This page contains a list of magic trick

Magic (illusion)

Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...

s. In magic literature, tricks are often called effects. Based strictly upon published literature and marketed effects, there are hundreds of millions of effects; a short performance routine by a single magician may contain dozens of effects.

Some serious students of magic strive to refer to effects by a proper name, and are also concerned with the proper attribution of the effect's creator. For example, consider an effect where the magician shows four aces, and then they turn face up one at a time in a mysterious fashion. This effect might be recognized as Twisting the Aces, which is attributed to Dai Vernon

Dai Vernon

Dai Vernon , aka The Professor, was a Canadian magician. His expert sleight-of-hand technique and extensive knowledge garnered him respect among fellow magicians. His influence was considerable in the magic world, and he was a mentor to numerous famous magicians...

, based on a false count invented by Alex Elmsley

Alex Elmsley

Alex Elmsley was a British Magician and Computer programmer. He was notable for his invention of the Ghost Count or Elmsley Count, creating mathematical card tricks, and for publishing the mathematics of playing card shuffling.He began practicing magic in 1946, as a teenager...

. Some tricks are listed merely with their marketed name (particularly those that are sold as stand-alone tricks by retail dealers), whereas others are listed by the name given within magic publications.

Stage illusions

• Aquarian Illusion
  Aquarian Illusion
  The Aquarian Illusion is a variation of the Metamorphosis or Substitution Trunk magic illusion. It was created by Alan Wakeling for Mark Wilson, who performed it in The Magic Circus series and a HBO special Mumbo Jumbo! It's Magic, and in closing his Las Vegas shows.The illusion begins with a...
  
  
• Asrah levitation
  Asrah levitation
  The Asrah levitation is an illusion effect whereby the magician hypnotizes an assistant and commands them to recline on a table or couch. The assistant is then fully covered with a cloth and levitated under the cloth. The form of the assistant is still visible while levitating. Moments later, the...
  
  
• Assistant's Revenge
  Assistant's Revenge
  The Assistant's Revenge is a transposition illusion in which two performers change places. It was created by magician and inventor Robert Harbin.-Description:...
  
  
• Aztec Lady
  Aztec Lady
  The Aztec Lady is a stage illusion designed by British magician Robert Harbin. It is a classic "big box" illusion that involves an assistant in a cabinet and is probably best categorised as a restoration-type illusion.-Description:...
  
  
• Battle of the Barrels
  Battle of the Barrels
  The Battle of the Barrels is a transportation illusion also known as Barricaded Barrels, Through the Eye of the Needle or the Black and White Barrels....
  
  
• Bill in lemon
  Bill in lemon
  The bill in lemon is an effect in which a magician requests a currency note from a spectator and makes the note vanish, then proceeding to slice a lemon open to show the note inside.- In performance :...
  
  
• Bowl-A-Rama
  Bowl-A-Rama
  Bowl-A-Rama is a stage magic trick invented by Kevin James.The magician holds up a pad, on which he draws a picture of a bowling ball, with the words "Bowling Ball" surrounding it. He then closes the pad, holds it in front of him, and a physical bowling ball appears to drop from the centre of the...
  
  

• Bullet catch
  Bullet catch
  The bullet catch is a conjuring illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at him—often in his mouth, sometimes in his hand or caught with other items such as a dinner plate...
  
  
• Cabinet escape
• Chinese linking rings
  Chinese linking rings
  The Chinese linking rings is considered to be a classic of illusion magic. In the traditional effect, solid metal rings appear to link and unlink, pass through each other, and form chains and other complex patterns and configurations. The rings may even be handed out to audience members for...
  
  
• Cut and restore rope trick
  Cut and restore rope trick
  The cut and restore rope trick is a magic effect in which the performer cuts a piece of rope which then appears to be magically restored...
  
  
• David Copperfield's laser illusion
• Chen Lee water suspension
  Chen Lee water suspension
  The Chen Lee Water Suspension is a magic trick.The Effect: At first, an empty tube is shown to the audience. The magician proves that it is empty by passing an empty cup through the tube. The magician can even pass a silk through the tube to prove that the tube really is empty...
  
  
• Cremation/Burning Alive
• Criss Angel Scare Crow
• Crusher
• Dagger head box
  Dagger head box
  Dagger Head Box is a magic trick.The performer/magician is joined by an assistant. The assistant's head is put in a small metal box with a hole in the front. The hole is then closed by two doors at the side of the box. The rest of the assistant's body may be clearly seen. A large sword is plunged...
  
  
• Dove pan
  Dove pan
  The dove pan is a classic magic effect in which a magician produces a dove from an empty pan. The illusion continues to be performed by professional and amateur magicians....
  
  
• Devil's torture chamber
  Devil's torture chamber
  The Devil's Torture Chamber is a magic stage illusion of the classic type involving a female magician's assistant in a large box and is probably best categorised as a penetration or restoration-type illusion.-Description:...
  
  
• Disembodied Princess (aka The Mystery of Princess Karnac)
• Dismemberment
  Dismemberment (illusion)
  Dismemberment is a stage illusion, designed and patented by the magician Edward M. Massey in 1935.-Exposure:The Masked Magician performed and the Dismemberment and revealed the method in Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed .-External links:*...
  
  
• Elastic Lady
• Geometrix
• Guillotine
  Guillotine (magic trick)
  The Guillotine is a magic trick where it appears that a blade of a guillotine passes through a person's neck without harming him/her.-History:...
  
  
• Gut Buster
• Head Mover (as created by André Kole
  André Kole
  André Kole is the stage name of Robert Gurtler Jr., an American magician and inventor of magical effects. He is also a committed Christian and is a public speaker for the evangelical group Campus Crusade for Christ International....
  
  )
• Impalement
• Indian rope trick
  Indian rope trick
  The Indian rope trick is stage magic said to have been performed in and around India during the 19th century. Sometimes described as "the world’s greatest illusion", it reputedly involved a magician, a length of rope, and one or more boy assistants....
  
  
• Interlude
  Interlude (magic trick)
  Interlude is a stage illusion where one person appears to pass through the torso of another . Invented by Jim Steinmeyer with collaboration of John Gaughan and Jonathan Pendragon, and was originally staged, choreographed and performed by The Pendragons, it has since become a part of many...
  
  
• Vanish coin
• Several varieties of Levitation
  Levitation
  Levitation is the process by which an object is suspended by a physical force against gravity, in a stable position without solid physical contact...
  
  
• Mini Kub-Zag
• Metamorphosis
  Metamorphosis (illusion)
  Metamorphosis is the name of a stage illusion invented by John Nevil Maskelyne, but most often associated with famous escape artist Harry Houdini and performed to some renown by The Pendragons, among others...
  
  
• Mismade Girl
  Mismade Girl
  The Mismade Girl is a stage illusion, designed by American magician Chuck Jones.-Basic effect:Four cubes with open tops and bottoms are stacked to form a cabinet. An assistant stands inside and the cabinet is closed. Metal blades are slid into the cabinet, apparently slicing the assistant into four...
  
  
• Modern Art
• Monster Guillotine
• Origami
  Origami (magic trick)
  Origami is a magic stage illusion with a Japanese paperfolding theme that was designed by Jim Steinmeyer. In the 1980's Illusion builder John Gaughan refined the concept and constructed the first version for Doug Henning....
  
  
• Predicament escape
  Predicament escape
  A predicament escape is any form of magic trick or escapology stunt in which the performer is trapped in a dangerous situation and is required to escape from it...
  
  
• Quick-change
  Quick-change
  Quick-change is a performance style in which a performer or magician changes quickly within seconds from one costume into another costume in front of the audience.-Modern Quick-Change Artists:...
  
  
• Radium Girl
  Radium Girl
  The Radium Girl is a stage illusion of the classic type involving a female assistant in a large box and is probably best categorised as a penetration or restoration-type illusion. Its origins and history are much less well documented than those of many other "big box" illusions but some sources...
  
  
• Sands of the Nile
  Sands of the Nile
  Sands of the Nile, also known as Hindu Sands, is a stage illusion which was performed and made popular by Doug Henning.Henning would stand behind a small, high, table, bearing a large transparent bowl and three small piles of colored sand. He would begin by pouring ordinary-looking water into the...
  
  
• Sawing a woman in half
  Sawing a woman in half
  Sawing a woman in half is a generic name for a number of different stage magic tricks in which a person is apparently sawn or divided into two or more pieces.-History:...
  
   (See also below)
• Scarecrow
• Shadow Vision
• Slicer (Cutting in ninths)
• Squeeze Box
  Squeeze box (magic trick)
  The Squeeze Box is an illusion designed and originally performed by André Kole.- Effect :A person enters a horizontal box and extends their head out one end and their feet out of the other. A wheel is spun, squeezing both ends of the box towards the middle until the person's head are right next to...
  
   (as created by André Kole
  André Kole
  André Kole is the stage name of Robert Gurtler Jr., an American magician and inventor of magical effects. He is also a committed Christian and is a public speaker for the evangelical group Campus Crusade for Christ International....
  
  )
• Stretcher
• Super Chair Suspension
  Super Chair Suspension
  Super Chair Suspension is an illusion where a person floats in midair, supported only by the back of a fold-up chair.A magician places two foldable chairs facing each other, then he puts a board across, on top -- bridging the two chairs. Someone lies on top of this board, and the magician wraps...
  
  
• Substitution trunk aka Sub trunk
• Table of Death
  Table of death
  The table of death is a predicament escape that is alternately considered as falling into the categories of a magic trick or an act of escapology.-Description:...
  
  
• Twister
  Twister (magic trick)
  The twister is a famous stage magic trick. A girl is placed in an upright cabinet, with her head and feet visible. The magician spins the cabinet, then opens the front. The girl's body is now a narrow, twisted rope from which her fingers protrude. The magician closes the cabinet, rotates it in...
  
  
• Wringer
  Wringer (magic trick)
  The Wringer is a stage magic trick. The magician places his assistant into a large box with a set of rollers in the front. The magician turns a crank, and the assistant emerges through the rollers, now flat as a pancake. The magician then opens the front of the box, revealing it to be empty...
  
  
• Zig Zag Girl
  Zig Zag Girl
  The Zig-Zag Girl illusion is a magic trick akin to the more famous sawing a woman in half illusion. In the Zig-Zag illusion, a magician divides his or her assistant into thirds, only to have the assistant emerge from the illusion at the end of the performance completely unharmed.Since its invention...
  
  

Close-up effects

• This, That, and Other
• The Best Coin Fold
  The Best Coin Fold
  The Best Coin Fold is the title of a magic trick which appeared in Jean Hugard's book, Close Up Magic, published in 1938. A coin fold is merely an effect that involves the appearance of a magician folding a coin up within a piece of paper seemingly trapping the coin therein. However, the magician...
  
  
• Twisting the aces
• Cups and balls
  Cups and balls
  The cups and balls is a classic performance of magic with innumerable adaptations. The effect known as acetabula et calculi was performed by Roman conjurers as far back as two thousand years ago...
  
  
• Three card monte
• Hopping Halves
• Miser's dream
• Thumb tie
• Needle Through Thumb
  Needle Through Thumb
  The needle through thumb is the name of a magic trick which is meant to give the illusion that the magician is actually stabbing his own thumb using several sewing needles.- Effect :...
  
  
• Ambitious card
  Ambitious card
  The Ambitious Card, or Elevator Card, is a magic effect in which a playing card seems to return to the top of the deck after being placed elsewhere in the middle of the deck. This is a classic effect in card magic and serves as a study subject for students of magic...
  
  
• Show Biz Card
• Sympathetic coins
• Chink-a-chink
  Chink-a-chink
  Chink-a-chink, is a magic trick in which four small items arranged in square formation are moved around a close-up mat with just the wave of the magician's bare hands. Objects appear to cross the mat without the magician's hands crossing the mat. Objects jump from corner to corner, usually ending...
  
  
• Card warp
  Card warp
  Card Warp is a card illusion that was created by magician Jeff Busby and popularized by Roy Walton. Card Warp has many variations in presentation and effect....
  
  
• French drop
  French drop
  The French drop is a well-known vanish involving sleight of hand. The magician takes a coin or small object between the fingers and the thumb with fingers facing the audience and thumb behind. The palm is face up. We'll assume the object is in the right hand though it could be either...
  
   (The Tourniqet)
• Retention of vision vanish
  Retention of vision vanish
  In the retention of vision vanish, the magician places a coin or small object between the fingers and the thumb of the right hand. The left hand is palm up with the palm slightly tilted towards the audience. The right approaches and displays the object on the left palm for a second or so, held on...
  
   (Pinch Vanish)
• Scotch and Soda
  Scotch and Soda
  Scotch and Soda is a magic effect involving a copper coin and a silver coin which appear to transpose in the spectator's hands. The effect relies on simple gimmick and the tricks performed with it are self-working and require almost no skill...
  
  
• Detachable thumb
  Detachable thumb
  The Detachable Thumb is a very simple close-up illusion.-Effect:The performer appears to remove the end of his own thumb; moving it back and forth along his hand or lifting it up.-Method:...
  
  
• Thumb tip
  Thumb tip
  A thumb tip is a magician's prop used for vanishing, producing, or switching small objects. A classic effect is to have a silk handkerchief or other small object pressed into the top of the left fist. After pushing it well in with the right thumb, the left fist is opened to show the silk has...
  
  
• Glorpy
  Glorpy
  Glorpy is a magic trick. A silk pocket handkerchief is laid down on a table and folded. Then, it moves as if there is some sort of object inside the folds. It can appear to respond to or interact with the magician or the spectators....
  
  
• Zarrow shuffle
  Zarrow shuffle
  Zarrow shuffle is a sleight of hand technique that gives the appearance of being a normal riffle shuffle, but in fact leaves the cards in exactly the same order. This is an example of a false shuffle. It was invented by magician Herb Zarrow circa 1940....
  
  
• Perfect Key Bending
• Ash Felt effects
• Super Writer Pro
• Inter-net Bag
• Mental Calculator
• Magic sand
  Magic sand
  Magic sand, Moon Sand, Mars Sand, Space Sand,Sqand or Aqua Sand is a toy made from sand coated with a hydrophobic compound. The presence of this hydrophobic compound causes the grains of sand to adhere to one another and form cylinders when exposed to water...
  
  

Levitations

• Criss Angel's Building Float
• Criss Angel's Levitation
• Asrah levitation
  Asrah levitation
  The Asrah levitation is an illusion effect whereby the magician hypnotizes an assistant and commands them to recline on a table or couch. The assistant is then fully covered with a cloth and levitated under the cloth. The form of the assistant is still visible while levitating. Moments later, the...
  
  
• Balducci levitation
  Balducci levitation
  The Balducci levitation is a levitation illusion that was first described by Ed Balducci. Its inventor is unknown. It is an impromptu magic trick, which has been popularized by many magicians, such as David Roth, Paul Harris, Alex Magic, and David Blaine....
  
  
• King Rising Levitation
• Chair suspension
• David Copperfield's flying
  David Copperfield's flying
  David Copperfield performs a flying levitation trick created by John Gaughan, which is notable for its graceful motion and unencumbered appearance. During the trick, Copperfield flies acrobatically about the stage, and then appears to have spinning hoops passed around him to prove that he is not...
  
  

Utilities/Accessories

There are thousands of devices used by magicians to accomplish their effects. However, most of the devices are never even observed during the performance of the trick(s); while not generally tricks in and of themselves, some of these devices are very valuable to performers of magic.

• Topit
  Topit
  A Topit is a utility device used by magicians to dispose of objects secretly. It plays a similar role in the magician's toolkit to pulls, holdouts, servantes, and techniques such as sleeving or lapping. While the original Topit booklet by Patrick Page was put out by Davenports Magic Co...
  
  
• Sponge Balls
• B Screens
• The A.R. Mini Stage
• Funkenring
• Gibeciere
  Gibeciere
  A gibeciere is a large pouch-like device used by magicians as a utility device, most often to aid in the performance of the famous magic trick known as "The Cups and Balls"...
  
  
• Business Card Production Wallet