Easy-to-Do Magic Tricks for Children

By Karl Fulves

Clear diagrams and step-by-step instructions for performing 18 simple feats of prestidigitation: Strength Test, Untangled, Elastic Lock, Mystic Spinner, Rollaway, Heavyset, The Great Escape and many more, using such ordinary objects as coins, rubber bands and string.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Apr 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486160368

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The Strength Test

When I put on these gloves, they give me added strength, the magician says. He holds up a pair of ordinary-looking gloves. Here, I’ll show you what I mean. He puts them on. Then he extends his fingertips so they touch. A spectator grasps the magician’s wrists and pulls in opposite directions, Figure 1. Surprisingly, no matter how hard he pulls, he cannot separate the magician’s hands.

Let me show you another test. Make your hands into fists. Put them together. I bet I can separate them with one finger of each hand. It looks impossible, but the magician succeeds. When the spectator tries to separate the magician’s hands by the same method, he finds it impossible.

Method: You can use any pair of gloves. Put them on, then touch the tips of your first fingers together. Have the spectator grasp both wrists and pull them apart in the direction of the arrows shown in Figure 1. He cannot use a quick, jerky motion. He should increase the force gradually. No matter how hard he pulls, he will find it extremely difficult (and in most cases impossible) to separate your hands.

The secret is that, if you hold your hands at chest level and lock your elbows against your sides when performing this trick, the spectator cannot generate enough force to pull your hands apart.

In the second test, tell the spectator to make two fists, then to put them together as in Figure 2. Say, While I’m wearing these gloves, I can separate your fists with just one finger of each hand. After struggling to separate your hands in the first test, the spectator will think it is impossible for you to separate his fists using just one finger of each hand.

The secret is to strike his fists as shown in Figure 2. Move the first fingers in opposite directions, one striking downward, the other upward. The result will be that his hands immediately move apart.

Say, It was the superhuman strength in these gloves that allowed me to do that. Here, you try it. You are still wearing the gloves. Make your hands into fists,