🥄 The Bending Spoon

The Bending Spoon for kids: the whole trick

You hold a spoon by its neck with both hands and press down on the table. The handle bends right over, further and further, until it looks folded in half. Then you lift the spoon up and it is perfectly straight. It's a level 1 apprentice trick for ages 5 to 10 (grades K–4th), takes 3 minutes to learn, and needs one thing you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.

The secret

The spoon never bends. You slide your hands down as you press, so less and less of the handle shows above your fists, and the little bit still showing is tipped forward.

What you need

• A metal spoon

How to do it

1. Hold the spoon upright on the table, both hands wrapped round the neck.
2. Press down and groan a bit, as if it is hard work.
3. As you press, let the spoon slide down through your hands and tip the bowl forward.
4. Stop, look pleased, and let them see the bent handle.
5. Lift the spoon straight up, hand it over, and let them check it.

Magic words to say

“Metal is only hard if you believe it is. I don't, particularly. Watch. Don't tell whoever washes up.”

Pro tips

• Sit at a table opposite them, not beside them. From the side, the slide is obvious.
• The groaning is the trick. The spoon does nothing, so your face has to do everything.
• Handing the straight spoon over at the end is worth more than the bend was. Let them turn it over.

If something goes wrong

If they catch the slide, hand the spoon over and say "go on then, you try". They cannot, and the trick becomes a puzzle instead of a fib.

Safety notes

• Sit at a table.
• Only from the front.
• No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.

What kind of trick is this?

🌈 Transformation. Something changes into something else. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.

The skill it teaches: Patter: what you say. A trick is a story, not a thing that happens. Perform it and it counts towards the Showstopper badge.

Questions about the bending spoon

What is the easiest magic trick?

The Rubber Pencil. Hold a pencil loosely near one end and wiggle it up and down, and it looks bendy, like rubber. You can learn it in under a minute, and it works the very first try.

What do I need to start doing magic?

Almost nothing. A deck of cards, a coin, a pencil, a rubber band, a paper cup and some paper will get you through dozens of tricks. A wand is fun and completely optional.

More from The Everyday Shelf

• ✏️ The Rubber Pencil Trick (level 1, 1 minute)
• 🪽 The Floating Pencil Trick (level 1, 5 minutes)
• 👻 The Ghost Pencil Trick (level 1, 5 minutes)
• 🎗️ The Jumping Rubber Band Trick (level 2, 15 minutes)
• All 80 magic tricks for kids, the easy ones by age, and how to put on a magic show