Medium magic tricks for kids: the Conjurer level

About these tricks

Conjurer tricks need a bit of setting up or ten to twenty minutes of practice: a card placed in the deck before the show, a strip of paper folded the right way, a few rehearsals in a mirror. Nothing here needs a secret move that takes days.

This is the level where a trick turns into a routine, with a start, a middle and a finish, and where the words matter as much as the hands. A child who has performed three Apprentice tricks is ready for these, usually from about seven.

They come off 6 shelves of the shop, most from The Mind Reader's Corner (8) and The Card Cabinet (7). What you need most often: paper (10), cards (7), a coin (6), and 1 trick needs nothing at all. 1 trick has a step a grown-up does (something hot or a bright light), and 7 tricks carry the choking note for brothers and sisters under 4. The quickest to learn is The Haunted Rubber Band (10 minutes); the longest is The Instant Magic Square (20 minutes).