You rub a coin into your elbow to make it disappear, and it drops on the table instead. You pick it up and try again, and it drops again. On the third go it really does vanish, and both hands are empty.
✨ Level 2: Conjurer
⏱ 15 minutes to learn
🪙 Coins
🎒 Ages 7+
A bit of setting up, or ten to twenty minutes of practice.
👶 Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.👶 Coins are a choking risk for little ones under 4: keep them off the floor and out of small hands.
The easiest way is the Coin Fold: you wrap a coin in paper, let everyone feel that it's still in there, and while you fold, the coin quietly slides out into your hand. Then you tear the paper up and it's gone.
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.
You rub a coin into your elbow to make it disappear, and it drops on the table instead. You pick it up and try again, and it drops again. On the third go it really does vanish, and both hands are empty. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 7 to 12 (grades 2nd–6th), takes 15 minutes to learn, and needs one thing you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
The first two goes are meant to fail, and they teach everyone what to look for. On the third you pick the coin up with your other hand and quietly drop it down your collar as you reach for your elbow.
What you need
A coin
How to do it
Rub the coin into your elbow and let it drop on the table. Look annoyed.
Pick the coin up with your other hand, pass it back, and try again.
Drop the coin again. Let everyone sigh at you.
Pick it up with the other hand and reach for your elbow, dropping the coin down your collar.
Rub your elbow with the empty hand, then show both hands. It has gone.
Magic words to say
“Right. Everybody knows you can rub a coin into your elbow, yes? No? Well, you can. It's just quite hard. Watch. ...Hang on. Let me try that again.”
Pro tips
Dropping it twice on purpose is the trick, and beginners always want to skip it. Do not skip it: the failures are what make the third go invisible.
Be genuinely annoyed the first two times. The better you are at looking like it is going wrong, the better this plays.
Wear a shirt with a collar. It sounds obvious and it is the one thing people forget.
If something goes wrong
If the coin misses your collar, carry on rubbing and say "third time lucky" when it lands. Then pick it up and do the Vanishing Coin instead.
Safety notes
Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.
Coins are a choking risk for little ones under 4: keep them off the floor and out of small hands.
Sit at a table.
Only from the front.
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?
💨 Vanish. Something disappears. 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 Coin Conjurer badge.
Questions about the elbow vanish
How do you make a coin disappear?
The easiest way is the Coin Fold: you wrap a coin in paper, let everyone feel that it's still in there, and while you fold, the coin quietly slides out into your hand. Then you tear the paper up and it's gone.
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.