The Best Underperformed Magic Trick

Let’s look at one of the best and most underperformed tricks in magic. It has some surprisingly ingenious methods. And yet, hardly anyone performs it today. Why not? Well, we’ll look at that too.

Uncomercialised = Underperformed

In almost every TV project I work on, the magician will ask me if I know of any underrated or underperformed magic tricks. It’s a smart question; they know it’s easier to perform a proven trick than to try to reinvent the wheel. But they’re hesitant to perform a trick that’s been performed to death, so you’re forced to rack your brains for a trick no one is performing.

The answer is tough to approach until you switch the wording a lot.

Instead of asking, “What’s a great underperformed magic trick?”

Ask, “What is a great uncommercialised magic trick?"

Most magicians are lazy and only buy the newest hyped-up tricks. There’s nothing wrong with it if magic is your hobby. If magic is more than a hobby, it’s maybe a bit embarrassing.

Ashes on Palm was a terrific trick, and it still is. But the routine has now been commercialised in the form of Double Cross. This might not stop you from performing it, but the commercialisation of the routine is what’s taken it from being an underperformed trick to one many people perform.

Then there’s the Time Machine effect. For fifteen years, this trick was completely uncommercialised. Then The Turner Watch was a best-seller, and suddenly, there was an entirely new market of time machine watches from the likes of Joao Miranda and others.

Same for tricks like Color Match — do you remember seeing Willman perform it on Ellen? Now there are so many colour-match products, and though it makes me cry inside, everyone performs Willman’s original Color Match routine.

So, what great trick can you not easily buy in a magic shop?

Any Drink Called For

I really think about three memories when it comes to Any Drink Called For.

I read about Steve Cohen performing his version in New York as a teen. The marketing and branding for Cohen are spectacular. You’ll often see this line online “Steve Cohen is sometimes called The Millionaire’s Magician.” I can’t find anyone who’s actually called him that, but it’s stuck.

My teenage brain was enamoured with the stories of Cohen’s private show at the top of a fancy New York hotel. The tales of his teapot that could pour any drink captured my imagination. It’s a wish fulfilment effect at its very best. You can have any drink you want — it’s something we can relate to. There’s definitely been a time in everyone’s life when you wanted a specific drink that wasn’t available. The colours, the liquid, the taste, it’s just such a fascinating effect.

I’d seen Pete Firman performing a version of the effect on telly, but it wasn’t until I attended The Session convention a decade ago that I saw it in real life. It blew everyone’s minds. In fact, it was only a few weeks ago when a friend who was at that convention brought it up again. The performer had random audience members name drinks, and then he’d just pour it from a metal teapot into a cup.

Then, when I was working on The Next Great Magician, I saw Barry and Stuart perform their version of the effect for the first time. Many random drinks and ingredients get poured into a huge punch bowl during their performance. Then, Barry dives his head into the mix of liquids, and when he returns, he spouts out any drink called for.

Seeing them perform was a highlight of my career for many weird reasons. It was the first time I met Stuart, a brilliant man I’ve worked with since on Magic For Humans. It was also the first time I met Andrew O’Connor, who I’d only worked with over Zoom before then.

It was just Barry & Stuart performing a brand new effect for Me, Andrew O’Connor and Andy Nyman. It was mental.

I’d grown up watching Barry & Stuart, and AOC and Nyman co-wrote and directed all the Derren shows I’d grown up watching, too.

I suppose the other thing that made it memorable was that we were in a sex dungeon. Yep, a sex dungeon.

We also had to rehearse a trick that day that needed to be rigged to the ceiling. Without telling us, the production company had booked the cheapest London studio that had the ability and insurance to rig people hanging from the ceiling — an east London sex dungeon-themed studio.

So there I was, watching Barry & Stuart performing a miracle, to two industry titans and me, with bondage gear and a medical table behind us. What a day.

What’s The Method?

Well, many great methods exist for this effect, but you won’t easily find them at your favourite magic shop. The trick dates back to the 17th century and was initially performed with a barrel that could produce three different drinks on command. It actually became an incredibly well-known trick by the late 18th century and was even used to demonstrate scientific principles like hydrostatics.

The barrel became a bottle in the early 19th century. Since then, we’ve seen countless variations with names like Any Drink Called For, The Bar Act, Satan’s Barman, Assasin’s Teapot, Think-a-drink, and the Magic Tea Kettle.

That one version called Think-a-drink was Charle’s Hoffmans, who performed with a small bar and a bunch of cocktail shakers which would produce up to eighty different drinks. The act was copied by so many magicians that in the 1940s, Hoffman sued some of them.

The Supreme Court of Florida agreed that Hoffman held the trademark for the trick’s name, Thing-a-drink, but that the act itself did not belong to him.

Only a limited number of magicians perform the effect today.

The method tends to rely on a variety of forces, sometimes narrowing forces, and then ingenious methods of pouring or creating a variety of drinks. That could be secret compartments, liquid dyes, switches or clever science.

You can easily buy an Assasins Teapot for as low as forty bucks. It might stand out a little as a prop, but it’s easy enough to find online.

Sure, mate. Whatever you say.

The clever teapot allows you to pour two different drinks or appear to pour three if you’re creative. One of the drinks can be regular tea, and the other can be a tea that’s been poisoned— hence the name.

The pot has two small holes near the handle. Depending on which hole you cover, a different liquid will pour from the pot. If you fill the pot with a yellow and a blue liquid, then you can also leave both holes uncovered and poor a mix of both liquids — creating a green colour when they mix. This creates the illusion of a third liquid.

Why are magicians not performing it today?

Well, it’s because shops like Vanishing Inc. are not selling it.

Do I believe every Tom, Dick, and Harry will instantly start adding it to their act if Vanishing Inc. put out a $50 cocktail shaker with five secret compartments — well, yes, I do.

Perhaps now is your sweet spot before they catch on.