[gimmick] Thumb Tip- Disappearing Hankerchief

Today's gimmick is probably the most common to own among all types of magicians. Whether it is a stage magician, street magician, or a close up magician, a 'Thumb Tip' is probably hiding away in his pocket somewhere. A Thumb Tip is basically a fake thumb hallowed out which fits over most thumbs. They come in all sorts of different shades but more than likely you are not going to find the exact same colour as your skin. Though moving your hands a lot and pointing your thumb towards the spectators tends to hide it quite well.

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Over the next little while, I will be showing you how to do various tricks using the Thumb Tip. Today's trick is the most common use for the tip, the disappearing of a handkerchief.

The effect: The magician shows the handkerchief between his fingers, makes a fist and stuffs it down. With a wave over his fist and a light little blow, the magician opens his fist revealing that the handkerchief has disappeared into thin air!

The performance: Alright. So before we do the trick, have the thumb tip in place on your right thumb. When showing the handkerchief, it is okay to show the very tip of the fake thumb over the top of the handkerchief but try not to show the whole thumb. You then make a slight gesture by stroking the handkerchief a few times. On the third time, grab the thumb tip off your thumb as you stroke downwards. You should now have the thumb tip grasped in your left fist. You can now take the handkerchief and start to shove it down with your fingers. When the handkerchief is stuffed into the tip, simply pretend to stuff it with your thumb. The thumb tip should snag right onto your own thumb. Pretend to continue to stuff the handkerchief with your other fingers being careful not to completely show the tip on your thumb. You can now have them blow on your fist or do what ever than show that the handkerchief has disappeared.

This is probably one of the oldest tricks in the book for using the Thumb Tip but is probably one of the best. Kids all the way up to adults love to see this trick. Just make sure when you do any kind of Thumb Tip magic, to never give a 'thumbs up' because they will give you a 'thumbs down' once they see you were using a fake thumb.

The 3 p's: practice, practice, perform