[gimmick] 'The Coin Bite'

Today's trick is known as 'The Coin Bite'. This is a highly popular trick that David Blaine has performed in the past. It is an illusion that seems to twist the laws of physics and reality; like most magic tricks. Click here to go directly to Penguin Magic to buy your own 'coin bite gimmick'. The site offers numerous types of coins you can buy such as Canadian Loonies and Toonies to Canadian and American Quarters. This trick is definitely one that all street magicians should have.



The Performance: The magician asks a spectator for a coin such as a quarter. He than takes it and explains to the spectator about melting points and how if you squeeze a coin long enough you can actually bend the metal. He brings the coin up to his mouth and bites off a piece of the coin! Not only that, he than spits the missing piece back restoring the coin to its original state. The coin can than be inspected showing that its just a normal quarter.

The Secret: The quarter that the magician bites a piece off of is a gimmick coin. It is a quarter that has been sawed off in a way that makes it look like it has been bitten off. The two pieces are attached by an elastic. When the magician brings the coin to his mouth, he simply folds over the top piece with his tooth and when he brings the coin back down, he just holds the top piece down with his thumb behind the quarter. When he wants to 'spit' it back together, he just lets go with his thumb and the elastic brings them back in tact.

Method: This performance uses a little bit of misdirection and sleight of hand. When you take the coin that the spectator gives you, you need to switch it secretly with the gimmick coin. Once you have the coin switched than you are all set to go. When the trick is over, just simply switch the coin back to the one that was given to you.If you do not want to use misdirection or sleight of hand, you can do the trick by just saying "watch this" than do the trick and not ask for a coin. But asking for a coin gives the trick a little more of a kick.

Note: Its probably not the best to do this trick with people behind you but if you just happen to have big thumbs and can hide the piece, than go for it.

3 P's Practice, practice, Perform

[gimmick] Thumb Tip: Handkerchief from a Bill

So for today's post, I am showing you how to do another Thumb Tip trick involving a handkerchief. This one is a pretty cool one and you don't necessarily even need to use a handkerchief. The premise is a simple one but opens the eyes of many people. The beauty about a thumb tip is the fact that if you don't know what one is, than you would never guess that he is using one.

The Performance: The trick starts off by the magician asking for a $5 or $1 dollar bill. Once someone finds a dollar bill of some kind, they hand it over to the magician. He than shows both sides of the bill allowing everyone to see that there is nothing special about this one. He than makes a tube out of it and reaches down inside it. To everyone surprise, he pulls out a nice red handkerchief! He than sticks the handkerchief back into the tube, unravels it and hands back the money without any sight of the handkerchief again!

The Secret: Now we already know that there is a thumb tip involved but how exactly did the tip get inside that tube? It is all in the way you hold the bill. When you show the bill, make sure you hide your thumb behind the bill. When it is time to make the tube, slide your hand with the thumb tip, down to the bottom of the bill. As your making the first 'loop' of the bill, simply do it around the tip and gently pull your hand out. This will allow the thumb tip to get wrapped up in the tube. Simply reverse the process when you make the handkerchief disappear again.

Note: As I said earlier, you don't necessarily need to make a handkerchief appear from the bill. If you are in a restaurant with some friends you could ask for the salt than stop them and instead tell them that all you need is a dollar bill. Than go on from there obviously having some salt loaded in your thumb tip. It is all up to you.


Practice, practice, perform The 3 P's

[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.

Click here to go directly to Penguin Magic to order your Thumb Tip. They run at only $3. Worth having in your collection.

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

Gimmick 'The Raven'

Alright everybody! This past week we have uncovered some of the top Street Magic tricks around. Starting today, I am going to alternate days on 2 different topics. One post is going to keep on topic of tricks that do not need to be bought and the other post is going to be based on tricks that require special gimmicks. I am a huge fan of not having to pay for anything, but there are some tricks I love to do, that need to be bought.

Today's gimmick is one of the first ones I have every owned and is known as 'The Raven'. By far this is one of the best close up magic tricks that you can perform for anyone. Once again, and I know this sounds like its getting old, but I first saw David Blaine perform this. It is such a ridiculous trick and I highly, highly recommend any of you who want to do magic, to buy this gimmick.

Penguin Magic is probably one of the top magic trick sites that offer the cream of the crop magic gimmicks. Click here to go directly to The Raven product on their site.

The effect: is simple but the outcome is an amazing one. You place a quarter on the back of someones hand and wave your hands over it. After you wave your hands, the quarter has disappeared without you even touching it.

The Secret: 'The Raven" is a gimmick that basically involves 5 things : fishing line, an Earth Magnet, felt, an elastic, and a safety pin. The fishing line is in a loop connected to the Earth Magnet, which is a very strong magnet that can pick up metal objects from inches away. The fishing line loops around the very tip of your middle finger. The magnet is wrapped up in felt so when it picks up the quarter, you can not hear it clink against it. The magnet is than attached to a wide elastic that runs up your sleeve and attaches to the inside of your shirt or coat with a safety pin. After the quarter has been picked up by the magnet, you simply bend your middle finger a tiny bit allowing the fishing line to slip off and shoot the magnet up your sleeve. That is pretty much it. It is an exciting trick to perform for people and I place it high on my list for gimmicks to own.

Note: I have seen people try to make this gimmick but it is a lot better and less hard to just buy it. It runs at a price of $25.00.