7 Magic Trick Ideas For Magicians

Seven years ago, I was due to fly to the UK to start work on a new TV magic project when it was cancelled last minute. Suddenly, I had a three-month window with no work or income. I decided to quickly write a magic book for magicians with ideas I would usually sell to TV magicians.

In a rush, I compiled ideas from my iPhone notes. Andi Gladwin was smart enough to tell me there needed to be 100 ideas – not 50. Geraint Clarke was the clever guy who said I needed to add an intro sharing how magicians can be more unique.

The book was called Only Ideas: Your How-to Guide to Creating Magic + 100 Ideas to Get You Started. I decided to self-publish, and the dream was to sell 50 copies and cover at least one month of London rent.

I sold 1,700 copies in the first year.

I was in shock.

There's actually a video on my phone of my Brother and I reacting to the first twenty orders coming in, and I already sound so excited.

The process taught me that I could generate my own value and not always rely on others. I learned to trust my instincts/taste and embrace what makes me, well, me. The idea that people might buy a book that only included ideas seemed unlikely, but I knew it was a book I would have bought. This was life-changing for me.

I started to say no more often to projects, and I started to invest in myself more and more, like with this newsletter or my party game.

Magicians keep asking for a reprint of Only Ideas, and many more want the unreleased sequel (Only Methods). But the frustrating truth is that a pocketbook like this can only be priced at less than $20, and at that level, it's very hard to make it work without selling at scale via Murphy's (the big magic supplier), and I certainly don't want to do that again.

Below are seven new ideas for you to enjoy for the time being.

Oh, and yes – this is pretty much what TV magicians pay me to do...

Brain Freeze

Mind reading is easy, so let's make it hard and read your mind while giving yourself a brain freeze. I unwrap and chomp down on an ice cream on a stick – making myself wince in pain as I try to read your mind at the same time. And the end of the trick, there's a prediction on the ice cream stick that is bang on.

Monopoly Dice

I place a small object into your closed hand. Then I ask you to roll a Monopoly die with the other hand as I look away. When you're happy with your roll, I ask you to think of different monopoly pieces for each number you could have rolled. The piece you end up with is the one I placed in your hand.

I'm using an electronic method to know the number you rolled and then forcing it: "If you rolled one, think of the tiny horse; if you rolled two, think of the top hat."

Dictionary Definition

After performing a book test with a though-of-word named correctly, you ask the spectator to look up the definition in a nearby dictionary. The dictionary definition reads as you'd expect, but with something extra at the end: "...and is also the most common word spectators choose during mind reading performances."

You've made a fake dictionary, and all of the long words in your book test book have this added to their definitions. The words are not close to one another in the dictionary, so it remains fooling.

$100,000 Cash Prize

You bet someone $100,000 that you can read their mind and know exactly which famous person they are thinking of. You even open the briefcase and show them the cash. You guess wrong – oh no! – and you're about to hand over the cash when you admit that all of the cash is fake – and it's obviously fake because all of the cash has their chosen celebrity printed on it instead of Benjamin Franklin.

Bottle in Coin

First, you perform coin in a bottle, and then you place the bottle inside a brown paper bag with the neck of the bottle showing out the top. Finally, squeeze the brown paper bag until it appears as if the bottle has shrunk down to a tiny size. You open the bag and see the King engraved on the coin now holds a small bottle.

Apple Watch Shell

Some people prefer Apple Watches, but I just can't ever like them more than an analogue watch. You wave your hand over the spectator's watch, and their Apple Watch becomes a vintage timepiece.

To do this, create a shimmed Apple Watch shell that can be placed over an analogue watch face, which is on a leather-looking band. Find a spectator with a similar Apple Watch, and ask them to take it off to show to the camera; when you return it to their wrist, switch it for the gimmick. Find a spectator with a similar Apple Watch, and ask them to take it off to show to the camera; when you return it to their wrist, switch it for the gimmick.

Mouse Trap

Place a loaded mouse trap on the ground and then sprint a deck of cards towards it. The card the spectator chose at random ends up trapped inside the mouse trap.

To do this, build a reel inside a mouse trap connected to a playing card that matches your force card. This duplicate will hide beneath the trap itself and will be pulled up and into the trap when the force from the trap setting off lifts it into the air. You'll need to play with the strength of the trap and be careful.

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I hope you're happy.