A New Light And Heavy Box Method

‘Light and Heavy’ is actually a rather wonderful magic effect. Often, the magician will place a box down on the stage or table. With some subtle suggestion and hypnosis (and a great big magnet or locking mechanism), the spectator is unable to lift the box.

There’s something so relatable about it. We’ve all, at some point, wished we could lift something beyond our strength. The idea of being given more strength or having it stripped away is something from the tales we’re told as children.

You learn a lot about a performer by whether they perform light and heavy as stripping away someone’s strength or giving them new strength — allowing them to lift something they never could.

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There’s a trick I came up with as a teen at school. A card is selected and returned to the deck, which is then returned to the box. The spectator either pinches the deck or holds it flat in their hand.

As the magician brings their hands closer to the deck, the spectator will swear that the box is getting lighter and lighter (it really is).

Finally, the magician opens the box to reveal just one card inside — the spectator’s selected card.

You’ll kick yourself when you find out the method. It only works on one person, but it really works. The box genuinely feels like it’s getting lighter.

Okay — here’s the method.

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I was obsessed with elastic band tricks before I left school. It’s because I spent my teenage years bored in class, unable to shuffle cards, but just about allowed to fidget with elastic bands on my wrists.

The method for this light and heavy card box is an elastic band stretching from the box to the magician’s middle finger — gently pulling the box down to create and release the feeling of weight.

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Cut a small slit in the back of a card box. Through this small gap, you will thread a skin-coloured elastic band.

The spectator must pinch the deck or have placed in their wide-stretched hand such that the band runs between their fingers down to yours.

The deck, their hand and their arm act as a blocker stopping them from seeing the method in play. Naturally, the band is completely hidden from the one spectator.

The elastic band wraps around the magician’s middle finger and is held in place at the other end inside the box by a single playing card. The end of the rubber band inside the box is wrapped around a card — this card is a duplicate of the selected card.

The great thing about using a card to hold the band in place is that at the end of the trick, when you remove their card, it automatically releases the band out of the box to be palmed away.

It would look a bit odd if you had one hand randomly placed below theirs for this trick. This is why ‘mirroring’ is crucial. Your other hand should be held above theirs and move towards theirs in time with your other hand.

This motion should look magical, similar to a hand motion in a ‘haunted deck’ performance.