I love tricks can be performed with ordinary objects. If you can make magic happen with them, the effect is always very strong. Dotty Spots is great for a dinner party situation. Paper dots that are stuck on the blade of a knife disappear and reappear at the will of the magician (that's you)!
What You Need
A table knife - a butter knife is the easiest size to use. A paper napkin.
What You Do
Prepare by tearing off four identical circles of the paper napkin. Moisten them and stick two on each side of the knife blade. Make sure that both sides look identical. Hold the knife in your right hand as shown (1).
"You will notice that I have got two sports on this side of the knife and..."
Turn the knife over to show the other side by just turning your wrist. Do not move your arm (2).
"...and two spots on this side."
Twist your wrist back again so that the knife returns to its original position.
"Now, if I wipe off the spots..."
Put your left thumb over the spot nearest the handle and apparently put the ball of your first finger over the spot on the underside (3). Pull your thumb back towards the left - peeling off the top spot and apparently pulling off the spot that lies directly beneath it too. Repeat this with the spot furthest from the handle (4).
Crumble the little pieces of napkin into a ball and discard them. The spectator will think that all of the dots have been removed.
Now we do the clever bit! Twist your right wrist over to show the other side of the knife - like you did before - but at the same time move the tip of your thumb forward and the ball of your first finger backward. This has the effect of revolving the knife and showing the same side of the knife twice (5+6)!
The larger action of turning the wrist disguises the smaller action of your thumb and finger as they secretly twist the knife handle. Now turn your wrist back again at the same time pull backward with thumb and push forward with your first finger (7). You have shown that the knife now has no spots on either side when in reality you have none on the visible side and two spots underneath the blade. We call this the Paddle Move. Practise this in front of a mirror so that you can see exactly how it looks from the front.
"Now I'll show you some magic..."
Do the paddle move to show that the knife is now clean on both side (8). In reality you still have two spots on the underside.
"Now watch closely..."
Pass your left hand over the knife blade in a downward direction and under cover of your hand revolve the knife between your thumb and finger. The spots are now seen to be back on the knife again (9). Do the paddle move and show that two spots have returned to the other side too (10)!
"They've all come back again. Now that is magic!"
Put your thumb on the spot nearest the handle and peel it off (11). Don't pretend to peel one from the underside this time.
"The strange thing is that if I take a spot off one side..."!
Do the paddle move (12).
"...the spot on the other side vanishes."
Peel off the last spot (13).
"I'll take the last spot off..."
Show both sides of the knife minus all spots (14).
"Now please would you pass me the butter so that I can eat my bread roll!"
Afterthoughts
Please practise the paddle move until it becomes second nature to you. Magicians use this subtlety in a variety of tricks.
No comments:
Post a Comment