This is one of the most famous and annoying tricks in magic, especially if performed badly by your least favorite uncle. But this classic trick in which a magician plucked a coin from behind an audience member’s ear was performed in filled halls back in the day and no one could quite figure out how they were doing it.
Is the magician using a trick coin or is something already hidden behind the ear of a pre-selected volunteer?
The Self-Tying Shoelace Trick
Magician David Blaine made this cute trick famous by walking up to a group of kids and asking if they want to see a magic trick.
When one of the kids mentions that Blaine’s shoe is untied, he simply shakes his foot and the open laces are replaced with a perfectly tied shoe. Magicians don’t even have to tie their own shoes anymore, talk about unfair.
The Explanation Behind the Self-Tying Shoelace Trick
So how did he do it? The shoe was in fact already tied, but the top of the shoe was hidden by the cuff of his pants. The open laces were part of a separate pair of laces that were not tied to the shoe but were actually attached to a string which ran up the magician’s pant leg.
He pulled the string up, probably through a hole in his pocket, causing them to disappear while the tied shoelace appears. Simple, right?
The Coin Behind the Ear Trick Revealed
In fact, neither of those theories are true. The magician is hiding something between their fingers, but it is not a coin, it is a tiny telescope.
The magician pulls his hand back and lines it up perfectly in front of the audience member’s eyes and a carefully situated miniature coin which is hidden on the other side of the room. From the volunteer’s point of view the coin appears to be the correct size and sitting in the magician’s hand.
Linking Rings Trick
This well-known magic trick started out in ancient China. The magician takes some seemingly solid metal rings and manages to meld them together into a chain.
The more time the magician takes with this trick, the more impact it has because it gives the audience a chance to examine the process closely, making it even more believable and therefore more mindboggling.