Magic guides
Magic guides for kids and grown-ups
- How to learn a magic trick in one eveningThe Apprentice method for kids: watch the pictures twice, do it slowly, say the words, then show one person. One trick, one evening, with Flick.
- Your first magic show at homeTen minutes, four tricks and a chair for the audience: how a child puts on a first magic show at home, in the order magicians use, from Peabody's Magic Shop.
- Magic for a birthday party, by the host's ageWhich magic show a child can perform at their own birthday party at 5, 7, 9 or 11, how long a room of children lasts, and the tricks that work for a crowd.
- The Magician's Code, for kidsThe Magician's Code for kids in five promises: keep the secret, practise first, never repeat a trick, never make a helper look silly, never say it's real.
- What to do when a trick goes wrongEvery magician has tricks go wrong. How kids can use an out: finish anyway, make a joke, or move on, with the honest guessing trick Which Hand? as the example.
- Magic with a little brother or sister in the roomWhich magic tricks have small parts and which don't, what the choking notes in the Magic Shop mean, and the tricks to choose when a toddler is at the table.
- Magic tricks for a car journeyMagic tricks kids can do in the back seat with no props and nothing to drop: hand tricks and mind-reading tricks that run on arithmetic.
- Maths hiding in magicThe maths inside the Magic Shop's mind-reading tricks: 1089 is place value, the secret number cards are binary, the calendar trick is the nine times table.
- Science hiding in magicThe real science behind the Potion Lab's tricks: surface tension, light bending through water, fluorescence, air pressure and colour-changing dyes.
- Magic for the classroom: a five-minute brain breakThree magic tricks a teacher can do with a whiteboard marker in five minutes, each with the maths behind it, from Peabody's free Magic Shop.
- From Apprentice to Wizard: the ladderFrom easy to hard magic tricks: what changes at each level, from Apprentice tricks that work the first try to Wizard sleights that take days.
- Famous magicians, for kidsEight famous magicians for kids, from a clockmaker who found magic by mistake to the man who fooled Houdini, each with a true story and a trick to try.
- Which magic kit? An honest guide for grown-upsWhat a magic kit for kids really holds, what reviews complain about, what to look for before you buy, and how far a child gets with no kit at all.
- How to practise a magic trick, and how to rehearse a showHow kids should practise a magic trick (slowly, in a mirror, ten times without looking) and how rehearsing a whole show is different. With Flick as the audience.
- Stage fright: performing your first magic trickNervous about showing a magic trick? Pick a trick you can't get wrong, practise till it's boring, start with a teddy, and have an out ready. A kid's guide.
Who the guides are for
The guides are for the grown-up reading along, and for older children who want more than the steps. Every list in them is drawn from the shop's own tricks, so a guide never points at a trick that isn't on a shelf. For a trick tonight, Pick me a trick is quicker; for the safety rules in one place, see the page for parents and teachers.