🖐️ Eleven Fingers

Eleven Fingers for kids: the whole trick

You tell everybody you have eleven fingers. They count your fingers and get ten. Then you count them, out loud and slowly, and you really do get eleven. It's a level 1 apprentice trick for ages 5 to 9 (grades K–3rd), takes 3 minutes to learn, and needs nothing but your hands. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.

The secret

You count one hand backwards from ten, which ends on six, and then add the five fingers of the other hand. Six and five make eleven, and nobody notices the count was a muddle.

What you need

Nothing at all: this one is done with your hands.

How to do it

1. Say: I have eleven fingers. Hold up both hands and let somebody count them.
2. Say: no, you counted wrong. Let me count them for you.
3. Touch the fingers of one hand, counting backwards: ten, nine, eight, seven, six.
4. Hold up your other hand and say: and five on this hand.
5. Say slowly: six and five make… eleven! Then wiggle all your fingers.

Magic words to say

“Most people have ten fingers. I'm a magician, so I got one extra. Don't believe me? I'll prove it.”

Pro tips

• The fast backwards count is the trick. Say it like you've done it a hundred times.
• Pause before "eleven" and look very proud.
• When they work it out, let them do it to somebody else. That's half the fun.

If something goes wrong

If they shout "that's not fair!", agree: "magicians never play fair". Then count their fingers and give them eleven too.

Safety notes

• 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?

🎩 Production. Something appears out of nowhere. 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: Patter: what you say. A trick is a story, not a thing that happens. Perform it and it counts towards the Showstopper badge.

Questions about eleven fingers

Can you do magic with no props?

Yes, and those are the handiest tricks you can own, because you always have them with you. Number tricks need nothing but your voice, and some illusions need only your hands.

What do you say during a magic trick?

The words a magician says are called patter. Good patter tells a small story, asks the audience to help, and then goes completely quiet for one second at the magic moment. Every trick in this shop has magic words to say that you can copy or change.

More from The Everyday Shelf

• ✏️ The Rubber Pencil Trick (level 1, 1 minute)
• 🪽 The Floating Pencil Trick (level 1, 5 minutes)
• 👻 The Ghost Pencil Trick (level 1, 5 minutes)
• 🎗️ The Jumping Rubber Band Trick (level 2, 15 minutes)
• All 80 magic tricks for kids, the easy ones by age, and how to put on a magic show