You rub your hands together to charge them with ghost power. Then you turn one hand palm-down and a pencil hangs there, stuck to your empty hand. You pull it off and throw it over for somebody to check.
🌟 Level 1: Apprentice
⏱ 5 minutes to learn
✏️ Everyday
🎒 Ages 5+
Works by itself, or one simple move. It works the first try.
What you need
The secret
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Put a watch, a hair tie or a bracelet on the wrist you want to use.
Slide the short pencil under the band on the palm side, pointing up towards your fingers.
Keep that palm turned towards you until the trick starts. Long sleeves help.
On a big stage, floating uses hidden supports, careful lighting and angles that stop you seeing what's holding the weight. Close up, it's usually a finger or a thumb you can't see from the front. That's why a floating trick works from one direction and gives itself away from the side.
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.
You rub your hands together to charge them with ghost power. Then you turn one hand palm-down and a pencil hangs there, stuck to your empty hand. You pull it off and throw it over for somebody to check. It's a level 1 apprentice trick for ages 5 to 10 (grades K–4th), takes 5 minutes to learn, and needs 3 things you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
A short pencil is tucked under the band of your watch or hair tie, lying across your palm. It holds the real pencil against your hand, and nobody ever looks at a wrist.
What you need
A wooden pencil
A short unsharpened pencil, or a craft stick
A watch, hair tie or bracelet
Get ready, before anybody is watching
Put a watch, a hair tie or a bracelet on the wrist you want to use.
Slide the short pencil under the band on the palm side, pointing up towards your fingers.
Keep that palm turned towards you until the trick starts. Long sleeves help.
How to do it
Keep your palm turned towards you so nobody sees the short pencil under the band.
Rub your hands together and tell everyone you're charging them up.
Slide the pencil across your palm, under the tip of the hidden one.
Turn your hand slowly over, palm down. The pencil hangs on.
Give it a little shake, like something is holding it from underneath.
Grab the pencil with your other hand and toss it over to be checked.
Magic words to say
“Ghosts love pencils. It's how they write their spooky letters. Ghost, if you're in here, hold on tight… and don't let go until I say.”
Pro tips
Keep your audience in front of you. From the side the wrist gives it away at once.
Say "nothing in my hand" rather than showing the back of it; a real magician never over-proves.
This is the best Halloween trick in the shop. Do it with the lights low.
If something goes wrong
If the pencil drops, catch it and say the ghost got bored. Then do it again straight away: a ghost that keeps trying is funnier than one that works first time.
Safety notes
Use a short unsharpened pencil or a wooden craft stick as the hidden piece, never a sharpened one.
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?
🪽 Levitation. Something floats. 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 ghost pencil trick
How do magicians make things float?
On a big stage, floating uses hidden supports, careful lighting and angles that stop you seeing what's holding the weight. Close up, it's usually a finger or a thumb you can't see from the front. That's why a floating trick works from one direction and gives itself away from the side.
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.