Three-cup monte

You had an accident when you were a child. You banged your head when you fell downstairs and ever since then you’ve had a kind of heightened intuition: at least, that’s what you’ve been telling your spectators. The accident left you with strange psychic powers and you’re now about to demonstrate them.

You take three cups and you borrow a small personal object from one of the spectators. While your back is turned they place it under one of the cups, then move a couple of them around to confuse you further. However, using your special psychic gift, you can turn around and lift the correct cup to reveal the hidden object.

You can use any three cups for this, from your best china to disposable cardboard ones. The only bit of preparation is that one of the cups must be subtly marked so that you can distinguish it from the other two. It can be a slight flaw in the china, a pencil mark, a dent or nail nick in the cardboard; not something glaringly obvious, as shown in the illustrations, but something tiny that only you will notice. With that in mind, here are the rest of the instructions: Lay the cups, mouth-down, in a line on the table and note the position of your marked cup. Let’s assume it’s the middle cup of the three.

Turn your back and ask a spectator to take out a personal object that will fit under the cup. It could be a ring, lipstick or lighter, or roll a banknote into a ball: anything that will fit. Tell the spectator to place the object secretly under one of the cups.

Tell him to confuse matters a little further by switching the positions of the two empty cups. Chances are you’ll hear him do this, but ask him to tell you when he has finished anyway. Then turn round to face the cups and the spectators. Extend your hands and rub them together as if generating some kind of static electricity. You’re not: it just looks vaguely mysterious and makes the audience think that how the trick works has something to do with this.

Ask the spectator who lent the object to identify himself. As soon as he steps forward, extend one of your hands and touch him (or her). Again, this has nothing to do with the trick but it will make what you do next look more magical.

Keep your hand extended and move it over the three cups. Pretend that you’re feeling for some kind of psychic vibrations. What you’re really doing is looking for your marked cup, because the position of that cup will reveal the position of the object. In this case you know that the marked cup started in the middle. If it’s still there, you know that the object is underneath it. That’s because the spectator was asked to switch the two cups that were not covering the object.

If the marked cup is on the right, though, it means the object must be under the cup on the left. Conversely, if the marked cup is on the left, then the object must be under the cup on the right. Think about it and you’ll see how one marked cup and some simple instructions can reveal the position of the object.

Next comes the most important phase; the revelation. Build it up. Don’t just lift the correct cup; that would make it look too easy. Pause a while and stare into their eyes; look as if you really are picking up those psychic vibrations. Keep the spectators in suspense and then, finally, say “It seems to be this one” and lift the correct cup up to reveal the object. Do it right, and they will really believe that you have some extraordinary powers.

Sorcerer’s apprentice

Once you get a reputation as a magician, people will start asking you to teach them a trick. It’s hard to refuse, but you don’t want to start giving your tricks away. This routine is a good compromise – you turn the spectator into the magician. You choose a card and they find it. Yet they are completely baffled as to how they did it.

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