⛓️ The Escape Loops

The Escape Loops for kids: the whole trick

Two people are tied wrist to wrist with their strings looped through each other, like two pairs of handcuffs linked together. However they climb over and under, they cannot get apart. Then you show them how, and they come free without untying a single knot. 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

Push the middle of your string through the loop round your partner's wrist, pass it over their hand, and you are free. The strings only look linked: there is a way between them the whole time.

What you need

• A piece of string or yarn

How to do it

1. Tie the ends of one two string round your own wrists, loosely.
2. Loop the second two string through yours before your partner ties it on.
3. Let everyone try to get you apart. They cannot.
4. Take the middle of your two string and push it under the loop round their wrist.
5. Pass that loop over their hand and pull. You come apart.

Magic words to say

“Great escape artists got out of handcuffs, out of boxes, out of a tank of water. All I'm asking you to get out of is a bit of string, and I don't think you can.”

Pro tips

• Let them struggle for a good two minutes first. The escape is only impressive next to how stuck they were.
• Teach them the move afterwards and let them catch somebody else out. This is the one trick in the shop worth giving away.
• Loose knots, always. If a wrist goes red, stop and untie it.

If something goes wrong

If the move will not go, check the loop is going under their wrist string and not over it. There is no other way for it to fail.

Safety notes

• Needs a helper.
• 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?

⭕ Penetration. Something passes through something solid. 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: Working with helpers. A helper should walk away feeling brilliant. Perform it and it counts towards the Paper Wizard badge.

Questions about the escape loops

Who was Houdini?

Harry Houdini was an escape artist and magician, born Erik Weisz in Budapest on 24 March 1874 and brought up in the United States. He escaped from handcuffs, jail cells and a locked milk can, and he spent years showing that fake fortune tellers were tricking people. He died on Halloween, 31 October 1926.

How do magicians do their tricks?

Magicians use secrets. Some secrets are hidden objects, some are special ways of holding things, and some are clever maths. The biggest secret of all is attention: a magician gets you to look at one thing while the secret happens somewhere else. Then they practise until it looks like nothing at all.

More from The Paper and String Drawer

• 🕳️ The Hole in Your Hand Illusion (level 1, 1 minute)
• 📎 The Linking Paper Clips (level 1, 2 minutes)
• 🪢 The Instant Knot (level 1, 5 minutes)
• 🚪 Walk Through a Piece of Paper (level 2, 15 minutes)
• All 80 magic tricks for kids, the easy ones by age, and how to put on a magic show