🚪 Walk Through a Paper

Walk Through a Piece of Paper for kids: the whole trick

You hold up an index card, the kind that would barely cover your hand, and say you can walk through it. Everybody laughs. You make a few cuts, open it out into an enormous ring, and step through the middle. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 7 to 12 (grades 2nd–6th), takes 15 minutes to learn, and needs 2 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 zigzag of cuts turns a small card into one very long, very thin loop. No paper is added and none is taken away: it's the same card, just rearranged.

What you need

• An index card, or a sheet of paper
• Kid scissors

How to do it

1. Hold up the index card and say you can walk through it. Wait for the laughing.
2. Fold the card in half, the long way.
3. From the folded edge, cut a slit across, stopping just before the open edge.
4. Move along a little and cut from the open edge towards the fold, stopping short again.
5. Keep alternating all along the card. The first and last cuts both start at the fold.
6. Now cut along the fold itself, but leave the very first and last sections joined.
7. Open it out, very carefully. It's a huge ring.
8. Step through the middle, then take your bow.

Magic words to say

“I can walk through this card. Don't believe me? Watch very carefully, because it only works once per card. Abracadabra-snip-snip!”

Pro tips

• The thinner your cuts, the bigger the ring. Twice as many cuts makes a ring twice as long.
• A whole sheet of paper makes a ring big enough for a grown-up, which is a good way to end a show.
• Practise on three or four cards first. Then do the real one slowly, in front of everybody, so they can see nothing is added.

If something goes wrong

If the ring tears open, hold the two halves up and say the magic was too strong for the paper. Then do it again with a fresh card and thinner cuts, because the second one always comes out better.

Safety notes

• Cutting! Ask a grown-up to help, and cut only paper, card or string.
• 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: The big finish. End on your best one, then stop. Perform it and it counts towards the Paper Wizard badge.

Questions about walk through a piece of paper

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.

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.

More from The Paper and String Drawer

• 🕳️ The Hole in Your Hand Illusion (level 1, 1 minute)
• 📎 The Linking Paper Clips (level 1, 2 minutes)
• 🪢 The Instant Knot (level 1, 5 minutes)
• 🧻 The Torn and Restored Napkin (level 3, 2 to 4 days)
• All 80 magic tricks for kids, the easy ones by age, and how to put on a magic show