Three cups and three little balls. One by one, each ball travels up through the bottom of a cup and lands on the table. Then you lift the cups at the end and there is something underneath that was never there at all.
🎩 Level 3: Wizard
⏱ 3 to 5 days to learn
✏️ Everyday
🎒 Ages 7+
A real secret move, or a longer routine. Practise over days.
👶 Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.👶 Pom-poms are a choking risk for little ones under 4: use big ones, and pick them all up after.
What you need
The secret
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Set the three cups mouth-down in a row with the extra ball under the middle one, and carry them to the table stacked, never one at a time.
This is the shop's longest routine. Learn the first phase on its own and only add the second when the first needs no thinking.
An easy trick takes five or ten minutes. A trick with a secret move takes a few days of practice. Here's the rule magicians use: practise until you can do it ten times in a row without looking at your hands, and then perform it.
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.
Three cups and three little balls. One by one, each ball travels up through the bottom of a cup and lands on the table. Then you lift the cups at the end and there is something underneath that was never there at all. It's a level 3 wizard trick for ages 7 to 12 (grades 2nd–6th), takes 3 to 5 days to learn, and needs 2 things you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
There is a fourth ball, hidden under the middle cup from the very start. Every time you stack the cups you load it, and every time you lift them you are one ball ahead of what they have counted.
What you need
A paper or plastic cup
Pom-poms, or little balls of paper
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Set the three cups mouth-down in a row with the extra ball under the middle one, and carry them to the table stacked, never one at a time.
This is the shop's longest routine. Learn the first phase on its own and only add the second when the first needs no thinking.
How to do it
Set the three three cups mouth-down in a row, the loaded one in the middle.
Put one four pom-poms on top of the middle cup and stack the other two on it.
Lift the stack and show the ball has gone through. There it is on the table.
Do it again with the second four pom-poms, the same way, in the same order.
Do it a third time, then stop and let them think it is over.
Lift the middle three cups one last time. The extra ball is sitting underneath.
Magic words to say
“Three cups, three balls. Keep your eyes on the middle one. Actually, keep your eyes on all of them. Actually, you know what, it won't help.”
Pro tips
This is the oldest trick there is. Magicians have done it for two thousand years, and the reason is that it gets better the more you do it, not worse.
Learn one phase a day over three or four days. Trying to learn the whole routine in one sitting is how people give up on it.
Count out loud. "One, two, three." If they are counting with you, they are not watching your hands.
Practise in a mirror sitting down, at the height your audience will be.
If something goes wrong
If a load goes wrong, you simply have fewer balls than you planned. Stop one phase early, lift the middle cup, and finish on the extra one. Nobody knows how many phases there were meant to be.
Safety notes
Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.
Pom-poms are a choking risk for little ones under 4: use big ones, and pick them all up after.
Sit at a table.
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?
🔀 Transposition. Something jumps from one place to another. 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:Practise like a pro. Ready means ten times in a row without looking at your hands. Perform it and it counts towards the Showstopper badge.
Questions about easy cups and balls
How long does it take to learn a magic trick?
An easy trick takes five or ten minutes. A trick with a secret move takes a few days of practice. Here's the rule magicians use: practise until you can do it ten times in a row without looking at your hands, and then perform it.
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.