Magic tricks with rubber bands and string
5 tricks you can do with a rubber band or a piece of string. Start with these three.
Checked against the shop on · Flick 🐰 · Not sure? Pick me a trick
About these tricks
A rubber band and a piece of string are the two props that fit in any pocket, which makes these the tricks to have ready on a bus or at a friend's house. A band can jump from two fingers to the other two, a string can tie itself in a knot in the air, and a cut string can come back whole.
Never put a band or a string round anybody's neck, and don't stretch a band towards a face: the trick pages say so too. The knot and the jumping band are the ones to learn first. The cut-and-restored string is a Wizard trick, because the secret is a switch done in plain sight, and a switch takes a few days of practice.
By level, 1 Apprentice (works the first try), 3 Conjurer (a little practice) and 1 Wizard (days of practice). They come off 2 shelves of the shop, most from The Paper and String Drawer (3) and The Everyday Shelf (2). What you need most often: string (3), a rubber band (2). 1 trick has a step a grown-up does (something hot or a bright light), and none uses anything small enough to need the choking note. The quickest to learn is The Instant Knot (5 minutes); the longest is The Cut and Restored String (2 to 4 days).
✏️ The Everyday Shelf (2)
- The Haunted Rubber Band✨ Conjurer · 10 minutes · ages 6 to 11You hook a rubber band over your first two fingers, then lock it down with a second band zigzagged over all four fingertips, so nothing could possibly come off.You need: two rubber bands
- The Jumping Rubber Band✨ Conjurer · 15 minutes · ages 6 to 11A rubber band sits round your first two fingers.You need: a rubber band
📄 The Paper and String Drawer (3)
- The Instant Knot🌟 Apprentice · 5 minutes · ages 6 to 11You challenge your friend to tie a knot in a piece of string while holding one end in each hand, and never letting go.You need: a piece of string or yarn
- The Escape Loops✨ Conjurer · 15 minutes · ages 7 to 12Two people are tied wrist to wrist with their strings looped through each other, like two pairs of handcuffs linked together.You need: two string
- The Cut and Restored String🎩 Wizard · 2 to 4 days · ages 8 to 13You show a long piece of string, cut it in half in the middle, and tie the ends together.You need: two string and kid scissors
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