NT Ventriloquist

What better way of getting students interested and wanting to attend a Illusionist show then their teacher, showing them some simple illusions of your own. Whether you break the Magician's Golden Rule "Never explain how to do the trick" is up to you. Depending upon the age of the students you might just explain one or two of the tricks. Or if you are particularly tough you might explain away all but one of the following tricks and set the older students the task of working it out for themselves.

Trick No. 1 This trick works itself. I refer to it as the knot in the toilet roll trick, for that's what you'll need. The cardboard from the inside of a toilet roll and a little over a metre of colourful cord (string is to thin to be seen).
The trick goes like this:- You get 2 volunteers up from the class. You tie a knot around the toilet roll (1) and say you are going to make the knot disappear. You pass one end of the cord through the toilet roll (4) and ask one of the volunteers to hold it and ask the other volunteer to hold the other end of the cord. You then slide the knot off the end of the toilet roll and place it in the the same end you past the string through (2). Now you tell your two volunteers that on the count of three they are to pull the rope and the knot will disappear. One, two, three they pull the cord but when you slide the toilet roll away the cord is in a knot. Of course, you forgot to say the magic words "Go Away". You pass the cord through as shown (3) and say the magic words and this time there is no knot. HOW ? It all depends on which end of the cord you put through the toilet roll. If you take the cord from under the cord (as shown (3) below) and put it through the roll and slide the knot off the roll & stuff it in the same end, the knot disappears.
If you take the cord from over the cord (as shown (4) ) and put it through the roll and slide the knot off the roll & stuff it in the same end, the knot appears on the cord.

Have a play with this trick. It really is so easy once you've done it once or twice and it looks really good.

Trick No. 2
For this next trick you'll need about one and a half metres of cord. Tie the ends together to form a loop.

Put your chair up on top of your desk. Loop the cord over one index finger around one leg of the chair and over your other index finger.
Now bring your hands together three times on the words "One, Two, And" on the word "and" with your hands crossed you slip your middle finger on your right hand into the loop of cord in your left hand and on the word "Three" you release the cord from your index finger on your right hand and pull your hands apart quickly making sure the cord now stays on your left index finger and right middle finger. Done quickly it does appear that the cord has passed through the leg of your chair.

Trick No. 3 The Jumping Rubber Band Out of sight place a rubber band over your index and middle finger on your right hand. Now pull the rubber band towards you as you stretch it to the width of your hand. Curl the four fingers on your right hand over and into the rubber band. Hold your fist to the class showing them only the band around the two fingers. Now open your fist and the rubber band will jump to your other two fingers.

A Brief History of Magic
Magic was probably used by witch doctors and the like for thousands of years. The Ancient Greek and Roman priests used magic to produce amazing and seemingly miraculous effects during religious ceremonies. Concealed mechanisms could make temple doors opens by themselves, wine flow from statues, and trapdoors could make people disappear.
The earliest record of a magic performance is dated about 2600 BC. An Egyptian scroll shows an illusionist called Dedi entertaining the Pharaoh Cheops. In the first century AD a Roman called Seneca wrote about seeing a magic act where balls were made to appear and disappear under cups. In the 1500's there was a magician called Banks who had a horse called Marocco. Marocco could, not only count by tapping his hoof but could identify people from the audience from a description of them. Some Magicians were famous for a particular type of magic. Harry Houdini (born in Hungary in 1874, Ehrich Weiss) became a household name for his daring feats of escapology.
In 1921 a British magician P.T. Selbit invented and performed what is probably the worlds most famous magic trick "Sawing a person in half". Robert Harbin invented the "Zig Zag person trick" in which the person's middle seems to be removed.

Ask the class to:- name or describe magic tricks they have seen. Name (props) things the magician may use. Do their parents have a magic trick that they can perform?

Post show activities

Trick No. 4 The Magic Circles You need three strips of paper about 4 cm wide, scissors and glue or sticky tape. Stick each strip into a ring in a different way. (steps 1 to 3 then cut each in half (step 4) What you'll get is (1) two ring (2) one ring twice the size (3) Two rings joined.

1. Glue or tape the end of the strip. Bring the other end round and stick it flat on the gluey or taped bit.

2. Do it again with the second strip only this time twist the band once by turning your hand before you stick it down.

3. Repeat with the third band but this time twist the end twice before you stick it down flat.

Cut each ring in half along its length. Push the point of the scissors through the middle of the band then cut all the way round as shown in 4.