Magic tricks for a talent show

About these tricks

A talent show is a hard stage: the audience is far away, the lights are bright and you get one go. These tricks are chosen by rule for that. Each one is big enough to see from the back of a hall, none needs a table, the dark or a grown-up's step, and none takes days of practice, so a child can be ready in a week.

Pick three, not ten: an opener that happens before anybody has settled, one where something floats or vanishes, and the strongest last. Practise the whole act out loud five times, then once in front of the family with the lights on. The show builder puts them in order, and the printables page has a poster for the door.

By level, 13 Apprentice (works the first try) and 3 Conjurer (a little practice). They come off 6 shelves of the shop, most from The Everyday Shelf (5) and The Paper and String Drawer (4). What you need most often: paper (4), a coin (3), a pencil (2), and 3 tricks need nothing at all. None has a step only a grown-up can do, and 3 tricks carry the choking note for brothers and sisters under 4. The quickest to learn is The Rubber Pencil (1 minute); the longest is The Escape Loops (15 minutes).