You show four Kings and put them on top of the deck. One by one you push them into different places, the bottom, a third of the way down, two-thirds down and back on top. One cut, and all four Kings are together again in the middle.
✨ Level 2: Conjurer
⏱ 15 minutes to learn
🃏 Cards
🎒 Ages 7+
A bit of setting up, or ten to twenty minutes of practice.
What you need
The secret
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Find the four Kings and two Jacks. Hold them face up in this order: one King, the two Jacks, then the other three Kings.
Most beginner card tricks use a secret "key card" that you know, or a special order the cards are in before you start. Your friend picks a card, the secret quietly leads you to it, and then you reveal it in the most dramatic way you can think of.
What's the best card trick for kids?
The Spelling Bee card trick. You spell out every card from Ace to King, moving one card for each letter, and the right card turns up every single time. It looks impossible and it works entirely by itself.
You show four Kings and put them on top of the deck. One by one you push them into different places, the bottom, a third of the way down, two-thirds down and back on top. One cut, and all four Kings are together again in the middle. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 7 to 13 (grades 2nd–7th), 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
Two of the "Kings" you push into the deck are Jacks hiding behind a real King. The Kings never leave the top and bottom, and one cut brings the bottom King up to meet the other three.
What you need
A deck of cards
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Find the four Kings and two Jacks. Hold them face up in this order: one King, the two Jacks, then the other three Kings.
How to do it
Fan the six cards face up, with the two Jacks hidden exactly behind the second King.
Show the four Kings, square them up, and put all six face down on top of the deck.
Take the top card, let everyone see it is a King, and put it on the bottom.
Take the next card without showing it, and push it in a third of the way down.
Push the next one in two-thirds of the way down, still without showing it.
Show the next card, a real King, and put it back on top.
Say the Kings are lost all through the deck. Cut it once, near the middle.
Spread the cards face up: all four Kings are together in the middle.
Magic words to say
“Kings hate being apart. Watch: one goes to the bottom, one gets lost in here, one in here, one on top. And with one cut… they find each other again.”
Pro tips
Show the first King and the fourth one clearly, and never show the two in between. That contrast is the whole trick.
Jacks are used because they look like Kings. If somebody glimpses one going in, it still looks about right.
Let a friend do the cut if you like. It makes it look even more impossible.
If something goes wrong
If a King turns up away from the others, somebody shuffled. Laugh, say "That one's the shy one", and go on to your next trick.
Safety notes
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?
🔀 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:Misdirection. People look where you look. Perform it and it counts towards the Card Keeper badge.
Questions about gathering the kings
How do you do a card trick?
Most beginner card tricks use a secret "key card" that you know, or a special order the cards are in before you start. Your friend picks a card, the secret quietly leads you to it, and then you reveal it in the most dramatic way you can think of.
What's the best card trick for kids?
The Spelling Bee card trick. You spell out every card from Ace to King, moving one card for each letter, and the right card turns up every single time. It looks impossible and it works entirely by itself.