Chinese guy explains how every magic trick works
by u/Adorable-Cattle-5128 in interestingasfuck
Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magic. Show all posts
15 July 2026
09 May 2026
A cure for forbidden love
"If you are enchanted by forbidden love of a woman, you must put on a pair of shoes and walk about until the feet sweat. But walk quickly, so quickly that the feet do not begin to smell. Remove then the right shoe and drink from it some ale or wine, and at once all love for her will be lost."
I found that remedy in Olga Ravn's The Wax Child, which has been longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. I won't be reviewing the book for the blog, but thought I'd post this tidbit now, in case any readers are having relevant problems. Sounds like it might work...
13 December 2025
Marked playing cards
If you look carefully, it's pretty obvious what the card on the left is. Some relevant comments and a couple additional photos in the comment thread at the cardmagic subreddit. Dealing from a deck like this in a poker game for money would be foolish; crudely-marked cards are used for magic tricks.
08 October 2025
30 August 2023
Interesting mathematical card trick
I'm going to try to add this to my repetoire. The video also demonstrates two different fake shuffles, which are useful tools for many tricks, and also one apparently not-to-difficult-to-do way to force a card onto the victim. After that the trick is a purely mathematical one - which in itself is interesting.
But... one thing I've noticed is that the victim is instructed to create a random number "somewhere in the millions." But apparently you need to stop the victim at that point because if the random number is in the hundreds of millions, the resultant addend might become too high for the trick to work (i.e. greater than 27). Perhaps could be compensated for by including a fourth or fifth duplicate card.
19 July 2021
12 June 2019
There's an important lesson to learn here
It IS possible to control a coin flip - as shown in the video.
Take-home lesson. If you participate in a coin flip, call it after it's in the air, not before.
Via BoingBoing.
10 November 2018
07 November 2018
Mephisto spiral illusion
It looks like 2 interlocking wire spirals. In your hands, the two spirals seem to wind together or wind apart, completely effortlessly. However when you hand the Mephisto Spiral over to someone else, they find that they cannot replicate the action – the two wire spirals are completely rigid.
Alternatively, by simply moving your hands in one direction, you can make the two spirals appear to unwind, yet however many times you repeat the action, the two spirals never come apart.From another discussion:
For those who still don't get it: the guy is only moving his hands along the rod. He's also rotating the rod at the same time so that the part of the rod that's "coming out" of his hand is also at the same angle, to create the illusion that he's firmly holding the "rods" with his fingers.
15 May 2018
10 July 2017
A card trick anyone can do
Mathematical card tricks are the best ones to learn, because no sleight-of-hand is required. A hat tip to Mark Frauenfelder for creating this video to illustrate the methodology of a clever trick posted at Greg Ross' Futility Closet.
Readers who are math enthusiasts may be able to explain to the rest of us how/why this trick works. I'm satisfied to accept it as magic.
Reposted from 2013 so I can relearn this trick before our upcoming family reunion.
21 February 2016
"Do you mind if I smoke?"
This video was posted in memory of the magician, Tom Mullica, who died this week.
Two trigger warnings seem appropriate. If you are offended by people smoking, definitely give this a pass. Additionally, those who tolerate smoking (or smoke) may find some of the maneuvers gross and disgusting.
30 April 2015
Close-up magic
David Blaine peforms in Harrison Ford's home. The latter appears truly shaken, and I think is not in on the trick. So how does Blaine do it?
05 February 2015
Elaborate stage illusion - updated
An illustration from an 1897 book "Stage Illusions and Scientific Diversions, including Trick Photography." (with a hat tip to reader S. Norma for that online fulltext link)
Found at Vintage Blog, where no further explanation is offered. I'll bet the participants sit in the group swing, which swings back and forth, and then the "room" surrounding them is rotated the opposite way, to give the illusion of near-inversion.
Clever. I wonder if any modern amusement parks incorporate this idea into their rides.
Addendum: In the Comments section, several readers have noted that this type of illusion still exists in amusement parks - for example the Villa Volta in the Netherlands and a Dutch Wonder House in Pennsylvania.
This type of ride is often referred to as a Madhouse ("designed to be an optical and physical illusion, consisting of several rows of seats attached to a swaying gondola within a rotating drum. The ride creates the impression that the rider is turning upside down, whereas it is actually the room that is moving around them. The ride is a modern implementation of a haunted swing illusion.")
I may have given the impression while writing the post that I am totally unfamiliar with amusement parks. Au contraire, mon frere. I grew up in a Excelsior, a suburb of Minneapolis, home to the Excelsior Amusement Park. Built in the 1920s on the shores of then-pristine Lake Minnetonka, it was an attraction for Minneapolis city-dwellers who arrived at the park via a (long) streetcar ride. The featured attraction was this roller-coaster (cropped for size from the original at Minnesota Reflections):
The coaster was demolished in the 1970s (memoriam here) and the lakeside amusement park replaced by the inevitable condominiums. I've not been to an amusement park since then; I don't suppose they've changed much...
21 May 2014
"Mind-reading" magic tricks explained
To an observer, it looks like this. The magician is blindfolded and faces a wall while his confederate goes around the audience, asking people to place on a tray any random items that they happen to be carrying with them. Coins, eyeglasses, wrist watches, credit cards--anything at all. Audience members also have the option to select playing cards from a deck.Further details and explanation at Boing Boing.
The confederate then holds up each item silently. No apparent way exists for the confederate to communicate with the magician, but somehow, the magician knows all.
28 April 2014
"Card control" demonstrated by Ricky Jay
Incredible skills. The Reddit discussion thread led me to a tedious but revelatory video on how to perform false shuffles.
23 October 2013
An expert female manipulator
The comment thread at BoingBoing indicates that this may or may not be Suzy Wandas ("the lady with the fairy fingers"), who was "reputed to be one of the half-dozen best manipulators in the history of magic."
21 October 2013
07 September 2012
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