Easy Magic Tricks Anyone Can Do!

You can impress your friends with really easy magic tricks, including classics like card tricks, making a coin disappear or bending a paperclip with your mind.

October 7, 2022・

16 min read

Making the Statue of Liberty disappear is probably going to be beyond you but that doesn’t mean you can’t impress your friends with some less resource-heavy magic tricks. These tricks include classics like making a coin disappear or bending a paperclip with your mind. What’s more most of them only take a few minutes to learn.

20. Turn Paper into Cash

Magic always looks more impressive with fire. Of course, we always urge caution with when adding anything flame-related to a trick. For this one, you’ll need a piece of paper, a firelighter and some cash.

Hold the piece of paper in your hand, then set it on fire, flick your wrist and, hey, presto, the lit paper has vanished and in its place, you have a £20 note.

Here’s how it’s done. First, fold the banknote in half three times, then hide it in the palm of your hand. Now, light the paper as normal. While the audience is distracted by the flame all you have to do is push the banknote to the front of your thumb.

Simple. This trick works best when your audience doesn’t know what you’re going to do.

19. The Levitating Card Trick

The levitating card trick is another very easy piece of magic. All you need is a pack of cards and some fingers (let's hope you still have yours). Place your index finger on top of the deck of cards, lift it up and, using the awesome powers of your mind, a card should follow suit.

This card will always be the one placed at the back of the deck, and with good reason. To do the trick, simply hold your pinky finger against the deck in the middle of the card, while your index finger rests against the top. Raise your hand and the card should move with it.

18. The Disappearing Crayons

Take a box of crayons. Hold it out in front of the audience. Before their very eyes, you’re going to make the crayons inside the box disappear. Wave your hand over the crayons in a suitably theatrical manner and, suddenly, the crayons are gone.

To get the crayons back all you have to do is turn the box over and the crayons will magically reappear. This is a little trickier than some of the tricks in this article and requires some basic arts and crafts skills.

You can’t do this trick with any old box of crayons. The crayons will have to be cut in half and glued to a few popsicle sticks, or whatever you have that suits.

When putting the crayons inside the box hold your finger about halfway up the box to keep the crayons in place. When you want them to disappear, simply release the pressure on the box and the crayons will slip to the bottom of the box. Once you turn the box over, the crayons will reappear.

17. Disappearing Coin Trick

This is one of a host of classic coin tricks you’ve probably seen a version of dozens of times before. In this particular case, you’re going to hold the coin in one hand. Place your other hand over the coin, remove it and the coin is gone. Place your hand over the other hand again and - presto - the coin is back, but this time in your other hand.

As you might have guessed this involves a little bit of sleight of hand. Once you place your second hand over the one with the coin in it, simply place the coin in between your index finger. Next, make sure to hold it there.

Now, to make the coin reappear, all you have to do is lift it from your index finger and show it to your, hopefully, astonished fans.

16. Disappearing Match Trick

Next, we’re going to make a match or a toothpick disappear, whichever you have. This is another really simple trick that, if carried out right, is really effective. Hold a match in your hand.

Open your hand dramatically, as if you’ve thrown the match clear with your mind. Now, as if catching the match from out of thin air, close your hands and, boom, the match is back.

Repeat this as many times as you like - it’ll amaze your audience every time. All you have to do is tape the match to your thumb. Bend the top of your thumb downwards to put the match on display and simply straighten your thumb to make it disappear.

If you don’t happen to have tape on you this can still be performed. All you need to do is lick the back of your thumb, between the knuckle and nail, when the audience is distracted and squeeze the match against your thumb tightly.

This should create some temporary adhesive so that it will hold long enough for you to at least perform this trick once.

15. Disappearing Coin Trick Off Table

Some more coin trickery now. This time we’re going to make a coin disappear through a table. First, place the coin on a flat service. Drop your hand over the coin and, concentrating really, really hard, use all your magical abilities to make that money vanish, while rubbing your palm back and forth over the coin.

What you’re really doing by rubbing the coin is actually inching it slowly to the edge of the table, first with your palm and then your wrist, where it will magically fall off and disappear onto the floor. It helps if you do this trick in a carpeted room.

14. Magic Liquid Through a Plastic Cup Trick

This is another trick that requires a little bit of advance preparation. Drop one plastic cup filled with liquid, preferably colored liquid, into the other one and, if your powers are working to full capacity, the liquid from the first cup should magically appear in the second one, as if the liquid has passed right through the first cup.

To do this trick you actually need three plastic cups. Cut the bottom off the third cup and fill that with liquid, mixed with some food coloring. Place it on the bottom of the second, completely empty cup, making it look like it’s filled with liquid.

Drop this cup into the first one. The base from the third cup should fall off into the first cup and disappear into the liquid, making it look as if the liquid has passed from one cup to the other.

13. Wine Glass and Coin Trick

This is another perennial favorite of magicians the world over. You’re going to take a wine glass, put a cloth over it, or simply place your hands around its top, and slide it over a coin. The coin, as if by magic, will vanish.

It is important for this trick to work that it occurs on colored paper. It is this paper that is the secret to its success. Beforehand, you’ll have to cut out a circular piece of the colored paper and glue it to the top of the wine glass.

So when you slide the glass over the coin it looks like it has vanished when really it’s hidden underneath the colored paper. Slide the glass away and the coin is back.

12. Signed Card Trick

We’ve been light on card tricks thus far, so let’s address that issue right now. For this trick, you’ll need a deck of cards, a marker and a see-through bag. Get your participant to pull out a card from the deck and, without showing it to you, sign the card and place it back in the deck.

The cards will be placed into the see-through bag and sealed. Give the bag to your participant to hold. With a born entertainer’s flourish, you’re going to pull their signed card out of the bag without actually damaging the plastic. Impossible, right? Well, obviously not.

The trick here is to palm the card once the person has placed it back into the deck. To do this simply cut the pack of cards, so that there is a break in it. Shift the cards so that the person’s card is on top.

The card is then palmed as you misdirect the audience's attention with a question, like "how many cards are in a deck?"

Once the participant holds the bag, you scratch your face and lick the back of the card, which is then stuck to the other side of the bag. So it’s never actually inside the plastic.

Once it comes time to pull it out of the bag, all you have to do is pull it off the back of the bag, make sure to do it with a little bit of style though.

11. Breaking a Pencil with an Index Card

This is another really simple trick that you can do with a regular old pencil and an index card. What you’re going to do is break that pencil with the card. Get your delightful assistant to hold the pencil tightly, swipe down with the card and the pencil should break in two.

Of course, you can’t actually break the pencil with a piece of card. What you’re actually doing is quickly straightening your index finger as you swipe, and it’s this that does the damage.

It could hurt a little, but it’s all worth it in the name of magic. Just make sure to apply ample power to your swipe if you're going to try this.

10. The Torn Corner Card Trick

So, if you’re feeling a little hungry, here is a trick that will astonish people and seemingly fill your stomach a little. Your assistant picks a card. You tear it a little, at the corner. Then you bite it off.

Chew down on the card and swallow it. Then go to your wallet. And, look what’s inside, it’s the bit of the card that you have just eaten.

To pull this one off you need a duplicate card, so access to two decks. For best effect, use a picture card, like the king of diamonds, so you can tear both at identical places, say, where the king’s crown stops. Take the torn piece of card and put it in your wallet. Then force the duplicate card on your spectator - there are multiple ways you can do this.

Now all you have to do is tear the card in the exact same way you tore the previous one. You don’t actually have to eat the piece of the king. Instead, simply tuck the corner behind the card as you bring it to your mouth. Set the card down, so the corner is hidden. Then go to your wallet and complete the trick.

9. Bend a Paperclip with Your Mind

Bending a paperclip with your mind is not as difficult as it sounds. In fact, it’s remarkably easy and requires surprisingly little psychic ability. Take a normal paper clip. Flatten it out and then hold it straight in front of you.

This trick is all about perspective. The paper clip shouldn’t be completely straight. However, when you hold it in front of you, it should look like it is. To bend it simply roll it ever so slightly between your fingers, making it look like you’re bending the paperclip with your mind, when, in reality, you’re just rotating it a little.

8. Magic Chalk Powder

For this, you’ll need some chalk and an assistant's hands, preferably attached to their body. Get your assistant to hold their hands out in front of them, face down. Make sure to place them exactly where you want them to be.

Put some chalk on your hand. Rub it some more until the chalk has disappeared, finish by blowing on your hand to magically transfer the chalk that was there into your helper’s hand.

Now turn your assistant's hands over and the chalk should have magically jumped to their palm. The trick here is in the placement of the assistant's hands. Rub some chalk on your fingers in advance of the trick.

Once you re-position their hands you’re also transferring the chalk to their palm. Everything after this is mere showmanship.

7. Disappearing Coin Trick

This is another twist on the classic vanishing con trick. For this variant, you need a glass of water, a coin, of course, and a piece of cloth. Put the coin under the cloth and then hold it over the water. Tap it once, maybe twice, for effect. Remove the cloth and the coin is gone.

What you need to do to make this trick magic, is hold a transparent coin replacement, like the glass of a watch face, in your hand and swap it out for the coin before you actually place it underneath the cloth.

So when you let go of what is supposed to be the coin, the transparent object drops into the water completely unnoticed, or disappears, as if by magic.

6. Disappearing Ring

Ever wanted to make a ring disappear? Here’s how: place the ring on your index finger. Wave your other ‘magic’ hand in front of it. The ring is gone. A second wave and it’s back again.

All you have to do to make this trick magic is simply swap fingers. When you wave your hand you swap your index finger for your middle finger and then swap them back again to make the ring reappear. Who knew magic was so easy?

5. Magic Slap Card Trick

Now we’re going back to card tricks. Get your assistant to pick a card. Any card. Look at it and put it back anywhere in the deck. Then give them the pack of cards.

Now you’re going to slap the cards out of the person’s hand until the only card that remains is, incredibly, the very card they picked.

To do this you have to keep control of the card when it’s put back into the deck, ensuring that it winds up at the bottom of the pack. Once it’s there the rest is fairly straightforward. Make sure they hold the deck of cards relatively loosely and in this specific way, with their thumb and index finger.

Once you slap the pack of cards, they will naturally fall until you are only left with one. It might require a little bit of practice to know exactly how hard to hit the cards.

4. Anti-Gravity Ring

Now we’re going to do something really cool. We’re going to make a ring defy gravity. Take a piece of elastic, break it and thread it through the ring. Hold it at an angle, and using all the power of your mind, make that ring go up.

It’s actually a pretty easy trick to pull off. Hold one end of the elastic at its edge, while with the other end you’re actually going to leave quite a bit of the elastic resting in your palm.

Then stretch the elastic so it looks like it’s at its full length. Now all you’re going to do is pull the elastic upwards, releasing it slowly, to make it look like the ring is defying gravity.

3. Levitating Money Trick

With this trick, it appears that all you're doing is taking a standard note and folding it. Then, for added suspense, the note is balanced between both your thumbs and ever so slowly it is left suspended in the air.

The illusion makes it seem like the note is levitating on its own, but obviously, it isn't. The note is then unwrapped and inspected. This trick is super simple. All you have to do is take a coin and hide it in your palm.

As you take the note to start folding it simply slide the coin behind it and fold the note over the coin. Now, all you have to do is slowly balance it on your thumb. Once you're done levitating the bill, flip it upside down and release the pressure on the coin so that the coin falls back into your hand.

2. Disappearing Foil Coin Trick

This is a delightfully simple trick that looks wonderful if pulled off correctly. Take a coin and a piece of paper. Place the coin inside the piece of paper and then, nice and slowly, fold the paper over until it is nothing more than a scrunched-up piece of paper.

Did the coin disappear? Well, the truth, as ever, is a little more prosaic. There never was a coin to begin with. What you do is take some tin foil and make an impression of the coin. In the US, a quarter will work. For British magicians, you’ll probably want to use a 10p coin.

Trim around the edge of the foil with scissors, so you have a foil quarter. At a distance, it should be really hard to tell the difference between the real and fake coins. From here, the rest is simple.

1. Torn and Restored Dollar Bill Trick Revealed

Now we’re going to destroy some money, well, not really. Take a note, tear it straight down the middle, and then do it again. And again. So you now have half a dozen or so torn pieces. Rub the bits together until, eventually, the bill is restored.

So how is it done? All you need are two of the same denominations of note and some glue, or rubber cement. Super glue might ruin your notes and make them unspendable. Fold one of the bills in half and line it up with the back of the other bill.

Run some rubber cement around the outer edge of the bill, just the outer edge. The second bill goes on top. Press it into place, with two flaps as shown.

Now you can start tearing the first bill from just about where the fold is. Tear it some more to make sure your audience is convinced you have torn the money.

Slide the torn pieces into the pocket created when you glued the two notes together. Start rubbing, which is really just you moving the pieces into the pocket.

Manoeuver the bill into a Z shape showing the side that hasn’t been glued. Straighten the note with a flourish. You can even show them the other side, being careful to hold the note in such a way as to hide the crease.

There you go, 20 easy magic tricks to amaze and astound friends, loved ones and enemies. Thanks for reading!