You wrap a toothpick in a napkin and hand it to somebody to snap. They feel it break: everyone hears the crack. You shake the napkin out and the toothpick falls on the table, whole.
✨ Level 2: Conjurer
⏱ 15 minutes to learn
✏️ Everyday
🎒 Ages 7+
A bit of setting up, or ten to twenty minutes of practice.
📌 Pointy! Ask a grown-up to snip the sharp ends off before you start.✂️ Cutting! Ask a grown-up to help, and cut only paper, card or string.👶 Toothpicks are pointy and small: a grown-up snips the ends off, and little ones under 4 never hold one.
What you need
The secret
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Slide the spare toothpick into the hem of the napkin before the show and remember which corner it is in.
Snap the hidden one at home once to check it breaks with a good loud crack.
It happens to every magician there has ever been. Stay calm and smile. Lots of tricks have an "out", a way to finish anyway, and every trick page here has one. If there's no way back, laugh, say "even wizards have off days", and go straight into a different trick.
What is sleight of hand?
Sleight of hand means secret moves made with your fingers, like holding a coin in a hand that looks completely empty. "Sleight" is an old word for skill or cleverness. It takes real practice, and it's one of the best feelings in magic.
The Broken Toothpick Restored for kids: the whole trick
You wrap a toothpick in a napkin and hand it to somebody to snap. They feel it break: everyone hears the crack. You shake the napkin out and the toothpick falls on the table, whole. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 7 to 11 (grades 2nd–5th), takes 15 minutes to learn, and needs 3 things you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone, and one step is marked for a grown-up.
The secret
A second toothpick is hidden in the hem of the napkin. That is the one they break. The one they saw you wrap was never touched.
What you need
A cloth napkin or handkerchief with a hem
A wooden toothpick
Kid scissors
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Slide the spare toothpick into the hem of the napkin before the show and remember which corner it is in.
Snap the hidden one at home once to check it breaks with a good loud crack.
How to do it
Grown-up step: Ask a grown-up to snip the sharp ends off both two toothpicks, and to work one into the hem of the napkin.
Lay the napkin flat and put the loose two toothpicks in the middle, where everyone can see it.
Fold the napkin over it twice, keeping the hem corner under your fingers.
Hold the hem through the cloth and ask somebody to snap it.
Say the magic word, shake the napkin out, and let the whole two toothpicks drop on the table.
Magic words to say
“Go on, break it. Properly, I don't mind. Did everybody hear that? Good, because I'm going to need you all as witnesses in a moment.”
Pro tips
The crack is the trick. Make sure the room is quiet before you ask them to snap it, and look at their hands when they do.
Fold the napkin the same way every single time you practise. The one thing that goes wrong is losing track of which corner the hem is in.
Put the napkin in your pocket afterwards rather than leaving it on the table, and nobody ever finds the pieces.
If something goes wrong
If the wrong one breaks, open the napkin, look shocked, and say "well, that's never happened before". Then do another trick. Never open the hem.
Safety notes
Pointy! Ask a grown-up to snip the sharp ends off before you start.
Cutting! Ask a grown-up to help, and cut only paper, card or string.
Toothpicks are pointy and small: a grown-up snips the ends off, and little ones under 4 never hold one.
Only from the front.
Practise in a mirror.
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?
🩹 Restoration. Something broken is whole again. 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:Outs: when things go wrong. Have a joke ready and a spare trick in your pocket. Perform it and it counts towards the Showstopper badge.
Questions about the broken toothpick restored
What if my magic trick goes wrong?
It happens to every magician there has ever been. Stay calm and smile. Lots of tricks have an "out", a way to finish anyway, and every trick page here has one. If there's no way back, laugh, say "even wizards have off days", and go straight into a different trick.
What is sleight of hand?
Sleight of hand means secret moves made with your fingers, like holding a coin in a hand that looks completely empty. "Sleight" is an old word for skill or cleverness. It takes real practice, and it's one of the best feelings in magic.