Ask the Magician
Everything kids ask Flick about magic, answered in plain words. Every answer ends with a trick you can go and do about it, which is the only honest way to answer a question about magic.
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.
Try it: ✏️ The Rubber Pencil — The Rubber Pencil uses your own eyes against you.
How do magicians make things disappear?
The thing doesn't really go anywhere. It gets hidden in a hand, a fold of paper, a sleeve or a pocket, or it was never where you thought it was. A magician might pretend to take a coin with one hand while it quietly stays in the other.
Try it: 🪙 The Coin Fold — The Coin Fold makes a coin vanish out of a folded paper packet.
How do magicians read minds?
They don't hear your thoughts. Mind-reading tricks use maths that always lands on the same answer, a secret peek, or a code agreed with a partner beforehand. Magicians who do mind tricks are called mentalists.
Try it: 🔮 The Magic Number 1089 — The Magic Number 1089 predicts an answer before your friend picks a number.
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.
Try it: 🪽 The Floating Pencil — The Floating Pencil sticks to your open hand, and one hidden finger does it.
Is magic real?
Magic tricks aren't superpowers, and that's what makes them amazing. A magician is a performer who uses skill, science and storytelling to make the impossible look like it just happened in front of you. The wonder you feel is completely real, though.
Try it: ⚫ Pepper Scatter — Pepper Scatter looks like a spell and is pure science.
Why don't magicians tell their secrets?
Once you know a secret, the surprise is gone for ever. Magicians keep secrets so every new audience gets to feel amazed, and so the people who invented the tricks keep something of their own. That promise is the heart of the Magician's Code.
Try it: 🃏 The Magic Mind Reader — The Magic Mind Reader is the first secret most magicians ever learn.
What is the easiest magic trick?
The Rubber Pencil. Hold a pencil loosely near one end and wiggle it up and down, and it looks bendy, like rubber. You can learn it in under a minute, and it works the very first try.
Try it: ✏️ The Rubber Pencil — One minute to learn, and you already have the pencil.
What's the best magic trick for beginners?
Pick one that works by itself, so all your attention can go on performing instead of on your hands. Magicians call those self-working tricks. The Magic Mind Reader card trick and the number tricks work every time if you follow the steps.
Try it: 🃏 The Magic Mind Reader — Your friend picks a card, you never see it, and you find it anyway.
How old do you have to be to learn magic?
Kids as young as five can learn simple tricks, especially with a grown-up nearby. By seven or eight, most kids can do card and coin tricks. By about ten, lots of kids are ready for a real secret move and their own magic show.
Try it: 👍 Thumb Off — Thumb Off needs nothing but your hands, and five-year-olds love it.
How long does it take to learn a magic trick?
An easy trick takes five or ten minutes. A trick with a secret move takes a few days of practice. Here's the rule magicians use: practise until you can do it ten times in a row without looking at your hands, and then perform it.
Try it: 3️⃣ The Answer Is Always 3 — The Answer Is Always 3 takes about two minutes, start to finish.
How do you become a magician?
Learn a few easy tricks, practise them in front of a mirror, then perform for your family. Add one new trick a week. Read magic books from the library and watch magicians perform, and when you're older look for a youth magic club. Every famous magician started with one small trick.
Try it: 🃏 The Magic Mind Reader — Start here, then work through Magic School's seven lessons.
What do I need to start doing magic?
Almost nothing. A deck of cards, a coin, a pencil, a rubber band, a paper cup and some paper will get you through dozens of tricks. A wand is fun and completely optional.
Try it: ✏️ The Rubber Pencil — The Everyday Shelf is every trick you can do with things already in the house.
What are some good magic words?
The classics are Abracadabra, Hocus Pocus, Presto, Alakazam and Voilà. You can also make up your own, which is better: a good magic word is fun to say and tells the audience that the magic is arriving right now.
Try it: ✏️ The Rubber Pencil — Every trick page has magic words to say. Change them until they sound like you.
What is sleight of hand?
Sleight of hand means secret moves made with your fingers, like holding a coin in a hand that looks completely empty. "Sleight" is an old word for skill or cleverness. It takes real practice, and it's one of the best feelings in magic.
Try it: 🪙 The Coin Fold — The Coin Fold is the gentlest way into a secret move.
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.
Try it: 😄 The Forehead Coin — The Forehead Coin is misdirection you can feel.
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.
Try it: 🃏 The Magic Mind Reader — This is the key card, and three other tricks here are built on it.
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.
Try it: 🐝 The Spelling Bee — Fifteen minutes to set up, and one of the best finishes in magic.
How do you make a coin disappear?
The easiest way is the Coin Fold: you wrap a coin in paper, let everyone feel that it's still in there, and while you fold, the coin quietly slides out into your hand. Then you tear the paper up and it's gone.
Try it: 🪙 The Coin Fold — Fifteen minutes, one coin and a square of paper.
What do you say during a magic trick?
The words a magician says are called patter. Good patter tells a small story, asks the audience to help, and then goes completely quiet for one second at the magic moment. Every trick in this shop has magic words to say that you can copy or change.
Try it: ✏️ The Rubber Pencil — Try the Rubber Pencil's words, then write three sentences of your own.
What if my magic trick goes wrong?
It happens to every magician there has ever been. Stay calm and smile. Lots of tricks have an "out", a way to finish anyway, and every trick page here has one. If there's no way back, laugh, say "even wizards have off days", and go straight into a different trick.
Try it: 🤔 Which Hand? — Which Hand? is an honest guess, so it comes with the best out in the shop.
How do I stop being nervous when I perform?
Practise until the trick feels boring to you; that's the moment it's ready. Then start with a tiny audience, like a pet or a stuffed animal, then one person in your family. Take a breath, speak slowly and smile, and the nerves turn into excitement.
Try it: 👍 Thumb Off — Start with a trick you cannot get wrong, and perform it to a teddy.
How do I put on a magic show?
Pick four to six tricks you know really well. Open with something quick and visual, put a trick with a helper in the middle, give the whole room something to join in with, and finish on your very best one. Then bow and stop. Ten to fifteen minutes is a whole show.
Try it: 🐝 The Spelling Bee — This is a closer. Build the rest of the show around it.
What is the Magician's Code?
It's the promise magicians make each other: keep the secret, practise before you perform, and never do the same trick twice for the same audience. We add a fourth one in this shop: always be kind to your helpers.
Try it: 🃏 The Magic Mind Reader — Learn one trick properly, and you've already kept half the Code.
Who is the most famous magician?
Harry Houdini is probably the most famous magician who ever lived. He was an escape artist, famous for getting out of handcuffs, locks, chains and jail cells. Plenty of magicians since have been household names, but Houdini is the one whose name became a word.
Try it: 🪢 The Instant Knot — The Instant Knot is a rope puzzle nobody else can solve.
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.
Try it: 🪢 The Instant Knot — Houdini practised escapes for hours a day. Start with a knot nobody can copy.
Are magic kits worth it?
A magic kit can be good fun, especially one with clear instructions. But you don't need one to start: every trick in this shop uses things that are already in your house. Learn a few of these first, and if you still love it, a kit or a magic book from the library is a brilliant next step.
Try it: ✏️ The Rubber Pencil — Nothing in this shop costs anything. Start with a pencil.
Can kids be magicians?
Yes. Plenty of professional magicians started as kids, and lots of kids perform at birthday parties, talent shows and school assemblies. You become a magician the moment you perform your first trick for somebody else.
Try it: 👍 Thumb Off — Perform one trick for one person today, and that's it: you're a magician.
How many magic tricks are there?
Thousands. But almost every one of them is built from just eight ideas: making something vanish, making something appear, changing it, moving it, floating it, passing it through something solid, mending it, or knowing the answer in advance. Once you can spot the eight, you can see how any trick is put together.
Try it: 🚪 Walk Through a Paper — Walk Through a Paper is penetration: solid, until it isn't.
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.
Try it: 3️⃣ The Answer Is Always 3 — The Answer Is Always 3 needs no props at all. Not even paper.
Are there magic tricks with a calculator or phone?
Yes. The Calculator Prediction fills a whole screen with your friend's favourite digit, nine times over, after a single multiplication. Any calculator works, including the app on a grown-up's phone.
Try it: 🧮 The Calculator Prediction — Three minutes, and the maths does all of it.
Asked by families
More questions families search for, answered by us, each with the day it was answered and a trick to try. There is no form to post a question: these come from what people type into search.
What magic tricks can you do with just your hands?
Quite a few. Your thumb can come off and go back on, a finger can stretch, and you can count to eleven on ten fingers. Number tricks need only your voice. They're the tricks to keep for a car or a queue.
Answered
Try it: 👍 Thumb Off — Thumb Off takes five minutes and works anywhere.
Which magic tricks need an assistant?
Any trick where somebody chooses a card, holds a coin or thinks of a number. Magicians call that person a volunteer. Ask nicely, use their name, and let them take the clap first. Never make a helper look silly.
Answered
Try it: 🔢 The 21 Card Trick — The 21 Card Trick needs one helper and works every time.
What's a good magic trick for a talent show?
Pick something big enough to see from the back of the hall that doesn't need a table. Something that floats, vanishes or goes through a solid thing works well. Do three tricks at most, and practise the whole act out loud five times.
Answered
Try it: 🚪 Walk Through a Paper — Walking through a sheet of paper is a closer people remember.
What magic tricks can I do at school?
The quiet ones: card tricks, number tricks and tricks with a pencil or a sheet of paper. Ask your teacher first, and save anything with water for home. A number trick can be done for the whole class at once.
Answered
Try it: 🔮 The Magic Number 1089 — The Magic Number 1089 works for a whole class on paper.
How do you do a magic trick with a rubber band?
The classic is the jumping band: it hops from two of your fingers to the other two when you open your hand. The secret happens as you make a fist, and nobody sees it. Never stretch a band towards anybody's face.
Answered
Try it: 🎗️ The Jumping Rubber Band — The Jumping Rubber Band takes about fifteen minutes to learn.
What magic tricks can you do with paper?
Lots. Roll a sheet into a tube so a friend sees a hole in their own hand, link two paperclips with a fold, or cut a sheet so you can step through it. Plain paper and a pencil cover most of them. Cutting is a step to ask a grown-up about.
Answered
Try it: 🕳️ The Hole in Your Hand — The Hole in Your Hand needs one sheet of paper.
Are there magic tricks that use maths?
Yes, and they're the ones that never go wrong, because the sum always lands in the same place. Think of a number, the 1089 trick, the secret number cards and the calendar tricks are all maths dressed up as mind reading.
Answered
Try it: 🗂️ The Secret Number Cards — The Secret Number Cards find any number from 1 to 60.
Can you do a magic trick online?
Yes. On Peabody, Flick can read your mind on the screen: think of a card or a number, tap three boxes, and Flick finds it. Then Flick shows you the secret so you can do the same trick to somebody at home.
Answered
Try it: 🔢 The 21 Card Trick — The Mind-Reading Machine does the 21 Card Trick on you first.
How do you make up your own magic trick?
Start with a trick you know and change the story, not the secret. Swap the card for a picture, the coin for a button, or the words for your own. Most magicians' new tricks are old secrets told a new way.
Answered
Try it: 🃏 The Magic Mind Reader — The Key Card Trick is the easiest secret to dress up your own way.
How should I practise a magic trick?
Slowly first, then at normal speed, then out loud with the words. Practise in a mirror so you see what the audience sees. Show a pet or a teddy before a person, and stop when it's boring for you: that's when it's ready.
Answered
Try it: 🪽 The Floating Pencil — The Floating Pencil is a good one to practise in a mirror.
More: all the tricks in the shop, Magic School's seven lessons, how to put on a magic show, and how to do magic tricks, from the beginning.