You hook a rubber band over your first two fingers, then lock it down with a second band zigzagged over all four fingertips, so nothing could possibly come off. You say a word. The first band jumps across to the other two fingers, still locked under the cage.
✨ Level 2: Conjurer
⏱ 10 minutes to learn
✏️ Everyday
🎒 Ages 6+
A bit of setting up, or ten to twenty minutes of practice.
What you need
The secret
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Take the hem of your sleeve out of the way: this is a trick about fingers, and a cuff hides the one moment that matters.
Misdirection is deciding where people look. If you look at your right hand, your audience looks there too, and your left hand can do the secret. A question or a joke at the right moment moves attention just as well as a big gesture.
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.
You hook a rubber band over your first two fingers, then lock it down with a second band zigzagged over all four fingertips, so nothing could possibly come off. You say a word. The first band jumps across to the other two fingers, still locked under the cage. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 6 to 11 (grades 1st–5th), takes 10 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
When you close your fist, you quietly slip all four fingertips inside the first band. Opening your hand lets it snap onto whichever two fingers you choose. The cage never moves, and it never has to.
What you need
A rubber band
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Take the hem of your sleeve out of the way: this is a trick about fingers, and a cuff hides the one moment that matters.
How to do it
Hook two rubber bands over your first two fingers, with the back of your hand to them.
Zigzag the second band over all four fingertips, like a little cage.
Show both sides. Let them tug the cage. Nothing is coming off.
Close your hand into a fist, and as you do, slide all four fingertips inside the first band.
Open your hand. The band has jumped to the other two fingers.
Magic words to say
“This band is haunted. I locked it down with a cage, see? Nothing in, nothing out. But it doesn't like being told what to do. Watch where it goes when I say boo.”
Pro tips
Practise in a mirror until the fingertips go in without you looking at them. The moment your eyes drop to your hand, so do theirs.
The cage band does nothing at all. That is why you let them pull on it: it proves the wrong thing, which is exactly what you want.
Do it twice, and send the band back the second time. Twice is a haunting; three times is a lesson.
If something goes wrong
If the band only half jumps, close your fist again, say "not yet", and open it properly. A second try reads as part of the haunting.
Safety notes
Practise in a mirror.
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:Misdirection. People look where you look. Perform it and it counts towards the Showstopper badge.
Questions about the haunted rubber band
What is misdirection?
Misdirection is deciding where people look. If you look at your right hand, your audience looks there too, and your left hand can do the secret. A question or a joke at the right moment moves attention just as well as a big gesture.
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.