doesn’t have to be on the sharpie.

They can choose whatever card they want. They can show you, or they can decide not to. It doesn’t matter. The effect of the trick is in removing the other suits, and having over half the deck disappear before the spectator’s eyes.

Step 2: Removing the other suits from the deck

This is the risky part. He has to switch the full deck he has now to one that has only hearts. The camera angle is not clear on David so it may be difficult to notice, but watch as David asks Jimmy to sign the card. He gets up slightly from his seat and switches the full deck with the prepared one.

How did he know the audience would choose hearts?

For those of you wondering, yes it was hearts all along. So, how did he know the girl would choose hearts? He didn’t.

Watch the video again and watch how he chooses his words when he tells her to name a suit. He doesn’t tell her to name a suit that the deck will change into. He says, “Name a suit, any suit… to ELIMINATE.”

Therefore, if the woman said something like diamonds, he could say, “Ok, now name another suit.”

So, yes it was very lucky that the girl picked hearts right away, so the effect of the trick was way greater.

Step 3: The Sleight of Hand Grip That Makes It Look Like a Full Deck

This move is what makes this trick what it is. It’s a sleight of hand that allows you to spread out the cards in the deck to make it look like a full deck, even if you only have about 13 out of the 52 cards in your hand.

It will take a lot practice before you can even attempt it in front of an audience.

Watch the tutorial below

Conclusion

I’ve read around many forums and discussion boards all discussing this single trick.

There’s one thing that makes this trick look so cool. It looks impossible and supernatural to the human eye. There’s no logical explanation they can come up with on how you did the trick.

People who watch this are convinced that David Blaine has supernatural powers. That’s how powerful this trick is.

It will take a long time to practice, yes, but it will definitely be worth it.