Performance

How Do Magicians Burn Paper Into Money?

Party Tricks, Performance, Revealed, Stage Magic

Magic is always more interesting when money is involved. And one of the greatest tricks involving money is the one where a magician will burn an ordinary piece of paper and transform it into money.

To do the trick yourself, all you need is a piece of paper, a candle, a match, and a table to perform the act on.

What does the trick look like?

It all starts with the magician showing you this ordinary white piece of paper.

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Then he shows you that he has nothing else in his hands.

After laying the piece of paper on the table, he picks up a box of matches and pulls one out.

He uses it to light a candle on the table next to him.

He crumples the paper up and sets it on fire with the flame of the candle.

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A big flash and it looks like the paper is gone.

Then he begins to unfold the paper, as he unfolds the paper it looks like the white piece of paper has turned into a hundred dollar bill.

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The crowd erupts with applause.

How is it done?

The key to this trick is the white paper and the matchbox.

The matchbox, at the beginning of the act, is sitting open on the table.

Before he begins the trick he places a crumpled hundred dollar bill into the back of the open matchbox.

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It is completely concealed because when the matchbox is open there is an empty space back there.

After get gets a match out to light, he closes the box.

The act of closing a box pushes the hundred dollar bill into his hand.

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Your attention is on him lighting the match. Once the candle is lit, he takes that white piece of paper and seemingly crumples it into a ball.

What he is actually doing is crumpling it around the hundred dollar bill.

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The white paper is no ordinary piece of paper.

It is a piece of spark paper, created to burn instantly and put off a flashy flame. When he sets it ablaze it does its job perfectly.

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It is burned away, so when he looks like he is unfolding the paper, he is really just revealing the hundred dollar bill hidden underneath.

Watch the entire trick and learn how it works

Every magician should start this trick with one of those do not try at home disclaimers, because who would not want to take a piece of paper and turn it into money?

This is a great trick and really popular among street performers.

It is more about drawing your attention away from what is really going on.

It seems so simple, yet it takes some pretty inventive techniques to pull off.

The Levitating Woman – Stage Trick Revealed

Performance, Revealed, Stage Magic

We’ve all seen it before: The Levitating Woman. It has to be one the oldest illusions in the history of stage magic. It’s one of those tricks where you would never be able to figure out how it works unless someone told you.

You’re about to see why in just a minute.

What the trick looks like?

Once the woman lies down, a sheet is draped over the board.

The lifted sheet gives the audience the impression that only the two chairs at the end of the board are holding it up.

The magician then puts the pretty lady in a trance and slowly raises his hands.

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Two assistants remove the chairs.

The lady magically floats up under his hands.

The assistant next to him hands him a hoop, which is drawn over the board so that the lady passes through the middle of it.

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Next, he slowly lowers his hands and the lady floats down gently.

The assistants put the chairs back to catch the pretty little lady. They unwrap her and she sits up, swinging her legs over the side of the board.

How does it work?

So now you want to know what really happened.

The board is actually being held up by metal rod in the back of the board.

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The chairs do nothing at all. They are only there for illusion.

When the magician isn’t standing there, the rod is clearly visible. But the magician blocks the rod from view with his legs.

The platform that the magician is standing on is the biggest key to this trick.

It is mechanically designed.

Under his feet are two hidden buttons which allows him to control the mechanism up and down.

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These gears are what raise up that pretty little lady with the touch of a button under his foot.

So how does he make the hoop pass through?

That metal rod that the magician is hiding with his legs are attached to the board the woman is laying on in a very specific design.

It is designed specifically for the hoop!

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1. So on the first pass that hoop is brought to the bend of the S.
2. The second pass he does is to untangle the hoop so that he can hand it to the assistant.

This all might sound complicating, but it’s really not. It’s all a prop trick that any magician can do with just the right equipment.

Take a look at the entire performance below.

Watch the complete trick and the revealing

What makes this trick so cool is that you are not even looking at the magician’s legs.

You are so mesmerized by the hoop going around that even if he stepped out of the way so that you could catch a glimpse of the rod, you would probably miss it anyway.

It is really easy to see why this trick is so popular. It is fun, fast, and completely mesmerizing.

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.

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.

A Performance by Gamarjobat: The Best Comedic Magicians From Japan

Performance, Stage Magic

Here is a performance by Gamarjobat, a comedic magician duo in Japan.

One of my favourite comedians to watch. They are absolutely hilarious and show us that magic doesn’t have to always be mysterious.

They barely do any magic in their routines, but they entertain the crowd better than any magician I’ve seen.

Watch their performance below.

There are many magicians who choose to incorporate comedy into their routines. If you love performance, but don’t necescesarily enjoy practicing tricks until your hands blister, perhaps you should consider turning your magical acts into a different genre of visual arts.

Magic can be mixed into a variety of performing arts. Be creative. You don’t have to do the same routines as everyone else.